William Napier Publications

What keeps me up at night is the big issue of watching and witnessing retail destruction. The demise of brick and mortar retail scares me from a multitude of perspectives, primarily as it pertains to present and future employment at retail and manufacturing. It is predicted that 8,600 retail storefronts will close this year. This is probably no surprise to anyone who is paying attention. Consider the announcements of recent high profile closings of 68 Macy’s stores, 138 JC Penny stores, eight Sears stores, 35 Kmart stores, 220 h.h. Gregg stores, plus so many others in sectors from clothing to shoes to office supplies. How many in the furniture store category? A bunch! Furniture store closings have been steady for a number of years and from my talks with the folks who specialize in store liquidations, there’s been an up-tick in their business this summer. In my opinion, this is what should be keeping you up at night. All retailers MUST be aware of this trend and adapt their business models right now. If the Big Guys are feeling the heat, with all their money and access to technology, what's a smaller retailer to do? The fact remains, consumers want to shop/buy locally, but retailers seem to stay focused on "price" to drive sales, instead of technology to increase efficiency, create content, conversations and connections. ​ So who’s to blame? Store owners and the media tend to blame the internet for the retail debacle, or Asian manufacturing for the manufacturing debacle, but these are just effects of deeper problems here in the USA, an even bigger nightmare that keeps me up at night. It’s the dumbing down of the educational system in America.

All I ever hear about is Snapchat this, Facebook that, Instagram wherever, WhatsApp whatever, Twitter me twit...you get it ...you have to market here, there and everywhere on these digital platforms to reach an audience to come by stuff at your store. ​ Let me be upfront. I'm not saying all digital inbound marketing is bad, I'm just saying if that's all you're spending your money on, you're missing 30%-70%+ of your market! READ MORE

emember the adage from John Wanamaker – “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half”. Well this may be truer today than back in the turn of the century when he stated it. I’ve sat through dozens of presentations and I must be honest, I don’t understand a lot of what they are presenting and I’m a pretty smart guy. I explain to these people that if I don’t understand it, how will my clients understand it. After all this time, I think I found a platform I can get behind, more on that later. First, I need to address the elephant in the room. AD FRAUD. With all these companies out there promoting the next best FAD MARKETING gimmick, I asked myself the question: What is the ROI reality of these so called digital ad driven companies? I always hear the words/statements “We Increased Conversions by XXX%”. People, conversions are clicks and these are riddled with potential AD FRAUD and here is why and how it’s done and you don’t know it’s happening. ​ According to Business Insider, a study commissioned by WPP, clicks automatically generated by bots, could reach $16.4 billion in 2017 and could reach over $50BN in 2025. Hey, this fraud and the profits are second only to organized crime’s drug trade!

Daily I get some sort of propaganda Info-Graphic, How To, and more about how and why everyone should be marketing to Millennials, and I bet you do too. ​ When I get ​this sales and marketing propaganda, I must wonder if anyone has ever done his or her homework on the 77 Million strong demographics. My answer is a resounding NO and it’s time marketers adjusted their thinking to a reality-based strategy, vs. the fictional stuff everyone wants you to think and believe. The old adage – “Strength in Numbers” does not apply to this generation …. yet. The reason you get bombarded with Millennial Misinformation is simple. Someone wants to sell you something; a product and most likely a service like how to sell them something and you should buy from them because they supposedly know. ​Whenever I get these emails, mostly from marketers, I immediately go to this place; "How did they become marketers when they don’t even know what they are talking about"? ​ Thus, the Arrogance of Ignorance… again. I’m titling this as Part 3 in my series on this subject. ​ Before I get into the FACTS, I understand people have a job to do and as a marketer, your job is to inspire, motivate and engage your audience to “buy something”. ​ ​ I know, because it’s my job and I’ve been doing it for over 30+ years … so I get it, and I’ve done it and still do it. The difference is, I always talk about/present the downside of marketing to Millennials, and I don’t pull punches both good and bad! ​HERE ARE THE FACTS. I’LL WRITE AND YOU DECIDE, AND BE PREPARED TO HAVE YOUR BUBBLE BURST!