Thread by @minethatdata

1 - The first portion of my consulting career (2007 to about 2013) was mostly spent working with catalog clients.

Now, most of you marketing via influencers might only remember catalog marketing from the J. Peterman character on Seinfeld.

https://twitter.com/minethatdata/status/1383827020845436938

2 - In the 2004-2007 timeframe catalog marketing began the process of "dying".

Now, I'm already bracing myself for the wolves who will come out and say that Amazon sends a catalog and that is proof that catalog marketing is alive and well.

It is not alive and well.

3 - I was invited to speak at a conference in 2007 ... a roundtable discussion on the future of catalog marketing.

It's hard to tell an audience of 300 people that there is no future.

I was invited to provide a "contrarian" view ...

4 - "Contrarian" of course means "the industry isn't going to listen to this guy but sure is interested in being entertained by this guy"

5 - I recall my comments as being received in a "hostile" manner.

The most "hostile" reaction?

I said that "in the future, you wouldn't give a code off of your catalog to allow the marketer to measure results, you'd instead execute mail/holdout tests and measure the lift".

6 - You'd have thought a bomb went off in the room.

Anger.

Laughter. Hysterical laughter.

"He doesn't get it." comments.

Disdain.

The facial expressions.

One of the panelists was an L.L. Bean employee, who reassured the audience things would be fine. The audience liked that

7 - Now, even back in 2007 you couldn't hold back the future. It was a digital future, and it was coming, and there was nothing you could do about it.

But this audience earned a salary by preserving ... conserving ... the past. The audience couldn't let the future happen.

8 - If the audience let the future happen, then the audience lost a VP job or Director job or a Manager job.

Given a choice between ushering a catalog brand into the future or conserving the past and protecting your paycheck, it's common sense one would conserve the past.

9 - I spent the first six years, via my blog, using actual customer data and facts to share what was happening to the (contraction of the) catalog industry, offering ideas on how to dig out of the looming hole.

This method (sharing facts) was highly unsuccessful.

10 - Industry pundits discredited my ideas.

"His models are too simplistic, he's a moron."

"You need to buy more paper and mail more catalogs when there is less competition in the mailbox."

"Ignore what happened to Lillian Vernon catalog, their bankruptcy is irrelevant."

11 - I'd visit catalog brands and have CEOs just beat the living daylights out of my just for the fun of it.

"You don't get it, if we don't mail catalogs we don't get orders."

"The industry is healthy".

"How can you be so stupid."

12 - I'd share their own customer data with them ... THEIR OWN DATA ... mind you, and they'd bring in their in-house analyst to refute what I observed.

I'd say "you're refuting how your own customers are behaving" ... and they'd get more angry.

13 - It was like my clients were paying me to analyze their data and visit their campus just so they could yell at me that facts were meaningless and their story/narrative represented reality.

14 - In 2012 I was so fed up with the catalog industry ignoring reality that I created three personas.

Judy (Baby Boomer)

Jennifer (Gen-X)

Jasmine (Millennial).

Jadyn (Gen-Z).

At the same conference I spoke at in 2007 I spoke again in 2012 about the personas.

15 - Here's where the "data" story changes.

I presented Judy to the audience.

The audience LOVED Judy. She was going to continue to buy from catalogs. This meant that they got to keep their job as long as they marketed to Judy.

16 - Then I presented "Jennifer", the e-commerce loving Gen-X shopper.

You could hear the anger in the audience. The audience HATED Jennifer. Hated her. She was the enemy. All of a sudden I could see what the real issue was, and I was seeing it in real time while presenting.

17 - The real issue was generational.

I saw this when I presented "Jasmine", the millennial child of Judy.

The audience loved Jasmine.

Judy = Love.

Jennifer = Hate.

Jasmine = Love.

18 - A person in the back of the room raised his hand. He worked for the USPS.

He asked a question.

"How do we get Jasmine to love catalogs like we love catalogs?"

The audience buzzed with anticipation. They were so excited. They wanted to pass over Jennifer to Jasmine.

19 - I answered the guy from the USPS.

"You aren't going to get Jasmine to love catalogs. She's going to love the brands she loves and interact with them the way she wants to interact with them."

You could feel the anger in the room (again).

20 - I recall a trade journalist writing a few weeks later how a 27 year old he knows just bought from a catalog. "They work!" he proclaimed.

I was both successful in my presenting of facts via generations ... and highly unsuccessful.

21 - I showed that among customers age 60+ catalogs worked.

The audience embraced that message.

The audience embraced their hatred for the e-commerce loving 43 year old.

The audience made up a story about how 27 year olds could be trained to love catalogs.

22 - Over the next 2-3 years when I'd visit a client I routinely heard about Judy and Jasmine.

Never Jennifer.

They loved their core audience, and they loved the idea of teaching a 27 year old to love catalogs.

23 - Again, these executives got to "conserve" their profession, keeping their jobs, still doing what they love.

I just gave them a mission, a purpose, and I did it by accident. I was trying to get this audience to focus on Jennifer (e-commerce). They skipped over her.

24 - Even today, nine years later, catalog brands contact me and use the terms "Judy" and "Jasmine".

They hated facts.

The liked facts when they were bundled into their worldview. Then they twisted the facts to give the industry a purpose.

25 - You can't use facts to convince people to change when they're being harmed by change.

It just doesn't work.

They won't believe you.

They'll discredit you.

They'll try to argue against you.

They'll use lies to discredit facts.

26 - You might be able to build a bridge between the past and the future. I failed doing this, but I sure tried hard.

27 - I have learned that you need to have empathy, even if those not wanting to change haven't earned the right to have empathy.

It's not fun to be "disrupted" ... though some sure have fun doing the disruption.

28 - And it is particularly hard to have empathy for people who, via their actions, are actually doing harm ... to you.

My consulting career was hurt by the anger and reactions of the very people I was trying to help.

29 - These concepts don't just apply to commerce, by the way.

Thanks,
Kevin