Interview with Blue Montgomery

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Some people up in Canada decided, for whatever reason, to start an action sports industry news magazine called The BoardPress.  Their sanity in trying to do this can be questioned, but they sent me a copy of their first print magazine, which came out some months ago. Probably hoping I’d write something about them. It seems to have worked.

They featured an interview with Blue Montgomery, one of Capita’s founders that I highly recommend. I think I’ve met Blue like twice but I’ve never had a long conversation with him.

Most of these stories with brand founders in our media tend to be heroic epics with the goal of promoting the brand. I’m not claiming the people at Capita were unhappy to get the publicity, but the article was way better than the usual stuff.

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Berrics Consumer Report

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You know, I always assumed/took for granted that skateboards you bought at Walmart or other large discount chains were not too good. I have to admit though that sometimes I thought to myself that maybe they weren’t a bad idea for a first deck if somebody was starting out.

To be clear, I’m way too old to fall on concrete or asphalt, so I didn’t test that hypothesis myself. Happily, The Berrics Consumer Report has.

I can’t help but remind you that it’s basically one guy testing a couple of boards and that he’s doing things some skaters never do.  But the results seem so compelling that even I, who believe in large sample sizes, statistical validation, comparisons against a norm, and all sort of statistical stuff took notice.

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The Abercrombie & Fitch Story. What Went Wrong?

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You have heard me say from time to time that companies get into trouble due to denial and perseverance in a period of change. I’ve also noted that it’s typically not the founder or executive who’s been in charge for a long time who can fix the problems.

Their perception of the organization, relationships with the people (employees and other stakeholders) and, ultimately, responsibility for the problems, or at least for not addressing them effectively, makes it difficult for them act as a change agent. Often even recognizing, until things get really tough, the need for the change is hard. The arrogance that successful entrepreneurs justifiably have (or they would never have succeeded in the first place) can get in the way as well.

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Mobile! Mobile! Mobile!

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In some recent speeches and articles, I’ve been highlighting the growing importance of mobile to brands and retailers. I thought I’d been pretty aggressive in suggesting how important it has become (and is increasingly becoming), but I think I’ve probably been understating the case.

Now, I’ve stumbled (thank you fabled research department) on an article/presentation from Internet Retailer that not only highlights just how important mobile has become, but that asks some questions around what to do about it I probably would never have thought of. Actually, I know I would never have thought of them.

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Mobile- That’s What Matters

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Last week at Surf Expo, I  made a speech where one of the things I highlighted was the importance of mobile.  I said, “How mobile influences brick-and-mortar sales is more important than what you sell online.”  I get back home and, low and behold, come across a presentation on just how dominant mobile is becoming worldwide.

It kind of looks like I may have understated the case for mobile in my presentation.  This isn’t specific to our industry, but if you take maybe 10 minutes to go through and reflect on the slides, you’ll see what I mean.  I guess I’d summarize and interpret the slides in the presentation as saying, “If you’re selling anything, anywhere, to anybody you have to be prepared to reach them on mobile devices as a condition of having a chance to compete for their business.”  Most of you are selling something somewhere to somebody.  If you’re not, you’ve got me intrigued and I’d like to hear from you.

This isn’t just in the so called developed world.  It’s everywhere and will become more so with time.

You know, in over 20 years of involvement in this industry, it seems like I’ve watched everything that started as a potential competitive advantage turn into a requirement just to be in business.  I suppose that’s because internet/mobile has given every customer access to nearly perfect information.  That customer’s perception of the brand/product can no longer be shaped by a company’s advertising and promotion to the extent it once was.  What, then, is the role and value of a brand?

Oh well.  Here’s the link to the presentation.

 

 

 

 

 

The Cult of Your Brand?

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What’s a brand? These days, what makes brands strong or not strong? I’ve been thinking and writing about that a bit, but I don’t think I’ve ever quite conceptualized it as well as Derek Thompson does in this article in The Atlantic. We’re all talking about the importance of “community.” The article describes a couple of successes in community building including Apple, probably the first one many of us think about. Please don’t be put off by the “cult” label.

What the article doesn’t directly address is the role of distribution. I wonder if he’d argue that distribution doesn’t matter much if your community is strong enough. Most brands, I still think, need to manage their distribution cautiously to build brand strength. But maybe, as I’ve suggested, merchandising is becoming more important than distribution. When “cool” brands go into Walmart, there’s certainly some of that thinking going around. Anyway, just some food for thought.

Possible West Coast Port Strike or Slowdown.

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I trust you’ve all been following this.  Some companies in their conference calls are acknowledging that they’ve brought in some inventory early in case things go south in the negotiations.  I would imagine that unions feel they have the most leverage  now during the holiday shopping season.  Most of you have product that arrives in West coast ports.  You might also note that automation is one thing they are negotiating over.

Rents Versus Income: How Does It Impact Your Customer?

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Thought you might be interested to see what’s happened to rents compared to average incomes in recent years. Take a look at this link. Anybody with kids trying to get started on their own probably won’t be surprised by this.

While this is for all employees, I’m pretty sure it’s especially impactful on our target customers. With a bigger percentage of income going to rent, there’s less available to buy the products we want to sell them, which can’t compete as a priority with paying the rent.   What does this suggest about the kind of product your customers are likely to buy?

The web site you’re seeing this on, by the way, is one I look at every day.

The future of malls- this should give retailers (and brands) something to think about.

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If this gentlemen is right, and I tend to believe he is, it should give you a lot to think about.  Here’s the article.