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Over the past 50 years in the shoe trade, I have had my fair share of failure. The biggest lesson I learned, at the start of my career, is not to devote time and energy to a business or project that has little chance of success. This might sound obvious, however sometimes you are so involved in the detail of the day to day running of the business that you dont stand back and question the future viability of what you are doing. I was a womens shoe manufacturer in London in the 1980s. If I had looked at the big picture I would have seen that the future of manufacturing in the U.K. for low technology, high labor content businesses like footwear manufacturing, was unsustainable. Most of the production was moving to Asia where costs were much lower and the quality was excellent. It took a visit to Taiwan to see the same shoes being made at half the price that it was costing us in our London factory to persuade me to leave manufacturing and become an importer. My lesson is to respond quickly and try and anticipate change. Pressure on middlemen Another example is from the 2000s. I was a successful importer from Asia, a business I set up in 1986 called Browning Enterprises. It had a turnover of 60m. As communications improved and markets opened, more Chinese manufacturers and trading companies came directly to the major U.K. retailers, putting pressure on the margins of the middlemen, like me. Our costs were too high. We couldnt compete. The import company struggled on till 2009. It was the decline in the importing business and the desire to start my own brand that led to me to launch Dune in 1992. Temper your optimism Another failure was opening unprofitable stores. This is an expensive mistake as the 400k investment is written off when the store is closed. The failure is usually due to overestimating the level of sales. The costs of a new store are easily calculated. The big variable, that is largely a matter of judgement, is the sales number. Of course you do your due diligence by looking at footfall figures, studying demographics, and talking to adjacent stores to try and judge their performance. Finally, you come to a sales number. The lesson is to be cautious about the level of sales. Look carefully at the possible downsides. As an entrepreneur your natural tendency is to be optimistic. You must temper this optimism. Resist the temptation to open the shop because you want to grow. It has got to make commercial sense. As an entrepreneur it is easy to get distracted and sidetracked into ventures that are not related to your area of expertise. This loss of focus can be damaging, as not only is there a high probability that the new venture is unprofitable and you will lose money, but it also takes your attention away from your main activity. Not special My career has been in fashion footwear. Thats what I know. However, during the pandemic, I launched a sustainable trainer brand. I felt that was where the growth was in footwear, so thats where I needed to be. It was a failure. Why? Two reasons. Firstly, it wasnt special enough. It was a good, well-made sustainable product but in a crowded market it didnt have an important point of difference that would make it stand out. Secondly, we didnt go out and aggressively sell the product. I thought I would generate the online sales through the website. This was a mistake. We needed to sell wholesale as well, not only to generate sales but to get the brand out there in the market. There are two important lessons for entrepreneurs here. One: Dont underestimate the marketing cost of selling a new brand online. Two: You may have a great product, but it is essential that you get out there and sell. It is no coincidence that over the years the sales team has been the highest earners in the business. Avoid distraction We launched a range of childrens shoes. This was related to our main activity, but as we found to our cost, the market is very different from adults shoes. As we didnt have the space in our stores to offer the range we focussed on online and wholesale. Selling a new brand of childrens shoes online was more difficult than we anticipated. Mothers like to buy their kids shoes in a physical store. In addition, the market was polarized between the established heritage brands, Clarks and Startrite, and the large stores like Next, Marks & Spencer, and Zara, who were offering similar shoes at lower prices. The lesson is clear. Resist the temptation to get distracted unless you are very confident that the new venture is financially compelling. The right team Finally, having the right team in place is essential. As an entrepreneur there is a danger that you are reluctant to give up control. It is essential to recognize the limitations of your abilities and hire a team that can do things better than you. The importance of building the right team came into sharp focus in 2009 when we acquired a company called Shoe Studio and trebled our size. A year after the acquisition we started to struggle. Our profits fell. We didnt have the management expertise to run a larger business. My skills and time were being stretched to the limit. We employed a first-class FD and a team of senior experienced retailers which transformed the business. It is a well-known expression that you learn more from your failures than your successes. That is certainly my experience. And if the project is failing, then fail fast.
Category:
E-Commerce
I love FM radio. Its okay: You can call me a Luddite. My alarm clock is the local public radio station. I love toggling between a few music stations while driving, or even while reading at home. And during a road trip, theres nothing quite like discovering a community station with random locals curating their own playlistsit gives you a sense of where you are that no Spotify playlist can match. The problem: Its hard to know what stations exist locally, even in your own town but particularly while on a road trip. You can explore the dial, which has a certain serendipity, but what if you just want to . . . know? And be able to tune in with or without an actual traditional radio in front of you? This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures! Old-school listening with a modern twist This exact problem is why I like Radio Locator. Its a free website that lets you enter any city or zip code and find all the terrestrial stations that are available for that area. Itll show you a list of every FM and AM station in any U.S. city or zip code. You can also browse international radio stations by country. And it all takes just a few seconds to do. The Radio Locator site is free and as simple as can be. This is a rare service that isnt cluttered with ads or upselling. Just open the site, type a place, and youll see a list. Stations are sorted by frequency, but youll also see the call sign, the distance to the tower, and what format of radio station is offered. (Im personally always looking for public radio or alternative stations, but you can figure out what you want for yourself.) You can find info about all sorts of stations, in any geographical area. Of course, all of this only applies if youve got an actual-factual FM radio on your hands. What if youre more of a computer-and-phone kind of person? Easy: Just click through on any of the stations on Radio Locator, and theyll generally take you to a website where you can stream the station. Or, if you prefer a dedicated tool for the job, theres Streema. Its a free site that makes it easy to search for and stream just about any radio station imaginable, anywhere in the world. A few stations redirect to websitesbest I can tell for legal reasonsbut the overwhelming majority of the time, you can just search for a website and start listening. Streema makes most on-demand radio listening a swift click or tap away. Either way, you can find and listen to old-fashioned radio stations anytime. Again: I recommend finding public and community stations, as those tend not to have ads, but take the time to explore. Its nice to get away from the algorithm sometimes. You can open Radio Locator and Streema directly in your web browser on any device. Streema also offers an app called Simple Radio for both Android and iOS, if youd rather go that route. Radio Locator and Streema are both free in the browser. Simple Radio is free with on-screen ads or you can get an ad-free version for $6 a month. Neither site requires a login or any real personal data, but you can opt to share your locationif you want. Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.
Category:
E-Commerce
When OpenAI launched its text-to-video app Sora in September, there was immediate blowback. To absolutely no one’s surprise, users on the platform had a field day using popular characters in their AI-generated videos, in all sorts ofadmittedly creative!situations. (See OpenAI founder Sam Altman grilling Nintendo’s Pikachu.) Brands condemned the use of their intellectual property without permission. The Motion Picture Academy called out OpenAI for its blatant copyright violations. Soon after launch, Altman wrote a blog post addressing the issue, stating that Sora would give rightsholders “more granular control” of their IP on the app, adding that in the near future he expected that plenty of brands and content makers would actually welcome the chance to have their characters on the app. He called it a new form of “interactive fan fiction.” Well, that day is here. According to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI has opened the floodgates and is now in talks with brands about how they can bring their mascots and characters into the app for users to feature in videos. Its obvious why OpenAI wants brands to free their mascots. People would love to play in that sandbox with well-known characters. Hell, theyre already doing it. But, um, what’s in it for the brands? Most brands are still trying to figure out what their mascot stance on Sora will be. I reached out to McDonald’s, Geico, KFC, and General Mills but none were ready to comment about it on the record. This is a newer, more urgent version of a conversation brands have been having for the past 15 years. In the age of social media, how much creative control should a brand cede to its audience? Now the stakes are even higher, given the pace of technological advancement, the public’s appetite to get AI sloppy, and our inability to distinguish between what’s real and what isn’t. Sharing the pen For what seems like centuries, the conversation between brands and everyone else was a one-way street. Advertising flashed in our eyes and blasted in our ears, and that was that. With social media, a two-way conversation began. The mantra among marketers circa 2008 was to get involved in the social conversation because people are talking about your brand whether youre there or not. In the past few years, that has evolved even further to brands actually collaborating with fans and creators. Morgan Flatley, McDonalds global chief marketing officer, calls this sharing the pen. Historically, most brands are nervous or overprotective when they arent in full control of the creative. McDonalds was prime among them, vigilantly protecting its IP. In 2013, it won a federal case on trademark infringement in Canada against a dim sum restaurant called MacDimsum. In 2019, it sent a cease-and-desist order to a small Edmonton restaurant serving an “Effing Filet O’ Fish.” But the success of Famous Orders, a campaign launched in 2020 where it began regularly partnering with artists to customize meals and create merch, changed things. Allowing artists like Travis Scott, BTS, and Cactus Plant Flea Market to play with its brand logos and characters, and the passionate response from fansalong with the sold-out merch and boosted salesgave Flatley and the brand more confidence to loosen the reins. The win for McDonalds was in reflecting its role in culture (the artists are genuine fans) while creating something new. Ive become a big believer that if we lean into the right kind of creators in the right cultural phenomenon, and loosen some of our control on the brand, magic will happen, Flatley told me back in 2023 when we talked about the brands partnership with Marvel. A few years ago, I dont know that we would have felt as comfortable handing over key aspects of our brand to be part of a storyline like this, but today were really aware of the authenticity of our brand and the role that it can play. Alyson Griffin, State Farms head of marketing, told me recently that the key to a successful partnership with creators is to be prepared to give up some control. Brand leaders must do their due diligence and vet any potential partner, but then they must let them cook. If you know you have the right person, because you vetted them to your brand needs, let them be them, Griffin said. Let them create, because then it looks and is authentic. According to marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower, Sora was downloaded 3.8 million times in the U.S. in its first month, despite only being available on iOS with an invite code. It was the No. 4 app in the U.S. over that same time. In a world where brands and marketers are looking for any and every opportunity to gain our attention, the temptation here is clear. Handing over your brand IP to the Sora 2 slop factory, however, is a recipe for disaster. Character chaos Brand mascots have been a staple of advertising for more than 100 years. They’re used to hawk everything from kids cereal to batteries, cigarettes to insurance, and they continue to be a valuable way for brands to forge an emotional connection with people. Take the insurance industry, which has a huge roster of mascots that ai to make their brands more relatable: Jake from State Farm, the Geico gecko, Flo from Progressive, Mayhem for Allstate, Liberty Mutuals LiMu Emu (and Doug), and the Aflac Duck. A 2021 study reported that a long-term campaign featuring a recurring character will, on average, increase market share gain by 41%. The Grimace Shake helped McDonalds boost U.S. sales by 10.3% in 2023. When I was in journalism school 20 years ago, we got an assignment to practice whats called a survey article. Basically, you pick a topic and go ask a bunch of people the same question, then see what story angle emerges from their answer. I chose to visit as many tattoo artists as I could in an afternoon and ask them all Whats the craziest tattoo youve ever done? Ill never forget the clear winner. When I asked the question, this artists eyes lit up, and he rushed to find a specific binder on his shelf. He frantically flipped through the photos and flash designs until he found it. There! He pointed to a photo of a mans meaty calf featuring a very detailed and anatomically correct depiction of all the characters from Winnie-the-Pooh on a picnic blankethaving an orgy. That story taught me that some people will do anything for attention (and that I would never sing the Tigger song ever, ever again). Now that’s playing out in real time on Sora, with the app granting anyone’s weirdest visual wish. Remember the public discourse when M&Ms talked about making the green M&M less sexy? If Mars put its beloved characters on Sora 2, the brand is one quick prompt away from someone making Behind the Green (M&M) Door. You think that Duolingo owl is weird now? Just wait. Kevin Mulroy, founding partner and ECD at award-winning ad agency Mischief, says the upside for brands to surrender rights to their IP on Sora is still unclear. Without much narrative control, and no clear link back to a strategy, it’s highly unlikely everyday people are going to use these mascots in the way these brands intend, he says. Strategy vs. Slop The risk here is not just about brand mascots appearing in questionable content. Its also the trade-off between the idea of facilitating peoples creativity versus brands being complicit in the sloppification of culture by allowing their mascots to be used on Sora. Prediction market Kalshi made a viral splash during last springs NBA playoffs with an absolutely hilarious and unhinged AI-generated spot (see above) that cost just $2,000 to make. Then in September, Jake Paul tricked folks with AI videos of himself in strange situations, later revealing that it was all a marketing stunt for Sora 2 (the spot attracted about 1 billion views in six days). Whenever new tech hits the market, the initial stunts get a ton of attention as these illustrate. But then what? “No doubt whichever brands are first to experiment will benefit from a bump in cultural awareness, as we’ve seen with Jake Paul’s likeness, Mulroy admits. But at what cost? In a world where it has never been easier for a brand to say something, the true value is in figuring out what it is the brand should say. The latter won’t come from rogue AI content.” Eventually every marketer will have to decide the value exchange in joining the Sora party. As Mulroy says, the key is making sure theres an actual strategy behind it. If not, all that mascots brand value could end up getting f***ked on a picnic blanket.
Category:
E-Commerce
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