Podcast Week: Mystery Show

The fourth podcast in our series is Mystery Show ... a "one-season-and-done" masterpiece where host Starlee Kine solves obtuse mysteries (click here). If you only have time to listen to one episode ... listen to the second episode where a little-known author notices that a major star is carrying a copy of her book ... just a fantastic episode (click here)!!!

What does this have to do with low cost / no cost customer acquisition programs fueled by having a unique point of view?

Let's pretend you are Petals (click here). Could you not create a series where the marketer solves mysteries regarding people carrying plants / flowers / arrangements? Why is the guy on Wall St. carrying a Silk Hydrangea Centerpiece (click here)? Build a whole episode around the back story surrounding this man. Then if you have to offer a discount/promotion, offer it on the item in the story. Petals already has a much-neglected blog (click here) - use the blog to promote the story series paired with discounts for the items in each story.

I know, I know, there's a thousand reasons why you shouldn't do this. But creating a unique point of view that results in low cost / no cost new customers is a reason why you should do this, right?

Podcast Week: Welcome to Night Vale

The third podcast in our series is Welcome to Night Vale (click here).

This is a 2x per month fictional news story about a town where crazy things happen (like the Faceless Old Woman who secretly lives in your home, or "the weather" which is really an indie song played 2/3rd of the way through each podcast). Each episode has a semblance of a self-contained story - and stories arc across episodes. You can visit this fan wiki (click here) for more details.

What does this have to do with having a unique point of view that results in low cost / no cost customer acquisition?

Let's pretend you are Harriet Carter Gifts (click here). You sell distinctive gifts ... frequently "As Seen on TV". Why not create a fictional series about characters who use the distinctive gifts "As Seen on TV" to solve problems in a fictional place? Promote the series on Twitter and the follower count will surge beyond the current 300ish followers (click here). Integrate discounts and promotions with elements of the storyline - create reasons for a customer to buy merchandise.

Have some fun!! Business should be more fun than managing algorithms that enable you to rent prospects at $0.06 each. Follow the example set by Welcome to Night Value.

Highly Read Blog Post by Employees at Facebook / Google

It's this ancient post from a time when we wondered whether the stock market would ever climb back up above 7,000 (click here).

When followers from "digital" companies browse content, it's typically about offline tactics, measuring long-term value, and measuring the long-term impact of merchandise/pricing.

Thought you might find that interesting ...

Podcast Week: Men in Blazers

The second podcast in our series is the Men in Blazers (click here).

The duo in the podcast mix pop culture and the English Premier League on a weekly basis. Part of their skill involves creating narratives out of essentially nothing - be it pointing out how referee Mark Clattenberg can literally take over a match and make it about him instead of about the players or taking a sad nap after Everton loses a match (after listening to Fast Car by Tracy Chapman of course).

Their podcast and appearances on SiriusXM and the 2014 World Cup resulted in their own TV show on the NBC Sports Network.

How does this relate to what you do? How does this relate to having a unique point of view that results in finding new customers at low cost / no cost?

Say you are the birding enthusiasts at Duncraft (click here). They're selling a lot of products that support a passion for birding. There's no reason they couldn't create a weekly narrative around birders seeking to achieve a Big Year (click here), right? There's a hint that Duncraft is interested in the topic - see this blog post from late 2015 (click here). But instead of one blog post, why not make a weekly deal out of this, reaching out to those who are shooting for 700 birds in a year, bringing the personalities to life?

I know, I know, there's a thousand reasons why folks shouldn't do this ... but low cost / no cost customer acquisition tied to a unique point of view is one reason why we should do this, don't you think?

Podcast Week: Seincast

I have talked for nearly two years about the importance of having your own unique point of view - one that allows you go attract new customers at virtually no cost. There's been a common refrain in the feedback I receive.

• "That won't work for us - our business is unique, and our business is special. Do you have any other ideas, preferably a channel where we can pay a small amount while generating a big return on investment, one that other people haven't discovered yet, kthanks?!"

Well, we all know that approach doesn't work - for if it did, we'd all be doing it and we'd be rolling in cash.

So this week, I'm going to try something different. I'm going to pick out five podcast series you can listen to - folks who are broadcasting a unique point of view and generating listeners at low cost / no cost.

Today, we'll start with Seincast (click here).

The hosts are in the process of broadcasting their thoughts about every one of the +/- 180 episodes of Seinfeld. They play clips, they read from the script of the episode, and they offer commentary on their personal lives as well as providing in-depth discussions about the characters in the TV show. If you have watched the show, you'll appreciate all of the callbacks from prior (and future) episodes.

Why share this?

Because the hosts are putting their spin on a popular television show, and it's strangely compelling to listen to if you follow the show.

Now pretend you are Country Curtains (click here). Your merchandising vendors are like the TV show ... and you as a marketer are like the hosts on Seincast. It's your job to bring their product to life. You can create an entire world around the merchandise you sell - the characters who provide the merchandise you sell. To some extent, Country Curtains does this via their blog (click here). But there are so many ways that Country Curtains could bring this information to life, creating a unique point of view in the process that enables Country Curtains to acquire customers at low cost / no cost.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's podcast recommendation.

Digital = Foxes ... Traditional Retail = Rabbits

If foxes eat rabbits and there aren't any rabbits, foxes go hungry. Foxes, therefore, need an ample supply of rabbits.

Those who author an "omnichannel" strategy or a "digital first" or "mobile first" strategy are viewing the world through the eyes of a fox. They're looking to find as much as they can eat as possible, and they're not worried about the long-term consequences of "eating everything".

This brings me to traditional retail.

Traditional Retail is struggling, mightily. Many will blame Amazon, but let's not do that ... Amazon is the size of maybe four Macy's brands ... which in the grand scheme of things is rather tiny. Sure, Amazon is taking business from retailers ... but not enough to blame traditional retail problems on.

Our struggles are in the realm of digital vs. traditional retail ... or foxes vs. rabbits.

Again, think of Traditional Retail as being a "rabbit". Rabbits need food ... tasty greens. So Traditional Retail works best when there is great merchandise (i.e. Merchandise Productivity) fueled by a Unique Point of View ... the combination of Merchandise/POV are the foot that allows the rabbit population to thrive.

Think of "digital" as being a "fox". Foxes need food ... namely rabbits. So "digital strategy" is most likely to work well when there are a ton of rabbits. Without the rabbits, digital strategy struggles. We know this is true, because when we close a store, the vast majority of the sales disappear - very little migrates (20%, +/-, your mileage will vary) to e-commerce. So digital (foxes) are fully dependent upon traditional retail (rabbits) for success.

As we close stores (kill rabbits), digital/e-commerce (foxes) will starve.

So what choice do we have?

We have to make our traditional stores as healthy and as plump and as plentiful as possible.

1. We must have merchandise that customers love (merchandise productivity).
2. We must have a unique point of view that attracts new customers at a low cost.

(1) and (2) are the food that allows the rabbit population to be plentiful and chubby.

With a plentiful and chubby rabbit population, there's plenty of food for foxes (digital) to consume.

We have no choice, then, but to focus our efforts on (1) and (2) if we want digital strategy to thrive.

This is the opposite of "digital first"  and "omnichannel" ... both of which view the world through the eyes of a fox. We need to make sure retail is hyper-healthy ... if we do that, then there is plenty of food for "digital" / "foxes" to enjoy.

Digital Consumes Retail

About ten miles from my house, there is a field dominated by rabbits. Rabbits everywhere. Rabbits constantly surveying the landscape, hoping not to see a bald eagle or a fox.

Eventually, the population of rabbits grows to large levels ... and then the foxes move in. The foxes fill their tummies on a veritable plethora of rabbits, leaving a small population of rabbits.

Then the foxes get hungry ... too little food ... and they move on.

Rabbits breed and the population grows once again.

Foxes come back.

Rabbits are gone.

Foxes move on.

What we are seeing in retail is a classic rabbit / fox scenario.

1. Traditional Retail Stores are Rabbits.
2. Digital Strategy represent Foxes.
3. Amazon is represented by Wolves ... Wolves eat both Rabbits and Foxes.

Digital is eating Traditional Retail. No doubt about it. Worse, the conversion of "food" is not one-to-one ... a dollar of retail sales are consumed by digital, leaving us with forty cents of digital online sales (your mileage will vary).

If we want "digital" to be successful, then we have to "feed digital". We haven't done this, to date. All we do are create more and more foxes, and then we praise the foxes for their hunting ability. How hard is it for a Fox to hunt a Rabbit?

Use Macy's as your poster child - online sales grew and grew and retail sales sunk - and then store closures (food) caused online sales to stop growing as fast.

Now, you can't say "just keep the stores open" if the store are unprofitable. No way. Don't listen to the pundits who now demand that retailers keep unprofitable stores open. If you have skin in the game, you look at the p&l and you see a nightmare and you have to do something about it.

I know what I'd do about it.

What we have to do is feed our rabbits (i.e. Merchandise Productivity). We need low cost customer acquisition programs (food) that increases sales within stores ... so that our stores are healthy enough to provide food for the foxes (#digital) ... enough food that even the wolves (Amazon) can't harm us.

The failure of the past decade is that we haven't produced enough retail food (rabbits) to feed digital foxes. We just sat there and cheered on as the foxes ate the rabbits.