How a brand is named, according to an anecdote from Ben Franklin…
A friend was planning a shop sign for a new hat-making business:
He composed it in these words, “John Thompson, hatter, makes and sells hats for ready money,” with a figure of a hat subjoined. But he thought he would submit it to his friends for their amendments. The first he showed it to thought the word “Hatter” tautologous, because followed by the words “makes hats,” which showed he was a hatter. It was struck out. The next observed that the word “makes” might as well be omitted, because his customers would not care who made the hats… He struck it out. A third said he thought the words “for ready money” were useless, as it was not the custom of the place to sell on credit. Everyone who purchased expected to pay. They were parted with; and the inscription now stood, “John Thompson sells hats.” “Sells hats!” says his next friend; “why, nobody will expect you to give them away. What then is the use of that word?” It was stricken out, and “hats” followed, the rather as there was one painted on the board. So his inscription was reduced ultimately to “John Thompson,” with the figure of a hat subjoined.
The old adage goes “every company is now a media company.”
The new approach is companies buying media companies, and OpenAI has joined the chat.
OpenAI has acquired popular tech industry talk show TBPN — Technology Business Programming Network — making this the AI giant’s first acquisition of a media company.
a daily live show that airs on YouTube and X for three hours, focusing on tech, business, AI, and defense.
The show has gained a cult following in Silicon Valley, a safe space where industry power players can speak candidly and be questioned by fellow insiders. The show has a reputation for being something of a Sports Center for the tech industry
Marketing 101 is to hang out where your audience already is.
Brands with bank accounts big enough want to own where their audience already hangs out.
Gas Pump Economics
What happens when a vibecession meets an oil cliff?
We might be about to find out.
The world will be short some 350 million barrels of jet fuel and other refined crude products by the end of April
Compounding supply losses are pushing the world toward an “oil cliff” come April 19
average airfare over the past week was $465, up about 25% year-over-year and at least a seven-year high.
Amazon is adding a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge for third-party sellers in the U.S. and Canada.
“Elevated costs in fulfillment and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry,” Amazon wrote. “We have absorbed these increased costs so far. However, similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated, we implement temporary surcharges on our fulfillment fees to recover a portion of the actual cost increases we are experiencing.”
The gas pump is one of the clearest indicators for consumers. Shoppers only feel as rich as their bank account balance, inflation and rising fuel prices eat away at that faster than they’d like.
The summer travel market could be in for a big hit. And if / when shipping increases get passed through to shoppers, it could be an austere summer.
Memorial Day could be sluggish, or it could explode is shoppers enter deal seeking mode and wait for holiday discounts.