If you want to glimpse the future of retail, check out an Amazon Go store.
They’re sleek and modern, with a minimalist vibe. Black merchandise racks. Wood veneer. Polished concrete. Pop music plays softly in the background; cameras nestled in the ceiling monitor your every move as you wander the aisles.
President Trump has long wielded the word “Nafta” like an epithet, deriding the North American Free Trade Agreement as the worst trade deal in history.
So when he renamed it the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — or U.S.M.C.A. — this week, he may have short-circuited attempts to criticize the new deal. Why? Because the name itself is really hard to say.
Even Mr. Trump, who bills himself as a master brander, appeared to grasp that U.S.M.C.A. was not as smooth as Nafta, saying on Monday that people would make use of the new term “99 percent” of the time. At an event in Philadelphia on Tuesday he poked fun at the name, arguing that it had to be changed because Nafta was so bad for the country.
“U.S.M.C.A. Like Y.M.C.A., or United States Marine Corps with an A at the end,” Mr. Trump said. “I like the way it sounded.”
He is largely alone. While reviews of the trade deal itself are still coming in, the name itself has gotten a resounding thumbs down.
Top Trump administration officials have stumbled over the agreement’s shorthand, which linguists say is tricky to verbalize because it is an initialism rather than an acronym, like Nafta, which slides off the lips like a word.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, made clear that he was still coming to terms with the new name while espousing its many virtues.
“The North American deal — the U.S.A. — uh, uh — got to get this right — U.S.A.M.C.?” Mr. Kudlow said.
Dean Crutchfield, a branding and marketing strategist in New York, said that since the name was officially being changed in the text, it would probably take hold, as long as the news media used it.
“I think the more people see it, the more they will get accustomed to it,” Mr. Crutchfield said.
Should Elon stay or should he go? That is the question we discussed on CNBC Power Lunch. The issues facing Tesla are like a spreading sore. Trust has taken a major battering.
There is a dysfunctional dynamic at Tesla. Leadership is to help people develop beyond their dreams and hold their fears. Elon has been weighed, measured, and found wanting.
Shareholder value is not a strategy it’s a result. One thing is for sure the Tesla brand can be stretched beyond cars, trucks and lithium batteries. Other automakers cannot. Should Elon be running the day to day or should he be focusing on those bigger bets? Here’s the segment.
Was Build a Bear’s “Pay your age” a success? It certainly garnered substantial media coverage. What can retailers be doing about standing out in the crowded market with marketing that’s sustainable?
Here are some thoughts I shared with China Global Television.
We all receive over 3000 images a day from logos, ads, signage, promotions, packaging along with a hoard of everything else we see online and off. But when you’re in a store you see over 300 commercial images within a rapid timescale that leads to 75% of purchasing decisions being made at shelf! From 28 blinks a minute, you go to 17 blinks a minute. A captured consumer! You’re focused, in the moment, editing the present. 
But online shopping sales continue to grow at an exponentially faster rate than in-store sales. 51% of Americans prefer to shop online so the old strategies of simply having a good location or putting up flyers or ads in your local newspaper aren’t going to cut it anymore. How do you get people to the store and why should they care. Here are 14 thoughts and examples.
#1: Run Beautifully Executed Google Shopping Campaigns
#2: Give Shoppers a Reason to Visit Your Store
#5: Use Social Media Targeting Capabilities to Your Advantage
#6 Target and cater to men
#8: Invest in Some Guerilla Marketing Campaigns
#9: Try Podcast Advertising
#10: Get Creative with Video
#11: Celebrate All the Little Holidays
#12: Instill a Sense of Urgency
#13: Understand Your Seasonal Peaks and Plan Accordingly
#14: Create Returning Buyers through Smart Remarketing
Did you know that in the famous blind tastes back in the 80’s Pepsi in their core research and their iconic “Take the taste test” advertising campaigns used 1-ounce cups and people preferred Pepsi over Coca-Cola? But in real life, people found 20 ounces of Pepsi to be too sweet and preferred Coke.
Lesson learned. Do your customer research.
As more men do the household food shopping, grocery stores roll out guy-friendly amenities and rewards like beer dens, butchery classes, gasoline discounts, and dad-humor signage. Read More.
Given what has happened in the US, where hundreds of department stores shuttered their doors last year who would want to be a retailer now? We used to quip that when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping but that has collapsed with the latest set of grim retail sales data.
After a grim December, many pundits had been ushering a bounce back, but the figures showed that consumers were not as robust as they once were and the retailers will have to face a painful long-term slowdown. Who is to blame?
Real wages are declining real wages and shoppers are being hit by high levels of consumer debt and the likelihood of higher borrowing costs. But the wider problem is a dramatic shift in the way consumers spend their dosh. There’s been a tectonic shift in the way we spend our time and money. Leisure, travel, social media, eating out, eating in – using subscription and delivery services – and technology are all taking time and Luca that would once have gone straight to the tills of retailers.
This trend boosts Amazon but it is threatening big-name retailers and forcing a rethink about how retail will look in years to come, and what might be done with retail parks and malls when retailers shut up shop and physical retail space becomes redundant. Amazon might be at fault but consumer behavior is also to blame!
From malls through to main street, experiences need to be enjoyed that can’t be at home – from game centers, climbing walls and crazy golf to bras, restaurants, pop-up markets and food stalls. New start-up retailers are emerging from vape shops to ice-cream parlors. Even Microsoft and Dyson are planning stores following the example of Apple.
To compete with the scourge of online shopping, malls, and high streets may have to offer short leases, pop-up spaces and farmer market-style events to bring in smaller businesses that cater to younger people who demand more authentic and local experiences. If retailers are unable to lure shoppers back they will die within the next 12 months or struggle to find the investment needed to survive. But the future of retail is not solely the responsibility of the retailer – it’s the responsibility of the consumer! We just don’t know it yet.
Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) closed more than 8,000 stores today for a
few hours for racial bias training. As we reported, the training comes
more than a month after a Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) manager called police on
two black men who had been waiting in the store for a friend before buying
something. Analysts say the store closures could cost Starbucks
(NASDAQ:SBUX) $12 million in lost sales.
GRIFFETH: Now, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) chose to conduct this racial bias
training in a very public way, and as Sue just mentioned, at a financial
cost as well to the company. Other companies do similar training but they
do tend to not draw attention to it.
So, is this a good strategy, not just for Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) but for
other brands as well?
Joining us tonight, Dean Crutchfield. He`s a brand expert who runs his own
company, Dean Crutchfield Company.
Good to see you again. Welcome back.
DEAN CRUTCHFIELD, BRAND EXPERT: Good to see you guys.
GRIFFETH: Are there risks to this kind of public display of teaching your
employees racial bias?
CRUTCHFIELD: Well, it`s really a question of delivering it. You know,
purpose builds profits or at least that`s the strategy. So, really, it`s a
question of can you actually deliver it? That`s really what we`re
questioning with Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) today.
You know, they`re under pressure to show their leadership and their impact
on these very sensitive issues of gender and race, and it really is a
question of, you know, what they deliver once they actually do this. The
most important thing is they are saying they`re prepared to take a hit in
their business to actually do something right. So, in a sense, that shows
the goodwill of their intent.
HERERA: Does it match up with their pledge of social responsibility? It
seems as though it does.
CRUTCHFIELD: It really aligns very well, actually, with the core strategy
at Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX). In fact, part of their vision statement wraps
around inspiring and nurturing the human spirit. So, I can`t think of two
better subjects than gender and race to actually answer that as a strategy
and show that it really delivers what it means.
So, it`s not so much your ability as a business, it`s more about the
choices you make that define who you are and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is
making a very deliberate choice here in terms of their strategy to, as it
were, train away implicit bias. And I think to your point, this has been
going on for decades. Many companies, police departments have all been
trying to train away implicit bias.
GRIFFETH: Right.
CRUTCHFIELD: And really the question is, does it work? I think that`s a
big question here.
GRIFFETH: And because it was so public, the closing of the stores and
everything, obviously, they`re trying to spur the national conversation in
that regard.
Do you see other companies then maybe following their lead in this?
CRUTCHFIELD: Well, I think, you know, a leader has to lead. I think
that`s what Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is doing.
You know, there`s massive disruption happening in the market out there.
Customers want to know about the brand value. They want to know if those
values align with them. They want to know where you stand on race, and
gender, and environment. They want to know what your leadership is and
what your impact is on those issues.
It`s very different from what it was before. So, I think what we`re seeing
here is Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) leading the charge of something we`ll be
seeing more and more, which is about purpose-driven brands.
GRIFFETH: Dean, always good to see you. Thank you for your thoughts
tonight.
CRUTCHFIELD: Thank you.
Brands liberate markets and China has much to celebrate with their brands. President Xi has talked about the Chinese Dream. Can its brands supply the aspiration and inspiration to its people?
As I said on China Global TN, we should applaud Chinese brands success. In 2014 the brand value of the top 100 Chinese brands was $380B today it’s $680B! It’s added more value than the US stock market!
However, rising stars can burn out fast, Just consider the potential plight of ZTE in the face of American vitriol. What’s clear is that China is propelling to a consumption-based economy from a production based economy. It’s no longer the copier but the copied. In this segment, with China Global TN we discuss the implications.
PUNCH & KISS 