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Ep 41 - Crisis, Commerce, and Creativity: Business Scenario Rundown

[Disclaimer: This transcription was written by AI using a tool called Descript, and has not been edited for content.]

Dave Dougherty: All right. Welcome to the latest episode of Enterprising Minds. We have a treat for you. All three of us are present. So we are going to do a rapid fire sort of advice scenario style episode just to mix it up a little bit, try something new as we advocate. on almost every episode, try something, experiment, experiment, experiment.

So Ruthi, I'm going to kick it to you for the hell of it. Why don't you set us up for what we're going to do?

Ruth Corcoran: All right.

ChatGPT Business Scenarios

Ruth Corcoran: So just before the show, Alex took a crack at Asking ChatGPT for some scenarios of various businesses from the restaurant to the luxury hotel to e commerce struggling with some sort of thing.

So ChatGPT gave me some scenarios of failing businesses and essentially we're going to respond to each of them with ways we might address those various situations. And hopefully, through our discussions, perhaps one of them will inspire you or get you out of a rut that you're struggling with in your own business.

Dave Dougherty: Perfect. Alex, take a pick of your first one.

Alex Pokorny: I was trying to see which one we want to do first. Let's do the last one.

Retail Store Transitioning to Online Sales

Alex Pokorny: So traditional retail store transitioning to online sales. So a traditional brick and mortar retail store is trying to transition to online platform, but is facing difficulties because it's a brand new site.

Existing customer base, not very tech savvy, and they're losing customers to online competitors who are more established. This is actually a really curious one because I had a recent Kind of weird interaction that I wanted to play by you guys anyways. So I'm going to include that with this and we will throw a little AI sprinkle back into things, just a little sprinkle.

But I recently was looking for a product. It is a very specialized woodworking product. It is definitely a not very tech savvy, probably customer based. That kind of fits some of this. And I was looking online for this product I found on Amazon. There's tons of it, except it is pretty poor, poor quality.

And in metric measurements, it had to be Imperial. So it just wasn't good. I found one retailer that was local that had an option. Well priced, no reviews though. And then I found a couple other companies that sold some as well.

AI and Local Retailers

Alex Pokorny: And the funny thing is when I asked ChatGPT, Hey, give me some options for this product and some comparison.

They totally skipped my local retailer. And I asked them, Hey, why'd you miss my, my local website? I said, Oh, well, they have rate limiting and caption in place to block. So since I was using chat GPT search, it was actually blocking this local retailers and then the local retailers blocking that, even though that was beating it by literally half the cost, exact same product, half the cost that they're selling it at.

So way preferred. I would definitely go there. They're very close to my house. I would even order it online and that would be, you know, far superior cost wise than any of the other options. But some people have posted only to Google shopping and Google shopping only found some results that were actually, you know, fully double the cost.

Amazon as well, double the cost plus shipping, very expensive. And then these other retailers kind of in between, but they worked on Google shopping. So I never found them before to use ChatGPT. And this last retailer blocked AI. So ChatGPT didn't find it. How did

Ruth Corcoran: they block AI, Alex? What did they do?

Alex Pokorny: It caption rate limiting.

So that's what they're at least chat GP. I literally just asked it. I was like, what exact tools are being used to block you? That was what they're using is.

Dave Dougherty: So for people who have never heard of that and may not be technically savvy, what is that?

Alex Pokorny: Oh, sure. So Captcha is that lovely little thing that sometimes pops up that's prove you're a human and not a bot.

So if you have one of the Google ones, maybe you're clicking five photos of a motorcycle, or maybe you're typing in weird letters, alphabet kind of combination. But it's a difficult thing that basically an AI or a bot is difficult for it to perform. So it's a way to cut out bots and only have humans. So I've got an interesting transition here.

I've actually, there's a website that is trying to transition to, you know, the online shopping world. And that's actually an interesting thing that I would do in response to this scenario. So we have this retail store going back to it trying to get online.

Google Shopping and Online Presence

Alex Pokorny: One major piece that I found that was basically a huge opportunity during this endeavor was, are you on Google shopping or not?

And the one that was listed on Google shopping, I'll just say it was 41. And it would look like it was the only option. It was 41. When I looked at this local retailer, it was actually 20. So it was like, if they had only posted their information and their file on Google shopping, I would have gone to them right away and just bought the product.

But it was. Exceeded what I wanted to pay basically for the product. So that's where I kept looking around online. Also, if that small retailer there was local, if they had sold the products on Amazon, again, another basically file and posting, there was 41 plus 1199 shipping. I mean, whatever they were doing at 21 selling at retail, even plus shipping, they would still be doing well.

And I realized Amazon has additional costs and fees. So you'd have to structure that with that building a website and just expecting people to show up. Is not a strategy. And that's what this scenario sounds like is you have a local retailer who finally decided, Hey, I'm going to get on the internet and here's a website that doesn't do anything.

Yeah. I mean, it makes you accessible, but you have to have people looking and where are people looking? It doesn't necessarily mean that you can just build a website and they will show up. So that'd be one play that I would think of immediately is think about the alternatives of where the audience already is.

Can you show up there? Try to push yourself there as well.

Ruth Corcoran: I think a couple of additional thoughts. This reminds me of a episode and probably six months ago or so, in which we talked about the declining traffic to traditional online places, right? And then we were seeing a great decrease in that. And I think this plays in very nicely to your point, Alex, you can't just set up a website, which, which honestly is, it makes me a little sad, right?

Because we're talking about small business owners. A lot of extra time to go, how not only am I managing my sort of my actual storefront, but how am I managing my online footprint, which is essentially what this is and to recap what you guys were just saying, yes, you set up your website, but also you got to make sure you're present in the various marketplaces that are people, people are looking such as Google shopping, Amazon sounds like chat GPT is going to be entering the mix countless others, right?

I suspect we could look for an entrepreneurial service that has, has a way of listing this and you can sort of shoot it all out, possibly there's a good market niche if it doesn't exist already, the other piece though, that I would say if you're a traditional retail store transitioning to online, or at least, you know, Diversifying with online.

One of the cool things is you already have a very strong asset, which is an existing customer base that potentially you can, you can utilize or work with to say, Hey, what is it you love about us now? Let's make sure that the digital world also knows what you love about us. Or one of the things that I'll always do, especially if I'm looking for say plants online, which I'm.

Likely to do is I'll take a look not only at their their catalog, but also like show me that you're a real place Which then amplifies my trust in that place because I can go. Okay, maybe you're a bookstore selling online now I know here's the quality of the bookshelves in your space. So I know what I'm getting So there is there is a real benefit to it's not all doom and gloom, but definitely some new knowledge hurdles.

You've got across

Dave Dougherty: Yeah, it's, it's interesting that you started with the really niche because I've been noticing like driving up to my parents house, there's this one, they live in this like smaller, you know, suburban community. And there's this one strip mall sort of in the part of the main part of the town you drive through.

And the latest shop to open up was a sports card trading store. And immediately I'm like, how are you able to afford rent with those margins? Like, I don't under, you know, I don't understand that. I'm, you know, I'm largely ignorant of that, that market. But the online piece does allow you. To find your audience, even if it isn't necessarily in a third ring suburb, right, where, you know, maybe traditionally you might have 20 people in the town that would be interested in that kind of thing, right?

So you end up becoming more of that, like that shipping and finding things, you know, like if, if I was consulting and a person came in and asked for this type of thing, I would say, okay, what's your, so what's your tech setup? Like how much is this platform going to be tied into what you do in your store?

Right. So is it an online store and a physical store piece and all of them come together and sort of one point of sale system? Are you doing anything on social selling? Like if you have your products listed, are you syndicating them to Google shopping or Amazon or, you know, YouTube videos that you're doing?

TikTok videos you're doing, like what, what is your plan? How techie do you want to get right? Because if it is just a traditional, like build it, hopefully it'll work. Probably don't bother then, you know? But if you are going to go, go in because you need, you need to expand and you want to reach a bigger audience Then yeah, you have to be, you have to move more, more committed.

And there is a lot of opportunity for those niche things. If you can find, find the right audience and where they're hanging out online I do think that, you know, we've talked about this a number of times on, on different shows where we've talked about like, would you make the same recommendations as when you first started marketing?

And I can honestly say in the last, Three years for me. The answer is no, you want to build that website to prove out your likability, your, your trustworthiness, as Ruthi was saying, right. To have a space that you control the communications, right. But then you need to be where that audience is too, whether that's on a particular app or a particular third party website, if it's A magazine or a trade group, you know, go target those be become an active member in that locale for that.

If you are location specific business, what can you do with those you know, coupon mailers, if that's relevant to your service, right? That, that it's like the only thing I get in my mailbox anymore are these, you know, local business coupons. So, I mean, all of those are options, but again, you have to set the strategy and you have to know who you're targeting and, and where they might be.

Luxury Hotel Chain Reputation Crisis

Ruth Corcoran: Hey, I'm going to shift gears and I'm going to, I'm going to toss another one out and I'm going to have Dave you start because this seems like it's right up your alley, luxury hotel chain facing reputation crisis. A luxury hotel chain experiences a major reputation crisis after a high profile guest posts negative reviews about their service.

Bookings have dropped significantly, and online reviews are quickly turning unfavorable, leading to a loss of potential guests. And I'm looking at you, Dave, because crisis management and thinking about content strategy, that's your wheelhouse. I

Dave Dougherty: have, yes. It's been a while since I've been in the crisis thing.

So we'll see, we'll see how relevant the, the responses are, but any negative review, right, is a particular thing to look into. Right. And they're like anything, there's going to be a bell curve of, Reasonable guests and unreasonable guests and then the majority of people in the middle that have a perfectly fine stay and You know, but if you are a luxury hotel, then the experience is going to be a major thing.

This is where you have to, you have to have these sorts of templates in place already so that you're not making decisions on the fly. Like I would be making recommendations right now, but a lot of it is trying to get out in front of it, right? Okay. respond to that particular person's post if that's feasible, right?

Like as part of your normal sort of customer service piece, what is your typical response to a negative review on social? It just so happens to be that this is a celebrity, so you might want to handle it a little more carefully just because of the weight. But then you also have to think how much of this person's audience is likely to stay with us anyway, right?

Because if it

yeah, I mean, if it's like Joe Rogan and he has, you know I'm not going to say a lot of a lot of his, his crew is going to be staying at a, you know, five star hotel. Maybe not, but we can. Make some assumptions.

Alex Pokorny: Do you think that then there would be kind of a temporary review bombing and then it kind of goes away?

Is that where you think where that might hit?

Dave Dougherty: Typically, I think. Yeah. And like anything you have to understand and tell yourself nothing is ever as good or as bad as you think it is, right? When this hits and you start seeing all the DMS and your friends are screenshotting it going, Oh man, you must be having a horrible day today.

You know, you're going to be a little emotional. You might not make the best decisions. But yeah, I mean, it'd be one of those things where you could talk about. We're sorry. You know, we're sorry we're doing this or you had this experience. This is not typical of, of our things. We will, we have a review process.

We are now undergoing that. You know, that kind of messaging is very corporate, very like, okay, they had to say that, but it's also necessary because it at least shows that, okay, we're doing something, but then you also have to follow up on it. To show that, okay, yes, we did something. We did look into it in the appropriate channels, right?

You don't you don't want to just give away that information if it dies down itself. You know, on its own. So, you

Ruth Corcoran: know, I want to play out that one for a sec because I think that's an important piece that addressing issues in the context in which they happen is, of course, critical and follow through is important.

But to riffing off a point you guys just made, not everyone's gonna follow that person, not everyone's gonna know. I can't tell you how many emails I've gotten where it's like, oh, we're sorry our site was down you get 20 percent off. I didn't know the site was down. I guess now I do. Fantastic. But it's like negative messaging to a wide audience that perhaps is unnecessary.

Something else that's a curious balance in in crisis situations is being very directed with your communications.

Dave Dougherty: Yeah. So one of my, one situation that I was advising on was there's there's a crew in Minnesota who makes kendamas and if you don't know what that is, it's these things they have, you know, for those of you on the podcast version, it's like a wooden hammer with a spear on the top and a wooden ball on a string goes on top of the spear and you try to get the ball into the cup without your hands.

Ruth Corcoran: Like a kid's toy.

Dave Dougherty: Absolutely. But it's all wood, right? So one of the problems God, how many years ago was that 13 years ago when I was doing 10 years ago when I was doing this was that kids were bringing these to school and playing with them at recess, but they weren't being very careful with it.

So the ball would whip around and smack them in the head.

And so.

Some business people would just be like, well, yeah, it's a wooden ball. You should know not to do that. Right. But if your product and its core user base is below 14, you cannot afford to have the schools ban them because that's the only place word of mouth between kids will occur. Or the daycare centers or, or whatever else.

So it was important for in this particular project to make sure that we address the concerns of the principals who we would have to be messaging about here's how this can be safe. We recommend, you know, keeping them in lockers until the appropriate time, like all this, all this kind of stuff. Cause yeah, otherwise it was being banned and talking to the smaller business to be like, all right, you want to have.

You know, talk to your lawyers, get the right disclaimers on the packaging and the, you know, use instructions and whatever else, even though it's a toy and it seems self explanatory, you need to have these things, right? So that if the worst case scenario does occur and something awful happens you can then lay out here, the steps that we've taken in order to protect our consumers and the company and everything else, right?

And this is, this, this is where it gets kind of, you know, eerie for a lot of people because it's, you're, we just want to market and sell a nice fun product. Right. It's a toy, nothing bad's going to happen. And then you start saying, okay, templating your claims and everything else so that when you're sued, You know, as soon as you start talking that way, it just feels gross, but it's all necessary.

And it's just part of, you know, part of the process. And it's important to have these, these processes in place before they occur. You know, as we've talked about with a lot of other projects too, where it's like, have you done a pre mortem where you take five minutes and think to yourself, like, what are the ways in which this project can go wrong?

What are the ways in which this project can go absolutely right? And wonderful. And have a sense of both of those so that you can address both of those outcomes.

Ruth Corcoran: I'm also going to give a shout out to having diversity within your team because having somebody like Dave who thinks about what can go wrong and how we need to order our claim sheets so that we don't get sued is an important part of running a business effectively.

Dave Dougherty: As much as I would love rainbow sunshines and unicorns, you know, those horns are pointy.

Alex Pokorny: Back to the scenario that actually happened those last week that I was involved in. There's a reputation issue that happened and one of the best things that we had was very quickly in external agency that we already had basically some work with, have them review it and come back with a response to.

The internal team on what to do, and there was already an agency involved, but it was really nice to bring in somebody from the outside to just literally send us three paragraphs on. Yeah, this could have gone that direction and you know how to handle it basically, but having an external source, just lay that out very clearly with no emotional attachment to the whole project made things happen internally.

There was a fire drill going on that just wouldn't stop. Once we got that message, it was able to at least point to that and saying, Hey, the next journal says the same thing. Obviously we've been saying it's handle it, deal with it, work through it. Where the other team was basically just panicking, sitting on their hands.

So,

Ruth Corcoran: you know, Alex, that's huge. Even if you don't have the sort of internal. squabbling that often happens, right? That's a huge benefit of having an agency around is to resolve internal disputes, but just having that third party lack of emotion. Here's, here's our response to this situation that can go a very long way.

Alex Pokorny: It was helpful. I mean, with any organization that has like a lot of reviews around them, online reviews, in this case, like a luxury hotel would, e commerce, no matter what it is, it's nice to have somebody who's external to the organization, who, you know, can provide that kind of rational response and just be like, You know, I need a gut check every once in a while or something like this fires

Dave Dougherty: up.

And to your point of the, the external side of things, when a crisis hits inside the organization, there is a lot of churning and burning and people losing their heads, right? Because you're dealing with the internal politics of who's responsible. How did this happen? Was it the manufacturing thing? Was it sales?

Was it, you know, whatever it was So then it is nice to have that third party to be like, okay, let's focus on the language so that we can say the right thing to like release the pressure, but also not have it You know, bite us back and anything that might come after this, right. Because, and yeah, I mean, cause it, it flares up really quickly.

And so in my experience with the crisis management piece and, and other marketing communications things, being able to go back to the client inside of the organization to say, does this feel directionally correct for what your supervisors will approve? Yes or no. And then you write it and they just say, yes, here it is.

We're using this. And then it becomes really, really nice and easy for them while they're handling all the internal conflict that's going on with the, with the crisis. Yeah.

Ruth Corcoran: All right, Dave, your turn. You get to pick one.

Dave Dougherty: Sure. All right.

E-commerce Fashion Brand Challenges

Dave Dougherty: So declining sales in an e commerce fashion brand. I think this might circle back into our, our first one quite nicely. The scenario for this is a tech startup. Sorry, wrong one. An e commerce fashion retailer has seen a sharp decline in sales with many competitors offering cheaper alternatives.

See Timu and Shine. They are struggling to maintain customer loyalty and differentiate their products amid price wars. So, you know, I like this. I like this this exercise. Alex but it is awfully vague.

Alex Pokorny: Oh, I'm gonna take the next version around. I need to get this thing. I just read more specific because like the mortal retail brick and mortar retail store going to online like But what products is it?

So yeah.

Dave Dougherty: Yeah. Right. So I think the, the nice thing with, with e commerce and fashion pieces is again why, I mean, what's the seasonality of it? Are you are you a luxury brand? Are you not? Are you trying to win on price? If you're trying to win on price and your fashion, forget it. You probably will go out of business because you don't have the scale.

Right. So, yeah, I mean that this we can we can nerd out on on supply and demand on this kind of thing. But I mean, that's the whole reason the luxury guys are doing so well as they they hold the supply so they can create an artificial scarcity and make it awesome. Or seem. More awesome than it is.

But what would your be initial thing if you had a client come to you or a company come to you and be like? Hey, our sales are down. We need to stem the bleeding before we actually do a full kind of Strategic read do, how do you stem the bleeding? I don't think you've been first yet. Go for it.

Ruth Corcoran: I'm going for, I'm making notes on my little notepad.

To your guys's points.

Yeah, it's vague, but let's run with it.

Dave Dougherty: Yeah. Who's

Ruth Corcoran: the customer base and what do they care about? I mean, a lot of the, a lot of a lot of our conversations. Go back to basics. And the reason we go back to basics is because they matter.

Dave Dougherty: Mm

Ruth Corcoran: hmm. To your points, Dave, you're not gonna go up against Shine and Timu on price and quantity and diversity of just sheer quantity of stuff.

Honestly, it's a little sickening to me. So this is, I'll, I'll preface this by saying I might get on a, an extra soap box, just about the fashion industry in general. I'll try and I'll try and stay away, but who's your customer base and what do they care about because you've got to lean into that if you don't lean into that, you're, and you're just sort of trying to go after the general mass market, there's nothing that's keeping you standing apart.

There's nothing that says, Oh, I'm going to pick them because I care about X. I associate with this, or this thing is very. Important to me. Since we're talking about fashion. I'll share a couple of examples of things that I've seen in the last couple of years within the online space that have helped different companies differentiate each other.

One thing that is very much present, especially if you look in the t shirt market, is people care a lot about the GSM of their t shirts. I don't, I'll get it wrong if I try to remember the acronym of GSM at this moment, but people care a lot about the weight, about, you know, is my t shirt see through?

Is it going to last over time? Some places, like you go to, you go to Shine, you go to Timu, you're probably not going to get specifics on here's the weight of the cotton, and here's where the seams are, and here's the things that you care about if you're really niche into the t shirt market. So that's one example of how I've seen a number of different companies go, Okay, we're going to be very clear and transparent about how our clothes are made, what materials are being used.

So that even though we're not going to compete on price with the unique clothes of the world, we can compete on, we know more, or you customer now know more about this t shirt that you're buying than you do if you go to the mass market. You're paying eight bucks because you don't care, but if you do care, come over here, pay a little more, and we're going to tell you some details.

I think this is true with a lot of the sustainability plays as well in the, the transparency and supply chain. You can charge more if you know where your cotton was sourced. You can charge more if you know your merino wool comes from sustainable sources. So that's one play. Again, you need to know your cu what your customer base cares about.

Another play, of course, that's called been very popular over the last five years, perhaps even longer. Is this sort of, we've got a limited quantity drop situation. This is when you've got a core customer base, they like your product, you say, we're going to limit our cost by, you know only making so many so that we don't have excess material sitting in a warehouse somewhere.

And we're going to charge a bit of a premium because you get to have this exclusive thing. And we're going to continue to to drop specific sets and make that sort of your differentiator. Like, yeah, you can always get the same t shirt from, from Target, but here you get this special thing, and you know that we're good quality, or that we've got a specific style, or a specific color, and that's where you're going to play into more diversity in the type of thing that you're offering.

So those are some of my quick hits and then as a sort of personal bias me and go for quality. I will pay more for good quality clothes. that don't have shitty seams and that don't become ruined after one wash, right? Like, I will pay more for that. And if I wash your shirt and it, you know, two washes later looks terrible, I'm not going to buy any more clothes from you.

Maybe this is just me. I'm hoping this is catching on with the wider market because man, we need a bit of a revolution in female quality clothes with pockets. Please.

Dave Dougherty: Follow the pockets, man. You mean you want Utility End looking good?

Ruth Corcoran: Nah. It just Nah.

Dave Dougherty: I know it's hard.

Ruth Corcoran: I'll pay more for it.

Dave Dougherty: Yeah, it's interesting for me because I feel like people buy the story, you know, and it is really that audience thing.

Like, when, when you, we mentioned that I was thinking of the impact that like the NBA had on on fashion right as soon as the NBA allowed the players to dress the way they wanted to and like the 60s 70s. Then it, you know, you didn't have to do the button down with the skinny tie and the suit, you know, like the old players like Bill.

Bill Russell, then it became like a party. It became the who's, who's the best dressed. You get that intro where they're walking through the stadium to the to the team's locker room, and it becomes just part of the pregame conversation. And if that's your favorite player. You might then start, you know, looking at those shoes, looking at, you know, Armani suits which, you know, more power to but yeah, I think on the, the story piece, again, my favorite example of that with like modern marketing really is the, the liquid death water brand, because.

They're using humor. They've created a completely nonsensical story to sell water. And they have completely leaned into that as hard as possible to the point where they just did a co branded giveaway or charity auction with Yeti coolers, and they made a full size Yeti casket cooler, which is That is actually two, two coolers in the casket.

And then they auctioned it off to go to the charity stuff that they're, they're using, but like, how do you get away with that kind of stuff? Like to get the amount of press for that and the amount of organic shares that you get, because, Oh my God, they built a casket for water, you know those types of ideas I think are what are really effective now.

So if you are just going to, if you're a designer, small, smaller designer and you're trying to get your stuff online, yeah, you gotta play and you, you gotta have that story. You gotta have something that you're, you're standing for what you're doing or, or differentiating yourself and targeting a very niche thing before you broaden out.

Because otherwise, man, I don't know how you go against, you know, the, The top retailers. And even if you're trying to be more on the all encompassing side, like looking what Macy's and Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom have had to do with their in store experiences like that. Is unbelievable what they're doing with the like roped off sections for, for luxury brands with like a security guy and appointment only.

And I mean, it becomes an experience if you're able to get into it. Then for everybody else, it's like, yeah, okay, let's check the clearance rack for the under armor, you know, but Alex, as a man who has Pitched 5 t shirts. What's your take on this?

Alex Pokorny: A bunch, man, all these guys Ruthi and you already hit some of them though.

One of them is basically is, was the detractors of your competitors and be the opposite. So you mentioned about shine and quality of clothing, origin of clothing. Also customer service does not exist with those massive retailers. So. Act like a real person, put somebody's actual name on something, their first name, but, I mean, put their name on the little thank you card in there.

I mean, actually, like, Be personable and real and authentic and human. And that is something e commerce companies can't do. So you can be that as an opposite or whatever else they're doing, kind of like switch it out, do whatever. I mean, think about all the water brands out there and they push life.

That is the main phrase that basically gets thrown around. And what did liquid death do? They picked the opposite and they ran with it as hard as they possibly could. Like. That set them apart. Every other thing is literally like life water and other things like that. And like, it's ridiculous about how that direction it is and how opposite they are which creates the humor, but also creates the interest.

So, I mean, totally that other things. So reviews. Pushing this basically from a local standpoint, but also from an online standpoint, heavily get into the review side of things, include the QR codes that are printed off and included in the products. A little thank yous, throw a hard candy in it. I don't know, something else to basically set you a little bit different and just trying to make sure that people are doing things on a positive note, because then you're going to attract a more basically reputation online that will help you survive.

Agreements with local stores and retailers. That's also something that online brands struggle with doing is basically is actually getting involved back into local retailers who have a choice of what goes on their racks. That shelf space is limited and that is all based upon agreements made with those individual retailers.

It's, there's has to be a ton of them. It's complex, the shipping logistics, I get that. But same time, if you want to have some diversity of, you know, income streams. You got to have to kind of play all, all the sides added value. So if this is an online retailer trying to talk about like the entire outfit, the elements that people don't like about dresses, lack of pockets and how you do have pockets talking about basically that these are the three other items that really make this outfit look great.

And by the way, either we link to them, we drop ship them. We third party source them. We'll ship it with you. We'll kit it so that you get the dress and the bracelet and the necklace all in one box. I mean, however you want to make that happen, basically pull those things together and be just one more thing than the other ones.

You'll do better at that. Model choice is always big with fashion as well of you're trying to pick individuals who are basically is the aspirational individuals of your current audience. So getting to know your real audience and trying to figure out, okay, do we have, realistic models? Do we have models that actually can basically fit to our current audience as well as what our desired audience is?

Are we alienating others by trying to, you know, basically mix and match this in the wrong way? There's a lot to play there, especially the cultural side of it too. The other one, basically the last one would be just influencers. So trying to work through that message and that brand, and then try to become, you Popular in different ways creating videos and content around each one of your products.

I mean, that was what Zappos who did that. They had a shoe video. They had like six full time video studios working for years. And all it was, was a customer, an employee being thrown a shoe and then them manipulating it with their hands. So you can get an idea of the flex, the size, the color, the style of it, all the rest of that kind of thing that adds so much more than the Photoshopped Photography that you get with e commerce sites, which Yeah, it looks weird.

It doesn't seem trustworthy. And I would love to see someone actually, you know, show that, yes, I'm wearing a red shirt. I'm going to throw this t shirt over it. You don't see through it. Hey, guess what? It's not see through. You can prove these elements. You can show the thickness of it with your hands by actually holding up the fabric.

Between two fingers, like there's a ways to basically try to take what is a very tactile visual based kind of product, and also try to emphasize all of those elements as well as you can online, which gives you so much more than what any other retailer is doing. And then I guess the last one you guys had said in kind of different ways with kind of like the drops, but limit your inventory, try to figure out basically what are your key items, work with those key items, streamlined of it, those sales, having tons and tons of inventories, the death of like a roof.

A clothing company that I've ever heard of. So

Dave Dougherty: the alienation piece that you said, I think is important. And if you're going to be successful, you cannot be for everybody. That is literally how marketing works is that you can have to get rid of the people who are not interested in your products.

Alex Pokorny: Yeah. And if it's a big enough organization or if you have a big enough kind of like preset logistics manufacturing stream that you can't like split it, split it through brand.

You can launch two brands. You can launch three brands. You can split things up. You can say, Hey, we've got a side brand, a sister brand, who is our jewelry retailer side of things. I mean, if you have those contracts already in place and they're five year contracts, I get it. Like you can still work that product into the market, but you don't necessarily have to alienate the other half at the same time.

Dave Dougherty: I was, yeah. Well, and, and even though you're online, you can also do things. in the real world. I remember talking to somebody who was at one of the major food companies and I said, you know, it'd be really fun if you can get like legal to approve it and, and, you know, do whatever for this, like go to all the outdoor stores.

Like REI, Publix, Outdoor, like what a, you know, camping world. And just put a coupon for a free box of granola or something in all of the windshields. Right? Like, because you know that demographically you're gonna hit about 80 percent of people.

Alex Pokorny: Literally what marketing has termed the crunchies.

Dave Dougherty: Yeah, absolutely.

Do you could do something fun? Like, Hey, I just see you drive a Subaru and you're at REI. Here's, you know, some yogurt recommendations too. Like, you know, it's too fun. So it probably won't ever be executed, but I mean, that's the type of thing where if you're a smaller brand, that idea might actually play.

Because what else do you have to lose? If people don't know who you are, now you're doing the kind of punk rock poster, the city, you know, kind of thing with your, your upcoming show posters, like you know, get out there and get the awareness. And, and even if you have a small amount of people who convert on that, the stunt might also get you some publicity in the local news as well.

So Something to consider, you know, obviously if you're going to pull some sort of stunt or, or whatever else, you may need your lawyers involved. Always be smart about it, but don't let don't let that get in the way of a good idea for what you're, for what you're doing.

Guerrilla Marketing and Creative Strategies

Ruth Corcoran: I think what all these things that have in common that we've been talking about, even, even to some extent, the luxury hotel chain is what Def Jams, Julie Greenwald.

It's called guerrilla marketing. Check out the latest Rick Rubin podcast with Julie Greenwell. It's quite good. We've for most of the time, most companies, you have a small shoestring budget, so you've got to be creative. You've got to be clever. You've got to go after who's your audience. Where do they are and be there.

Dave Dougherty: For my favorite example of guerrilla marketing, look up Mr. Clean magic eraser crosswalks.

It's wonderful. It's wonderful.

Conclusion and Listener Engagement

Dave Dougherty: On that note, thank you for listening. Thank you for coming by. Please drop us a note online in the description, you'll find the email, hit us up with episode ideas or feedback on, on thoughts on this episode or what you might do or any followup. episode ideas you might have, please let us know.

We would love to hear from you all. Like rate and review. It really does help us know what you guys are thinking and, and liking from the show. And we will see you in the next episode of Enterprising Minds. Take care.

Ruth Corcoran: Cheers.