Ugly and Proud = More Revenue
I would never wear Crocs. I always thought they were, well…ugly. Consequently, there is no way I would believe that Crocs—the clunky, cartoonish foam clogs everyone loved to hate—would become a billion-dollar fashion staple again. In fact, in 2016 the company was struggling. Sales were flat. Stock was down. Too many people felt like me […]
Turning Tariff-Induced Scarcity into Profits
While skiing last winter in Park City Utah, I was reminded about how expensive it was to eat on the mountain. When all the basics for lunch on the mountain were tallied, a simple lunch for a family of 4 easily topped $150. It is the principle of scarcity at work – literally! After all, […]
What Customers Really Need
My son was just entering high school and wanted to have a yellow shirt for his freshman class color day. “Let’s go to Abercrombie and buy me a yellow shirt,” he said after his first day of school. Not wanting to spend $75 on a yellow shirt, I suggested going to Target and he exploded. […]
Wordle Can Grow Your Company
What is up with Wordle? Everyone is playing it! Crossword puzzle meets Sudoku — Wordle players have to guess the word of the day with as few iterations possible through equal parts strategy and luck. Josh Wardle created the game to play with his friend. He rolled it out publicly in October 2021 and, after […]
Covid, Revenue and Risk
As we move into fall, gone are the late spring promises of carefree summer fun and back are the threats of breakthrough, long-haul, delta, and other terms that had much different meanings two years ago. Calculating my risk of getting Covid got a lot more complicated in the last few months. Two outdoor dining experiences […]
You Don’t Want to Feel This Way
Have you ever woken up with that queasy feeling in your stomach that something just isn’t right? Like perhaps a growing realization that your business is no longer an industry leader? That would certainly be a jarring brave new world view that you probably never thought you would have to confront. But imagine that now […]
The Great ReAssessment
McDonald’s is now focusing on delivery at 30,000 locations? B2B buyers now prefer omni-channel interaction vs the usual way of doing business? What is going on? While much of the world is slowly re-emerging and wondering when everything will return to normal, most business owners are waking up to find out the world has already changed. […]
Change or Die!
I have always loved the expression “Ride the Horse in the Direction it is Going.” And for those of you who have tried to turn around a horse that is determined to go back to the barn, you know exactly what I mean. So, why do so many companies insist on fighting macro-economic forces? The […]
OMG! I am No Longer Relevant!
What does a company do when their core value proposition becomes less than relevant – overnight? That’s the problem Starbucks was facing when its longstanding “Third Place” value proposition (A place to meet that is not home or work/school) became superfluous to a population so fearful of Covid-19 that they didn’t even patronize their usual […]