Chouillard

How surprising is this? Actually, not that much - Chouillard had already hinted a couple of times of his desire to do something along this way.

But it reminds us that heartfelt purpose doesn't start with "consumers". It is not drawn in a meeting room, comparing alternatives and reading "consumer quotes". Purpose is a founder's heart. It translates its dreams and aspirations when starting and running a company. And then, people might connect to it - and when it happens, you have more than a company, you have a common heart.

Patagonia founder gives away the company

Boring

You know what is the most important (and probably boring) feature a product needs to have to be purchased? Availability.

Yep, that is the number one! A product to be bought needs to be available. It doesn't seem rocket science. It won't be a viral feature that everyone will be talking about at a technology summit (unless Reckon.ai is there, of course).

But still, we see products missing in supermarket shelves everyday - the figure is 8%, daily and globally, and that means a 563Bs usd loss for retailers. And we also see nice stores, in premium locations, paying top-rents, but that are not open 24/7.

So, though boring, non-viral, non-tiktok like, non-brandable, it is availability that is the first driver of sales. So, no, it is not only a Supply Chain problem - it is beyond that, it's a business one. And no, it probably isn't fully covered - everyone can step up on this.

Waste is not trash

Waste is not trash. It is a resource. We are just constrained by our lack of imagination.

Data one level down

You know marketers. We are curious by nature...

So, yesterday it was a day to take a good look at all the data coming out of Reckon.ai-powered smartstores ("our microstores" as we call them). But beyond all the aggregated data, I couldn't help but look at some basic-level one. And suddenly, it all comes alive:

- people buying a salad meal + fruit + kombucha tea for lunch (you healthy ones!);

- while you could also see the netflixers (?) going for lasagna and coca-cola for a movie watching session late at night (advantages of 24/7 stores);

- and on the Pingo Doce store in Nova School of Business and Economics that runs our AI-system, there was this day in July when people bought a lot of Red Bull - was it just before an exam, I wonder?

When you have the tools to look at data at different levels (raw, treated and cleaned, or aggregated), you can't resist looking - but that's how to end up building hypothesis and insights that help you move forward. 

At the supermarket aisle

In the supermarket aisle today. Persons looking at Axe bodyspray. Person A grabbed a can and bought it. Person B moved away and bought nothing.

If you are Axe Brand Manager (like I was a lifetime ago), you will have a ton of information about Person A - the consumer, the buyer, the one that gives money in exchange for your product. On Person B, you have nothing - even though you know it’s B that will generate the most penetration and growth, and you keep talking about B when debating about market share and marketing plans.

Most marketing information systems are designed around Person A. They’re engineered to give you the max of information on it. But if you want to break the box and move forward, you need to find clever ways to get information about B - and that means to engineer your data systems differently, to ask questions you don’t ask and to persist when people tell you “we don’t know” and “we can’t get that information”. #marketing #growth #data

On sustainability

 A couple of great thoughts on sustainability and innovation. Thank you, Andreea Sapunaru .

Old learnings

A quick word of advice. Something I learned with the very first people I worked with, in Unilever (Vasco and both Nunos). Be careful with your claims. You can only say you "are the first", if you effectively "are the first". You can only say you "are the biggest", if you "are the biggest". It's a matter of respect for customers and people. But it's also a matter of trust - if you are caught red-handed in something as simple, what are you also being "untrue" about? The seed of doubt is then planted on people's head.