Pay 'em!!!

Two weeks ago I shared this image, created via one of my "bifurcation" projects.

The image was part of a series outlining how old-school catalog brands possess a customer base that is splitting into two pieces ... traditional catalogs shoppers who can actually support "more" mailings (yes, more) ... and everybody else who should receive considerably fewer mailings.

There are two comments I receive when I share this feedback. The two comments sometimes happen at the same time.

1. I don't want to mail more catalogs.
2. I don't want to mail fewer catalogs.

I realize it's not fun to have an outsider tell you how you could make more profit. You are pummeled with outsiders telling you what to do, and frequently, the outsiders are wrong.

I also realize that way, waaaaaaaaay too many of you do not get rewarded when you make your company more profit. You work for a $50,000,000 brand that makes $2.5 million profit per year and you listen to me and you increase profitability by a half-million dollars and you don't get anything for it ... nothing ... no bonus, you get your typical cost-of-living increase ... and you watch as the digital folks climb the corporate ladder. I get it, that's not fun, and there's no financial incentive to do the right thing.

When I work on these projects with the Private Equity folks, there's a lot of financial incentive to do the right thing.

When I work on these projects with the CEO or CFO, there's a lot of financial incentive to do the right thing.

But for so many of you, there isn't a financial incentive to do the right thing. And that's sad.

Maybe the CEOs/CFOs who are reading this could change that????