Monoculture is Dead: LIVE from NRF 2020

Future Commerce Podcast: eCommerce, DTC and Retail Strategy

• Episode: Monoculture is Dead: LIVE from NRF 2020
• Website: Future Commerce Podcast: eCommerce, DTC and Retail Strategy
• Feed URL: https://rss.simplecast.com/podcasts/2042/rss
• Duration: 00:59:38
• Published: 2020-01-21 13:00

Is Omnichannel really dead? How are niche brands reaching an entirely new (or not so new) generation of customers? And does Coty know what to do with Kylie Cosmetics? Find out during our LIVE NRF 2020 episode where Phillip and Brian are joined by Ingrid Cordy!

Main Takeaways:

• Brian and Phillip are joined by Ingrid Cordy live from NRF 2020!

• The Future Commerce Vision 2020 Retail Report is out and contains tons of predictions for where commerce is heading in 2020.

• The Filter Bubble restricts people from ever seeing content from outside their social circle, but how do we expand our social awareness?

• What brands are going to be making exits in 2020 and why?

Is Monoculture Dead?: What is Monoculture?: 

• There will never be another Michael Jackson in regards to his pop iconography, as many more content creators create content and media. 

• As the world is becoming more fragmented and more niche, you begin to find your niche community that provides its unique perception of reality. 

• Forty years ago, everyone shared the same media experiences (such as the moon landing), which became cultural moments of the world. 

• The visuals we have from mainstream media of pivotal moments in history would never occur today because we now view events through Snapchat and Instagram stories.

The Filter Bubble: The Power of Influence:

• Download the Future Commerce Vision 2020 Retail Report to get more insight on the Filter Bubble and other predictions the team has made.

• Almost 2.5 billion people participate in the properties that Facebook owns, and with those numbers, Facebook has the power to influence an election.  

• Television was the first disruptor in politics, and the debate between Kennedy and Nixon swayed the vote in Kennedy's favor and served as a turning point between media and politics.

• Facebook will not fact check ads going into the political season, which is an example of a stance that social media platforms can take when it comes to delivering content to their users.

Positive Shifts: Sorting Through the Noise: 

• How do aspirational brands reach no customers if the world views of potential clients are so limited due to the filter bubble?

• Getting people to explore outside of their bubble is a big challenge. 

• Your social circle and the people around you affect the way that you see the world, so smaller niche brands enjoy an audience that is outside of the mainstream culture. 

• Aspirational brands can be effective, but Phillip predicts this will be based on word of mouth and the trust you have from your social circle. 

• Ingrid predicts an increase in the need for social proof and refinement in the next generation of influencers.

Looking Ahead: Shifting from Growth to Staying Power:

• We are coming out of a period of brands going through explosive growth, but Brian predicts we are entering a period where brands want to become something that sticks with people for a much more extended period of time. 

• Everything today seems to be ephemeral, and what happens today doesn't matter tomorrow. 

• Consumers are starting to get tired of brands always focusing on the "new" and are tired of continually discovering what has changed. 

• Staying power is proving to be more and more desirable from the consumer base, so brands are shifting their approach to be more dependable.

The Power of Niche: Finding Your Tribe:

• The things that matter to you and that you put a value on will become more niche and more local to your tribe.

• The social community value of niche brands can be more valuable than broadly recognized brands that everyone has heard about.

• If we trend towards how communities interact and care about each other, we will automatically create places for sharing things beyond your internet bubble. 

• Each city has its own Chamber of Commerce, which is a great place for brands to share their experiences and advice with other brands.

The New Local: Virtualizing the Physical World: 

• Local isn't just a physical location; it is wherever you happen to be. 

• There's an emerging trend of very young kids in school who will log onto Fortnite, not to play the game, but to be with their friends for hours at a time in a digital locale. 

• Taking local online to digital locations virtualizes and redefines everything we know about local. 

• Most of our shared experiences are very short experiences, and meme culture is rapid and happens in an environment of fleeting recognition.

Coty Buys Kylie: An Enormous Acquisition:

• Back in November, Coty Inc. valued Kylie Cosmetics at $1.2 billion and paid $600 million for a majority stake in the company.

• Ingrid has doubts that a big legacy brand like Coty knows what to do with a trendy brand like Kylie Cosmetics.

• How can Coty leverage their expertise to make the most out of Kylie Cosmetics, and what can they learn from Kylie's ability to capture the attention of a sought after consumer base?

• Just because a brand sells the same type of product does not mean that it does the same thing as other brands in the same space.

Commerce Current Events: Rapid Fire Hot Takes:

• Casper just filed to go public, and Coty just bought Kylie Cosmetics, but what other large brands could be making an exit this year? 

• Ingrid predicts that Everlane could be exiting because they have been around for a long time and are doubling their brick and mortar presence this year.

• Brian predicts that Cuyana will be purchased or make an exit this year.

• Phillip thinks that Glossier has a tremendous amount of brand awareness and thinks that expanding their reach will be easy with their VC money.

A Virtuous Filter Bubble: Changing the Future Through Choice:

• Over the next ten years, Phillip predicts that we have the opportunity for technology to enable the consumer to tell the brand how they want to be talked to. 

• Allowing customers to experience things how they want to experience them is a filter bubble that is virtuous.

• If you don't want to see anything that uses animal products while shopping, there should be a filter that applies across all of your online shopping that removes that content. 

• A more venerated way of the customer telling brands how they want to be interacted with is a future we can strive towards.

Observations and Wishes: NRF 2020: 

• Omnichannel has shifted to be consumer-focused, and that is the new (and better) way to describe what omnichannel was. 

• Amazon has not exhibited in as large of a way as they did at this year's conference ever before and are petitioning themselves as a technology stack for retailers to take advantage of. 

• Ingrid wants to see an interaction with a regular consumer in which they comment on what is happening at the show to get an outside perspective. 

• Phillip wishes there was a section of the show that was dedicated to sustainable solutions.

• And finally, Brian wants to see a metric that shows what solutions or brands are gaining traction at the show.

Brands Mentioned in this Episode:

• Snapchat

• Instagram

• Facebook

• Fortnite

• Coty

• Kylie Cosmetics

• Casper

• Everlane 

• Cuyana 

• Amazon

As always: We want to hear what our listeners think! Do you agree with the predictions made by Brian, Phillip, and Ingrid? What do you think the next year holds for the world of commerce?

Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin.

Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at [email protected] or any of our social channels; we love hearing from our listeners!

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