Clix v. Brix. Cord Cutters. Anything else? Much. However, I will focus on the two above.
Years ago,
my great, great grandfather was in the custom-made, upscale buggy whip
business. (Not really. This is merely a
fictive device to introduce the metaphor.)
Pap-pap was known behind his back as Slimviews. A play on words using
his name.
As time
moved forward, the motor-car appeared.
And the market for custom-made, upscale buggy whips began to
whither. Well, Pap-pap knew he had to do
something. He called a meeting of all
his managers to announce that the industry was in jeopardy. That he had to move with the times.
“I went out
and invested in some knew equipment. As
much as I am loathe to do it, I am going into mass-production buggy whips. And once we cut the cost of the buggy whip,
folks’ll flock back into the donkey-wagon showrooms and we’ll do a booming
business. Besides, the motor-car is just
a passing fad. A noisy smelly toy for
the rich. It’ll never replace the horse.”
The rest is
history. And now you know why I have to
work for a living. But I digress.
The reason
why I bring this up is because so many people, experts, are unable to see the
writing on the wall. The Facebook wall.
And the real irony is that they know what’s coming. They talk about it constantly. And still get
it wrong.
We know mall
traffic is off. We know the millennials are spending their money on “eating out
and gadgets”.
We hear people discussing
repurposing the anchor store real estate footprint.
And we hear about millennials moving to their
I-phones, and apps, and on-line shopping (e-tailing),
and the growth of Amazon, Fed-Ex, UPS, drones, and the like.
And we hear about cord-cutting. Recently some cable company or other
announced that they will be making “the full season” of some shows or others”
available on streaming media.
Still, we
are not fully attuned to the changes that are happening even as we are
switching over to mass-market buggy whips to propel our donkey-wagons.
These are
some of the reasons I wrote:
Herein lie a
few insights.
E-tailing is
a clever word that hipsters (people my age who try to act hip) have coined to
show they are tuned into what's happening. Yeah, okay. Meanwhile, more
people are buying online and the increase will continue. In fact, the
increase may accelerate. What does this mean?
·
Lower return on
investment in brick and mortar stores
·
Less Mall Traffic
·
More difficulty
for the Advertising Industry to reach increasingly larger demographics
The decline in Brick & Mortar retail means Less Money to go around among:
· The Construction Industry
· The Mortgage Finance Industry
· Real Estate Tax Revenue Industry
· Youth Employment Industry
· Commercial Industry Suppliers
· Mall Owners
· The Secondary Retail Market served by
The Multiplier Effect.
And so one.
Mad Men: Ad Men or Sad Men?
The single
most read article on my blogs, all time, is
Indeed, this may have
much to do with the popular TV series. However, the article was an insight into
how a potentially great commercial can be defeated by a small detail.
More recently, the media has been refocused on three of its own major concerns.
Paradigm shifting, industry altering concerns.
First:
The buying and selling commercial time is shifting. This is a
major concern to those in the advertising industry.
Second: The consumer relationship with media
is changing.
Third: The change in television commercials themselves. Some of which may be
tied to MTV.
The Last Minute Scramble
In the
first, people within the industries will renegotiate their relationship.
However, the over-riding factor is the audience.
Too many
questions are being asked. Too many studies are being done. And little
will change. Well, little will change until change verges on too late and then
there will be the last minute scramble. How do I know? Well,
First: because too many questions are being
asked.
Second: because too many studies are being
done, and
Third: because this is the way it always
is.
Why? I
shall not be coy. Because an Industry within an Industry has been
created. We have
Market segmentation: Young People, Old People,
Rich People, Poor People, and so on.
Transmission Segmentation: Television, Cable, Dish,
Internet, i-Phone, i-Pad, et. al. Facebook, Nextflix, and so on.
And, to add
to the problem,
A Legal Donnybrook is about to break out over
retransmitting the signal over the Internet. Op. Cit. Cable and streaming.
Eventually,
everything will balance out. Right now, it's
Mob Technology.
We've become so charmed with our ability
to discuss the matters at hand that we've lost touch with some of the basics.
Brick and Mortar stores can go with
the flow.
They can
become hands on catalogues with a drop-shipping paradigm. (I wrote this 31 January 2013. No one said a
word. William Lauder said it to Becky
Quick on Squawk Box on 11 December 2015. “Amazon catalogue stores with the top
1.000 selling products.” Irony. I bet no one will heed his admonition
either.)
Old Malls can become New Cities:
Read the
Articles.
The Mall as
New City.
Who Moved
the Store
Co-opt the MTV Model:
Ad Revenues
& the Media
Right now,
Retail and Advertising must join together to resurrect Marketing.
Remember Marketing? And they must include the Media.
From the
Definitions of Slim Fairview:
“Find a need and fill it”.
“Find a need and fill it”.
You don't
convince the consumer to buy what you want to sell. You sell what the consumer
wants to buy. Op. cit. JCP.
Best of
Luck. And if you find anything here to be helpful, please don’t hesitate to
send me a really tricked out MacPro or I-Pad and to tuck a few dollars into the
envelope along with the thank you note.
Warmest
regards,
Slim
Copyright
© 2016 Bob Asken
All
rights reserved.
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