Swoosh

A good brand has history and stories, and good stories have multiple layers. I came across this one over the week and can't stop thinking how rich and full of lessons this is.

In 1971, the Nike brand was born (transforming from the previous Blue Ribbon Sports). So, they decided they needed a logo, and Phil Knight (who was teaching accounting at a university) hired a design student (Davidson) to create one - "she needed the money". She developed several creatives, and Phil Knight reportedly chose the one "he hated the least", believing "it will grow on me" (this logo is nowadays called "The Swoosh"). For the work, the student was paid 35 usd (slightly more than 200 usd, nowadays), "I billed and was paid for the work".

The story doesn't end there, though. At the time of Nike's IPO, Nike decided to gift Davidson (the student) a golden swoosh ring with a diamond... and 500 shares of Nike's stock. Reportedly, Davidson never sold these shares, that, after several stock splits, they represent nowadays 32000 shares, with a market value of around 3M usd (she has retired a few years ago and does volunteering work).

The number of layers in this story is amazing. The decisions and implications. There are several lessons in it - you just have to pick the ones you need, I would say.

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 .