Behold the turtle...

So I'm reading this article about Las Vegas and how it's attempting to remake itself (again).  This time it's taking some of the Sin out of Sin City and trying to become a nightlife capital (as if it wasn't already).  They're investing in celebrity DJs and opening clubs all over town that charge you $30 to get in and thousands to get a table close to the DJ.

But that wasn't what caught my eye.  It was further down in the story, a part about how the CEO of Zappos (HQ is in Vegas) is attempting to remake the city as somewhere to work collaboratively and live there also.  Even that didn't hit me that hard.  This quote did:

"Research has shown that most innovation actually comes from something outside your industry or outside your area of expertise being combined with your own," 

Right about then I started thinking about the new Incentive Federation survey on the size of the market, and how we are finding out that we aren't' the center of the universe after all.  What Mr. Hsieh's comment underscores is what's been happening to our business while we've been anointing ourselves as Kings of the World.

Retailers, with their scale, buying power, and brand equity, are changing how our business works, and how our clients access the brands that comprise most incentive programs.  We now have a formidable competitor that has not only OUR brand equity, but their OWN equity which places us at a definable disadvantage. Add that to convenience (thousands of outlets), and a lack of resources of the part of the "legitimate" incentive market and you have the possibility of a mismatch.

But now that "something outside your industry or area of expertise" has shown up it presents us all with a chance to look at our own operations with a new pair of eyes.  We can be less afraid to experiment, less concerned with finding the "home run" because we haven't even hit a single yet based on the size of the business that's being done by retailers.
Last year at Dialogues we said that our market seeks too many "big" solutions and doesn't try smaller-scale projects as much.  Innovation may now be thrust upon us by the retail behemoths that sell our own products.

This might be fun...


Pete
 

It's like, wow, man...

Remember the discussion we've all had at one time or another about our place in the Greater Picture?  It usually starts with liberal doses of alcohol (or other mind-altering substances), and as it progresses everyone gets the right shade of Mellow.

Then someone blurts out "what if everything is just a cell inside another creature on some other planet?"  At that point everyone ponders the notion that our entire existence might just be a flea on the tail of a Cosmic Dog.  And with enough alcohol (or other mind-altering substances) the reaction is usually "wow, man...".

I just had my "wow, man..." moment, and I didn't even have any mind-altering substances in me.  The Incentive Federation has released its most recent survey to determine the size of the Incentive market.  I have always been skeptical about these sorts of things, prone to believing that we were exaggerating the size of our business for our own ends.  We discussed it this weekend at Special Markets Dialogues, the annual "think thank" I host in Myrtle Beach.

The new number for our business is $76 Billion.  That's right, kids--bigger than the sum total of every dime bet in every casino in America PLUS Disney's revenue (including ESPN, Mickey, and Pixar) PLUS the revenue of the NFL.  Can't be, right?

The more I consider it the more it makes me realize that our little market is actually a very big market that we have a very small presence in.  Spencer Toomey of MMSC may have said it best when he said "We've always thought we were the center of the universe.  It's obvious we are not".

Spencer came to that conclusion because when you add up the volumes of the big players in our channel--the Sonys, the Tumis, the Boses, even the Samsonites, and add the volumes of our customers, it comes nowhere NEAR $76 billion.  Not even close.  So where did all those dollars come from?

It pains me to say this, but they appear to be coming from retailers.  The gifts bought at Best Buy on your lunch break.  The Gift Cards that sit in every supervisor's desk waiting for the right time to recognize someone.  The orders going to Amazon, or Macy's, or The Olive Garden.  Not from Incentive Professionals.
We seem to have been beating our chests about how we are the destination for all things related to reward and recognition while our end clients are out there spending fortunes on stuff.  And not from us.  I'm conflicted--I'm either excited about all the opportunity that's out there untouched by us, or depressed to death that somehow we are insignificant.  A flea on the tail of a Cosmic Dog.

I'm not sure yet.  I need time to process this information.  Perhaps some mind-altering substances might come in handy.

Wow, man...


Pete