Editorial Blog: March 2010 Archives

Are you ready for an exercise in idea-swapping?

In a recent Harvard Business Review blog, Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company magazine and coauthor of Mavericks at Work, wrote about a clever exercise in idea-swapping" thought up by the editors of Fortune magazine. According to Taylor, while assembling their annual "Best Companies to Work For" issue, the Fortune editors challenged Kip Tindell, cofounder and CEO of The Container Store and Maxine Clark, founder and CEO of Build-a-Bear Workshop to trade places for a day. What the leaders discovered after working on the front lines of each other's operations, writes Taylor, was "all kinds of ideas and merchandising, employee motivation, and in-store communication that worked in one place, and might just work in the other if those ideas were exported to and adapted for the new environment."

Taylor, whose new book Practically Radical will be published this fall, said he's "seen it time and time again: Leaders who are hungry for new ideas don't just aspire to learn from the 'best in class' in their narrowly defined field. They also aspire to learn from organizations outside their field as a way to shake things up and make real change. Strategies and practices that are routine in one market segment can be revolutionary when they migrate to another, especially when those ideas challenge the prevailing assumptions that have come to define so many market segments."

What do you think? Would trading places with another business owner help you run your store better?

Posted by Lori Smith on March 8, 2010 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Emergence of Citizen Marketers

I'm fascinated by a story for ABC News that appeared in one of the SmartBrief enewsletters that I received today. The article (and video) is called "Girls Gone Viral: Online Fame From Shopping." In it, writer Eric Noll describes "a new phenomenon called 'haul videos'." These are, he explains, a way for people (usually teen and twentysomething women) "to show off their purchases to the whole world." Currently, he reports there are more than 110,000 haul videos on YouTube and "some videos are racking up tens of millions of views."

The article quotes consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow, who John Evans interviewed for his article on connecting with Gen Y that appeared in G&T's July/August 2010 issue. She says that "haul videos are the perfect marriage of two of Generation Y's favorite things: technology and shopping."

It turns out that haul videos are not only a means of expression and sharing, they are also a way for those young shoppers to earn money. Noll talked to Elle Fowler (21) and Blair Fowler (16), from Tennessee, two sisters whose haul "videos have been viewed 75 million times" and who have turned making the videos into a career of sorts. I was curious and checked out one of Blair's videos on YouTube. In it she describes her "haul" for Lush.

As I watched, I wondered what the video had done for Lush's business. (Noll writes that a watch the sisters bought and talked about in a video, sold out in 24 hours after the video was posted.) I also wondered if the sisters would continue to produce videos as they moved on in life, marrying, buying homes, having babies. It's amazing to think that a company could get that much publicity for free. It's also amazing to think that young people have become such influential marketers--whether they call themselves that or not.

Posted by Lori Smith on March 22, 2010 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Why are we paying more and getting less?

I had an interesting conversation with my brother and his wife, who along with their daughter were down visiting this weekend. My mother's old range had stopped working and she wanted to replace it with the old-fashioned electric coil model. Discussing the matter with my mom, brother and sister-in-law, I wondered if a smooth top range might be a better purchase. My sister-in-law, who has had a smooth top stove for a few years, said she wouldn't buy one again. Her first preference now would be to convert over to a gas range (not an option in my mom's condominium) and failing that to go with the coil elements. The smooth top was hard to keep clean, she said.

This comment led to a conversation about products that we thought hadn't been improved over time. At the top of the list were pillow-top mattresses. I own one. My brother and his wife own one. My mother owns one. All of them are expensive models. None of us would ever buy one again. You can turn them around but you can't flip them, and they get "body dents" that swallow you up. They just don't have the value--though they cost more--that previous, simpler mattresses did. Another product sore spot was toasters. My brother said their expensive new four-slot toaster just didn't do the job--unlike the 20-year-old model my Mom still uses and which is, of course, no longer available.

I feel my age when I write that "they just don't make things like they used to"…but they really don't. In this age of rampant consumerism, we are buying more (and in many cases, paying more) and getting less on a daily basis. Why is that?

On another subject: One of the Smartbrief enewsletters I receive brought this article on time management to my attention. Called
"80 Ways to Steal Valuable Minutes for Your Work Day," it contains some good advice, and is worth a look.

Posted by Lori Smith on March 29, 2010 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Editorial Blog

Commentary on retailing, shopping, consumers and the gifts and tablewares industry today by G&T editor Lori Smith

March 2010 Archives

March 8, 2010

Are you ready for an exercise in idea-swapping?

March 22, 2010

The Emergence of Citizen Marketers

March 29, 2010

Why are we paying more and getting less?

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