Future Commerce

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

News
**Future Commerce**

Future Commerce is the culture magazine for Commerce. Hosts Phillip Jackson and Brian Lange help brand and digital marketing leaders see around the next corner by exploring the intersection of Culture and Commerce.

Trusted by the world’s most recognizable brands to deliver the most insightful, entertaining, and informative weekly podcasts, Future Commerce is the leading new media brand for eCommerce merchants and retail operators.

Each week, we explore the cultural implications of what it means to sell or buy products and how commerce and media impact the culture and the world around us, through unique insights and engaging interviews with a dash of futurism.

Weekly essays, full transcripts, and quarterly market research reports are available at https://www.futurecommerce.com/plus

Latest Episodes:

The Anti-Blands: Existential Brands and the New Dadaism Sep 25, 2020

Show notes

The New Dadaism

Dadaism was an intellectual movement post-WWI that focused on subverting the serious.
In response to the popularity of minimalism, maximalism has been on the rise. Brands have been using absurdity to reach their markets - specifically with Gen Z and Millennial brands.

An Exploration in Brands in this Moment

“Topicals really is the Anti-Bland” - Phillip
Topicals is a skin care brand founded by two women of color. They have continuously been selling out, even after retailing with Nordstrom. They have individually branded, specified products which tailors to their market.
Gen Z is into spiritualism which is reflected in Topical’s quiz to find your unique skin care needs.
Faculty is a male skincare brand that has also stuck to the Gen Z and millennial generational experience - in dropping products periodically instead of restocking, in adding music to their brand experience, and in their use of SMS marketing.
Brands are experiencing their own existentialism in the current global climate which has left room for refreshing and redefinition, even in larger CPG brands like Walmart, Pepsi, and Amazon, that are already set up for success regardless of the economy.

Links

Brian’s Insider’s Piece, Insiders #054: “The Existential Brand - Part 1”
Brian’s Insider’s Piece, Insiders #045: “The New Dada: Absurdism, Maximalism, and the Generational Divide”
The New Yorker: “The North American Maximalism of Gigi Hadid’s and Drake’s Home Design”
Bloomberg: “Welcome to Your Bland New World”
Chips + Dips’ email newsletter
Thingtesting

Brands Mentioned

Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at info@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels, we love hearing from our listeners!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

CPG: "Around You, On You, In You" Sep 18, 2020

Show notes

Jackson Jeyanayagam, VP of DTC at Clorox, joins us today to talk about Clorox’s DTC strategy, launching a new brand for an underserved, generation segment in the marketplace, and how his past experiences have prepared him and brought a fresh perspective to his current role.

What’s Jeyanayagam’s story?

Jeyanayagam started at a PR agency working with T-Mobile.
Whenever the Sidekick was launched and subsequently hacked, his world opened up to social media and digital marketing.
This digital marketing and social media focus was further solidified when Jeyanayagam had a role in Old Spice’s brand transformation in 2010.
While in an agency role, Jeyanayagam worked with brands like NASCAR, P&G, Diageo, and Chipotle.
Jackson then moved into the startup world with Boxed as their CMO.
After moving on from Boxed, Jeyanayagam looked for an opportunity to grow personally and move towards his own dream of being the CEO or president of his own company.
In his experience working with brands at their highs and their lows, Jeyanayagam learned to look past what brand is hot at the moment and into what the perfect role might be.
He chose a position that would grow and challenge him - Clorox.

Being a Leader

Jayanayagam has brought his experience and knowledge to the Clorox family of brands and has received mentorship and guidance from his seniors there.
“I don't care what generation we're in and how technologies evolve, there will be nothing that replaces people and valuing people.” - Jackson Jeyanayagam
In the Mad men era, things were all about hierarchy and title. Now, great leaders should be adapting to the people they lead, not the other way around.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Moment

Having experienced the rise and fall of “hot” brands, Jeyanayagam compares the experience to sports. Having a big lead mid-game is no guarantee that things will continue.
Even at the top, you must continue to take the kinds of risks that brought you to that place.
Many of the hottest brands today will fall. And likewise, those who have fallen may rise again.
Microsoft is a powerful example of a brand that reinvented itself to see a second rise.

Clorox DTC

Clorox owns many distinct brands - RenewLife, NeoCell, Natural Vitality, Rainbow Light, and Burt’s Bees.
Clorox launched an in-house wellness brand called Objective, which is aimed at Gen X consumers, which are generally under marketed to.
Clorox also has an in-house brand targeting Baby Boomers called Stop Aging Now.

The Growth of Private Brands

Working with Clorox, Jeyanayagam has the power of a 100+ year old recognizable brand.
With the failure of Brandless, is there a message about the importance of brand?
Traditional brands are facing pressure from knockoffs and generics that forces them to be creative about how they’ll compete.
Private brand has become more popular through the likes of Amazon and Costco and there’s a lot of growth happening there.

Around You, On You, In You

Most consumers will pay a premium for a recognizable brand when it’s a product that’s going in or on your body.
In any given category, there are many brands that co-exist and compete at any given moment. Over the span of a decade or more, very few last. Brand is a key to this staying power.
The closer the product is to you, the greater the challenge is to gain new customers.
Around you is easiest - candles, for instance.
On you becomes more challenging - lotions, shampoo, deodorant. People are less likely to try something now.
For something consumed or put in you, consumers are much more sensitive.

Consumer 3.0

Consumer expectations are changing and becoming heightened by the experience best-in-class brands provide.
These expectations can be broken down into functionality and emotional appeal.
Consumers today not only want to know that the product works, but they care what the brand stands for.
Beyond that, expectations on things like fulfillment and delivery are rapidly rising because of Amazon. People want things fast and they don’t want to pay for shipping.
More than demographic by generation, there is opportunity to create brands by psychographic - classifications by attitude and mindset.
Gen X is a forgotten generation in marketing. They are funding and informing much of Gen Z, but they receive not nearly as much attention.
Brands have the power to change the world through honesty and transparency. As we can see with brands like Everlane and Allbirds, there is a movement that encourages consumers to care about where their product comes from and the ethics of the brands they purchase from.

What is BEHAVE?

BEHAVE makes candy that is better for you: low sugar, natural ingredients, no artificial ingredients, and good taste.
Currently, BEHAVE offers two options of gummies, sweet and sour.
BEHAVE started from a lack of alternative options in the candy department, which typically had people giving up candy altogether.
Originally, BEHAVE planned to be a mix of DTC and retail. Due to COVID, they’re now only doing DTC.
BEHAVE thrived throughout COVID by surrounding themselves with the right investors, partners, vendors, and employees.

Where is BEHAVE headed?

Self-awareness is a cornerstone of how we should operate, both as individuals and businesses. BEHAVE is engaging in their own self-awareness by seeing the current market and making decisions accordingly.
BEHAVE is recognizing the shift in the market towards comfort items and online shopping
Eventually, BEHAVE plans to get into retail.
BEHAVE is doing things differently - marketing towards adults instead of children. This effectively is bringing consumers back to the category of candy who have previously abandoned it.
When there is a product category that customers have abandoned, it is an opportunity to recapture customers.

Our Economy

The way our economy is set up, big businesses are bound to thrive, even during economic disruption like COVID-19.
Small businesses seemed to be the ones to cope best with the disruption, but the distinction of “essential businesses” shifted from small business to big business.
Businesses like Amazon and Shopify doing well also signifies that the small and medium businesses that sell through them are doing well. The difference between growth and decline in small businesses in 2020 comes directly from being in the right or wrong industries given the current circumstances.

Branding and Positioning in a Changed Market

Small businesses that have seen growth this year should be focusing on retention.
Businesses that saw the most decline were retail in fashion and apparel - but they could bounce back given they rethink their branding and positioning in the current market.
COVID-19 didn’t kill these brands, they just sped up their already growing decline.
The best branding comes from getting consumers to be emotionally attached to a brand, not just buying a commodity.
Marketing plays a much bigger role in our community - in connection.

Walmart and Shopify

Big businesses should have a system to help small or local businesses.
Walmart is teaming with Shopify and integrating small businesses into their model. They are realizing they cannot continue doing everything themselves and monopolizing markets.

CONTENT AND COMMERCE

There has been an Increase in traffic and consumption on BuzzFeed during COVID-19.
BuzzFeed Shopping has been introduced, a native checkout feature on BuzzFeed which optimizes a consumer’s experience and increases revenue for featured products.
Creating content drives discovery and can enhance partnerships with retailers, providing an ease-of-use experience for consumers to get products through retailers.
Because of commerce switching to primarily digital, content will start playing a huge role in those experiences. Content and commerce coming closer together is a natural progression.

INTEGRITY AND CONSUMER TRUST

BuzzFeed Shopping has a self-regulating business model that is mutually beneficial to all parties.
BuzzFeed has to understand their consumer well enough to recommend products and create an ease of use system for the consumer to use.
Editorial integrity wouldn’t be skewed because BuzzFeed Shopping is enhancing what they’re already doing - it’s not a threat or competition to retailers, but a way to coexist, to bring content and commerce closer together.
BuzzFeed shopping is ‘employing the highest levels of integrity’ to prove trust with consumers. Providing customers not only with products to buy, but also with resources and details to aid them in making a good decision.

ITALIC

Italic offers subscription memberships with access to a thousand plus products at-cost - stepping away from mark-up retailing.
Italic is moving less in a brand specific, single category product direction and more into a value driven lifestyle.
Italic’s ‘secret’ lies in partnering with manufacturers instead of treating them as vendors.

WHY IT WORKS

Three primary reasons people purchase from Italic:

Value
Design
Ethics/Sustainability

Italic thrives by being able to sell to everyone - including those who buy specific brands - by having a wide range of categories to choose from. Italic appeals to the value conscious part of everyone’s shopping behavior.
Investing in data, reporting, and understanding metrics early on in a start-up can be extremely beneficial by being able to be adaptable.

What is NBC Universal Checkout

NBC Universal Checkout is a native shopping experience embedding within any NBC content page.
Whether it's a text based article, a static page, or even a video, it can be transformed into a native shopping experience. When the viewer encounters a product, they can click on the product to see more information about it, add it to a shopping cart, pay, and check out all without leaving the NBCU site.
Context is really important during the experience - finding alignment between retailers with product and property within a piece of content within their portfolio.

Universal Checkout’s Launch on SYFY Wire After Dark

On SYFY Wire After Dark, they can play tastemaker by making trustworthy recommendations to their audience.
They can also expose the audience to collaborative products, like the Wonder Woman 1984 sunglasses from goodr.

Who’s the Retailer?

NBC doesn’t see themselves as a retailer, but as a channel for retail partners.
For partner retailers, orders that happen through NBC Universal Checkout drop into their eCommerce system as if they were actually placed on their own website, and then they can fulfill direct to the consumer and own the customer relationship going forward.
Where retailers and consumers come together is a sort of audience-driven marketplace - which is important, especially in a time when commerce is shifting to primarily digital.
NBC Universal Checkout will eventually move to other platforms, but for now is available only on the web.

The Future of NBC’s Universal Checkout

NBC looks at this as a business opportunity on par with anything else that they're pursuing.
NBC generates valuable shopping intent and Universal Checkout creates the opportunity to capture that intent.
Right now, their focus is more in partnering with retailers than creating their own products and brands out of the existing NBC properties.
Universal Checkout is only on the web right now.

Links

Evan’s last appearance on Future Commerce in Episode 128 - Bringing Commerce Closer: Audience First
NBCU’s press release for Universal Checkout
The first Universal show using Universal Checkout: Syfy Wire After Dark
Syfy Wire After Dark: How to Shop guide video
goodr Limited Edition Wonder Woman 1984 Sunglasses‍
Evan’s Twitter, where he posts “bad memes too late”

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rethinking Everlane on the Nine by Nine Report: Part 2 of Nine by Nine Retrospect Jul 31, 2020

Show notes

What makes a brand meaningful? We sought to answer this question in our recent report, Nine by Nine: 81 Brands Changing Our World. In this episode, Part 2 of 2, we sit down and reflect on the report and the categories included.

See Part 1: Episode 165: What Makes A Brand Meaningful?

Purpose Driven Brands

Purpose driven brands are focused on having alignment with their worldview. They state a purpose behind their brand and provide that to their customers. They make it clear what kind of world they want to build and are actively working to achieve that world.
For these consumers, they base their purchasing on their lens through which they see their world, which is especially true for Gen Z and millennials.
CEO and co-founder of Good On You says in the report that “It just goes back to having a core purpose and a core connection to the person that your brand is intended to serve and the problem that your brand is intending to solve.”
REI is number one on our list because they’re doing so much more than just sustainability and ecology - even if they are a retailer and not a DTC brand.
Bowery Farming is on the list - they do indoor farming without pesticides. Bowery Farming is tech centric and tech forward, using less water and producing more food in a more sustainable way.
Sunday, who was recently on the podcast, gives a better understanding of home and garden from a philosophical perspective.

Late Stage Retail

As retail has developed, we’ve seen more companies move to capture attention through subversive techniques, FOMO, etc. for conversion rate optimization.
From the report: “These retail heroes are seeking to uplift underserved communities, create and market sustainable products, pay their employees a living wage and treat their suppliers ethically and fairly. They’re the founders of numerous DTC brands who are focusing on sustainable and ethical products, B Corp certified companies and even members of the Business Roundtable, which recently redefined the purpose of a corporation that speaks directly to our Future Commerce values.”
Patagonia is at the top of this list for many reasons - they have stood against the encroachment of federal property on native lands, they’ve stood for Black Lives Matter, and they’ve led the movement of countercultural anti Black Friday events.
This category is all about doing right by all people all the way across the board - even to your own detriment.
After releasing the report, Everlane has undergone heavy criticism because of their practices - which in rethinking our list, they should not be included.

Audience First

This category belongs to those brands who create an audience and then market products, goods, or services to them - like Kanye and Yeezy, Emily Weiss and Glossier, Virgil Abloh and Off-White, Ryan Kaji and Ryan’s World, Marie Kondo, and of course, five different Jenner/Kardashian brands.
Joanna Gaines and Magnolia stands out - truly leading with content and then taking the steps to give their audience ways to buy in.

Local Heroes

Chick-Fil-A tops this list. We wanted to cover more than just venture-backed or private equity backed brands. Chick-Fil-A, as a franchise model, has a great record in investing into its local communities. They’ve given an incredible amount of money back towards COVID relief.
Ace Hardware is another on this list, allowing for local ownership just as much as Chick-Fil-A.
Thistle Farms, with Becca Stevens, have created a brand carried in a lot of retailers including Whole Foods. Thistle Farms creates products that give work to survivors of abuse, having a 100% female employee base.
Costco made the list for being a pioneer in wages and supporting their local communities.

100 Club

These businesses are defined as having raised no outside capital in exchange for giving up an ownership stake in the business. These businesses are on the long path to prominence.
Many businesses in this category have been on our podcast, including - Industry West’s CMO Ian Leslie, Frank & Eileen’s Founder Audrey McLoghlin, and Farm Girl Flowers’s CEO and Founder Christina Stembel.
“The 100 Club has the ability to stick to the core tenets of your brand and not sacrifice them for a bunch of suits.” - Brian Lange

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The New Dadaism

An Exploration in Brands in this Moment

Links

What’s Jeyanayagam’s story?

Being a Leader

Don’t Be Afraid of the Moment

Clorox DTC

The Growth of Private Brands

Around You, On You, In You

Consumer 3.0

Links

What is BEHAVE?

Where is BEHAVE headed?

LINKS

Our Economy

Branding and Positioning in a Changed Market

Walmart and Shopify

Links

CONTENT AND COMMERCE

INTEGRITY AND CONSUMER TRUST

LINKS

ITALIC

WHY IT WORKS

LINKS

What is NBC Universal Checkout

Universal Checkout’s Launch on SYFY Wire After Dark

Who’s the Retailer?

The Future of NBC’s Universal Checkout

Links

Purpose Driven Brands

Late Stage Retail

Audience First

Local Heroes

100 Club

Links

Related Podcasts

1

2

3

4

5

6