🎢 | Move at the Speed of Retail: 10 Frameworks to Embrace
Retail moves fast, up / down, erratic, unexpected… but one thing is for certain, it’s never standing still. Are you prepared to move at the speed of retail?
All jokes and metaphors aside, these 10 frameworks below aren’t silver bullets, but they are guardrails. They’ll help you stay agile, grounded, and growth-focused as the landscape shifts beneath your feet. Consider them your Dramamine for the chaos of commerce. Hold on tight. 💥
Now, if I worked in retail—which I do—here are the 10 frameworks I’d want every brand to embrace (or at least explore):
Pervasive AI Integration: AI is a significant force for creating efficiencies across a business and solving knowledge problems by integrating large amounts of information. Companies should lean into AI and empower employees to explore its uses. Combining AI's strengths with human skills is essential.
Action: Identify specific operational or customer data tasks where AI can improve efficiency and analysis. Implement pilot AI projects and provide employee training to encourage practical application and experimentation. Establish regular periods of review, always getting 1% better (every day).
Authentic Storytelling: Sharing the brand's story daily in an unfiltered way connects deeply with audiences. Focusing only on product features is less effective than adding value through relatable stories. Brands should not fear sharing their story, as it can significantly impact the business. Brand DNA should be presented in today's language.
Action: Regularly share authentic, behind-the-scenes content about your brand's journey and people on public platforms. Focus on building emotional connections and sharing relatable experiences beyond product details. Most will not recall what you say, but how you made them feel (not me, Maya Angelou said that).
Evolving Customer Value Perception: Value isn't just about price; customers also see value in inspiration, experience, and emotional connection. Product quality, fit, and consistency contribute to perceived value. Authenticity also enhances brand value.
Action: Communicate your brand's value proposition emphasizing unique experiences, consistent quality, and emotional benefits, not just price. Ensure your brand's authentic identity is clear in how you convey value. Don’t try to be something for everyone, just everything for someone.
Strategic Collaboration & Partnerships: Real collaboration involves deep partner involvement. Brands should evolve alongside partners. Partnerships can include influencers and cross-functional teams. The goal is genuine collaboration.
Action: Actively seek collaboration opportunities with aligned partners (brands, artists, influencers) for mutual growth. Develop collaborative projects that involve genuine co-creation and support. Don’t suffer from the “not-invented here syndrome,” collaborate!
Blending Physical & Digital Retail: Technology should empower staff and enhance human connection in stores. Digital strategies can drive traffic to physical locations. Investing in the physical store experience, including staffing and services like food, adds value. Online presence can lead customers to stores.
Action: Create a digital presence that encourages physical store visits through exclusive content, local events, or in-store technology hints. Train store staff to use technology to support, but not replace, human interaction and service. Hate this overused saying, but it’s true… meet your customer where they are. Table stakes.
Agility and Rapid Pivoting: The business environment requires quick strategy adjustments. Maintaining flexibility is vital. Empowering teams allows for faster reactions. Be willing to discard old plans ("throw the playbook out").
Action: Cultivate an organizational culture that embraces change and empowers marketing teams for rapid decision-making. Allow for flexible campaign adjustments based on real-time feedback and market shifts. And celebrate the failures more than the successes. Failures are awesome, if you learn from them.
Platform-Specific Social Media: Different social platforms serve distinct consumer needs (e.g., TikTok for entertainment, LinkedIn for learning). Brands need differentiated strategies for each platform. Success comes from matching content to the platform. Emotional connection and value are consistently important.
Action: Tailor content strategies for each major social platform based on how your audience uses it. Create content that consistently delivers emotional value and resonates with the platform's specific culture. Adapt your content, your messaging, your brand values to align with your audience (umm… AI can help).
Employee Empowerment & Trust: Empowering employees to use new tools like AI is crucial. Hiring people with passion and excitement for the brand story is beneficial. Trusting employees, particularly in areas like social media, allows them to learn and execute their vision. Team-based rewards encourage collective success.
Action: Hire individuals passionate about your brand and empower them with autonomy and resources for their roles. Structure incentives to reward team and company performance, fostering a collaborative environment. Skills < personality. The best staff are the ones open to (meaningful) change.
Leveraging Events & Networking: Events offer valuable opportunities for networking and making industry connections. Proactive engagement at events builds relationships. Events can be platforms for showcasing brand identity and engaging audiences directly through experiences.
Action: Prioritize attending relevant industry events with clear networking and business development goals. Design your brand's presence at events to create memorable experiences that highlight your unique identity and encourage direct engagement. Remember, body language is 80%+ of what you actually “say.”
Adaptive Portfolio Management: Brands should regularly evaluate and potentially retire older products/brands. There is opportunity to create new brands or products for broader demographics. Efficiently bringing new ideas to market is necessary. New products should reflect brand DNA in a modern context.
Action: Conduct regular reviews of your brand and product portfolio for market fit and performance. Invest in agile product development to quickly introduce new offerings that authentically extend your brand for current consumers. Change is one of life’s only guarantees. You feel me?
What’s your #11? Agree, disagree? My inbox is open, HMU if you’d like to discuss my thinking further.
PS - almost forgot, shout out to The Lead Summit. Much of the inspiration for this blog was an amalgamation of my experience combined with some of the greatest minds in today’s retail industry. 🤜🏼
