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Apple Store, Palo Alto, CA: newly stocked GoPro, Misfit Wearables - Shine front & center. Eye level vs everything else.
- The Retail Consumer as the "Picker"
I recently asked a Fortune 500 retail CEO visiting MIT how they’d compete against Amazon, citing Jeff Bezos’ quote on this past holiday as their best ever:
Our visited CEO added, “We don’t usually like referring to our customers as pickers, yet that’s how we think of them [in terms of costs]. Like Amazon pickers, the ones who pack the products.”
To retailers, we brick-and-mortar consumers are the transportation:
Picking items off the shelf + placing them into our shopping carts + unloading them into our cars + offloading them at home = Amazon packer of products into boxes + Amazon Prime delivery to our doorstep.Thus, retailers’ SKU mix will continue to skew towards items where they have an advantage when we are the transportation: perishables, heavy items like bottled water and pet food.
Thus, when a Quora question asked if Google Shopping Express would kill Amazon Prime, I wrote an answer that included the above, and summarized unlikelihood:
Brick-and-mortar retail is a shrinking market for Google Shopping Express - or any same-day delivery service - to deliver products from.
Amazon and digital media are eliminating whole product categories (books, movies, music, etc.) that once used to fill retail real estate. Today, few verticals are “safe” from digitalization or Amazon, e.g. perishables, pricey-to-mail heavy items (water, pet food), pharmacies.
As a Philz Coffee intern, I am personally passionate about this online-to-offline subject, as I love the physical experience, e.g. libraries we went to while growing up, or discovering cool products at Target. Yet, I’m also admittedly a loyal Amazon Prime customer.
We use advanced retail analytics, including Euclid Analytics, to track walkbys-to-conversions, OrderAhead for pre-paying that reduces line queuing, Square as an early SMB adopter, along with Facebook & Twitter social media. Philz is a location for Amazon Locker. Yet, no technology substitutes for a great product (artisanal coffee!), customer experience, and location in attracting fans to stores.)I’d love to hear what you think, either by the Quora question or in comments. Thanks!
Love Whole Food’s utilization of a brown bag’s side folds to educate customers on mushrooms. Foraging is in!
Captive audience. Free Birchbox surfing. Wonder how they targeted my gender - Gogo Inflight or cookies…
my fav Pilot G2 pen + Susan Komen Foundation.
Pilot G2 has so many partnerships, limited editions, always entices me to walk back to the pen aisle at every Target visit.
Do iPad candles in De Beers windows drive walk-bys to conversion? Luxury needs Euclid Analytics… as I stay outside hypnotized by the candle…
What China watched while we Gangnam Styled
- A case study in marketing to a billion -
- 5 million views in 33 hours.
- 177 of Greater China’s top celebrities - in 8 minutes.
- Distribution: Exclusively wireless to China Mobile’s 700M subscribers, before even state-owned CCTV television.
While the rest of world Gangnam Styled, Mainland Chinese were dancing, multi-language parodying, and just last month, kids-versioning a Jackie Chan-produced, Mandarin-language “Best Wishes from Beijing (北京祝福你)”.
On July 22, 2012, China Mobile exclusively debuted Beijing’s Official Song for the London Olympics to its 700 million subscribers - breaking 5 million hits in 33 hours. While hits are low on YouTube, views are at minimum millions across the fragmented YouTubes of China (Baidu, Sohu, YouKu/Tudou, etc.), not to mention endless CCTV replays.
With 177 China, Hong Kong & Taiwan celebrities squeezed into 8 minutes, “pretty much anyone you want/need to know" in Chinese entertainment is represented. Jackie Chan looped in his friends, including actress Zhang Ziyi, pianist Lang Lang, and Miss World China Zhang Zilin. If only U.S. tourism videos looked this palatable!
Five marketing takeaways:
1. Backwards Compatibility … a.k.a. Remix:
No fixin’ records when it ain’t broken. The title of the Beijing Olympic’s persistant “Beijing Welcomes You (北京欢迎你)” official song was
copiedremixed into this “sister” song.Same words, different tune. One more phrase, “Best Wishes from Beijing (北京祝福你)”, added as the title hook. Easy, patriotic words for citizens to repeat. Genius.
2. Mobilization:
No expenses were spared for the 177 celebs, some clearly green screened in front of pristine national monuments. Yet, with our US political parties and record labels, it’d be a miracle to mobilize even half that number - edited in or not.
3. Forwards compatibility - for generations:
Just last month, 23 child stars joined world-renown pianist Lang Lang to record a children’s version and “mobilize youth around the country to learn the song”.
The Chinese government has integrated the song into its efforts to promote youth to listen to classical music. If American children did the same joining forces with our performing artists, we too could inspire new generations - from young ones themselves.
4. Simplify for distribution:
140 Chinese characters in the whole song … repeated 5X. One exclusive launch partner: China Mobile’s 700 million wireless subscribers at the same time - even before stars sang it on state-owned CCTV.
5. Values:
The Great Wall I expected. Celebs turning shopping malls, libraries, even villa homes into a music video runway were a surprise. The middle class remains aspirational to most of China’s populace - to the point of being tourism music video worthy.
___
Few ever face the challenge of marketing to a billion (other than Facebook). Actions taken by the Chinese government perhaps present the best lessons in themselves: innovative, creative, genius.
What other country creates a music video - four years after it hosts the Olympics - to send wishes to the other country (note: the words London aren’t mentioned at all), while showcasing the strength of its own?
While with much more to go, I’m proud of how far Beijing has become since my first visit at age 12. This music video is just one of many fascinating examples.
Too good to be lost in translation.
Bookspotting @ Philz Coffee, University Ave
My mentor’s beautiful iiii n 4S book in commemoration of Steve Jobs:
Free preview & purchase at Blurb: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2596795
As Guy Kawasaki posted on Google+ about the book, “Profits from the book go to College Track, the non-profit co-founded by Jobs’s wife, Laurene Powell, and to the The V Foundation for Cancer Research.”
Thanks to Jacob, the awesome president of Philz Coffee, for the prime display!
My brilliant Xoogler designer friend Josh To’s holiday postcard.
Incubator/accelerator hasn’t even been built, yet it looks inspiring.
Update: Hattery Labs is one of General Assembly San Francisco’s two homes! Congrats to Josh & team - well-deserved!
<p>"To be beautiful, one must be confidence. To have confidence, one must have intellect. Then, beauty is power."</p> <p>-Yue-Sai Kan (靳羽西), who introduced makeup to China.</p>
Built China’s first cosmetics company YSK, sold it to L’Oréal, now a UNICEF Ambassador who’s training Miss Chinas to someday win Miss Universe & use their power to convince China’s new millionaires to donate. She’s the 1st American on a Chinese stamp, dubbed People’s “Most Famous Woman in China”.
Shared via my dad in tonight’s call…words of wisdom wrapped in a subtle hint to study up!
Tencent “Facebook of China” recruits at #MITSloan on day it launches Tencent Weibo (Twitter equivalent) in English.
Microblogging towards China’s freedom of info: Tencent Weibo & Twitter both have 300M users, yet 50% are monthly active on http://t.qq.com vs. 33% of Twitter’s users.
Slide is blurry (awaiting iPhone4S), yet it says:
- Innovation: Features much richer than Twitter; Celebrity-driven media impact
- Transforming Media & SNS landscape: New way of social networking, additional social graph
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Tweets
- "Alibaba employees who can't attract >100 followers by Nov. won't get bonus" -Alibaba CEO Jack Ma on chat app Laiwang http://t.co/hvSqrtOhfNOct 25, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- RT @gyalif: Conquesting on Twitter like paid search. Smart. "Every Apple Competitor Bought Twitter Ads for iPad Reveal" http://t.co/PkUsKKx…
- RT @janamal: And we call it ... iPad Air https://t.co/feDPHVlpdO
- RT @stilenius: Jack Dorsey's fantastic Do's and Dont's List for daily life, presented to entrepreneurs at Y Combinator @jack http://t.co/Ev…
- RT @hmikitani_e: Social commerce can bring personable merchants together with their customers. Here's how: http://t.co/KcRqqheQcp
- RT @coindesk: "Bitcoin reaches 60+ countries that are currently ignored by VISA, Mastercard, and PayPal." - Jon Matonis @jonmatonis http://…
- "We’re transitioning from links to answers" -@nikesharora on Google's localized product listing ads http://t.co/0TzUmag3Q2Oct 18, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- RT @chrisriedy: Times are changing with respect to measurement, attribution, and ROI >> another great article by @ameet https://t.co/6V1UOn…
- RT @pkafka: Larry Page to Wall Street: You should be begging me to spend even more money on big crazy bets.
- RT @alexia: Behind the VC numbers: Higher prices, less control http://t.co/QiOmoJuc19
- RT @JoshConstine: Relentless money printing machine Google beats the street in Q3 2013 with $14.89B in revenue, net income of $2.97B http:/…
- RT @Oberndorfer: San Francisco Union Square Shutdown - Also, Sunday's Nike Women's Marathon!Storify by @ZackStieber http://t.co/YwFibCeNTT
- RT @petersellis: Don't look now, but @lefkofsky and co. have $GRPN up 300%+ from last fall's bottom and up to almost $8B market cap.
- RT @JuroOsawa: How is Alibaba different from Amazon and eBay? How is it similar to Google? http://t.co/IgWpexQorT
- RT @BlaqSwans: [Fact] In the US in 2012, Starbucks took $3 Billion in deposits on their in-store card: that's more than 95% of the FDIC ins…
- RT @stilenius: My thoughts on the new marketplace model http://t.co/iMgjPqR0XP
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Info
- Experience
- Jun 2013 - PresentCommerce Partnerships / Twitter
Developing Twitter's commerce & partnerships strategy.
- Sept 2012 - May 2013Digital Ventures Intern / Philz Coffee
Special Assistant to the CEO. Led pilot partnerships (Facebook Social Wi-Fi, Square) & analytics (Euclid Analytics) to optimize the retail customer experience. Built Pinterest presence.
- Oct 2011 - May 2013Venture Fellow / .406 Ventures
Sourced & evaluated startups for early-stage VC focused on enterprise, big data, cloud.
- May 2012 - Aug 2012Business Development MBA Intern / Klout
Focused on mobile retail partnerships & gaming market analysis.
- Mar 2011 - Dec 2011Business Development Manager / Corona Labs
Led partnership with Amazon (Appstore, Kindle, Amazon.com gateway homepage) for Corona SDK's 200K+ apps across iOS & Android.
- Jun 2007 - Jul 2011Non-Profit Fellow, LIFT Co-Founder / HandsOn Bay Area
Co-founded Leadership Institute Fellowship Team (LIFT), now in its sixth year: http://www.handsonbayarea.org/LIFT .
- Sept 2008 - Mar 2011Management Consultant / Accenture
Clients: PayPal Mobile (wallet/loyalty strategy), Korean carrier's venture arm (social gaming), Pfizer (multi-channel digital strategy), Stanford Hospital (customer experience strategy).
- Apr 2006 - Sept 2008Analyst / Accenture
Founding team, Accenture Interactive. Sole Analyst on firm's new digital strategy business.
Clients: eBay (eBayPartnerNetwork.com affiliate ad product launch team), Microsoft (OfficeLive.com monetization strategy), HP.com (e-commerce strategy).
- Jul 2004 - Dec 2004IBM Scholars Intern / IBM Global Business Services
Six-month rotational internship with IBM Global Consulting and Services.
- May 2003 - Aug 2003Marketing Analyst, HP.com / Hewlett-Packard
Rehired by HP.com's Worldwide Marketing Team in Summer 2000, 2001, 2003.
Education-
2011 - 2013MIT Sloan School of Management
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
