Summer Schedule and Topics (Hint - It's About Merchandise)

Yup - summer is here.  Sunsets.  Fun.  Chillaxing.

So posts might be a bit less frequent this summer, as is the tradition on this blog (now in year eight).

And we're going to talk about Merchandise Forensics this summer.

Why?

Well, for one, it's a lost art.  We outsourced so many aspects of marketing to subject matter experts - these folks know their "subject", they don't know the critical role merchandise plays in the success/failure of a business.

If you ask 100 marketing experts if merchandise productivity is up 5% this year, flat, or down 5%, how many do you think could give you an honest answer?  3 of 100?  Maybe.

Merchandise productivity impacts everything you do.  Take a ten percent drop in merchandise productivity, and your search activities become really expensive.  Absorb a ten percent drop in merchandise productivity, and you have to cut catalog circulation by at least ten percent, hurting your ability to reactivate or acquire customers, hurting your business next year as well.  Take a ten percent drop in merchandise productivity - and the marketer gets fired.

Aren't you marketers out there tired of being blamed for stuff that isn't your fault?

It's your fault when you train the customer to expect free shipping and 30% off all day, every day.

It's not your fault when customers buy 10% less merchandise because of issues with your merchandising team.

This summer, we're going to dive in on merchandise productivity, on merchandising issues.  Merchandise is the one constant over time - it's always there - and it is what customers purchase.  Don't you think it's worth understanding how marketing and merchandising interact?

Click here to hire me for your own Merchandise Forensics project.  Or stay tuned for a hot summer of learning how merchandise and marketing interact with each other.