Kevin Hillstrom: MineThatData

Some Things Don't Change

Here's the first attempt at a McDonald's Happy Meal, circa 1975.

Notice the quote "at regular prices". Eventually, there wouldn't be "regular prices". Read a Lands' End email campaign for examples. The world shifted to discounts / promotions.

Yesterday I talked about how everything changes.

Everything, that is, except for discounts and promotions.

Have you ever analyzed how different customers behave?

Customer spends $100 at 40% off for a net of $60, gross margin dollars = $25.
Customer spends $60 at full price for a net of $60, gross margin dollars = $39.

Which customer would you prefer?

You need nearly 1.6 times as many orders via discounts/promotions to equal the full-priced order in this example. That's a lot of frosting on the cake, don't you think?

One of our absolutely smart readers mentioned how there is a dynamic in business where net sales grow but profit is unchanged. This dynamic happens in inflationary times, obviously. It also happens when the marketing wonks decide to eat into every available dollar of gross margin by offering 40% or 60% off to boost response. You boost response, you harm gross margin dollars.

Some things don't change.

Times Change

Here's one. Fifteen years ago, a LinkedIn warrior touted the "power" of digital analytics. "It will render how we do things useless, we'll #measure everything ... data driven organizations will reap the rewards, leaving everybody else in the rear view mirror." I was on Twitter at the time, and his nonstop cheerleading of using Google Analytics to replace old-school channels / tactics / metrics allowed him to build himself a nice little presence online.

Here's his quote from Saturday.

"You're crazy if you fire people because AI can do their jobs. AI can do a lot of things. It cannot do jobs."

Every endeavor has its day in the sun.

In 2010, you could replace a handful of practitioners with one analyst who thoroughly knew Google Analytics ... the person of course had to have some level of business acumen (too few did), but the modern world moved old-school practitioners out, moving modern analysts in.

The modern 30 year old analyst in 2010 is now the 46 year old fossil staring AI in the face. From transformative to Luddite in just sixteen years. That's how business works. I have a 62 year old friend who led a team of four individuals. He and his staff were canned, replaced by one hapless person. The 62 year old cannot believe that all of the "value" his team created just evaporated.

My Bluesky feed revealed this little beauty.

Go read some of the DMNews archives you can find from 25 years ago. Every old-school practitioner in the book is screaming about how Amazon was likely to fail. Instead, Amazon became more powerful than most small countries, taking a huge bite out of department stores by becoming the modern department store.

And guess what? In 20 years, it will be the "Amazon-stans" who will lament whatever-comes-next. "You can't do it that way!" Of course you can.

There are still catalog professionals lamenting ecommerce. "GEN-Z HAS DIGITAL EXHAUSTION". No. No they don't. You're making up a story, refusing to yield.

Some Silicon Valley folks want "all the money". They're creating a future where white collar employment is under attack. Why do they want to pay you when they can pay a machine that they created?" And so what if that machine drains all the water out of Lake Michigan? Machines deserve water ... humans and fish?

Change is coming. As it always has. It will anger incumbents, as it always has.

You "Engaged" With This Post More Than Anything In Months!

Yeah, this one from Wednesday Night / Thursday Morning (click here).

It was "click fest", peeps!

You really liked the image below, with a whopping 20% of you clicking on it.

So, it made you think.

Now go do something about it. This stuff isn't difficult, it isn't expensive, but it is fully different than getting a soulless package of printer cartridges from Amazon.

Small Touches - Bloom Audio

I purchased an open box Fosi i5 open back planar magnetic headphone from Bloom Audio (click here). Yeah, I have an addiction.

Let's just say this thing absolutely sings. My goodness!

Want to see what came inside the package ... beyond the headphone? We'll start here.

Two other notes of interest were in the package.

A thank you note.

A description of the individual who packaged my item.

You'll give me a thousand reasons why you can't do something this simple. You'll also complain that just 31% of last year's buyers will purchase again next year.

A while back I had a client who put a ghost in outgoing packages. They inserted a card, similar to the one above, describing the personality of the ghost in the outgoing package. You'd think the paper industry would love this stuff. It's hard to ever find them talking about it, considering it's ... you know ... paper.

Do something small, something clever. What stops you from doing something small like this?

State of the Union Address

No, not that one.

If you had to deliver a State of the Union Address for ecommerce, what would your topics be? What are the successes? What are the failures you'd cover up or blame on somebody else?

Seriously ... take 5 minutes ... pencil out what you'd focus on. Take a break, then come back to the document. The document says a lot about how you view your profession.

P.S.: Read this. How does this apply to ecommerce? (hint - it should be in your State of the Union Address on ecommerce). You're not paying attention to the style of music here, you're unlikely to enjoy it. You're paying attention to how these folks generate attention and get paid. What are the parallels to your business?