“Amazon recently won a seven-year battle to quite literally capture the last word in e-commerce.” | learn more
The inside story of a Burger King ad campaign
The Whopper Detour campaign sold $0.01 Whoppers from the BK app, only while customers were at a McDonalds. Genius. “Global CMO Fernando Machado shares the long road to Whopper Detour and its 37:1 ROI” | learn more
Walmart is becoming a technology company
The author makes the point that Walmart has embraced the need to be tech-focused as it competes with Amazon, Alibaba & other tech/retail giants. What the author misses is that Walmart, despite its 60 years of age, has often been an early adopter of tech. For example, they were one of the first uses of satellite communications to get real-time data from their far-away stores back to HQ. | learn more
Direct-to-consumer brands by the numbers
Sitara Ramesh pulled data from Andy Dunn’s list of 92 DNVBs along with some others to come up with some insights about funding, geography, etc. | learn more
IKEA gets a new logo for the internet
In a link below you’ll see an article about the ‘tough tomato principle’ about co-evolution. This is that principle in action. First came the internet, then the internet evolved to handle images (and logos), and now logos are evolving to fit the new form factors of the internet. In this case, IKEA ditched their iconic blue and yellow for a white & transparent logo that can be overlayed on top of media for Instagram etc. | learn more
Amazon starts building an airport, and TechCrunch has the winning headline
“Jeff Bezos personally dumps a truckload of dirt on FedEx’s future.” They’re building a 3-million-square-foot airport near Cincinnati to help get your packages to you next-day. | learn more
Chinese shopping app falls for American bargains
Imagine a mobile QVC broadcast from foreign (US in this case) retail stores. “Live-stream shopping is captivating China, and one app lets viewers take part in the scramble for discounts in U.S. stores; ‘How is this possible? Why isn’t all of New York here?’” | learn more
Amazon enters the freight brokerage business
I probably should have expected this, but I didn’t. Have you visited Relentless.com recently? “Amazon could build a zero-margin equivalent of C.H. Robinson inside the ‘shipping costs’ line on its P&L without anyone noticing.” | learn more
Amazon soon moving to one-day Prime delivery
The news here is a big deal, but shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention to Amazon’s relentless pressure. My favorite part might be this Yahoo Finance headline: “Amazon ‘Sneezes’ One-Day Delivery, And A Chill Envelops Retail, Logistics Landscape” | learn more
Sears sues former CEO Edward Lampert for $2B
I imagine waking up to a $2B lawsuit against me would probably ruin my day – I wonder how he’s feeling about it? At the very least, I’m sure he’s not surprised. On a side note, this is a great example of why public companies must pay so much for Directors & Officers liability insurance. | learn more