Tag Archives: Advertising and Marketing

August 10, 2018 · 4:04 pm

Blockheaded?

This Foodie Friday we’re going to have a think about blockchain. If you’re thinking that “food” and “blockchain” don’t relate as well as, say, peanut butter and jelly, apparently you’re underinformed.

If you’re unfamiliar with blockchain, you probably ought to do something to learn about it since it’s weaving its way into everything these days. Basically, it’s a list of records called blocks which are linked to one another cryptographically in a publicly available ledger. It makes tracking things easy and it’s an extremely secure method for doing so.

Applying blockchain to food is happening. Think about a chicken you find at the market. What if you could scan the package and know everything about the contents? When the bird was born and where, what its diet was, if it’s GMO-free, etc., when and where it was processed, packed and shipped, ad infinitum. Cool, right? It’s also possible with food that routinely gets mislabeled as something else: fish. It makes everything traceable, which is a big help with respect to food safety.

I see two issues. One is the cost. Think about what’s happened in digital advertising. We’ve layered on technology to buy and sell ads and at the same time, we’ve added a huge layer of cost. Blockchain in the food area won’t be cheap, I’m sure. We’ve also made the entire industry less transparent, and while blockchain is just arriving in the ad world, it points to the fact that there are a lot of bad actors out there.

This points to the bigger issue which is an old, familiar one: GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. Who is to say that the information in the system is accurate? The data may say one thing while the truth might be quite different. Criminals will learn how to cheat the blockchain just as they have learned how to game the ad business out of billions of dollars every year. While we will be able to trace food we won’t be able to tell if it’s been adulterated without a robust system of inspection.

Do I think this technology belongs in the food business? Probably – the benefits of things such as pinpointing shelf-life or finding the sources of bacterial outbreaks quickly are huge. I guess I wonder about the cost – at what price will this all happen? Will the benefits only accrue to those who can afford to pay for the food that’s blockchain certified? What do you think?

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July 16, 2018 · 4:13 pm

Building A Disaster

Have you heard about the Build-A-Bear fiasco? Build-A-Bear Workshop declared last Thursday “Pay Your Age Day.” Customers could come in and build a bear at its workshops across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. for the price of their age rather than the $50+ it normally costs. Not a bad deal if you’re an 8-year-old or even a 35-year-old parent. The response was overwhelming, with mile-long lines in some places. According to The Washington Post, some waits were seven hours long.

It’s great that there is a large, enthusiastic audience wanting to build these bears, but that’s about the only ray of sunshine here. Some stores gave customers who were turned away a $15 voucher. As a parent, I can tell you that the voucher does little to placate a disappointed child. They were counting on a new furry friend. Many of the ones turned away were members of their Bonus Club, a frequent buyer program, already and others had to join to get the discount. In other words, their best customers. Yikes!

The CEO went on TV and said: “There was no way for us to have estimated the kind of impact, those kind of crowds.” He added, “We did put a notice out for people that we thought the lines could be long, and we worked with the malls, but it was beyond anything we could’ve ever imagined.”

That’s the point for any of us who run promotions. You need to imagine what an overwhelming response will do to your operation. In this case, maybe they should have had people sign up to take advantage of the promotion in advance (and get their emails as a bonus) to get places in the line, much as one does at a concert to get in “the pit”. Maybe extend the promotion for a few days to let those people into the store at predetermined times. Heck, maybe take space in unrented stores in the mall and add capacity. Be creative, consider lifetime customer value, and spend what you need to in order to prevent a disaster.

No good deed may go unpunished and companies that disappoint their best customers rarely go unpunished as well. You with me?

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July 13, 2018 · 1:01 pm

Bad Boys And Brands

Happy Foodie Friday! There’s been a food-related story making the headlines this week and I think it reflects something that can be useful to any of us in business. The founder and chairman of Papa Johns Pizza had to step down this week after he admitted to using the N-word in a company conference call. It has sparked a public relations crisis and it’s not the first one his actions have caused. You might remember that he also weighed in on the controversy surrounding NFL players and their kneeling during the national anthem. While he certainly wasn’t the first sponsor to criticize a league, doing so over an issue that went way beyond the league itself resulted in a public relations issue for the brand.

While I’ve never been a fan of Papa John’s pizza, his bad behavior made me all the more certain I’d never eat it again. One person whose food I am a fan of is Mario Batali. Even so, I’ll not be going to any restaurant associated with him. His bad behavior caused him to “step back” from his restaurant empire following the first public allegations of sexual misconduct. That was followed up by a 60 Minutes story. Even so, he hadn’t completely divested himself of a financial interest, and that certainly affected the brand, so much so that three of his restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip are set to close even though they were doing well.  The local partner in these restaurants, Las Vegas Sands Corp., decided to end the relationship with Batali’s organization.

Why do I bring this up? Because every one of us in business is a celebrity on some level. We might be nationally known or maybe it’s just our customers, partners or employees who consider us famous. Our actions can enhance or damage our personal and corporate brands every day and we need to remember that no incident remains quiet or hidden for very long. Nearly every person is holding a camera and a video recorder in their hands and bad behavior rarely goes unnoticed or unpublicized.

There was a restaurant I patronized on a regular basis. The food was OK if unextraordinary, the prices were reasonable but the owner was a great guy. I loved spending a little while with him every time I went and I kept going back because he took great care of me as well as did good things in our community. We are our brands, and how we act can damage that brand as badly as a misplaced ad or a faulty product. Enjoy your weekend!

 

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