You Sleep When You Die
you sleep when you die...and other unpopular thoughts from retail marketing leader, Jordan Zimmerman
Of course we all have tough periods in our lives. There were definitely plenty of dark days for me and this agency, days when we faced setbacks and lost clients. But we always found a way to learn from the experience and become stronger, and we always bounced back.
It is a national disgrace that 1100 students are homeless in Seminole County. That should not be happening. An eight-year-old girl shouldn’t have to go on national television and talk about being stuck in her car with her mom, her dad, two dogs, and a cat, praying that the family can somehow come up with enough money to get into a cheap hotel. One-quarter of our country’s kids should not be living in poverty. But they are. If you were moved, as I was, by the 60 Minutes report, I have two challenges for you.
Yes, there are some heavy pressures on some consumers right now.
Yes, there is a lot of uncertainty in our economy as a whole, and in the retail sector particularly.
Yes, there are far fewer discretionary dollars for consumers to spend than there were a few years ago.
But I don’t believe that any of this means that consumers are now destined to be permanently wary of anything but store brands and coupon-driven purchases.
My advice: Take off your war paint, drop the sign, and go do something Jobs would have done. Find an unmet need, have a great idea, start a company. If you don’t like a bad bank, start a better one. Build something. Find something that pisses you off and work constructively to change it.
The big reason Party City is a great role model for today’s retailers is that they treat the customer’s money and time just as though it were their own…Party City now has an extremely successful marketing methodology in place, one that’s resonating powerfully with consumers … even when discretionary dollars are tight.
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