This Week in Business and Brands: Flowers, Freight, Films and More
Getting it Right: Customer-Centric Brands in Bloom
We have two winners this week for our customer-centricity commendation. First, everything’s coming up roses for new flower-delivery services like Bouqs and BloomNation, who go beyond the local storefront to benefit farmers, florists, and fans alike. By offering prettier profits on the posies for local growers and keeping the product fresher for its recipients, the seeds are planted for everyday bouquet delivery, and the consumer has no shortage of options.
Second, JW Marriott is nipping annoying ads in the bud by creating original content for its travel-focused audience. Now producing digital series, documentary-style TV programs, and short films, the brand can highlight its properties in a truly engaging way. In the words of David Beebe, head of Marriott’s content studio: “Our approach is to stop interrupting what [the customer’s] interested in, and become that instead.” We’ll cheer to that new customer-centric journey.
Talking Tactics, Tête–à–Tête: Agility with Age & Food for Thought
This week also gave us some valuable insights from brand leaders across various industries, including:
- Howard Kahn, Executive Chairman of 127-year-old Kahn Lucas, on how to keep a multi-generational business on top: “We are very agile. I’m comfortable being uncomfortable…we are really flexible and not married to anything.”
- Barnaby Dawe, CMO of Just Eat, on rebranding for global leadership: “You can have all the data you like, but if you can’t tell a story and help it to inform your strategy then there’s no point in having the data or the analysts.”
The Future is Now: High-Tech on the Highway
The age of self-driving delivery has now arrived – in Colorado, where Uber’s first freight in a driverless truck cruised 120 miles without a hitch. With its order of 50,000 cans of Budweiser, there’s certainly plenty to cheers about, as the company is primed to revolutionize a myriad of industries on the road to shipping solutions. While the global taxi service market spans about $100B, the US trucking market alone is over $700B, meaning this first fully-auto-piloted journey just marked the beginning of an incomprehensibly huge revolution in the field. Talk about reinventing the wheel – all eighteen of them….
Leadership Lessons: Step Back, Trust the Process, and Fuel the Feedback
Want to take your management strategy to the next level? Take a tip from one of this week’s excellent exercises in executive effectiveness:
- Make strategic thinking part of your job. Get out of the weeds, stop putting out fires, and invite others to voice their opinions in order to build trust and commitment.
- Follow the simple rules for business strategy. And remember that it’s always a process, “a process in which you are never done – there is no real finish line.”
- Be kind – but more importantly, be effective. Make sure to encourage your team with positive feedback, but lose the fluff and keep the praise specific and of the moment.
Video Victory: Watch, Click, and Buy
That’s all for this week! We’ll leave you with this innovative new shoppable film from Ted Baker, allowing you to tailor your look directly from the stylized screen. And for more insight from behind those scenes, check out this profile on the CEO who stays out of the limelight while dominating the global market. Have a great weekend!