2PM - No. 376: The Great Divide

Unlocked: Brands Beating Bland

Brands / 2PM Members: The brands mentioned in this Bloomberg column were products of an industrial complex that accomplished a great deal for the industry. The system of creative agencies, high powered public relations firms, development partners, and accessible technologies helped to forge a rewriting of how brands grow. Unlike Siete Foods, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, or Bulletproof 360, many of these brands were built before a single product shipped. The narratives were packaged neatly, ready for press release.

Editor's Note: "The 2PM response to the Bloomberg blanding piece is spot on." [Twitter] It was the note by Executive Member Emily Singer that moved us to unlock this essay for today. Please enjoy and maybe join us. It's a good crew.

Gravity Blankets expands presence with Target partnership

DTC Brands / Modern Retail: In the name of accessibility and expansion, Gravity Products (the company behind the Gravity Blanket), will now have a presence in hundreds of Target stores across the country, as well as a place in Target’s onl ecosystem. The move is big for the DTC brand, as it will not only expand operations into the space of physical retail, but will also embolden their eCommerce infrastructure and widen their customer base.

NYC’s Hudson Yards reopens, but few show up

Retail / Bloomberg: Hudson Yards seems to be shifting towards a more traditional retail model and one less reliant upon the upper middle class and the wealthy. The pandemic was less of a catalyst and more of an accelerant. Would this shift have happened anyway? Perhaps. But COVID-19 accelerated it. 

After an underwhelming reopening, many are speculating on what it means for the nation if the newest spectacle of the commerce-capital is struggling to get people in the door. Whether the causality is attributed to a temporary consumer hesitancy, or a longer-term psychological shift, is still to be determined.

This original report is shaping up to be wrong: Hudson Yards was designed to become a haven for those who have, the types of consumers who can thrive throughout the natural cycles of our market-driven economy. Few retail developments can say the same. [2PM]
 

The revivals of the Ford Bronco and Jeep Wagoneer are actually about American anxiety

Consumer Psychology / Fast Company: With both Ford and Jeep releasing new spins on old classics, it brings to question: Where’s the balance between appreciation for the past, and understanding of the present? While these cars may hit home with enthusiasts and nostalgics alike, the positioning of the product is a bit of a head-scratcher.

You've heard of this concept. Anemoia is the nostalgia for something before your time. Better put, “a nostalgic sense of longing for a past you yourself have never lived.” [1] For many, there is an anemoia for the Golden Age of air travel.  And yet, few reading this are old enough to have experienced travel in the 1950’s and 1960’s. [2PM]

Featured: Is the office finished?

Streaming Economy / The Economist: As more people adopt remote-working technologies there is a powerful network effect, with each new customer making the service more useful. Together Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet and Cisco Webex now have well over 300m users. Bureaucratic hurdles to remote work have been blasted out of the way. How much of this change will stick when a vaccine arrives?

COVID proves that companies need to reduce their dependence on China

Supply Chain / Fortune: The pandemic has given some businesses a rude awakening about their dependence on China. But there is no reason to believe that relocation of supply chains can't be achieved. Companies will have to embrace short-term challenges associated with diversification from Chinese locations and go through the growing pains needed to design a long-term sustainable future, one without reliance on China.

The rise of 'dark stores' and how they could save struggling retail

Retail / Fast Company: Located in Brooklyn and slightly smaller than a typical Whole Foods, the store is dedicated solely to fulfilling online orders. It’s the company’s first purpose-built online-only store. With longer aisles, no salad bar, and missing those checkout candy displays, the store will be used to pack up online orders, which have skyrocketed during the pandemic.

COVID-related U.S. eCommerce growth slows as store reopenings attract quarantine-fatigued customers

eCommerce / Market Watch: eCommerce sales jumped 42% year-over-year in August, reaching $63 billion, according to Adobe data. However, activity slowed compared with July, when e-commerce sales were up 55%. More than a quarter of consumers (27%) said they were more comfortable shopping in stores in August than they were in July.

Editor's Note: don't lose sight of the fact that this slow down is temporary. Read more here, where we forecasted this j-curve. 

How to save TV ads from extinction

Media / Quartz: The 15 to 30 second commercial break format has remained just as immutable. While filmmaking and communications technology have fundamentally changed since the first half of the 20th century, the experience of watching content on TV hasn’t. It still looks a lot like it did for your parents and grandparents.

A timeline of Travis Scott's brand collaborations

Brands / Complex: Limited edition capsule collections with some of fashion's most notable designers. A virtual concert with one of the world's most popular video games as his stage. A cheeseburger combo meal with the world's largest fast food chain. There doesn't seem to be anything off limits for the Houston rapper when it comes to collaborations these days, and with a fanbase as passionate as his it is pretty much guaranteed that no matter what he does next, people will be talking about it.

Disney wanted to make a splash in China with 'Mulan.' It stumbled instead.

A. Streaming Economy / New York Times: Disney is one of the world’s savviest operators when it comes to China, having seamlessly opened Shanghai Disneyland in 2016, but it was caught flat-footed with “Mulan.” Top studio executives had not seen the Xinjiang credits, according to three people briefed on the matter, and no one involved with the production had warned that footage from the area was perhaps not a good idea.

Oracle's bid for TikTok could be blocked after ByteDance rejects sale of algorithm

B. New Media / Forbes: New Chinese export rules introduced last month could mean Beijing will have the last say in the fate of the app in the U.S., which counts 100 million monthly active users nationwide and has spawned millionaire influencers over its two-year presence in the U.S. All will likely be revealed this week, as Trump has refused to extend his September 15 deadline.

War Games, continued. We often believe a partisan divide to be a purely American phenomenon, but there may be no greater example of the volatile intersection of politics and global economics than the state of trade policy of China and the United States. Perhaps it’s always been this way. But this new competitive precedent has been established upon new ground.

Read more here