Just about everyday, or at least every month, yet another 100+ store retailer seems to go out of business. In the last couple of weeks two stores I've never visited, Joann's, which had 800 stores in 49 states, and Forever 21, which had 540 stores went belly-up.
Not to mention another agency. Usually one that's just won agency of the year, though it's lost 30-percent of its business and fired 52-percent of its people.
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If you look at this Wikipedia site, (assuming your memory is all out of memory) you'll find a list of literally hundreds of stores from your past. They used to anchor malls across the country. Now they're liquidated and no more.
During my long years in the ad business, I only worked on two fast-food chains. And I never worked on a giant retail brand--though I spent two early years working for Bloomingdale's in-house advertising on the 11th Floor, way above the selling floors. There, I wrote ten ads a week, usually with scintillating headlines like "Save 30%-40% on plush cotton towels."
As for fast-food, I worked intermittently on Dunkin' Donuts and even more sporadically on Rax Roast Beef restaurants. While I did a brand commercial or two for Dunkin' (I helped introduce their low-fat muffins) most of what we did were :15s that filled a donut in a brand spot. "Now that we've made an airtight case for Dunkin' Donuts world-famous coffee, get this airtight case to
keep it in."
Yippee.
If you go to the Wikipedia list above, I'd argue that just about all those retailers, and about one-thousand more I haven't included, did everything everyone said they were supposed to do.
They followed best-practices.
They had door-buster sales. Then door-buster savings events. Then door-buster BOGO hamentaschen-day savings events. They cut costs. They hired salespeople who barely sold and were even less likely people.
In store, the merch looked like shit, you couldn't find out the difference between X and Y and you left feeling like you spent a lot of time for a lot of plasticine junk.
I'm tired of Kohls in my stockings.
Today in the world, especially the marketing LinkedIn world, you hear all kinds of bushwa about brand and experience. It seems half the people in the industry are user experience people.
But try to find something in a store (or online) that is from out of the top 20 SKUs. You can't.
My wife often sends me to the 75-store grocery chain up here on the Gingham Coast. They claim to be A) "A world-class market." And B) "Family-owned." And C) Un-staffed.
I can do the entire 100-item shopping list in about 12 minutes. It takes me an hour to find the green lentils my wife needs. And there's never anyone to ask. Or to even ask when I check out if I've found everything I needed.
My sense is that almost every business in every vertical operates in the same manner. From the giant 40-brand hotel conglomerates (Like IHG or Marriott) to airlines to telcos to ISPs to Banks to Advertising Holding Companies.
Once you get past their purportedly door-busting prices, there's no brand in their brand.
There's only cheap. And purportedly efficient.
As efficient as moldering ever is.
And in case you haven't checked lately, efficient never is. Staffing is so lean, if one person in any store, bank, agency or what not takes a bathroom break or calls in sick, the whole "streamlined" operating goes up in cheap Chinese smoke.
This is all to say simply that under the guise of "best practices," thousands of companies have gone under. They provide low-prices but the cost of those low prices is too high.
That's the agency business, too. No one knows the clients' needs, the agency's capabilities, or even how to answer a brief, much less a question or a need. No one even uses the clients' products, spends time with engineers, or visits the factory.
None of that fits on a best-practices timesheet calculus.
Best practices are usually the worst thing you can follow.
Lemming me your ears.
But follow we must.
Into the Abyss.
