you’ve got to know when to hold ‘em (3.8.24)

It’s earnings szn, and if you’re not tracking the earnings reports and calls from your brand, competitors, and across key industries, you’re missing out on solid insights and inspiration. Earnings reports can provide marketers with critical indicators and insights on where an industry is moving, competitive intel, geographic trends, and inspiration for ensuring your marketing strategy aligns with or counteracts industry and economic trends, investments, and approaches. While financial results can be fascinating, the true gems come from leadership sharing thoughts on their successes, setbacks, opportunities, and upcoming strategies. Think of it as getting as close to being behind the curtain of your biggest competitors.

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For example, depending on the type of retail, the reported results were mixed and seemingly inconsistent. While most retail brands aren’t relying on the pandemic-driven bump from increased pricing and higher demand we saw in the last few years, we’re seeing a mix of strategies across portfolios impacting pricing, real estate, rebrands, infrastructure investments, restructuring, acquisitions, mergers, and good old-fashioned marketing strategy.

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For instance, through recent retail earnings calls and surrounding press releases, we gleaned some of 2024’s inevitable tactics and marketplace trends:

• Supercharging loyalty programs: Target is coming for Amazon Prime as the Target Circle loyalty program will evolve into Target Circle 360, offering three new membership options, including a free-to-join option, that will let consumers choose how to shop and save.
• Going small (format) to go wide (coverage): Whole Foods Market announced the rollout of new, small-format Whole Foods Market Daily Shops, touting a quick, convenient shopping experience for urban neighborhood residents (an interesting move considering it had to close its 365 store concepts a few years back).
• Big (brand) things in small (space) packages: Best Buy is testing closing some of its larger stores and replacing them with smaller ones in the same areas to test consumer retention.
• Renewed investment in advertising: Lowe’s notedthat cost-cutting is being reinvested into “marketing and merchandising strategies to drive traffic and sales,” as well as an “enhanced marketing strategy” touting “a more sophisticated, tech-enabled advertising approach.”

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There are plenty of economic, political, marketplace, and other factors driving the dips and surges across the brands and companies you’ll see reporting earnings in the coming days. What’s critical is to understand what insight you can glean for your brand. Whether you listen in on the live call, read the post-call transcripts, or even glean newsletter summaries, it’s critical you embrace the earnings.

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So, as we move through earnings season, think about how your competitors – and your company – are talking to the marketplace about their performance, pain points, and priorities to best identify marketplace trends, competitive landscape progressions, strategic lessons, and other insights that can help your brand design the strategies that power the stories your brand tells and the way you show up for your consumers.