Sidewalk Labs Plans, Luxury Brands With Emotional Connections, Chernin to Sell Barstool Sports, Pepsi Lifestyle Push, How to Get on Gen Z's Wish List, Solving Last Mile Problem, RealReal Authenticity?
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Tomorrow, Toronto’s City Council will hold a key vote on Sidewalk Labs’s plan to privatize much of the city’s lakeshore in the name of creating a “smart city” owned by…
The plan calls for the creation of privately owned and regulated roads, charter schools in place of publicly administered schools, the power to levy and spend property taxes without democratic oversight, a corporate criminal justice system where the cops and judges work for Sidewalk Labs, and totalizing, top-to-bottom, continuous surveillance.
Sidewalk Labs (previously) is a "smart city" company that was spun out of Google, though it remains owned by Alphabet, Google's parent company; Sidewalk Labs's first major outing is a planned "experimental city" on Toronto's lakeshore, and it's been a disaster, from the bullying it used to get the project's initial approval to being outed.
MBLM's recent study notices that the luxury industry still needs improvement in this area. Marketing agency MBLM recently released its 2019 Brand Intimacy Study , which ranks companies according to how strong their emotional bonds are with consumers.
A mix of iconic American brands and forward-thinking tech companies hold the top ten spots across all 15 categories, which include Media & Entertainment, Consumer Goods, Fast Food and more.
Chernin Group Exploring Sale of Barstool Sports
The Chernin Group is exploring the sale of Barstool Sports to a gambling operator, two sources have told The Big Lead.
Sports gambling talk has always been a big part of Barstool, since it was a print newspaper that Portnoy was hustling around Boston T stations.
PepsiCo makes lifestyle brand push with e-commerce fashion hub
House of PepsiCo features apparel and accessories from the company's collaborations with fashion labels from around the world.
"The platform mirrors the lifestyle that has sprung up around our [brand] and creates an added value 'click-to-buy' traffic driver for our retail and licensing partners in a design-forward, seamless format," Mauro Porcini, PepsiCo's chief design officer, toldl The Drum.
Taco Bell teamed up with Forever 21 to offer brand-related tops, bodysuits, sweatsuits and jackets; KFC opened an e-commerce shop featuring shirts with Colonel Sanders' likeness; and McDonald's created a collection of branded casual clothes that lets consumers flaunt their fast food fandom.
How to get on Gen Z's wish list this season
A unique assortment is just one part of the challenge, as the young group has high expectations and low loyalty. Here's what brands need to know.
Nora Kleinewillinghoefer, a principal at A.T. Kearney who co-wrote a report on Gen Z for the firm, noted that a quarter of respondents in the demographic said they had spent on beauty and personal care in the last six months.
REI, for example, doubled down on its environmental message this year through its popular #OptOutside campaign, which runs in connection with Black Friday, and others could also take advantage of the time to forge stronger relationships with Gen Z shoppers.
Modern Retail surveyed 206 brands and retailers to ask what is working, and what isn’t working for them on Amazon.
The company now, per eMarketer, accounts for almost 40% of all e-commerce in the U.S., with eBay, Apple and Walmart trailing it, with less than 10% of the market.
The company offers basket-level analysis, but retailers often chafe at not being told exact conversion rates.
Solving the Last Mile Problem for Continuous Delivery
This post is the fifth and final article in our Tactical Guide to a Shorter Cycle Time five-part series. Read the previous post here.
Due to sheer expectations of speed, the Continuous Delivery pipeline minimizes top-down planning and gives developers the ability to make more choices related to implementation.
If you’ve been successful with this, then your developers are making small incremental changes, pushing frequently, and moving work through the Continuous Delivery pipeline with little to no friction.
The RealReal revealed boosted revenue and increased user numbers for the third quarter of the year as the $200 billion resale economy continues to find fans in fashion-focused consumers. The number of active buyers using the upscale consignment platform grew to 543,000, up from 492
Pointing to intel from “nearly three dozen former employees, unsatisfied customers around the country and internal company documentation from 2018 that shows that copywriters … have been tasked with authenticating some of the items that go on The RealReal’s site,” CNBC said it “found real questions” about the resale titan’s methods.
It took 20 hours to measure every diamond in a Graff necklace the company vetted for sale this year, said Julie Wainwright, The RealReal’s founder and chief executive, in an interview in January.”
UPS gets ready for many happy returns
“National Returns Day,” is expected to occur on Jan. 2. In December, consumers will ship via UPS more than 1 million return packages back to retailers daily and that is expected to last into early January.
“Gone are the days where returns were isolated to January – today’s empowered consumers will be sending packages back to retailers all season long.”
Peloton Results, 2020 Forecast Beats Estimates; Shares Jump
Peloton Projects 2020 Revenue That Tops Analysts’ Estimates. Peloton Interactive Inc. forecast strong revenue growth in fiscal 2020 and reported a narrower quarterly loss than analysts estimated, assuaging some concerns that have weighed on th...
I Got Access to My Secret Consumer Score. Now You Can Get Yours, Too.
Little-known companies are amassing your data — like food orders and Airbnb messages — and selling the analysis to clients. Here’s how to get a copy of what they have on you.
I got mine, and I found it shocking: More than 400 pages long, it contained all the messages I’d ever sent to hosts on Airbnb; years of Yelp delivery orders; a log of every time I’d opened the Coinbase app on my iPhone.
“I don’t really care that these data analytics companies know I made a return to Victoria’s Secret in 2009, or that I had chicken kebabs delivered to my apartment, but how is this information being used against me when you generate scores for your clients?” Ms. Antonini said.
The Liquor Everyone’s Buying—Even People Who Can’t Stand It
Moutai, a potent, clear spirit is a status symbol, even if many find it tough to swallow; ‘‘very much like ethanol’
China’s Kweichow Moutai Co. has become the world’s most valuable liquor company thanks to a fiery spirit that can cost nearly $400 a bottle.
The company’s version, known simply as Moutai, has a long association with China’s Communist leaders, and has become a homegrown status symbol for affluent Chinese.