Sometimes it helps to stand back and look for the big truths hiding in plain sight amidst massive mounds of little insights, false positives, mistaken assumptions and, well yes, wishful thinking. Such a truth revealed itself as I took my regular Fitbit-inspired walk around Manhattan today. I started on the Upper East Side in the 90s and headed 35 or so blocks south, before heading back up: my roughly10,000-step daily requirement and all logged before 9:00 AM. Invigorating, right? Well, not quite. An Urban Wasteland Typically, I walk down …
Reimagining JCPenney
Several weeks ago, a colleague asked me which retailer(s) I thought were genuinely innovative. For me, "innovative" and "retailer" rarely fit in the same sentence, but, my immediate response: Carvana. Disruption for Detroit The world of used, or previously owned cars will never be the same. It has now been transformed into a fascinating, fun and, dare one say, festive shopping experience. Carvana is a totally reimagined catalytic wonder-what-it-would-be-like moment of new car ownership all the way through to the thrill of delivery and …
How to Understand Your Customer
Remember when the Paradox of Choice was published? Sociologist Barry Schwartz's thesis was that consumers were stunned by the sheer staggering number of product category options, and thus defaulted to making no choice. Scores of CPG clients began the laborious process of attempting to re-rationalize SKUs, until "cease and desist" orders were issued internally. The shelf space strategy was to edit the number of offerings to mitigate the paradox of choice syndrome, until the impact on slotting fees raised its ugly head. Shopping vs Buying The …
For Whom the Retail Bell Tolls
Recent news headline: Retail CEO announces that luxe retail is the new normal. Another recent news headline: Real estate empresario comments on how overbuilt and expensive New York City has become. We were, of course, shocked to learn that real estate was expensive here. Any fair-minded observer can be forgiven a moment of disgust as these particular twin revisionist rationales work to fling more pixie dust on the legitimate question we face, Whither retail reality? Ghost Town It's not all Covid all the time. Think of the forced march to …
Why This Is So Hard
Several Christmases ago I was invited to one of those Secret Santa holiday parties. I am always a hopeless failure at such under-$25 scavenger hunts, but the erstwhile colleague who drew my name was far more able. Thus, around the luncheon table at the moment of reveal, I received a gift from the Museum of Modern Art: a coffee cup and bag with the legendary I "Heart" New York insignia. I was enthralled and have used both endlessly. We now fast forward to the moment at hand; from repeated dishwasher visits the cup has begun to lose its …
How the Coronavirus is Going to Change Our Lives
In its recent review of A Bit of a Stretch, a prison memoir from filmmaker and ersatz tax fraudster Chris Atkins, The New York Times reports on his observation that sexual pornography isn’t the primary tool of gratification and anticipation of release in the British prison system. Rather, GQ’s brand of capitalist porn is the lusted after publication of prisoners’ choice. “Prisoners drooled endlessly over Orlando Bloom’s watch or David Beckham’s shoes, believing they too could possess these luxuries if they sold enough drugs,” Atkins is quoted …
We Have Seen the Consumer and It is Us
The most pressing question facing our consumer society and economy is the one we keep asking each other: What's going to happen? David Ogilvy famously told his clients, "The consumer is your wife," and, while editing it a bit for changes in the workplace and culture, his dictum still holds: "The consumer is you. The consumer is me. The consumer is the person down the street. The consumer is us." And we, the consumers, are unsure of what will happen next and how we're going to react to THAT next worrisome thing that heads our way. Take …
With Neither a Bang nor a Whimper
It has taken a month or so for the new Covid-19 reality to do what two generations of business consultants, retail strategists and brand marketers have not been able to do: reinvigorate the center aisle of the grocery store. Take a walk through any food store in your new Covid protective mask. The once exciting peripheries chock-a-block with fresh kale of various heritages, artisanal cheeses and cage-free poultry parts are still robustly stocked. Move your cart into the once moribund middle corridors however, and you see how the zeitgeist has …