Putting it Behind Us

Greetings from the IMRA Marketing Conference--200 of my closest friends have convened in the New Mexico Pueblo to share information about the zeitgeist and to see what happens next.

There is an air of uneasiness here--not overwhelming, but most definitely present. Most of it surrounds the fallout of the Coach Debacle, and the uncertainty about whether Coach is the last or just the most recent refugee from our market. The community is wondering whether other Brands may take Coach's lead and "get control of its distribution" by exiting the business.

One thing I did learn--Dooney & Bourke will NOT take the lion's share of Coach's business. They have concerns about their ability to deliver all that opportunity and they will be judicious about taking on new programs and/or accounts. Bully for them--better to say "no" than "maybe" and disappoint clients already suffering from Coach-itis.

Now that most of the dust has settled it's easier to see the damage caused by the Coach situation. The real losers in all this were the Reps, who lost a major source of income and presence with their accounts. Resellers will replace Coach with something else, participants will select some other product instead of that Coach piece. But the Reps find themselves with a void in their income stream and no immediate way to replace it.

And the prevailing sentiment is one of frustration--that Coach was less-than-forthcoming about the circumstances that led them to issue their Corporate Division the Death Penalty. That there hasn't been any "closure" about Paul Spitzberg--one day he's off to tend to a family medical issue, the next day his voicemail says he's no longer with Coach and that all questions should be addressed to his former second-in-command.

And everyone wants someone from Coach to give us the full story--everyone wants to be the person who gets the definitive interview with the principals that will give us something to hang on to about all this mess. As I've said--the market deserves the full story, but it's unlikely that we'll see it in the near term...

Oh, one more thing--when I go to Sam's Wholesale Club this June and see a Coach piece in that display case (you know the one--next to the jewelry counter), should I send a snide note to Coach wondering where THAT piece came from since they killed Special Markets to "get more control over where Coach product is sold"? Just wondering...

Some other Random Thoughts about the Conference:

• I've seen some non-traditional attendees this year--more than I recall in the past. There are more Master Distributors (or Multiple Resource Coordinators if you wish) than before. I've seen a couple of promotional marketing companies here, looking to work with reps to create and execute companion airplane offers and other non-merchandise programs. It's another example of the further splintering of the business from my view.
• Those of us who are positioning gift cards to the reseller audience have been frustrated, and nobody's exactly sure why. Those resellers that use gift cards have been happy, but there haven't been as many as we thought and/or expected. There's some concern that resellers are "afraid" of losing control with their clients--that by selling Gift Cards they will have less impact on what their clients want to use for reward and recognition programs.
• I had a long chat yesterday with someone who has always been a "forward-looker" and this person believes that Reps and Brands are too entrenched with resellers. This person postulates that by abdicating influence on the selling process (allegedly for more "feet on the street" and/or more mind-share) they lose the chance to make a compelling case for their products. Resellers are notoriously fickle, and few if any can communicate a Brand's value proposition in any real way.
• The New York Incentive Show is moving towards "sold-out" status--there is cautious optimism that this new incarnation will provide NY-area buyers with a viable show that provides education, networking, and a strong portfolio of Brands. Whether New York is the single largest target market in our market is not subject to discussion--maybe this time the format and venue will draw the crowds we all know are there.

The resilience of the business is apparent--it could have been a World Class Pity Party but instead we're hoisting our half-full glasses to figure out how to get past the Coach story and write the next chapter in our lifecycle. Hurray for us...

Pete