Read this article and you'll be struck with a notable finding (click here). There is no context here. "Pureplay decreased by 51%". "Share of Ear?" The article would have lead you to believe that people are listening to Spotify half as much as in the past. Actual company data from Spotify shows revenue growth that is essentially unfettered. In order for survey data to be accurate, a few things "could" have happened. The audience would have to grow about 4x as fast to compensate for a 51% reduction in "share of ear" whatever that metric means. The data Spotify shares publicly (above) is ..read more

On Monday night, a furious finish to the 76ers/Knicks game was captured by three announcing teams. On TBS, legendary Milwaukee Brewers announcer Brian Anderson shows you what a professional, unbiased approach sounds like (click here and watch through the 5:26 mark). Ok, here's the best NBA announcer ... Mike Breen ... calling the game on MSG for Knicks fans ... notice a difference in tone (click here)? Yes, I saved the best for last. This is the camera that is set up to monitor the Knicks radio team. They have to paint a picture for their audience. Listen to the crowd noise, the tension create ..read more

Rate your company culture on a scale from 0-10. If your rating is below 8, what needs to happen to get it up to an eight? Discuss. P.S.: Leadership ... in Sports and in Business ... is completely underrated, and is mostly missing ..read more

In most of my projects in the past nine months, the importance of having "something" at a low price repeats ... a recurring theme if you will. A low-cost item that customers love generates new customers, causes existing customers to move up the loyalty chain, and gives best customers something to purchase on auto-pilot. You already know I'm well down the headphone rabbit hole. After settling on over-ear open-back headphones, I've dabbled in corded iems (in-ear monitors). My starting point? A $24.99 pair of 7Hz x Crinacle Zero:2 iems. They were the gateway drug that led me to a better pair of i ..read more

I'd run what I now call a "Merchandise Dynamics" project for a brand. This brand was struggling, badly. When I looked at the data, it was obvious that the Merchandise Executive made two classic merchandising mistakes. The Executive discontinued items that customers enjoyed. The Executive failed to find new items that were compelling ... both under-utilizing new item and sourcing new items that performed worse than new items performed historically. It's common for a brand to survive new item missteps. It's uncommon for a brand to thrive when discontinuing items that customers enjoyed. I pr ..read more

The number of gas stations has been in decline for four decades, maybe longer. Those that stayed in business did stuff like Casey's General Store did ... convenience grocery, pizza, fried chicken, you get the picture. So yeah, those that stayed in business decided to siphon off some of the Twinkies and Fritos and Large Pepsi drinks sold by other folks. Of course, if you run a gas station, there is a cliff that your business model is eventually going to plunge into. Electric Vehicles. What do you do when the customer charges his/her car at home instead of purchasing gas at a Casey's? I g ..read more

Back in the 2001-2002 timeframe, I'd invite our list partners to a once-a-year summit. I'd line up some Executives to communicate the direction we were headed in as a brand, I'd share out department-level plans, and I'd ask each list partner to present how they thought our brand should evolve and how their brand could help us with that. I recall in 2002 that the Executive from a co-op shared during her presentation that we needed, and I quote, to be "more Omnichannel". She wanted the same merchandise in all printed materials, and she wanted all customers to see the same merchandise. Same price ..read more

At every company, there are the people who appear to be in control (Owner, Board of Directors, CEO, Executive Team). Then there are the people who are actually in control. The old-timer who "knows where the bodies are buried" and says "no" to things and nobody understands how she's able to get away with saying "no", for instance. Every company has one of those. Merchants have disproportionate control, and rightly so. Creative folks have minimal control within a company but are the face of the brand to the customer. As such, they control far more than they realize. It's always dangerous to outs ..read more

You want to see a completely tepid, bland, homogenized shopping experience? Yes! Ok! Tell me the brands that are represented here. Good luck! I'm not going to tell you the answer. It's the same darn presentation. This is awful. Same web development tools, same analytics packages communicating the same conversion rates, all praised by digital gurus who love it when brands adhere to "best practices". It's not a best practice if everything looks this ... the same. It's tepid. It's time for a change ..read more

I'll show how this relates to commerce in a moment. Ok - NASCAR - last Sunday, they raced at Martinsville. A fun track. A half mile. Too many cars for the track. Normally cars are passing, and more importantly, cars are being lapped all over the place. Action. But on Sunday, nobody wrecked, nobody passed, and consequently nothing happened. Fans are fed up. NASCAR created a new car a few years ago where most of the car cannot be adjusted and the parts are the same for every car. In other words, the cars are the same. And if the cars are the same, they go the same speed, which means nobody can p ..read more