Why don't you put together the two themes I've discussed most often this year for a September - October test? What stops you from doing this? (seriously, be honest, what stops you from trying this?)
Kevin Hillstrom: MineThatData
Helping CEOs Understand How Customers Interact With Advertising, Products, Brands, and Channels
July 17, 2025
July 16, 2025
Sports / Business Philosophy
I came across this quote in the book Bill Walsh (49ers coach in the 80s) wrote sometime back ... I have a copy out in the Casita, and there aren't many copies available. This quote was featured on Bluesky from a football coach. I circled the quote in orange.
"You start first with a structural format and basic philosophy ..."
What is your "structural format" and "basic philosophy"?
I can outline mine ... quickly.
- There is nothing more important than what you sell ... the only reason a customer buys from you is because you sell something that the customer needs or wants.
- Unless your annual repurchase rate is sixty percent or greater, the single most important marketing function you must perform is a non-stop all-consuming focus on customer acquisition.
- Instead of focusing on customer loyalty, focus on converting a first-time buyer to a second purchase ... quickly. By doing so today, you will have more loyal buyers tomorrow.
The most successful companies I work with excel at all three endeavors outlined above.
What is your "structural format" and "basic philosophy"?
July 15, 2025
September New Customers
You've got six(ish) weeks to get ready for the best month to acquire new customers ... September! Nearly every project I work on for brands with a strong Christmas Season indicate that September is the best month to acquire new customers. Learn more by watching this brief video (click here).
July 14, 2025
Great Moments in Outsourced Link Management History
Probably my greatest professional moment ... at the absolute peak of my consulting powers, came back in 2012. It was a simpler time ... so much less stupidity and corruption ... Macy's was viewed as an omnichannel leader for the ages ... catalog brands weren't being fired by their printers and catalogers were easily able to procure paper from their favorite paper rep. In my world, I was writing parables via the "Gliebers Dresses" framework.
Why?
A trade journalist and a consultant collaborated to nuke my reputation, publishing a hit piece in a blog hosted by what was called at the time "Multichannel Merchant". I lost more than half of my business as a consequence (for about nine months), in case you're wondering why I have issues with trade journalists.
I was able to rebuild my business via the "Gliebers Dresses" framework. I could talk about industry issues without having to have a vendor or consultant or paper rep or trade journalist take me down ... what are they going to do, get mad at Roger Morgan, the Chief Operations Officer of a fictional catalog company?
But I digress ... at the peak of my powers, I wrote a bit about a Marketing Executive having women wearing dresses from Gliebers Dresses in a television commercial with Colbie Caillat's "Brighter Than The Sun" playing in the background. Just a throwaway line in a story about corporate stupidity.
Two months later, Chicos released a commercial with two women wearing Chicos clothing ... with Colbie Caillat's "Brighter Than The Sun" playing in the background.
Odd coincidence, don't you think? Here's the link. I mean, they read my content most days ... I had the data to prove it.
These moments were lost to the digital scrap heap of history ... until an agency used by Chicos reached out, asking me to update a link in the post to reflect the current URL of their website.
If you are paying an agency $$$ to ask the agency to spend time talking to an analytics blogger about a "broken link" from a post that is thirteen years old, you should probably ask yourself if you've lost the plot. Your job is to generate business today, not spend time asking an analytics blogger to correct a link from a thirteen year old satirical post.
P.S.: Just thought you'd want to see Chico's home page. Show me the love of merchandise displayed here.
July 13, 2025
This One Is Missed ... By Everybody
- Twelve-Month Rebuy Rate of Customers Acquired in December = 32.5%.
- Twelve-Month Rebuy Rate of Customers Acquired in September = 39.3%.
- When you acquire a customer in December, the customer is "recent" during a dormant response period (January / February) ... by the time October/November/December roll around, the customer has lapsed and is less likely to repurchase.
July 09, 2025
Do You Measure The Categories New Buyers Purchase From?
Many of the secrets of your business are buried deep in merchandise/marketing reports that simply do not exist. The modern digital world could care less about the products a customer purchases.
You, meanwhile, need to care deeply about what a new buyer purchases, because as it turns out, you are setting your business up for either long-term success or the alternative. Be mindful of what you are doing.
Here are twelve-month rebuy rates for first-time buyers based on the merchandise category the customer bought from in a first order. The categories are dummied-up to protect the innocent.
- Category 01: 36% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 02: 29% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 03: 31% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 04: 27% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 05: 27% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 06: 37% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 07: 32% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 08: 37% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 09: 30% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 10: 33% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 11: 34% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 12: 39% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 13: 35% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 14: 37% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 15: 23% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 16: 28% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 17: 29% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 18: 33% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 19: 40% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 20: 34% Rebuy Rate.
- Category 21: 37% Rebuy Rate.
July 08, 2025
How Do You Know It's Working Properly?
About six months ago one of you reached out to me to tell me that you were having "wild success" via a fusion of AI and customer relationship management. The individual said "we don't know what it's doing, we just know that as of today it works."
#reassuring
Then you have Grok going ... well ... nuts on Tuesday (click here - gift link from the NY Times).
You can't through a large language model on LinkedIn without it hitting some pundit who has no mathematical training telling you how wonderful AI is. Sure it is. You don't have to know anything and can have AI do your job. Fun!
When it comes to customer relationship management, and you're trying to squeeze money out of your loyal customer base, please explain to me how exactly you know that the AI you are using "works"? Be specific, especially those of you who don't have mathematical training. How do you know that the customer relationship management decisions that you've outsourced to AI are the "right" decisions? How will you know when your vendor-trained AI solution goes off the rails like Grok did today?
Try A Test!
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