“con-trar-i-an n. an investor who makes decisions that contradict prevailing wisdom, as in buying securities that are unpopular at the time.”

Contrarian as investor?

Oh, I like this idea.

I don’t want to oppose the status quo just to oppose it — I was to invest in what I think is undervalued at the moment.

Almost makes me wish I named this the Contrarian Marketers Club.

But you have to be curious before you can be contrarian (& to stumble on the definition of “contrarian”).

What is your contrarian marketing belief?

via Austin Kleon

This is from Seth Godin‘s daily calendar.

Logos are not brands.
They’re bat signals for the other stans.
A form of visual shorthand.

It’s not about what the logo looks like, it’s about what you make it mean.

On Tuesday, the United Nations financial agency published its latest annual World Economic Outlook, projecting among other things that the US economy this year will grow twice as fast as any of its peers that comprise the G7.

Instead of my excerpting practically the entire piece here, just head over to The Daily Upside and give it a read.

Consumer spending is remaining high, combining with strong jobs reports.

Inflation is still the thing to watch this year and could ruin the party.

Consumers are turning to loyalty programs for discounts to help offset persistently higher prices.

But interest in free products is declining. They want control.

It’s not about more, it’s about getting what they want for less.

via eMarketer

Choose your customers, choose your future.

-Seth Godin

This is where I’m trying to spend more of my time

Finished reading: Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill 📚

Shorter copy drives more action. It’s science!

3 ways to shrink your copy:

• Fewer words
• Fewer ideas (be really clear on your goal)
• Fewer requests: more requests = less action on any of them

Be clear
Be concise

via the Nudge podcast

Anybody can get traffic, but it’s hard to build an audience.

-Casey Newton

via Sounds Profitable

Is attention the new attribution?

The New York Times is partnering with Adelaide, a company that uses signals like eye-tracking data to gauge whether readers are paying attention to ads.

The Times started using its own proprietary attention metric last year

The goal is to eventually tie attention metrics to advertisers’ campaign performance

Attribution is getting increasingly difficult. So is garnering attention.

As the value of attention increases it could function as a proxy metric for ROI and related metrics of attribution.

What is the return on attention?

via Marketing Brew

It begins?

Ferret-UI offers the possibility of advanced control over a device like an iPhone. By understanding user interface elements, it offers the possibility of Siri performing actions for users in apps, by selecting graphical elements within the app on its own.

There are also useful applications for the visually impaired. Such an LLM could be more capable of explaining what is on screen in detail, and potentially carry out actions for the user without them needing to do anything else but ask for it to happen.

via Apple Insider

🔥 insight from Tom Webster:

years ago, in the late 20th century, where I am from, there was a thing called videotape, and there were two different standards of videotape and they fought constantly. There was Betamax, which was a platform put out by Sony that was not an open platform. It was a closed platform. Then there was VHS. VHS was developed, I’m pretty sure, by JVC, but they brought in lots of other partners, brands that we all know and love, like Quasar, right? Does anybody remember who won that battle?

VHS? No. Nobody won that battle because we don’t watch tape anymore. We watch movies.

Why do I like this story?

It highlights a few things I think are important to remember:

• you’re not just competing with your industry competitors (especially with inflation and housing where it’s at right now)
• consumers are shopping for solutions and categories, not your specific offering (until they become fans, then they’re shopping for you)
• & you can go further with friends

Inflation is up

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.4 percent in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the same increase as in February

via BLS

Earnings almost kept pace

Real average hourly earnings for all employees were unchanged from February to March, seasonally adjusted… This result stems from an increase of 0.3 percent in average hourly earnings combined with an increase of 0.4 percent in the Consumer Price Index

via BLS

An economic research group is

forecasting another 5% surge in home prices this year.

via Business Insider

Consumers feel like their money doesn’t stretch as far and their dreams are getting more expensive.

Or, as this tweet featured in DTC Daily puts it:

Finished reading: HOLE. by HIROKO. OYAMADA 📚

A recent episode of eMarketer’s Behind the Numbers podcast focused on retail media and this tidbit jumped out:

Yeah, I am super excited for Ulta Beauty’s Smart Vending Machines. They are piloting them currently in 10 cities across the U.S and essentially all people have to do, if you’re a rewards member, you just put in your phone or your email. If you’re not a rewards member, you can join right at the machine and you can claim a free travel size beauty product every week, which I think is really interesting.

So that’s a great incentive to keep coming back to get new things. They’re constantly refreshing the assortment, and again, you get a little travel size and you like it, you’re going to buy the full size. So it really is just its own little ecosystem which keeps people coming in, trying products. And for Ulta, it’s driving rewards member signups, and you’re getting additional customer info on their preferences and how often they’re coming in-store. So it’s really a win-win all around.

This is smart.

It’s a defensible moat. It’s not cheap to roll something like this out, which means all their competitors won’t have their own version live next week.

It’s unique. Any competitor that tries it now will be seen as a copycat. (I don’t know much about beauty, but if being “on trend” is part of the draw for customers, they’ll likely want to shop with the trendsetter and not the trend follower.)

It’s a retail media opportunity. There are a finite number of slots. If it takes off and they can prove the conversion from try to buy, companies will pay to put their product samples in the vending machine. It could even get to the point where certain spots command higher rates due to increased selection frequency from their position in the browsers eye line. (a.k.a. the grocery store model.)

It’s shareable. This is an experience people will talk about. I can see people posting videos of their trip and reviews of their trial products. To increase its potential as UGC machine, (and again, not a beauty expert) I would add a random/surprise slot and/or random double rewards giving loyalty members 2 free products. My thinking here is similar to the Pret A Manger loyalty program and slot machine psychology. (And my love for the mystery Airhead experience.)

It’s sticky loyalty. Any business with a high returning customer rate has pivoted from growth to retention in the post-free money era. A new free product each week gives people incentive to return and each return increases the likelihood of a purchase. Lock in likelihood also increases as loyalty members have more chances to become brand and product loyal.

All that to say, I like this idea. Well done, Ulta.

Now Liquid IV or LMNT needs to a do a smart gumball machine in gyms and retailers dishing out random flavors.

Audio always

I think in-store radio is a place where we’re seeing retailers start to play, I think because consumers are already primed to listen to things in the store, whether it be music or announcements, it’s kind of a low-stakes environment to start testing different ads and promotions.

via eMarketer

Followers are dead.

From the head of Instagram:

I understand why people focus so much on follower counts; they’re prominent and they’re easy to find. But if you actually want to get a sense for how relevant an account is, look at their how many likes they get per post and how many views per reel instead.

The Age of Attention is here. This will be the metric of 2024.

via Search Engine Land