What’s In This Issue?
This Week’s Main Stories
Ted Baker Experiments With Shoppable Video + Branded Storytelling
If there is one thing that many fashion retailers are desperately trying to figure out, it is how to bridge the gap between experience and consumption. For years, the goal of any fashion retailer was to let people buy the products they might see in media and entertainment more easily. This new Guy Ritchie produced story from Ted Baker does a good job of that, with an engaging storyline, clickable video to add styles to your shopping cart while watching and integration with physical in store experiences. I expect to see many more experiments like this from retailers in the coming months.
The Rare Drug Specialty Pharmacy You Haven't Heard About
The pharmaceutical industry is widely criticized for focusing too much attention and resources on the conditions that affect the widest number of people. It's a logical choice, but often leaves so-called "orphan diseases" behind. This INC article focuses on the astronomical growth rate of a small specialty pharmacy focusing on drugs for rare conditions is thriving by creating its own niche. It doesn't hurt that they are based in Pittsburgh, a hub for pharmacological schools and students, but the story is exactly the type of success story that we should be celebrating and sharing in the healthcare industry ... a brand that helps underserved populations get access to needed medication and makes a healthy profit without price gouging anyone.
Is Usage Based Insurance Finally Becoming A Reality?
As the sharing economy leads more consumers to avoid ownership altogether, many in the automotive industry have been predicted a big shift in how people will use and experience cars. Less frequently discussed is just how this might change the nature of how we buy and keep insurance. If consumers only use a car on occasion or have a fractional ownership, then the insurance they buy must accomodate that. This article on Venture Beat digs into the potential future of what the industry calls UBI (Usage Based Insurance) and explores whether it might be coming sooner rather than later.
Is Apple Just "Milking Its Cash Cows"?
For any other company, this week's press announcement would be an ordinary incremental announcement of updates to phones and small changes. For Apple, a company that once induced frenzy and shifted entire industries with their launch announcements, this week's predictable announcements were another step towards an ordinary future. While the brand remains popular, this descent back to Earth may increasingly mean consumers will demand the same things from Apple they do from others: interoperability with non-Apple devices, less exorbitant price premiums, greater transparency and ethical manufacturing and higher quality accessories are just a few examples of what the brand may need to offer moving forward. Most importantly the brand's days of "milking its cash cows," as this Inc article says, may soon be over.
Cancer Cures Could Already Exist In Big Data
This week President Obama's Cancer Moonshot program released the first of three reports and recommendations on the battle to cure cancer. Key among the recommendations were several new initiatives designed to make data sharing easier. The tantalizing headline that the data researchers need to develop a cure may already exist is frustratingly believable. It is also a premise that should offer marketers a valuable reminder that the answers we sometimes spend lots of time and attention seeking may be inside data we already have, if we just create the right connections to find them.
