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
posted by Pete Mitchell at 6:56 PM
1 Comments:
Pete,
All that business has always been there. You know, it lies in that big building, and that big building over there and the one down the road and don't forget the one across the country. All that money that a company like I work for now spends on incentives, gifts, etc... Heck, I just got a nice fleece jacket with our company name on it, pretty neat. Here's the challenge. They were ordered by that manager. You know, the one in that department, on the 2nd floor, she sits by a window in that big building, with 9000 windows and she manages about 20-30 people,in a company of about 7000. You know, found them on-line. You know, the same one I overheard today saying how she's going to get "stuff" for some type of "Employee Rewards" program for the same 25 or so that she wants to come up with. It seems to me that the challenge now and perhaps always has been is the inability to get educate all these big buildings that centralizing, creating one contact, "managing" all the spending on "stuff" will benefit those companies in ways they don't even know, forget imagined!
Find a way to "get to" those 50 "rouge" managers in that building, spending money here, there and everywhere to centralize spending, one point of contact that the rep can educate, then the "channel" wins.
And just how does that happen? :-)
The good news (it depends I guess) is I overheard the conversation from the manager. Fearing an oncoming disaster from someone who has no experience putting together reward programs (as I imagine most of these managers don't) I sent her a quick IM stating I have a tiny bit of understanding of "incentive" business if she had any questions. She asked me to head it up, lucky me... At least there will be a plan. Hopefully a budget to!! Good luck to all.
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