The brave new world?
...and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. Revelation 6: 7-8
Well, it's not exactly THAT dire, but there are some strange signs out there:
- A Fortune 50 company just gave its employee recognition program to...a promotional products distributor. Why? Because this distributor offered the client the Amazon platform instead of the one that had been used for the past 15 years.
- A major youth organization, which had been using merchandise to incent their young people for 50 years, now will use...WalMart Gift Cards.
Wowzer. The first instance is truly bizarre because the PP distributor in question had no prior experience selling recognition programs to Fortune 50 clients. The second one is strange because it seems odd to give 9 and 10 year-old kids gift cards instead of something they can use.
I'm not sure how to read either one. Maybe they're just individual situations--one-offs that are not indicative of any larger trends. Or maybe--just maybe--they are showing us that the structures we've been working with for the past 20 years are showing signs of age.
I feel sometimes like I'm in a comic book--where there are Bizarro Universes out there where the rules of the "normal" universe don't apply. Where "up" is "down", "normal" is "unusual" and what I can always rely on doesn't seem to be as reliable.
And it's dangerous--really dangerous--to take selected events and extrapolate them out of context. Maybe the Fortune 50 client just wanted an "Amazon experience". Maybe the youth group had exhausted all the options for "stuff" at the pricepoints they use. Maybe.
But I think it's necessary, even mandatory, to keep tabs on these events. What might be considered an "outlier" may be the harbinger of the Next Big Trend.
They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
God, let's hope not...
Pete
posted by Pete Mitchell at 10:12 PM
1 Comments:
Lots of these examples out there --merchandise has been endangered for years: first there were Maritz EY points - several companies that used to use merchandise now find it easier to buy relatively expensive EY points and let the recipient choose how to spend them (in a filtered environment that can still benefit the manufacturer and the lucky Maritz rep).
Then there was the gift card (as the real world goes, so goes Special markets...kids love gift cards). While the novelty has pretty much worn off, there are instances where a gift card makes sense and (God help me), I've both used and sold gift cards where appropriate - and it's possible to make a rep-like profit on them if you roll it into a complete program and pair it with a merchandise carrier.
Now there is the Amazon.com platform - there are companies within our industry trying to match or compete with this, but the reality is that the system is appealing -- all the choices in the world. To your point - that dilutes involvement of all of the suppliers, making it less attractive unless the volume is extreme (and forget the rep - no easy way to track where that order came from or who sold what). And if we're going to offer all the choices in the world - why not cash? Cash buys everything.
More than keeping tabs on this stuff, we should be having animated conversations as to what to do about it. Exactly what is it about Amazon that appeals to the customer (price or perceived low price? ease of administration? choice? the experience: Amazon learns what I like?)? And, whether the "enemy" is Amazon or the next best thing, what can we do about it? How do we develop programs or tactics to sell against it? Do we need to find different markets that DO still find value in merchandise? If we can't beat them, can we figure out how to join them?
Sounds like a conference session to me....
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