Does everything in business need to be measurable?

and AI is screwing with your food again

“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” — Aristotle

The value of analytics and the methods of measurement have been widely debated. How much do companies need analytics? Does being data-driven mean you’re only consumed with what is measurable?

The fundamentals of business are the fundamentals. So, balance is key --the balance between the measurable and unmeasurable.

In today’s newsletter:

• AI is screwing with your food again
• The Row vs Performance Marketing
• Creepy or not
• Funnies
• Bonus

Pense

Last week, I saw this great post mentioning an article by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about digital food labels. And I thought the poster had a point. If the food label is so long that you need a digital label, should you be eating it?

I regularly eat garden-grown veggies and mill my own grain for bread —bite me. The fresh taste is incomparable.

So I found myself cheering.

but as I couldn’t read the article being a broke entrepreneur and all. So I used my ingenuity to research a few angles. and here’s my conclusion.

1. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Removing labels would provide more space for marketing content. Who reads labels in the store anyway? Maybe there could be food label kiosks for those with no smartphone. It would also be great to manage the list on my phone via an app so that I can receive ingredient updates for products I regularly consume. That would save time for people like me with food sensitivities or allergies. If they implement it well, I will have few objections.
2. For the entire end-to-end food lifecycle it’s a $9B industry. AI food discovery startups are rather interesting. Here’s some for you to check out.

Creepy or not

ok ok, you may not think this is creepy because it’s been hyped as the next big thing so much already but hear me out.

Self-driving cars are creepy.

While the Amazon’s show Upload is meh. It made some pretty good points.

The whole plot is based on a car being hacked to kill you. Shoot the day murder becomes that easy. We’ll have an uptick in crime for sure. Plus how do you let AI choose to prioritize the human in the car or the human out of the car in case of an impending accident? Should we be able to set that in a car?

Code is hackable. Nothing is as secure as we think so do we really want something that can kill us without technology in it running solely on a hackable piece of code?

Like Fast and Furious #8, those cars were hacked into a traffic jam.

Think about this people.

I’m keeping my gas car for life. Or until we figure out flying cars. Bite me federal regulators. Do you have a plan for mass murder?

I kid, I kid but serious cybersecurity hasn’t caught up with risk.

So self-driving cars are creepy.

Interesting

Social media has worn out Luxury brands. When everyone has something, is it really as exclusive as the marketing claims?

No.

That’s why The Row is increasing in popularity.

Started in 2006, by Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen, The Row doubled its search volume in the past 3 years.

And they do it without performance marketing. They focused on making great clothing creating strong brand power.

That begs the question, “Where does analytics fit into a strategy like this?”

Well, not everything is trackable to sales directly. And it doesn’t need to be. The lasting brand value will sustain brands for decades. Look at Coca-Cola. Their drinks literally peels erosion from car batteries and people still drink it.

Or Hermes, treat your customers poorly, and make incredible sales.

Anyway, at the end of the day, you can’t neglect the brand for metrics.

I doubt The Row is completely ignoring metrics though. They wouldn’t have received such a large investment without numbers backing them up.

Data pros working to help marketing teams measure impact should consider a holistic view.

That doesn’t always include Machine Learning either.

Check out this LinkedIn post on Analytics Assembly Line

Funnies

Read more here