Latest / The Retail Podcast / Rosalía, Amazon, Calvin Klein, TikTok, JCPenney & Primark — Five Things Friday (USA)

Transcript

Rosalía, Amazon, Calvin Klein, TikTok, JCPenney & Primark — Five Things Friday (USA) · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to another clapping fabulous edition of
• 0:04
  Five Things Friday USA edition with my fabulous, fabulous Co
• 0:09
  host Jill from the NRF. Jill, hello, welcome.
• 0:13
  Hello Alex, Happy Friday to you. Happy Friday.
• 0:17
  I got so excited to say hello to you.
• 0:18
  I didn't hit our music, so let's roll into it.
• 0:34
  So Jill, off the bat, before we get into our five things,
• 0:37
  there's a cultural moment that I think is going to, I think it
• 0:41
  will go around the globe, I assume.
• 0:43
  I'm. Just going to share this with
• 0:46
  you and get your react. So give me one second as I set
• 0:49
  it up. I love it.
• 0:50
  A cold reaction, OK. That was the German part, that
• 1:08
  was Bjork who just came in on the end with What do you think?
• 1:11
  With no swan dress. Yeah, no.
• 1:14
  So the reason why I share that with you, Rosalie is like a pop,
• 1:18
  reggaeton, flamenco, like cross genre.
• 1:21
  She doesn't want to be defined by one genre.
• 1:24
  And the reason why I find that this is a really interesting
• 1:28
  moment culturally is the fact that classical music, you know,
• 1:32
  for young people for, for this new generation, it's just
• 1:35
  nostalgia. It's either something they've
• 1:36
  heard on the radio, it's on TV adverts.
• 1:39
  But this is at the heart of a pop star, classical news.
• 1:43
  And so yeah, your likes of course and I.
• 1:45
  Just went off, stand up to turn it back on.
• 1:49
  I wasn't dancing. Festival, it's OK.
• 1:51
  So I think it's just one of those wonderful cultural
• 1:53
  moments. It's a collaboration between
• 1:55
  Rosalia Bjork and this other American hip hop artist.
• 2:00
  Unfortunately, he's at the end is my least favourite part, but
• 2:03
  I think there's so many retailers now trying to come
• 2:06
  back on nostalgia alone and nostalgia without cultural
• 2:10
  moments. Is is a is a big gap.
• 2:13
  And on the other shows we've been talking about, you know,
• 2:15
  various brands, Gap, for example, in the UK has had a
• 2:19
  difficult time of coming back and just relying on their
• 2:22
  nostalgia. So anyway.
• 2:25
  You're you're so right. I mean, just this week Fanatics,
• 2:29
  US based company out of Florida announced A partnership with the
• 2:32
  NFL and they're, you know, and essentially all of their all of
• 2:37
  their gear, they already have all of the licences.
• 2:40
  What it what it means is now they're going back and they can
• 2:43
  use all of the vaulted archival, you know, old uniforms to
• 2:49
  throwback uniforms, all of that, you know, you don't see unless
• 2:53
  it's a special game. So I think there is a piece of
• 2:55
  that. It's, you know, what's old is
• 2:57
  new again, and it's, you know, I guess you live long enough and
• 3:00
  you see it come back around. I think it's just the fact that,
• 3:04
  you know, in racing cultural moments like this, I mean, for
• 3:08
  example, K Pop Demon Hunters over the summer was the lost
• 3:11
  moment for retailers because they just totally missed that it
• 3:16
  went to number one across the world.
• 3:17
  And now Jimmy Fallon had them I think a couple of weeks back and
• 3:21
  Saturday Night Live they were on.
• 3:23
  But anyway. Cultural movie.
• 3:25
  You know who didn't miss that moment?
• 3:26
  Spencer's and Spirit Halloween stores #1 costume this year was
• 3:31
  K pop demon hunting Stephanie a couple weeks ago.
• 3:36
  And she said it was like, good luck finding it.
• 3:39
  It was AB, you know, and that didn't exist right until a few
• 3:43
  months ago. So just showing like if you are
• 3:46
  that nimble of a retailer, you can capitalise on the sale, you
• 3:49
  can capitalise on the moment and you can get it to the customer.
• 3:52
  And look, it's not even Halloween yet and I'm sure
• 3:54
  people would still be buying it. So yeah, 100, you're absolutely
• 3:57
  right. Yeah.
• 3:58
  So, OK, moving on very swiftly, keeping to our fast-paced, I
• 4:02
  think we'll start with you and Amazon.
• 4:06
  Yeah, this is a pretty rough day yesterday for, you know, upwards
• 4:11
  of about 30,000 people got cut from Amazon.
• 4:15
  It's, you know, reports are still coming in.
• 4:17
  I mean, this literally happened less than 24 hours ago.
• 4:21
  Unfortunately, it was pretty broad cuts across a lot of
• 4:24
  groups. A lot of it are being told, you
• 4:28
  know, it's for efficiency and for streamlining things like
• 4:31
  that. But you know, 30,000 is, is a
• 4:34
  big, it's a huge number. But for for Amazon, it's
• 4:37
  actually not that big of a number.
• 4:38
  So, you know, there it was across everything, a little bit
• 4:42
  of AWS as well as Amazon proper. Yeah, the way I read it, it was
• 4:46
  the the basically HQ workers, the head office workers.
• 4:49
  And it's a little bit rough coming just before Christmas,
• 4:51
  but I think they. Have A and it's it's, you know,
• 4:54
  they've been saying for a long time, if you're not back in
• 4:56
  headquarters, things are going to happen.
• 4:58
  So it'll be interesting to see just how many of those people
• 5:01
  weren't back at a main HQ centre and then also figuring out like
• 5:06
  which departments it was in. But that is that's a huge number
• 5:10
  and it's. You know, it sucks and and if
• 5:13
  anyone is affected by this and you and you and you need a, you
• 5:16
  know, some guidance from a podcast, so feel free to reach
• 5:18
  out to me. Make you smile, but I have no
• 5:21
  advice, but I'll be able to make you smile at least.
• 5:23
  But is this is sucks. Microsoft went through this when
• 5:26
  I was at it and it was really tough because some of the people
• 5:29
  that have been there the longest were affected.
• 5:30
  So it's not, it's not easy, but yeah.
• 5:33
  The emails online if people want to read it that that Amazon has
• 5:37
  sent them out yesterday. But yes, reach out to Alex and I
• 5:40
  if we can help in any way. Yeah, not with career advice,
• 5:43
  but we'll just be there for you much and.
• 5:45
  That's you with someone we know. We know some great people out
• 5:47
  there in the Bronx. Yeah, and the full article, I
• 5:50
  think Joe just said there's full articles on Reuters if you would
• 5:54
  like to read more about this. Moving on, I think we talked
• 5:57
  about cultural moments just now. Another fantastic.
• 6:01
  I think Calvin Klein is again a number one of those heritage
• 6:04
  brands is thinking how do I stay irrelevant?
• 6:07
  How do I create meaningful an impact?
• 6:09
  And K pop is absolutely at the heart of it.
• 6:12
  And one of the best looking men in K pop is John Cook, who is I
• 6:18
  don't know if he's the lead singer because it's BTS.
• 6:20
  And so there's like, you know, it's a boy band.
• 6:22
  So, but he's one of the good looking ones that, you know, has
• 6:25
  gone in into this campaign with Calvin Klein and I think again,
• 6:29
  another, you know, heritage brand and connecting with K Pop
• 6:33
  and trying to build relevance to a new generation, which is
• 6:37
  interesting. And, and there was an article
• 6:39
  that will probably, I don't know which way you'll think about
• 6:42
  this job, but it was about how Jen Beta that are being born in
• 6:47
  2025. Fashion retailers are thinking
• 6:50
  about what will they. And I was like, really, you
• 6:54
  know, Jen Alpha is, they're seven years old right now, but
• 6:57
  Jen Beta 2025 and onwards, the fashion world is looking at them
• 7:01
  so. We might need a minute though.
• 7:03
  Look, Generation Beta does not need underwear yet.
• 7:07
  They have not been bored and they are still in diapers.
• 7:09
  So like he was the hop in it. There you go.
• 7:13
  I would say this is like, this makes me feel a little bit old
• 7:16
  because I feel like Mark Wahlberg was the original Calvin
• 7:19
  Klein one that I'm sure there were some before, but.
• 7:23
  It's so funny you remember the men's 1 and I remember the
• 7:26
  women's one that was like hello, I don't know, but it's just
• 7:29
  hello boys was the caption that that we were all told about so.
• 7:33
  You've done a great job at their ads.
• 7:38
  Moving on TikTok with you. Yeah, so TikTok, there's a lot
• 7:42
  going on with TikTok in the USI mean, where we are right now is
• 7:46
  obviously Bike Dance owns the US, well, owns all of TikTok.
• 7:50
  But in the US, TikTok needs to be divested to remain here.
• 7:54
  So there's a $14 billion deal led by Oracle, Larry Pay or
• 7:59
  Larry Ellison and a bunch of other investors.
• 8:02
  But what's happening is right now people are trying to figure
• 8:05
  out, OK, so if TikTok is not in charge, the algorithm is more or
• 8:08
  less the product, right? So what will change with the
• 8:10
  algorithm? What will change with the trust
• 8:12
  data? What will change with where the
• 8:14
  data goes? You know, and the irony is the
• 8:16
  whole reason we're trying to regulate TikTok is that people
• 8:21
  don't have trust and where your data goes and all of that.
• 8:23
  So there's all of these headlines.
• 8:25
  And really I think the most relevant thing for brands and
• 8:28
  retailers to take away is will the algorithm still be in your
• 8:32
  favour in terms of surfacing your product?
• 8:35
  TikTok shop still working if it's there.
• 8:37
  So, you know, it's a lot of hubbub and really it's a lot of
• 8:40
  wait and see at this point. But it does seem like we're
• 8:42
  getting closer and closer to the goal of divesting TikTok so that
• 8:47
  it's not a Chinese based company operating in the US And that's
• 8:50
  really kind of what the where the line has been, but it's it's
• 8:53
  been delayed year after year. So we'll see, yeah.
• 8:56
  It'll be an interesting one to see and obviously, yeah, we'll
• 9:00
  move on because then you get, you're getting into the
• 9:02
  insurance and outs of who controls the algorithm.
• 9:04
  What's the algorithm I'm going to tell you about anyway, moving
• 9:06
  on another Christmas. It's around the corner and I
• 9:09
  know you know this brand, JC Penney's.
• 9:12
  I would I would describe him as the the the department store for
• 9:16
  middle America, no. Yeah, I mean, they they were for
• 9:20
  a long time, they were kind of the department store in the in
• 9:22
  the US and you know, they kind of fell by the wayside for a lot
• 9:26
  of the fashion digital collaboration moments for a
• 9:30
  while. But they have really been doing
• 9:33
  a pretty strong turn around. They're out of, you know,
• 9:35
  outside of Dallas and Plano, TX. They're owned by Catalyst
• 9:38
  Brands, which is run by Mark Rosen, who is a venerated
• 9:41
  retailer, lots and lots of experience.
• 9:44
  And he is hired in Marissa Thalberg, who's a unbelievable
• 9:49
  brand and market genius. So this is straight out of her
• 9:52
  playbook, getting it relevant, getting it in front of people.
• 9:55
  The Jingle Ball is a music festival that happens.
• 9:58
  And it's it's cool, it's hip, it's talked about, it's hit by
• 10:02
  every cool pop star. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised
• 10:05
  if BTC is there. I mean, it's a real thing and
• 10:08
  the fact that she's partnering with them is pretty impressive.
• 10:12
  And it's just bringing JC Penney back into everyone's mindset.
• 10:15
  And look, I mean, they've, they've modernised it, they've
• 10:18
  made it cool. They're trying to get to kind of
• 10:20
  the Gen Alpha, Gen Z vibe. I yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm here for a
• 10:24
  moment where we can bring back a brand that was so cool and so
• 10:28
  great for a lot of people. It was never high-priced.
• 10:31
  It was never the lowest price. It was always kind of in that,
• 10:34
  you know, the bottom third in terms of pricing.
• 10:36
  Yeah. Where?
• 10:37
  Value where value starts, but it doesn't necessarily go that
• 10:39
  cheap that it's it's that and I think.
• 10:42
  That's what people need this holiday, right?
• 10:44
  It's there's a lot of consumer uncertainty.
• 10:46
  So I think this is a really, really good time for them.
• 10:48
  Yeah. And I think that whole messaging
• 10:50
  around this about, you know, it's what they thought that
• 10:52
  counts. And when I was reading about it,
• 10:54
  it's basically saying, you know, it's not about mass consumption,
• 10:57
  it's about micro consumption on the things that counts, right?
• 11:02
  And obviously I get it. What they're saying is, you
• 11:04
  know, one trip to JC Penney's is enough for Christmas.
• 11:07
  That's it. You've done your, your, your
• 11:09
  holiday shopping is done. Just come to us, we'll take care
• 11:12
  of you. Don't go crazy everywhere else.
• 11:14
  You can get something for everyone here, kind of.
• 11:17
  Exactly. Yeah, You know, it doesn't cost
• 11:19
  the Earth and it doesn't have to ruin the planet type thing, but
• 11:22
  so really cool. I really love it in the sense of
• 11:24
  its positive, it's engaging, it's around the the things that
• 11:28
  you want to see value based and sticking with value based.
• 11:31
  I think another Irish retailer that's done phenomenally well in
• 11:35
  the US and I think their growth in the US is between 20 and 25%.
• 11:39
  And I remember the CEO at one of the conferences in the UK, him,
• 11:44
  you know, 2-3 years ago saying we've got this expansion plan,
• 11:48
  we're going to make us our home. Everyone said we can't do it,
• 11:51
  but we feel that we can. And again, the sceptics will
• 11:55
  say, well, you're opening up stores, you're going to get
• 11:57
  growth just by the nature of growing.
• 12:00
  What, what does the footfall look like?
• 12:02
  But anyway, they're doing well on, on paper.
• 12:05
  And it's another value brand that is having its moment.
• 12:08
  So did you know curiosity? Yeah.
• 12:11
  Do you have a climark local to you?
• 12:13
  No, I know they're in New York and opening more, you know, I, I
• 12:17
  need to check because it was a relatively new to me brand a
• 12:21
  year or two ago. But what's funny is my kids
• 12:23
  actually now know about it and have asked about it.
• 12:25
  So it's, you know, whether they're it's through social
• 12:28
  media or probably Fortnite, to be honest, that's how they hear
• 12:31
  about most things. It's definitely moving kind of
• 12:34
  in the generational shift. It's moving down.
• 12:37
  I think I, I feel like I remember seeing a stat that the
• 12:40
  US, the relatively new business for them, but it's already close
• 12:44
  to 5% of the business and that was, you know, relatively
• 12:47
  quickly. I think they're around 10 to 12
• 12:51
  billion in total. So I think, you know, it's,
• 12:53
  it'll be very interesting to see because de minimis, you know,
• 12:56
  which is a shipping loophole that's been in the US for quite
• 13:00
  some time, getting in packages with no taxes or tariffs has
• 13:04
  been struck down. So it'll be very interesting to
• 13:06
  see who the new players in because that significantly has
• 13:09
  affected Sheehan and Timo's business in the US.
• 13:12
  So it'll be interesting to see Primark when they have stores
• 13:15
  here is their business, you know, they're similarly priced
• 13:18
  well, their business kind of eats some of that market share
• 13:21
  that, you know, maybe she and and Timu were getting because it
• 13:24
  was easy and free to ship. Yeah, and I think where they are
• 13:27
  as well, it's such a convoluted market because you've got the
• 13:30
  the grocers doing a Walmart Target doing a phenomenal job
• 13:34
  with their homework. Although Targets fashion and
• 13:37
  struggle, Walmart's really taking off.
• 13:40
  And so you know, it's and they do more, they do beauty, they do
• 13:43
  homework. So it's one to watch.
• 13:45
  I think it's an interesting one for a a foreign brand expanding
• 13:49
  across the USI. Agree, agree.
• 13:51
  Yeah, no, it'll be really interesting to see and Primark
• 13:53
  is a great name. So I think, you know, again,
• 13:56
  looking looking for value for holiday.
• 13:59
  It's, you know, a lot, a lot of US listeners are, are in that
• 14:03
  campus. They're going to be down there.
• 14:05
  Yeah, we all, I think everyone knows that they've they've,
• 14:07
  they've, they've, they've they've got to tighten the belt
• 14:09
  a little bit or just watch where they're spending that's.
• 14:12
  It Yep. Yeah, I know that bombshell.
• 14:14
  Jill, thank you so much for giving up your time to be with
• 14:16
  me today and until we meet next. Time.
• 14:20
  Great to see everybody.