Something Is Missing

McDonalds is selling mozzarella sticks.

Sometimes, to quote the immortal Frank Costanza, "something's missing".

Something's missing, all right.

I've done more than fifty Merchandise Forensics projects. Eighty percent of those projects illustrate a merchandising challenge.

The image here represents a merchandise challenge. This is new merchandise. If many customers have this experience, then new merchandise doesn't work, does it? And when new merchandise doesn't work during a time when existing merchandise is struggling, you have problems.

McDonalds has problems.

Analyze winning new items, and failing new items. What are the trends? Are there quality issues with new items? Are there reductions in the number of winning new items over time?

So much of business performance is within your control. Amazon has nothing to do with a lack of mozzarella in a mozzarella stick - and Amazon has nothing to do with your development of new, high quality items. That's stuff that you control.