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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday – July 13, 2023: Priming the Pump
It’s thought to be lucky at the casino, and this week 7/11 was likely lucky for millions of consumers and Amazon, too.
That’s because July 11* and 12th were this year’s Prime Days–filled with special limited deals on all kinds of products offered on Amazon. This year’s total sales came to $12.7 billion dollars, more than 6% more than last year, with over 375 million products sold.
Prime Day started in 2015 with $900 million dollars in revenue on less than 35 million products. That means that not only is Amazon selling more products on Prime Day–but those products are more expensive, too.
But here’s the really interesting thing. Prime Day has outgrown its Amazon roots. This year, there were at least 86 other retailers, including Target and Walmart, who ran Prime Days as well–capitalizing on the momentum created by Amazon.
Pretty amazing, that what was originally conceived as an Amazon promotion to break up the summer doldrums, when sales are traditionally lower, has now turned into an annual mass marketing event on a par with traditional Black Friday Thanksgiving sales.
What kind of special offerings can your business create to get customers excited during slow times? What can you do to generate momentum and excitement in your industry?
Don’t wait for the Amazon of your industry to beat you to the punch. Make creating a new high value offering your prime directive.
*There’s speculation that Amazon chooses a date for this event that’s based on a set of prime numbers. This year that’s 7 and 11.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – July 6, 2023: Pay Attention!
Distraction. It’s all around us.
Drivers are distracted with phones and texting. Pedestrians and bicyclists are not watching out for traffic. Kids and parents are often in separate worlds, as are bosses and employees. Retail employees seem to be doing everything possible to avoid helping customers.
Then there are the people whose actions can actually have life or death consequences–like auto mechanics, airline support personnel, and those in the medical field. When they don’t pay attention, people get injured or die.
How many tragic situations could have been avoided if everyone was just paying a little more attention to their surroundings? Could the Titan submersive disaster have been avoided if management had paid attention to safety warnings? We’ll never know.
Mistakes in your company may not result in death or dismemberment to your customers, but they could put your business on life support.
Are you rewarding people for moving faster, without necessarily making smart decisions? Do you look for scapegoats when something goes wrong, instead of an opportunity to solve a customer problem and develop a better offering for the future?
Here’s the thing: While you’re busy being distracted, someone else is coming up with a better way to take care of your customers. Pay attention–while you still can!
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – June 29, 2023
Last weekend, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries, appeared to be turning on Vladimir Putin, his friend and benefactor, in an armed march to Moscow.
Until, all of the sudden, he called off the effort and turned around. Government reports said he was seeking refuge in nearby Belarus. In a flash, Prigozhin went from being a close buddy of Putin to an enemy of the state to an outsider allowed to leave the country.
In the meantime, Sergey Surovikin, head of the Russian Air Force and a confidante of Prigozhin, appears to have been removed from his post and is being interrogated. Or, according to other reports, all is well and he is not being detained–that’s all fake news.
Neither man has been seen or heard from since Saturday. Putin is known not to tolerate dissent whatsoever, so it would not be surprising to hear that one or both of these missing men accidentally “fell” from a tall balcony, or developed a “sudden illness” that caused their untimely deaths.
Meanwhile, the world wonders what on earth is going on in Russia, how much power Putin really has now, and how well safeguarded is that country’s large nuclear arsenal.
Wow. What a mess. It makes us appreciate living in countries where the rule of law is not bent to the whims of a tyrant, and there are checks and balances on what moves leaders and military forces are able to make.
That’s not to say democracy is perfect. But as Winston Churchill so aptly said, “Democracy is the worst form of government–except for all the others that have been tried.”
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – June 22, 2023: Lost and Found
This afternoon, it was reported that the missing submersible vessel with five people aboard had met a catastrophic end on the ocean floor, near the wreck of the Titanic that was the target of their trip.
While it’s terribly sad that five people lost their lives, there was no lack of effort expended to try to find and rescue them. Both Canada and the US sent rescue crews, and many private ships outfitted with the latest technology were deployed as well.
Contrast that to another incident this week in the Mediterranean. A $175 million superyacht rescued over 100 migrants from the wreck of a fishing trawler that sank while the Greek Coast Guard sat back and watched. In addition to those rescued, over 650 people are estimated to have drowned in that accident.
We can’t weigh the value of one life against another. Still, the disregard for human life experienced in the Greek incident is appalling. And the difference between the two seafaring mishaps is stark.
The occupants of the Titan submersible were wealthy people who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the adventure of a lifetime. They ignored the calls from those who warned the vessel wasn’t well-tested, and pointed out that safety was not given serious consideration.
The people lost off the coast of Greece were Pakistani, Syrian, Palestinian, and Egyptian refugees–escaping bad conditions to try and build a better life somewhere else. Would the Greek Navy have stepped in if the billionaire’s yacht was in trouble? Most likely. Did they step in here? Absolutely not.
When rich people do dangerous things, the world attempts to rescue them from their mistakes. When poor people attempt a dangerous sea crossing because they feel they have no other choice, it was the government that needed to be rescued from their poor judgment by a billionaire.
In this week’s tragic losses, perhaps we can learn to find our sense of humanity and do better in the future. If not, we are truly lost as well.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com