Profitless prosperity

Ah, the era of “profitless prosperity” is back. I still have my Pets.com sock puppet to remind me of those once glorious times. Barely a day goes by now that we don’t hear about a stratospheric valuation (actual or rumored) for some digital darling. From Facebook to Twitter to Groupon, it seems that unless your [...]

Read Full Post »

Zip it, your generation is showing

Not too long ago I had a very well-respected executive tell me he could not understand why anyone would buy a luxury product online if there were a physical store close to them.  ”They must have had a bad salesperson,” he told me. If you are anything like me–and by that I mean the parent [...]

Read Full Post »

A very omni-channel holiday

First there were brick and mortar retailers and direct-to-consumer companies–and never the ‘twain shall meet. Then came retailers operating in multiple channels–but don’t call them “multi-channel retailers”–most pursued their strategies in operational silos. Then more companies came to realize that silos belong on farms, and we saw more integration: consistent branding across channels, pricing and [...]

Read Full Post »

So excited! Just discovered hyperbole is the best thing ever!

You don’t have to spend much time on Twitter or Facebook to learn that “so excited” is included in a significant percentage of posts–and usually describes something as mundane as what the person is about to eat or that a new episode of Dancing with the Housewives of the Jersey Shore is about to come on. [...]

Read Full Post »

Prospects, Not Suspects

The notion that a smart sales and marketing strategy distinguishes between suspects–consumers who MIGHT turn out to become profitable customers–and prospects–consumers who are highly likely to turn into valuable clients–is an old idea. Great sales people possess this intuition.  Great marketers use customer insight, robust analytics and customer segmentation to do this more scientifically. If [...]

Read Full Post »

What does it cost me to see the next card?

When it comes to innovation, many companies approach it as an all or nothing proposition.   Without a clear road to profitability, they do nothing.   If the cost to develop the new line of business seems particularly daunting, they table further discussion.  When clarity around key assumptions seems challenging, well it’s better to delay (or worse [...]

Read Full Post »