In the garden, dig a $100 hole for a $10 plant.
Gardening is a great metaphor for marketing.
from Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly 📚
Yesterday I asked if Amazon leaving Google Shopping is “temporary or a sign that the channel wasn’t worth the money?”
Google’s dominance in product discovery is under pressure as consumer behavioral shifts and genAI tools reshape how people search, shop, and buy.
The Year of the Splinter is now on year 3 and the era of the mega platform is over.
Google could become this cycle’s Microsoft.
via EMARKETER
The Silicon Valley Xerox machine is humming again, Instagram and TikTok want to pull a YouTube and move to the big(ger) screen.
Why? Pull in the different demos and higher ad rates that TVs make possible.
Amazon has turned off Google Shopping (ads and free from the sound of it).
Auction pressure has reduced dramatically between this and the Temu and Shein pullbacks. Should mean a lot more opportunity.
Now the big question, is this temporary or a sign that the channel wasn’t worth the money?
AI may resolve a problem with the fishermen, but it wouldn’t change what is in the pond.
-Philippe Aghion
It’s time to rethink our approach to email marketing. Instead of leading with campaigns, we should focus on conversations — engaging customers throughout their entire lifecycle, starting when they opt in.
This is the business version of Austin Kleon saying:
Newsletters should be letters
After all, we’re (still) marketing to humans.
via MarTech
The nag factor (the tendency of kids to relentlessly beg their parents for purchases”) is back and better than ever:
A recent Horizon Media study found that 77 percent of millennial parents agree that “my child/children are more influential in determining purchases than I was to my parents.” Gen Alpha is emerging as the Chief Procurement Officer for the modern household.
The digital first media landscape has transformed the options here. It’s no longer G.I. Joe commercials during cartoons.
via Observer
This slide from Dan Frommer’s mid-year consumer trends report is a perfect example of pay attention to what people do, not what they say.
This is why focus groups or asking people “would you buy this? what would you pay?” rarely lead to great decisions.
The design joke is that clients always ask to make the logo bigger.
But maybe they should be asking to make the text bigger. At least when it comes to numbers, where it boosts memorability.
Caveat:
The effect is strongest when the brand is unfamiliar; for well-known or premium brands, prior brand equity outweighs visual design cues.