Fan Fiction

I recall the late Don Libey telling me about his enjoyment of Sherlock Holmes ... he wrote fan fiction, bought barrels of wine, bottled them in Sherlock Holmes themes, and drank them among like-minded individuals or sold them. Fan fiction as a hobby can be downright enjoyable.

You've heard about people who write their own Seinfeld Script ... Kramer becomes a Presidential Debate moderator, George damages Jerry's car while pursuing his side hustle as a Lyft driver, Elaine dates a YouTube influencer with an inconvenient secret, and Jerry is obsessed with an air fryer. There, see how easy that was? Also, it was terrible.

As I write this, the NFL postgame show on Amazon Prime is sponsored by JCPenney. I can return my Amazon purchase at a Staples store or at Kohl's ... both stores will give me a coupon for a discount if I buy something in the store (but won't give the same coupon to somebody who randomly enters either store because of brand loyalty). How much fan fiction do you have to write to think that giving money to Amazon or being paid by Amazon to process returns is smart for the long-term hopes and dreams of your brand?

I just spent a month telling you how to think about reactivating customers. On Monday, I'll tell you what a project might look like, and I'll give you an opportunity to pay less to break-in my code. Are you going to do the hard work required to reactivate customers, or are you going to download a white paper about eight discounting strategies for Black Friday? The latter is fan fiction.