Furloughed Employees Are Your Next Competitor - Here's How!

If you're the biggest and best in your sector today you won't be for long. The internet has allowed millions of people around the world to take what today might be a small micro bite out of your very large macro cake, and if enough of them do this consistently and better than you then it's inevitable they will quickly dilute what you think is a dominant position.

The reality is the retail digital and Social Pandora box is open, and it isn't closing anytime soon.

Of course the Covid crisis has accelerated the collapse of businesses that already had weak balance sheets, especially those that were trying to operate in the 21st Century as they did in the last one.

Today's generations know nothing other than the free to access, free to use, lo-cost, no-cost digital world that many from previous generations still find somewhat bewildering.

Especially in multi-channel retail.

The next wave of disruption doesn't require them, or your furloughed employees to invest in the next 'digital' big thing, it doesn't require them to bolt new tech onto old tech, it also doesn't have the patience to wait around for decades or a few more years for you and your team to think about how to adjust and adapt.

'Social Commerce' will turn us all into shoppable product demos and our lives into a catalogue of stylised products. It will also introduce new revenue streams, business models, marketing strategies and regulatory hurdles. Social currency is the fuel of the modern retail economy, community is its killer app and Covid is what transformed it all.

Businesses, especially those in multi-channel retail that operate with a 20th Century fixed mindset leadership team seem to spend an inordinate amount of time, energy, and resources ensuring that any change is incremental - until Covid that is!. 

Prior to this crisis many retailers tended to want to continue with more of the same old same old in anticipation that things will work themselves out, "last seasons product didn't go well but if we added a smaller strap here, change the colour to blue, make it longer/shorter" this isn't a real growth strategy, neither is it a consumer focused mindset, and it certainly doesn't reflect key behavioral consumer changes does it?

It's all a bit like getting out that Chinese menu, studying it for 5 minutes and ordering the same thing you ordered last time!

If you're a regular reader of my blogs you will know that I write a lot about brand strategies that can create real growth and disruption along with helping companies to better understand the lost opportunity companies and brands have with social media for something other than a place to simply advertise and promote themselves.

How often do we just scroll past copy or video content on Social Media because it immediately feels like a corporate advert dressed up as something else?  Is it because it’s missing a few vital ingredients, is it too sanitised, has it been written by a very talented copywriter via an agency and signed off by the brand police?.

 Or is it because it's just another intrusive advert?

We can all spot advertising that’s dressed up as content so we are now simply programmed to ‘scroll on’ skip the ad, or deploy an 'ad blocker'. 

One of the key reasons brands feel the need to ‘collaborate’ with bright young ‘social influencers’ is because they probably understand the landscape better than the media buying agency and the client. They're seen as authentic, and more than likely clients want access to their followers. 

Real people (you/me & consumers) tend to pick up on something that's 'liked' or 'shared' via our friends, family and business acquaintances, as such we have greater trust in what they recommended over the corporate message.

We do this because we have been programmed to be cynical when it comes to advertising, so we look for affirmation from the circles we trust. 

If you read any of my stuff on a regular basis you will have noticed I see 2 major changes in behaviour that during and post Covid will kick multi-channel retail as you have come to know into a mere historical timeline in the disruption of retailing for the 21st Century.

The first one has been happening without your knowledge on social media, which for a few years now is what was once your consumer, customer, and now furloughed employee becoming a micro competitor.

This change has been further accelerated by furloughed employees investing in all that paid free time whilst working from home and turning their digital and social media skills into a side hustle to top up the income and then finding;

"hey, this could be the start of a real business for me because I'm not sure if my employee can afford to take me back after all this".

Today, thousands of people like these have managed to nip away at your business on all manner of social platforms without you even being aware of it.

This is the talent that has been sat in your business for ages, yet you seem to have missed the opportunity to unlock it because you don't really understand social platforms like they do.

Ironically your media agency might have even suggested you use them as part of your 'influencer' campaign.

The second is a combination of the long held discrete desire for millions of suppliers to want to get closer to the end customer, along with the ability for you and me to set up shop and gain access to over 3.8bn people worldwide. These are the companies you said were your 'partners' yet before, during and probably post Covid were messed about with your bureaucratic procurement process, subject to last minute cancelled orders, and worse still made to wait for payment.

I'm a brand marketing guy. One of the key things I do with companies is to run a couple of workshops. One of those workshops is designed to help businesses better understand how to stimulate and achieve growth by helping them to reset and better internally align the brand, this in turn helps to deliver an externally aligned brand strategy. 

My tried and tested process is based around something I call 'consumer hedonics' which is a blog you can find here it's underpinned by guiding and encouraging leadership teams in businesses to look in the mirror and better understand 'Why' the consumer is choosing to spend money with a competitor over them.

The other workshop is designed to provide a commercial reason for businesses to develop a 'social media' strategy. 

It's aimed at companies who post Covid will no longer have the media spend budgets or resource they once had, but for obvious reasons need to remain front of mind in order to deliver on revenue plans. 

I talk quite a lot about how companies completely miss the point about social media networks along with the strategies and skills needed to support them. 

So when I saw this news from the Facebook group I see the catalyst of some of the things I've been saying for over 2 years. 

Nearly a million businesses in the UK and around the world can now set up a single online store to sell products, with no fee, on Facebook and Instagram. The initial stage of the Facebook Shops rollout has been brought forward and extended because of Covid-19.

The stores will appear on business pages, Instagram profiles and through targeted ads.

The company has already used a no-fees approach in its Facebook Marketplace for personal classifieds. So, if you thought that eCommerce was a game changer for retail then compared to this it will be a mere blip in the timeline of the commercial multi-channel retail landscape.

Facebook are merely following the same trend that's been taking place in China for sometime. China is leading the way, as such if you and your leadership team don't have a focus, watching brief and looking to test and trial what these huge companies are doing in the biggest market in the world then you might as well pack up now.

If only brands and businesses had the confidence and skill set to unleash the power of the employees as ‘influencers’ & 'advocates' on Social Media - now that would be authentic & innovative.

If you would like to discuss how you might learn, leverage and reset your 'Why' feel free to drop me a note.