A few months ago, I challenged all of us to think about the success of Steve & Barry's, driving sales with just one channel and no advertising.
Dry up sources of cheap cash, and Chapter 11 is upon Steve & Barry's.
In other news, Charming Shoppes is looking for a new CEO.
We can focus on the gloom and doom in the economy. Conversely, a myriad of opportunities are being created by this downturn. I know of too many people that have been downsized, rightsized, fired, forced into resignation, you name it, all in the past few months. Hopefully, we can view this as an opportunity to thrive in a new role with a new organization.
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteIn making El Mariachi, his direct to Tex-Mex video movie, Robert Rodriguez shopped in fun a trailer around Hollywood that had "Siskel and Ebert give it two thumbs up", etc. All made up commentary. It worked and he was given several million to make Desperado. (which made him a star director and Mexican soap actress Salma Hayek famous to American male audiences).
Point being, the producers who saw the trailer and the "star" critiques thought there was something there. Fortunately for Rodriguez and movie goers his trick was successful.
Steve and Barry however, fooled quite a few with their "success story" that turned out to be built on money from mall landlords desperate for space filler, not a spectacular run of single channel sales.
That being said---are Steve and Barry akin to Robert Rodriguez? What lessons in their rise and fall do you see that you would recommend to your clients?
K
They probably didn't envision credit drying up, so that's the thing to look out for when borrowing money. Their sales per square foot are not at bad levels.
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