Amazon’s retail business is basically just an R&D lab for the company’s real business: being a platform company for others to build on.

Amazon’s new Retail Ad Service is making retail media networks available to everyone. The service lets retailers use Amazon’s powerful advertising technology to sell ads on their websites.

via MarTech

Unpacked an order with multiple items and noticed each one had been checked off by hand on the packing list.

Not as impactful as the handwritten note from an artisan or small business…

But still a small touch that adds a dash of human connection to an otherwise faceless transaction.

I think both brands and work relationships—with employers, coworkers, peers, clients, customers, etc—move through three phases:

1. Prove you’re competent
2. Prove you’re reliable
3. Prove you’re human

(They don’t always progress in that order.)

No. 3 is the one most often missed. And the most valuable one.

The markets are betting on inflation not just being so 2024.

the US government’s monthly auction of 10-year notes on Tuesday...landed the highest yield for newly auctioned securities since 2007.

The overall yield on the US 10-Year Treasury Bond also touched its highest intraday point, 4.699%, since last spring. That’s thanks to an extended selloff emboldened by new economic data suggesting more interest rate cuts are less likely in the short term thanks to economic growth coupled with more stubborn inflation.

Yields on the 10-year note have been rising since December as markets have bet that President-elect Donald Trump’s economic plans, like tariffs, and all-around animal spirits could push up inflation and the deficit, further reducing the probability of rate cuts.

Wouldn’t be surprised by a purchasing bump in the near term to stock up before the expected tariff impact makes things more expensive.

This is a good reminder from this year’s Seth Godin daily calendar, curated and illustrated by Debbie Millman.

It is easy to get caught up in our own tastes and aesthetics when making marketing decisions.

But they’re a distraction.

The tastes and preferences that matter are those of the customer.

You can obsess about your customers or you can obsess about your competition. Both work, but of the two, obsessing about your customers will take you further.

from Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly 📚

I’d argue obsessing about customers takes care of the competition.

Everything is customer service.

This post on social doubt has a great nugget to use in your messaging:

define who your product isn’t for to weed out buyers who will likely cause you a headache (and loss of profits).

Wait, what’s social doubt?

Your buyers are constantly looking for reasons not to buy from you.

Sometimes it’s easier to find your path by closing doors. Rather than trying to figure out what’s similar about the open doors or which you like the most.

Misconception: Brands should be casting a wide net when marketing

Reality: Niche microcommunities are on the rise, and brands are underutilizing them because they underestimate their value.

Scale as a strategy is dead.

Find your people.

Inspired by Seth Godin’s post: “Does it work?”

After Gemini said it couldn’t write marketing content, I asked ChatGPT. Here’s what it gave me:

🔥 In a world where AI can generate content in seconds, what sets your brand apart?

Soul. Perspective. Personality.

AI can write. AI can design. But AI can’t connect like you can.

The future belongs to brands with a voice that feels real—brands that tell stories only they can tell.

👉 Do what the bots can’t. Inject your brand with humanity.

What’s one thing you do to keep your brand feeling alive? Let’s hear it 👇

You can look at products and you can tell whether they have soul or not.

When you’re building a product, you should absolutely, absolutely react to what people are saying.

If you don’t have an opinion or a perspective, then it’s kind of empty. It’s like whatever they say then you’ll run after that thing.

Whereas with some products, you can tell if they have soul.

And you can tell when they lose it.

-Chris Pedregal, CEO of Granola (“an AI notepad for meetings”)

Soul, perspective, personality—call it what you want—is required in a post-AI world.

Do what the bots can’t.

If a customer relationship is viewed as a relationship (novel, I know)…

Focusing on the transaction and leaving it at that is an act of lust.

Fleeting. Shallow. Easily regretted.

Viewing the transaction as one step in the journey—more a beginning than an ending—is an act of love.

Potential.

Here’s Seth Godin on the podcast tour to support his book launch:

The conversation is the product, the book is just the catalyst.

Webinars are usually hated because they’re the digital version of a timeshare pitch. Short on value, long on spiels.

What if every interaction were approached as if it was the product?