I read an interview with Harry West, chief executive of Continuum, an innovation design consulting firm, by Adam Bryant for his article “The Corner Office” for the New York Times.
I was intrigued by Bryant’s teaser. “Harry West of Continuum, an innovation design consulting firm, says the pictures in your office lobby may tell the world about the business you were in, but not about the business you can become.” Having limited exposure to art as a merchant and a painter – this caught my eye.
Turns out West is not addressing art at all. What he’s really talking is about artifacts. And it turns out West is on to something profound here.
West says, “I think in most companies you’re surrounded by the past. This is true for most of the companies that we consult with. And, to some extent, I’ve realized it’s true for us, too, because you can look back and see what you have done. You may have a Web site or archives or a lobby that sort of shows off your work of the past. The future is not as tangible. It’s not as clear, and so there’s always a tendency for people to go: “Well, I know the business we’re in because I can see it. I see it every day. That’s the business we’re in, right?” Well, that was the business you were in.
It is common to associate credibility with experience. For example, ad agency “A” worked with client “B” who was a huge success – so agency “A” must be brilliant. Not so fast.
Client “B” may have had a killer product/service that may have been a huge success with grass-roots marketing or word-of-mouth business development. If that’s the case, agency “A” just happened to step in lucky on that one.
The danger in marketing and selling is to point at what you’ve done previously as an indicator of what you’re capable of doing. Isn’t that the basis of resumes? In reality building a biz dev strategy around the premise of “this is what we’ve done, but this is what we intend to become”, is far more compelling.
Try this approach on your next sales call or business development opportunity. The results might just be transformational.
Chevy Volt Ad Has No Juice
The much maligned Chevy Volt, you know, the electric car…the one you have to plug-in and is prone to catching fire? Yeah, that’s the one! Chevrolet wants us to believe that the Volt is a car that “has to be built”. Gas at $3.50 a gallon is no ones idea of a great buy…but I’m not convinced auto makers have nailed an economically feasible alternative to combustion engines.
At $32,000 MSRP the Volt is not inexpensive. Of course, buyers are eligible for an $8,000 tax break (that mean’s we taxpayers are subsidizing the Volt). Residential charging stations, such as the one at left, are pricey – going for $1,075. Home charging is essential – just as it is for your mobile devices. The thought of my car battery running out of power is even more unappealing than my iPhone running out of power.
Chevrolet is pressing consumers with an ad called Hamtramck. The ad, which shows the Volt assembly line snaking through the city of Hamtramck where the Volt is built, sends the message that the Volt isn’t just important to GM, but the entire city of Detroit.
Chevy was smart in choosing actor Tim Allen to narrate. He’s a Detroit native. He’s a guy’s guy and he’s a regular guy.
But there is something entirely odd about this spot. The cars moving down the city-wide production line appear to be in a funeral procession more than heralding the new age of automobile production. Does Chevy know something the government doesn’t? Are they reading the Volt its last rites?
I’m not anti-green. I don’t mind pixies in FedEx commercials to promote “green” but this commercial is depressing – not uplifting.
You be the judge…
Cause marketing is all the rage these days. Brands are buddying up to non profits or cause related entities to create another level of connection with their target audience. Cause marketing can feel a little disingenuous if not based upon a logical connection or reason.
However when a brand connects with a cause for genuine reasons, the results can be stunningly positive – both for the brand and the cause.
Last week while attending the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City I was introduced to an honest-to-goodness, cause-based relationship that began without a thought given to marketing.
Woolrich, the woolen mill in Central Pennsylvania started in 1830, has a history rich with beautifully made woolen products. One of Woolrich’s greatest assets is its people. Some current employees are third generation Woolrich workers.
Soon after 9/11 lifelong employee Susan Moshier, grieving the lost of American lives and perhaps America’s innocence,
dreamed up what was to become known as the Freedom Throw. The Freedom Throw resembles the US flag with a few modifications. Sales of the Freedom Throw have been brisk since it was first introduced.
Woolrich has been astounded by the continued popularity of the Freedom Throw. Building on this interest Woolrich has donated a portion of Freedom Throw sales to the Wounded Warrior Project as well as donating the throws to returning veterans. The Freedom Throw has taken Woolrich down a path of giving it never planned to take. Today, given the opportunity to help veterans in need, Woolrich gladly allows the Freedom Throw to help others.
Remarkably, Woolrich remains relatively understated about its donations. It is crystal clear that Woolrich, guided by the inspired vision of employees like Moshier, builds the Freedom Throw not as a cause marketing opportunity but because it can and it should.
To me there’s no better cause than doing what you do best and sharing that with others.
Catalog cover art seems to have gone the way of vinyl album jackets. A medium outdated by new technologies. In the case of albums, downloadable music to MP3 players and for catalogs, well…eCommerce. Both have been filed away in the nether areas of the brain.
But back in the day, iconic catalog retailers like LL Bean, Lands’ End and Orvis would stimulate the imagination with attention-grabbing covers, month after month after month. And while doing so, created the art of merchants.
LL Bean is celebrating its “100 Years of Exploring the Outdoors” in 2012.
Among other celebratory events, the company is recreating a number of its finest catalog covers. The first came in the mail today. It’s a stunning photograph that, with the aid of digital enhancements, looks like it might be a painting. The cover features a well-outfitted duffer, who clearly lost a “who can catch more fish” bet with a whipersnapper, fumbling for funds in his overall pockets.
The cover feels alive. From the brilliant reds of the rainbow trout undersides to the rich texture of the northern Maine pine forest background, this cover makes you want to be outside fishing – now!
On the company’s home page is a link to info on the covers, including how to buy one for yourself. The video on how the covers were made is worth the 2 1/2 minutes it takes to watch.
With this tribute to catalog cover art it’s possible LL Bean missed an opportunity by letting customers get involved in the selection of covers to be re-created, which clearly would have had viral potential on social media. But other than that, I’d say LL Bean got it mostly right. A defference to its history with an eye on product and the outdoors.
Soon Starbucks patrons will be able to get a buzz from caffeine and alcohol.
Starbucks is planning to add beer, wine and food such as savory snacks and hot flatbreads to the menus in select outlets in Chicago, Atlanta and Southern California. The world’s biggest coffee chain started selling those items at a Seattle cafe in October 2010. Five stores in the Seattle area and one in Portland, Oregon, now offer the extended menu.
The addition of alcohol, which will only occur in stores with larger seating areas, is designed to attract customers later in the day.
The million dollar question is whether or not Starbucks will take a simple glass of wine or beer and turn it into a multi-worded concoction, just as they did with a plain old cup of coffee. Will the day come when a patron in line is ordering a Grande’ Black & Tan, no-foam, lime-wedge beer? I’d bet a buck it will.
This move by Starbucks may be more about media buzz than financial growth for the company. The majority of Starbucks outlets will never serve wine and beer according to the company. For a company like Starbucks, it’s as important to stay in the news as it is to deliver a profit.
The limited wine and beer menu will never attract serious drinkers the same way Starbucks has developed coffee devotee’s. And that’s probably a good thing.
In the end Joe Paterno turned out to be just like the rest of us – flawed.
In today’s world, sports figures, politicians, Hollywooder’s, and anyone else under the intensely bright lights of 24/7 scrutiny are one split-second decision away from public downfall.
Paterno’s life’s work was honing the practice of expecting (and getting) athletic excellence and intellectual prowess out of his players. As a result Paterno built and football dynasty while helping an entire university grow up around the ever-expanding stadium.
The actions of one of his assistants are what brought Joe’s career at Penn State to an abrupt halt. But it was the actions of his employer, Pennsylvania State University that broke his heart…and undoubtedly hastened his death. While the allegations of child sex abuse are serious and need to resolved in the legal environment, Penn State’s abandonment of Joe Paterno forever smudges the University. He deserved better, as his wife said to the administrator who fired Joe via telephone 65 days ago.
Experts on aging are coming out now to say that Paterno’s firing likely had a role in his death. As Joe said just two months ago, “”What am I going to do? I don’t fish. I don’t golf. I don’t cut the lawn. I don’t want to die. Football is my life.”
A legend is gone. And with it goes Penn State’s legend. A painful loss of both.
Finding America’s Best Retail Stores
Lots of news coming out of the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 101st Annual Convention & Expo in New York yesterday. Keynote speaker Bill Clinton addressed a standing room only crowd. Ralph Lauren VP, David Lauren, shared the company’s successful experience at the intersection of digital marketing luxury goods.
But NRF’s contest is what caught my eye.
As part of its multi-pronged “Retail Means Jobs” campaign, aimed at raising awareness of the industry’s considerable economic impact, NRF introduced a national video contest, “This is Retail,” to illustrate the many career choices and employment opportunities available. The retail industry supports one in four American jobs, according to the Washington, D.C.- based trade organization.
“We’re on a hunt to find the best retail stories in America — from marketing geniuses to customer service superstars to small-business owners, who are the fabric of every local community,” noted NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “NRF’s This is Retail contest will put a face on an industry that is seamlessly woven into the fabric of America and influences every aspect of our life and culture — from commerce and fashion to real estate and public policy.”
To take part in the contest, retail employees or business owners must submit a two-minute video showing how their company positively affects shoppers or the community; their role in the creation of an innovative product or technology; or how an initiative will generate new jobs to boost the economy.
This contest is brilliant. It is interactive, the video component has viral potential, it may bring light to innovative merchants…and it has multiple points of media interest. I can’t wait to see the submissions!
Most people believe retail marketers contact them all too frequently, right?
Actually, it’s not true, according to the IBM Institute for Business Value 2011 Retail Industry Study. More than 28,500 people from 15 countries were contacted for the survey, which found that 76 percent of people think retailers do not communicate with them often enough. Only 24 percent said they are contacted too frequently.
Wait a second… Did they ask me? I receive emails, sometimes multiple times in one day, from retailers whose communications I’ve opted out of (several times), and still receive those annoying pieces in my inbox.
An article by Brian Berk for Convenience Store News goes on to say the one thing retailers are doing really well is branding. Globally, 72 percent of respondents said they are aware of retailer branded products.
The survey, conducted during a six-month period last year, also revealed plenty of other aspects regarding retailers. One major takeaway is that consumers are willing to provide details about themselves. According to the IBM study, consumers are willing to provide information to retailers about their media usage (75 percent); demographics (73 percent); identification such as name and address (61 percent); lifestyle (59 percent); and location (56 percent) for a more targeted and smarter shopping experience.
As for purchasing patterns, 71 percent desire to shop digitally using technology (e.g. website, mobile, social network, retailer website to co-create products, TV using remote control, social videos such as YouTube, electronic games) — 29 percent desire to use one technology, while 18 percent want use two and 24 percent would prefer to use three.
It’s likely the findings of this study are off kilter as a result of the international makeup of the cohort group. My experience tells me American consumers are far less likely to be bothered by contact from retailers and particularly unwilling to share personal information.
My advice to retail marketers is not to take the findings of this study too literally. Relevance, content quality and a compelling offer are still the best reason to contact your customers/prospects. Anything else is counter productive.
Sears, the venerable retailer, had a rather unlikely beginning over 160 years ago and is possibly going to have an unlikely ending soon.
Picture America in the late 1880s. The states were only 38 in number. Their total population was 58 million and about 65 percent of these people lived in rural areas. Only a dozen or so cities had 200,000 or more residents. This was the scene when, one day in 1886, a Chicago jewelry company shipped some gold-filled watches to an unsuspecting jeweler in a Minnesota hamlet. Thus started a chain of events that led to the founding of Sears.
Richard Sears was an agent of the Minneapolis and St. Louis railway station in North Redwood, Minnesota. Sears job as station agent left him plenty of spare time, so he sold lumber and coal to local residents on the side to make extra money. Later, when he received a shipment of watches – unwanted by a neighboring Redwood Falls jeweler – Sears purchased them himself, sold the watches at a nice profit to other station agents up and down the line.
In 1886 Sears began the R.W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis. The following year Sears moved his business to Chicago. Sears, Roebuck and Co. and other mail-order companies were the answer to rural America’s prayers. Thanks to volume buying, to the railroads and post office, and later to rural free delivery and parcel post, they offered a happy alternative to the high-priced rural stores. Years later the company adopted the motto “Shop at Sears and Save.”
Growth at Sears was spectacular. But that growth has all but stopped. Worse still, access to cash to buy inventory has been cut off. Sears Holdings suffered a major setback when a major business lender, CIT Group, halted loans that Sears’ suppliers use to finance the goods they sell to the chain. The news triggered fears that other lenders to the retailer’s suppliers would follow a similar path, making it harder for the company to do business.
Without this credit Sears is unable to place orders for Fall 2012 production. And the upstream impact is being felt today. Mills and manufacturers across Asia, the middle east, northern Africa and South America are already seeing large chunks of their business evaporate. Unless that volume of business can be replaced those same mills and manufacturers will suffer and be forced to cut back. This, of course, leads to layoffs – which no one likes.
I have a prescription for Sears:
- Close 80 percent of those big box or mall anchor stores. They are too big and provide the most dreary of shopping experiences.
- Sell ancillary brands like Lands’ End to raise capital.
- Reinvent the company as the retailer of practical products. Focus all attention on brands like Kenmore and Craftsman. If that can be accomplished in a store that’s 15,000 to 25,000 square feet, so be it.
- Be obsessive about quality and service. Over deliver on all aspects of customer interaction.
- Use Amazon to manage the company’s online presence. Hire it out to experts…now!
- Dump foolish affiliations like that with the Kardashian’s asap. It only makes things worse.
A brand such as Sears deserves better than to wither away. The company has hired Ron Boire, the former Brookstone president and CEO, as executive VP and chief merchandising officer for Sears and Kmart brands. I hope he reads this.
Red Bull Crashed Ice Is Flying High
Red Bull, the energy drink and promoters of extreme sports, have long used events as key marketing tactics.
It seems that Red Bull has found a home in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is kind of odd in that Minnesota is definitely fly over country in most people’s minds, but also that St. Paul is the red-headed little brother to Minneapolis. But for some reason, Red Bull does well in St. Paul. The Red Bull Flug Tag, has been a serious success attracting 90,000+ people leap off a huge ramp in non-mechanical “flying machines” into the Mississippi River.
Now that same kind of tom foolery is presented in the depth of winter. Red Bull’s Crashed Ice is a combination of hockey, skiing and racing, bundled together in a pile of 4 racers screaming down a pure ice track at breakneck speeds.
The event has stops in Munich, Russia, the Netherlands, Canada, Sweden…and St. Paul. Perhaps the folks at Red Bull believe that Minnesotan’s sit in fishing shacks and drink all winter, so naturally we’d want lots of Red Bull to keep us up and going. Well, Red Bull is correct on the first assumption. We’ll have to see about the second one.
For the official video click here Red Bull Crashed Ice St Paul
To take a ride down the course via helmet cam Ride Down Crashed Ice Course
