Split Seconds: Marketing in an Attention Economy

Published for students by students.

SPLIT SECONDS: Marketing in an Attention Economy Final Magazine copy.indd 1

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

Editor’s Note S

ince the era of industrialization, advertising has been a cornerstone of American culture. Iconic spots, like Super Bowl ads from Doritos, the ‘Got Milk’ campaign, or Tootsie’s Mr. Owl, have burned themselves into our collective national consciousness. But in 2019, marketing is more omnipresent than perhaps ever before. Try this: start a timer, log onto Facebook or Instagram and see how long you can scroll before seeing an ad. How many seconds did you last? We’re almost completely surrounded by people trying to sell us products and ideas in increasingly crafty and technologically-advanced ways.

This fall’s edition of Business Today Magazine, Split Seconds: Marketing in an Attention Economy, chronicles the evolution of marketing and branding to meet 21st century demands. The combination of a growing amount of data for sale about each consumer and a new slate of artificial intelligence tools that predict behavior has given rise to novel marketing techniques which can more closely target individuals than ever before. As with countless other industries, social media has transformed product marketing, and phenomena like Instagram influencers and YouTube product review channels allow users to choose the content they see. These two parallel, seemingly opposite trends—sleeker targeting and wider choice—create a paradox that defines the world of advertising in 2019.

The global leaders we talked to for this issue each highlighted a different aspect of this landscape. Edward Felsenthal, the Editor-in-Chief and CEO of TIME, outlines the challenges of showcasing journalistic credibility amidst cries of ‘fake news’. Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, discusses the necessary incorporation of mission and values into company identity. Norman Augustine, former CEO and Chairman of Lockheed Martin and retired U.S. Under Secretary of the Army, touches upon the importance of closely linking product development and consumer needs. Dominique Ansel, inventor of the cronut and owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery, characterizes the creativity and care required to adapt products to diverse global audiences. Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of Integral Ad Science, talks brand safety and the future of digital marketing. Tina Sharkey, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Brandless, chronicles the rise of ‘self-branding’ and the new role of authenticity in sales. Amit Mukherjee, Partner at New Enterprise Associates, underscores the importance of attentiveness to generational trends and compelling storytelling in launching successful startups.

Just as these innovations can be geared for good, they can be weaponized. In 2016, the U.S. Presidential election and other down-ballot races were substantially influenced by false, sometimes targeted political advertisements devised by malicious foreign actors. Social media platforms were almost uniformly responsible for diffusing such ‘disinformation.’ Many consumers find targeted advertising ‘eerie’ or ‘creepy,’ and worry about the security of their information in an era where it is often easily bought and sold.

And, just as ‘influencer’ marketing can democratize and diversify the pool of models and product salespeople, it can be used to sell harmful products to younger demographics without the savvy to avoid risky behaviors.

Our writers explore these issues, and others, in this semester’s array of articles. GoFundMe campaigns have opened the Internet’s hearts—and pocketbooks—to a host of worthy causes, and one of our writers cautions about the ways in which the platform can be abused. We look at ‘public-sector’ marketing through the lens of policy ‘doublespeak’ and explore the salience of the ubiquitous ‘Made in America’ label. Inspecting some of the foremost creative advertising trends of this decade, our writers explore techniques deployed by Dirty Lemon, Rolling Loud, and Lululemon to sell their products in novel ways.

In the last edition of Business Today this decade, we explore some of our time’s most significant challenges and novel ideas.

The ‘marketing boom’ we explore in this issue is a convergence of technological development and private sector creativity—two elements that can be harnessed for tremendous collective good or intensely destructive ends. I am immensely proud of the work our writers and interviewers did in putting together such a provocative issue, and hope you agree as you consider the consequential issues we raise.

MALLORY WILLIAMSON Editor-in-Chief

Final Magazine copy.indd 2

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

CONTRIBUTORS Published at Princeton University, Business Today is the most widely distributed student publication in North America, and has extensive online readership at our website, journal.businesstoday.org.

Business Today is dedicated to presenting the opinions of students and business leaders. By examining controversial issues facing our world and exploring life after college, we hope to help readers prepare for their futures.

The magazine has been published by Princeton University undergraduates since 1968.

Photo by Devin Sun

MALLORY WILLIAMSON Editor-in-Chief of Magazine GRACE XU Executive Editor of Magazine SERENA REN Director of Design AMY WANG Assistant Director of Executive Relations MAXWELL CHUNG Editor-in-Chief of Online Journal LYUBOMIR HADJIYSKI Executive Editor of Online Journal

NEEL AJJARAPU President ARIA WONG Director of Corporate Contacts and Finance ROGER CHEN Director of the International Conference MADHAV GHATPANDE Director of Seminars GRACE HONG Director of Content ALYSSA NGUYEN Director of the Design Nation Conference SERENA REN Director of Design VAIL LINN Director of Membership & Outreach MICHAEL MAN Director of Technology ANDRE RADENSKY Director of Investments

WRITERS Reade Ben Emily Cheston Lyubomir Hadjiyski Caroline Kirby Rhea Park Austin Stiefelmaier Quang Trinh Amy Wang Kaylin Xu Business Today Princeton University 48 University Place Princeton, NJ 08540 609.258.1111

Business Today is a publication of the Foundation for Student Communication, Inc.. FSC, a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation, is run entirely by students for students at Princeton University. In addition to the magazine, FSC sponsors International and Regional Conferences held across the country that bring together students and executives to discuss the future of business. For more information, visit our website, businesstoday.org.

DESIGNERS Catherine Chen Ilene E Avigail Gilad Melina Huang Eric Lin Sonia Murthy Beverly Shen Cover design by Catherine Chen

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 3

3

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

CONTENTS DIGITAL DEALINGS

"We are seeing authoritarian regimes increasingly use digital technology to

UNDERMINE or even ATTACK

democracy"

BRAD SMITH President of Microsoft p.9

21ST CENTURY INNOVATION

6 From Clickbait to Fraud

TRENDING NOW

The Darker Side of Charitable Giving

TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES WITH A TWIST

9 An Interview with Brad Smith

24 Dirty Lemon’s Zesty Marketing

President of Microsoft and Author of Tools and Weapons: The Promise and Perils of the Digital Age

14 An Interview with Edward Felsenthal

Editor-in-Chief and CEO of TIME

18 Marketing the Markup

How Doublespeak Influences Healthcare Policy

22 The Child Consumer How Companies Market to Children

4 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

Branding via Social Media, Technology, and Brick and Mortar Stores

26 Lululemon and the FitFluencer

The Power of the Ambassador

29 An Interview with Amit Mukherjee

Partner at New Enterprise Associates

32 The Marketability of Rolling Loud Building Momentum in a New Music Festival

CURATING DEMAND RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF THE ERA

34 When Countries Act as Brands The Importance of the “Made in” Label

38 An Interview with Lisa Utzschneider

CEO of Integral Ad Science

40 An Interview with Norman Augustine

Former CEO and Chairman of Lockheed Martin Corporation

44 An Interview with Dominique Ansel

James Beard Award-winning Pastry Chef and Owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery

50 An Interview with Tina Sharkey Co-Founder and CoChairman of Brandless

DOMINQUE ANSEL Meet the inventor of The Cronut® p.44

BRAND

"The power of the is actually more important than the

PRODUCT"

DIRTY LEMON'S ZESTY MARKETING p.24

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019

5

SECTION

6 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 6

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS

from CLICKBAIT to FRAUD How online fundraising, a powerful tool for social good, can become dangerous in the wrong hands

BY KAYLIN XU

C

hristmas carols and puffy jackets aren’t the only things that pervasively infiltrate Americans’ lives as the holiday season grows closer.

Data from the Blackbaud Index shows that the spirit of giving also finds its home during the winter months—18% of annual charitable giving in the United States is concentrated in December alone. auses benefitting from these donations are varied, including religious groups (the largest recipient, with 31% of all donations) to environmental charities (one of the smallest recipients, with 3% of all donations). Since a staggering 70% of the $410 billion in total U.S. charitable giving comes from individuals instead of corporations or charitable foundations, the way that charitable organizations market themselves to the general population is key to their success.

Often, promotional materials from these charitable organizations play on altruistic appeals to the individual, presenting an opportunity to help somebody in need without the expectation of a reward. They also sometimes play on egoistic appeals, presenting a benefit, accessible via a donation, to the individual’s personal welfare. In today’s attention economy, where immediate

visual appeal that exploits our emotional impulses reigns supreme, charitable organizations have realised that slicklyproduced, gripping images and narratives of struggling stakeholders in need of the viewer’s monetary aid constitute highly effective altruistic appeals to the general public. Combined with the power of social media as a platform capable of reaching mass audiences, this has translated to the wild virality and success of certain charitable social media ad campaigns.

Noteworthy successes include the ‘Movember’ campaign promoting men’s health and the ‘September Campaign’ for Charity: water, which raised $800 million USD and $13 million USD respectively.

Those campaigns marketed themselves on social media through shareable, easily digestible, attention-grabbing images and narratives articulating the pressing problems they aimed to address. n the flip side of this mass mobilization for charitable giving, a darker picture lurks. Over the years, several charitable campaigns have been exposed as either fraudulent, misleading, or otherwise unethical after already having collected many donations. Nearly always, fraudulent campaigns are digital, advertised through social media or popular fundraising

sites like GoFundMe. Perhaps the most notable example is when, in 2017, a New Jersey couple created a GoFundMe page named “Paying it Forward,” detailing the heartwarming story of a homeless man who spent his last $20 paying for their gas. In this GoFundMe campaign, they asked for $10,000 from the public to help the homeless man get off the streets. This cause was picked up by various media and quickly went viral, amassing $400,000 in donations in under three weeks.

Unfortunately, the whole campaign was revealed to be a hoax when the homeless man complained through a lawyer that he had only received $25,000 from the donations. After more investigation, it was revealed that the whole gas station scenario was completely fabricated, with every individual involved in the campaign lying, and that the couple had already blown most of the donations on gambling and personal purchases.

Charitable campaigns do not have to be outright fraudulent to be problematic, though. A far more nuanced example involves TOMS Shoes, Inc., a company founded based on the “one-for-one” model.

This model entails TOMS giving away a pair of shoes for every pair of shoes purchased.

TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie’s story

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 7

7

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS

"In today’s attention economy, where immediate visual appeal that exploits our emotional impulses reigns supreme, charitable organizations have realised that slickly-produced, gripping images and narratives of struggling stakeholders in need of the viewer’s monetary aid constitute highly effective altruistic appeals to the general public."

of befriending children in Argentinean villages and noticing their lack of foot protection tugged at heartstrings in a series of videos and image showing the current dire state of places of need—and the gratitude that ensues when those places are helped by TOMS, which has become one of the most successful ‘Buy 1, Give 1’ companies. Since 2006, they’ve given away over 35 million pairs of shoes.

The actual distribution of the given shoes, however, can complicate this seemingly flawless model. Investigative journalists have found that shoes are not always distributed to those who actually need them. In one community, shoes were given out inside schools, but only children who already owned shoes were allowed to attend school. The type of shoes distributed often does not match the physical environment in which children use them. As their commercial manufacturing base is in mostly in China and Vietnam, TOMS detracted work from local shoe manufacturers, and instead, they may have been damaging local shoe markets with their handouts.

In response to these critiques, TOMS has begun reforming its distribution and manufacturing process, but the well-meaning company has far to go.

What these successful campaigns all have in common—from the most forthright to the most questionable—is their unique appeal to laypeople generally disengaged from problems affecting the needy. They offer concrete evidence real or fake of a problem needing redress and promise a quick and effortless way that you can make a difference. In the case of online monetary donations, pitching in is as easy

as clicking a bright “Donate now!” button.

This narrative is easy to grasp, follow, and share, all of which are elements vital for success in today’s attention economy.

However, the high speed at which we are encouraged to digest, share, and donate to these campaigns is usually not conducive to critical thinking or thoughtful investigation. Instead, impulse dominates: a campaign’s images, story, and easy solution entice us to quickly give our hardearned money before we move on quickly

"...the very mechanism that leads to the success of virtuous charities also helps donation scams reach social media stardom." to the next attention-grabbing story.

It is perhaps ironic that a substantial portion of the media attention dedicated to charitable giving is now dedicated to covering scams and ineffective charity.

Here, the very mechanism that leads to the success of virtuous charities also helps donation scams reach social media

stardom. Reporting on these stories has likely increased individual skepticism about charity, potentially discouraging the general population from donating.

Over the past few decades, household giving to charitable organizations in the US has generally increased (from $119.5 billion in 1977 to $286.65 billion in 201 , adjusted for inflation , but it has declined as a proportion of total giving. It remains to be seen whether the recent surge of exaggerated or outright fake charitable opportunities will put a dent in Americans’ altruism.

That is not to say that charitable organizations should stop promoting social media ad campaigns that play into the attention economy. Social media’s wide reach and effectiveness in garnering donations mean it is an extremely powerful tool. The onus for distinguishing between viable opportunities and malicious scams lies instead on the general population. It is each person’s responsibility to do his or her due diligence and look into the operations of a charity before donating to avoid contributing to an unwelcome cause. You don’t have to be a journalist to do this effectively—there exist many organizations which provide assessments of the efficiency of a given charity. One of the most comprehensive American charitable giving databases belongs to CharityWatch, a national watchdog system that assesses charities and exposes abuses. So, this holiday season, consider doing your homework to avoid falling for a social media charity scam.

Illustrations by Catherine Chen

8 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 8

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

Brad Smith joined Microsoft in 1993 and currently serves cocurrently as the President and Chief Legal Officer.

Brad Smith

President of Microsoft Speaking on his new book

Tools and Weapons: The Promise and Perils of the Digital Age WITH AUSTIN STIEFELMAIER

Business Today: The focus of this interview will be your new book, Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age, but before writing your book and beginning your career at Microsoft, you graduated Princeton University as a member of the class of ’81. To start, how did your time at Princeton impact your career?

Brad Smith: It’s really had a huge impact on my career and life in a number of different ways. Maybe I should start with the fact that I met my wife there... but beyond that, Princeton broadened my perspective on the world, as I think it does for many people. I grew up in a smaller city—Appleton, Wisconsin.

When I came to Princeton, I was exposed to people from across the country and to issues around the world. It gave me a couple of things that connected me, technology, and technology policy issues. In my junior and senior years, I worked as an assistant to the University’s Director of Government Affairs. I had a number of jobs throughout my four years of Princeton, starting with delivering the Daily Princetonian the fall of my freshman year. By my junior and senior years, I was working in government affairs, and a lot of the University's issues were around technology and technology policy, so it first got me really interested in that. It also got me really interested in

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 9

9

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS

The New York Times bestseller includes a foreword written by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

issues around the protection of refugees.

That was the topic for my senior thesis.

I stayed involved with immigration and refugee issues ever since. So in many ways, the issues I have pursued throughout my career really were formed for the first time while I was at Princeton.

BT: How has your career at Microsoft uniquely positioned you to understand and communicate tech issues that have been formulated in Tools and Weapons?

BS: In a perhaps ironic way, I was fortunate to work on some of the big antitrust issues in the 1990’s and see firsthand the collision between technology, law, and government. Then, when I was named general counsel in 2002, it really became my job to go out and work with others to make peace with governments around the world and with other companies across the tech sector.

It was not an easy experience for any of us at Microsoft to work through these issues—the issues were complex. People had very different perspectives on not just the issues but about what we were doing as a company and how we were working with others. In short, it required us to change. When I look at the issues the whole tech sector is facing today, they are clearly broader and deeper than the ones that Microsoft faced fifteen or

twenty years ago, but there are also some really obvious similarities. One of the arguments in our book is that the tech sector is going to need to change. Having lived through some of this change myself, it is a helpful perspective to bring to bear.

BT: With regards to Tools and Weapons, I would like to get your thoughts on which policy about which you have written is the most significant.

BS: There’s a number of different policy issues that Carol Ann and I have written together. If I were to pick one, it would be the importance of protecting democracy.

Democracy is obviously one of the most fundamental aspects of American society; it defines who we are as a country. It defines the political system that roughly half of the people in the world live in today. Yet, we are seeing authoritarian regimes increasingly use digital technology to undermine or even attack democracy. We highlight in the book the three forms of these attacks. One involves weaponizing email by hacking into the emails of candidates and political parties and think tanks. The second involves the use of misinformation to manipulate political campaigns. The third is potential vulnerability of voting systems. And the most fundamental attribute of democracy is the ability to ensure that votes are

cast and counted accurately. So I think it’s right to highlight that as the most important area. We highlight actions that tech companies need to take. We highlight new areas of government policy.

We highlight the need for collaboration between government and the tech sector in new forms of multilateral involved high-stakes diplomacy. I strongly believe it’s one of the most important issues for the next decade for our country and every democratic country around the world.

BT: This fall’s magazine theme is centered on marketing, so I’d like to take a short break from discussing Tools and Weapons to pose a question on the topic: To the layman, Microsoft is best known for its hardware. Yet, over the last few years, the company has increasingly relied on its cloud computing capabilities to maintain its value and compete effectively in the tech sphere. What do you see as Microsoft's defining identity, and do you think it's still important today for companies to have a focused source of branding?* BS: More than any time in the twentysix years that I’ve worked at Microsoft, I think that the company today is very mission-driven. Our mission is all about creating technology that will empower other people to achieve more in their

10 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 10

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS

"Especially in democratic societies, the government is

ELECTED, and Carol Ann Browne, the co-author of Tools and Weapons, is the Senior Director of External Relations & Communications at Microsoft.

lives as individuals or within their work in organizations. That mission really defines our identity. Whether it’s Xbox or Surface or HoloLens in the hardware space or productivity software or massive data centers and the cloud and AI, everything is fundamentally about defining purpose. I do think it’s important for companies to know what they stand for. Employees and potential employees today, perhaps most especially students, are looking for purpose-driven companies at which to work. Oftentimes consumers are increasingly focused on the fundamental focus and purpose of a company as well.

Now you need to, of course, then take that purpose and not only permeate it through your products, but bring it to the market through your brand. For us, Microsoft as a brand, we hope, stands for empowering other people. It stands for trust in the issues we talk about in our book, and it stands for protecting our customers around the world. But you see how all these things are really unified if we focus on our mission.

BT: Now back to Tools and Weapons, I noticed the idea that large tech companies like Microsoft take actions reminiscent of nations continuously pops up. You also mention that tech firms can and have occasionally come together to discuss issues with government, sometimes on an international level. Where do you think the

companies are not, and we always have to remember that catching order."

relationship between tech firms and government is headed, and what do you see as the ideal relationship between the two entities?

BS: Well I think that companies always need to be subservient to governments.

That’s the first principle. Especially in democratic societies, the government is elected, and companies are not, and we always have to remember that catching order. When you look at these societal issues being created by technology, they also require new forms of collaboration.

One form of collaboration is across the tech sector. There is more that we can do across the industry to work together to address big problems of our time. This ranges from protecting cybersecurity, to creating new standards around privacy, to closing the skills gap for people.

All of these are important. But even beyond that, we’ve called in our book for a new focus and new urgency around multilateral diplomacy. In our minds, the multilateral diplomacy from the 20th century needs to include not only collaboration between governments, but collaboration among government, companies, and nonprofits. That’s the only way we’ll address some of these big technology issues on a global basis. I hope that a decade from now, we will see

more of these kinds of initiatives. I hope that we would see some institutional structure in place to facilitate them.

It won’t end, for a moment, the more traditional interaction between government and companies, which often involves the regulators and the needing to sit down and talk with each other. But we hope that we see this new form of collaboration play a much broader role.

BT: On a similar note to the last question, as digital service providers become ever more international, whose laws and principles should they obey? How can this be standardized across tech firms, whether or not they originated from the US? After all, even in Western democracies, the definitions of what some assume as basic rights, such as freedom of speech, vary markedly.

BS: It’s a great question, and it highlights one of the preeminent tensions of our time. We still live in the world that was first established by the Treaty of Westphalia. That is to say, a world where the territories and sovereign borders and each jurisdiction is controlled by a government. What that means for companies, and for individuals, is that you have to follow the law of the land whenever you’re within that territory.

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 11

11

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS And that’s a good thing. Especially in the United States, we’ve all grown up rightly so with a view that no one is above the law. That means that no person, no company, no product, and no government is above the law. But then you have the other side of the tension. Technology today is global; the companies that create this technology are global. That means, on the one hand, that companies have to follow different laws in different countries. It means that we need to be committed to certain principles, especially in the field of human rights that reflect global norms. What this means, perhaps above all, is that we need governments to do more to work together. If you’re trying to figure out how to make global technology work in a world controlled by government in a defined territory, it by necessity means that governments have to more together and governments need to more with these companies to address this global technology.

BT: While reading your book, I became interested in the notion of a Digital Geneva Convention. Could you

explain a bit more about what that means and what it could look like?

BS: When we endorsed the concept two years ago of creating a Digital Geneva convention, in part this was a reminder of what the world accomplished after the close of World War II. In 1949, all of the governments in the world came together in Geneva, Switzerland with the international committee for the Red Cross. They signed what is known as the Geneva Convention. Its fundamental purpose is to impose on governments not just a moral responsibility, but a legal duty to protect civilians even in times of war, to try to avoid civilian casualties.

Our first point is that in some ways it feels that the world is going backwards.

Because now we’re in the 21st century, we are mostly living in a time of peace, and yet we are seeing governments repeatedly attack civilians on the internet. Our first point is that this is not a future we should embrace or allow to unfold. Instead we need a new approach that imposes on government the same responsibilities to protect civilians on the internet in the time of peace that they accepted for the protection of civilians near a battlefield

"We are seeing authoritarian regimes increasingly use digital technology to

UNDERMINE or even ATTACK

democracy."

in times of war. It means that we need to build on all of the international norms and laws that exist already because there are several, and they’re important. They include the Geneva Convention and the United Nations Charter. It means that we need to complement this with interaction by tech companies themselves. We have done this by creating the Tech Accord which has now brought together more than 100 companies from more than 20 countries. It means that we will ultimately need a new set of international agreements along the lines of what we have described as a Digital Geneva Convention. Only if we do these things can we apply in the 21st century some of the lessons that the world learned all too painfully a century ago.

BT: One of the most personally striking lines in Tools and Weapons is a bit of advice offered by the Pope where he urges you to “Keep your humanity.” So how do you remind yourself and strive to “keep your humanity” in your work?

BS: I tend to benefit from working in the same office since January of 2002. That’s a long time. I have a routine of driving to work and parking in the parking lot every morning when I am in Redmond, Washington. Every morning when I get out of the car, it provides a quiet opportunity to walk to the building and remind myself of a few clear thoughts before the hectic events of the day unfold. And I do try to remind myself of a couple of things in particular. One is to try and ensure that as a company we are thinking broadly of what we need to do to support our customers and the world. And the other is to try and find a little bit of time to be nice in small ways for the people I work with.

Once the day begins, one of the hardest things is having the time to remember the important things that you hope you do every day. So I always find that if you think about them before the day begins there’s at least a better likelihood that you’ll remember them as the day unfolds.

BT: In Tools and Weapons, you devote a fair amount of time to Artificial Intelligence. So I’d like to ask what world economies are the best equipped to deal with the

12 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 12

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS potential upsets that AI related job loss, transformation, and creation would entail, and why?

Furthermore, for those economies that aren’t as well equipped, what do they need to do to prepare?

BS: Well one of things we really try to do in the book is bring to light how artificial intelligence works. It’s coming together in a very dramatic way as we get ready to enter a new decade. I’m trying to describe different technologies that are facilitating it and then also talk about what we see as the most likely impact on the economy in terms of the kinds of jobs that will or will not be impacted.

With that context, the first thing that is evident is that countries will benefit the most from AI if they are quicker to deploy it. It’s a little bit like electricity in this regard: you have to use it to benefit from it. And like electricity you probably want an economy to move quickly to deploy AI in all of the various sectors where it will accelerate growth.

Right now, in some ways, I would say that the Chinese government is at the forefront of deploying AI technologies in a very rapid manner. The US and Western Europe are doing well also.

The second thing to think about is the skills that will be needed to be successful when it comes to AI. Here, there is a need for more investment to equip people with digital skills like computer science and data science. But AI also requires a multidisciplinary approach. One of the things we talked about was that it will require more interaction with people from the humanities and social sciences.

Here the United States is probably in the strongest position even though we have an enormous amount of work to do to spread the skills more broadly across the population. The third thing that people will need to think about is how governments adapt AI. In the book, we analogize the transition with AI to the global transition that took place a century ago as the economy moved from the horse to the combustion engine. And as we point out, the indirect economic effects in many ways are the most challenging. And this requires agile government, and here I think that there’s a benefit to the European Union which is proving to be more agile. To some degree it’s a greater challenge to

the United States which has tended to be defined politically by more gridlock.

Then the last thing that I would add that people should think about is that there are some societies in the world where they are starting to actually see their population decline. Countries like Japan and Korea and Central Europe all fall into this category. In some respects, these countries may find it the easiest to embrace the technology. They need more technology to sustain their current standard of living. What that really means is that when you look around the world today, you can identify different parts of the world that have an advantage in one of these spaces, but not an advantage in all of them, and that’s in part why your questions is so interesting. It gives every country an opportunity to step back and ask what are we good at today that will benefit from the adoption of AI? What are we less positioned for and how do we address that challenge?

BT: How do you think consumers should be made aware of how their data, and even their faces, are being used? How should governments and companies present this information understandably to less than tech-savvy individuals?

BS: One of our favorite chapters to work on and write was our chapter on consumer privacy. It’s because after many years of little movement in the United States, American privacy law is starting to move forward, especially driven by the law passed last year in California. At bottom, we need to make the data that exists about each of us as individuals much more accessible to us. We need to create better dashboards so that we can each go online and see the data that companies have on us and correct it if it’s wrong. We need the rights to move it to another data provider we prefer. This is a space where the European Union has really been a global leader. They adopted last year what’s called the General Data Protection Regulation. To date, Microsoft is the only major tech company to make available the rights under this new law, not just to consumers and customers in Europe, but to consumers and customers everywhere in the world, including the United States. From our perspective, it is a sign of what the world needs and

what is likely to come: mainly making data more easily accessible to those of us who create it and we continue, or rightly should continue, to own it.

BT: Besides reading your book, how do you recommend Americans unfamiliar with digital tech issues educate themselves?

BS: It’s a great question, and first, there’s no substitute for using these products. Increasingly, that is not a hard challenge, especially for younger people. We tend to use them and rely on them throughout our daily lives. I then think it requires that we read broadly.

We tend to see technology policy issues covered in the major traditional, newsoriented publications. We tend to see it in policy publications in Washington DC like Politico and Axios. They’re good places to go. And then you can look at the technology side of these issues, from some of the more tech-oriented forces of information. Whether it’s The Verge or podcasts that someone like Kara Swisher has on Recode Decode.

There’s a variety of places one can go.

More than anything, it involves having a sense of curiosity. I’d almost conclude where I began. One of the things that I was fortunate enough to develop as an undergraduate was more curiosity about what is going on around the world. One of the things I found repeatedly in my career is that very successful people, almost regardless of the field that they are in, share a broad sense of curiosity. They always want to know more about what’s happening in the world. They always ask why, and not just what or when. People can pursue their own sense of curiosity from the huge amount of writing and podcasts and the other things that exist today that will serve them very very well. *Question submitted by Isabella Lee at the University of Chicago

Photographs courtesy of Brad Smith

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 13

13

19/11/2019 6:22 PM

SECTION

Ed Felsenthal started his career at The Wall Street Journal and launched The Daily Beast prior to his work at TIME.

FALL 2019 2019 BUSINESS BUSINESS TODAY TODAY 14 FALL Final Magazine copy.indd 14

19/11/2019 6:23 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS

Edward Felsenthal

Editor-in-Chief and CEO of TIME On the growing trust in legacy media and the challenge of misinformation to modern journalism WITH MALLORY WILLIAMSON Business Today: My first question is about your educational background, which is quite unique for someone in journalism. How did you decide to go from a concentration in law and international affairs to a career in journalism?

Edward Felsenthal: Well, there are actually a lot of lawyers in journalism. I always had a sense that I wanted to be a journalist. I didn't know a lot of journalists growing up, and I didn't I have the foresight to join Business Today. I didn't quite know how to pursue a career in journalism, but I knew how to go to school, and I loved school.

So, I just kind of thought I'd continue it — studying public affairs was right in sync with my interests in journalism and community and the people and ideas that shape the world. Law to me felt like an extension of that education. I didn't know I was going to be in journalism. I didn't really quite know what I wanted to do, so what I did was go to law school and explore journalism in my spare time.

I got a part time job at WGBH, the PBS affiliate in Boston working on a healthcare program hosted by Phil Donahue. We looked at topics of healthcare delivery and healthcare reform, which continues to be front and center in my work today and in the public discussion today. WGBH also produced some of what was then called MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour, which is now the NewsHour. I loved it, and I and then I wound up working in the summers in journalism. I spent a summer at working for Rita Braver, who was then the law correspondent at CBS News. I got a summer internship covering law at The Wall Street Journal and then another summer internship at The Journal. After that, I went to a law firm for a summer. At the end of that, I had an offer from The Journal and I had an offer from the law firm, and I went with my heart and was off from there.

My legal education, you know, actually gave me some expertise to sell to Kay, my future boss at The Wall Street Journal who ran its law coverage. So that’s my journey.

BT: That's incredible. As someone who is super interested in law and super interested in journalism, following that career path would be like a dream come true.

EF: When I was maybe a junior or senior [at Princeton], there was a publication distributed on college campuses called Newsweek on Campus. In one issue of Newsweek on Campus, there was a column written by successful journalists with the headline “Bad Reasons to Study Law.” And it listed four of them — all my reasons. There really are a lot of journalists. What I found as I was applying for journalism jobs was the value of going to people with similar backgrounds.

I wound up reaching out to many journalists who had gone to law school.

I found that many of them understood me and my skills and my interests. Some journalists hiring journalists would look at me at my background and say “why do you want to do this?” Or, “what experience do you bring?” But I talked to people like Evan

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019

15

DIGITAL DEALINGS

Thomas, who was then the Washington Bureau chief at Newsweek and had gone to law school and Steve Adler, who ultimately hired me at The Wall Street Journal and had gone to law school. I think he practiced for eleven days. Ruth Marcus at The Washington Post had gone to law school. I found kindred career spirits who helped

With her, I hired the team, built the team, and built the site. I found that people obviously like different kinds of environments. I found that after 15 years at The Wall Street Journal. I started covering laws. I covered the Supreme Court, and I covered the Clinton impeachment saga.

"On balance [social media is] a fabulous development for communication, and I think that environment has really only heightened the need for and power of traditional journalism." guide me. I think having and an expertise and a passion for a topic is crucial. You don't go into journalism unless you're at some level interested in asking questions and interested in getting underneath beneath headlines to try and understand the world better. The other advice I often give is that I think it helps to have an area of expertise, an area of passion, whether it's its health or entertainment or law or politics or technology. That’s not the only way into journalism, but I think it's a way of distinguishing yourself in the job market and your work as a journalist.

BT: Before joining TIME, you were the founding Executive Editor at the Daily Beast. What’s it like to start a publication?

EF: I was the second person there. The founding editor was Tina Brown, who hired me as her Executive Editor. We were the first the first two employees.

16 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

BT: I bet that expertise is coming in handy.

EF: Frankly, it is coming in handy. When I had an opportunity about halfway through [my time at the Journal] to help start what became a whole series of new products— and really a new business for The Wall Street Journal, which since its founding, had really been a business-to-business publication.

I had the chance to go help start what became the business to consumer—B to C—business of The Wall Street Journal. It was really mostly prints and a section called Weekend Journal, which still exists. At the end of 1998 and early 1999, it was a radical notion that the Journal would speak to people as human beings and not just as stockholders or businesspeople. I thought I'd do it for a couple of years. I actually stayed in Washington and commuted from Washington to New York because I was sure I would go back to the Washington coverage I loved. I thought I would do that for my

career. But I found that I loved launching new products. I particularly loved the idea of a startup within a century-old, great institution like The Journal. So, I spent the next eight years, until I left in 2007, on launching the Weekend Journal. I was the founding editor of Personal Journal, which was about technology, travel, personal finance, and health. Then I ran consumer coverage as a Deputy Managing Editor for a couple of years. I found that I just loved being a part of creating something new. So, when I left The Journal, my goal was twofold. One, as much as I loved starting something within an established institution like The Journal, I wanted to do a pure startup and see what that was like, how that felt, and what I could learn in that environment. Two, I wanted to go to a purely digital media company which I thought would be valuable and interesting, and just seemed like the right thing to do at the moment. I had some opportunities to take senior jobs at very established print media organizations or print based media organizations, but I really wanted to go all-in at a digital company. And I think by happenstance, Tina [Brown] and I found each other.

She was looking for an executive editor and I was looking for just that kind of opportunity. The timing was great.

BT: Digital media clearly seems to be the future, but it seems to me it’s taken two different routes. One is online publishing of what used to be print journalism, and another is Twitter and more informal, sometimes crowd-sourced, media.

In the era of 280-character Tweets and hot takes, what keeps longform journalism relevant?

EF: I love what social media has done for our brand at TIME, and the ways in which it amplifies our journalism. At TIME, we've built one of the largest Twitter presences in journalism with over 16 million followers.

It’s similar for Facebook. We've got, I think, the second largest Instagram following

DIGITAL DEALINGS

in news after CNN. We care a lot about and invest a lot in social media, and I see the power of limited character posts and media. There are pros and cons, but on balance it's a fabulous development for communication, and I think that environment has really only heightened the need for and power of traditional journalism. I mean, I would just call it journalism. I also think it's heightened the power and impact of what some people call legacy journalism, legacy media. There was a period of four or five years where the word ‘legacy’ almost became a bad word in media. You saw the rise of these fastgrowing digital startups doing phenomenal work, and many of them continue to. But what you've seen also in the last couple of years is that these organizations—which were thought by some to have all the answers about the business model for journalism—don't. That’s in an era where trust is threatened. Disinformation and misinformation are everywhere. ‘Legacy,’ I think, has become a positive word again. You're seeing organizations like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, TIME, and others thrive.

BT: That’s an excellent point. This fall’s magazine is about marketing, and you've seen huge success in expanding TIME’s audience. We’re living in an era where legacy journalism has come back as a really credible source of information. What would you say are contemporary challenges in this age of disinformation and mistrust to marketing journalism, especially wellreported, thought-out journalism which tends to be in major publications?

EF: Yeah, I think there are two kinds of threats. One is to truth itself. My friend and colleague Walt Mossberg, who was the technology columnist at The Journal for many years, once said that “citizen journalism is like citizen surgery.” Threat one is the ease with which people can manipulate images and manipulate video

to make the fake seem real. One of the dangerous things that Donald Trump has done relative to the journalism business, in addition to giving verbal ammunition to tyrants around the world who want to target journalists, has been this notion of fake news being applied to great reliable organizations like The New York Times. In fact, the real threat from fake news is the incredible ease with which images and video in particular can now be manipulated. That's threat one.

The second is also related to truth. It is not just the business model of media— journalism, in particular—that has been threatened by new competition. Massive platforms like Facebook and Google become purveyors of information with no responsibility for accuracy or liability for inaccuracy. That's what journalism is: the filter that ensures best efforts to get at the facts. If I publish something that is defamatory and false, TIME can get sued.

If I do it on Google or Facebook, and I link to something with correspondingly descriptive language that's false,

to our society and to the business that I'm in. They’re held to a vastly lower legal standard than we are, and it has completely distorted the system. I think you're just beginning to see some efforts to fix that.

BT: How would you encourage students not formally trained in or studying journalism to not only be aware of the moment that the world is currently in, but to disseminate and properly inform others in a meaningful way?* EF: I think students should read, watch, and engage. Support outlets and news organizations that deserve your trust and further the effort to get to a shared version of facts — that is the lifeblood of democracy. Subscribe to great news organizations and do your part to ensure that they thrive amidst all of this chaos. *Question submitted by Sami Ayele at Johns Hopkins University

"Support outlets and news organizations that deserve your TRUST and further the effort to get to a shared version of FACTS — that is the lifeblood of democracy." defamatory, or even deadly in some cases, there's no liability. There’s a business model that is dissemination of information with no responsibility for fairness and accuracy.

That's where the challenges come, both

Photograph courtesy of Edward Felsenthal

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019

17

DIGITAL DEALINGS

G the MARKUP Doublespeak in Health Care Policy

BY EMILY CHESTON

I

n the space of governing, effective marketing is essential to further policy initiatives. The marketing of policy has always been centered on attempts to obscure and re-brand, no matter the issue. Lawmakers, stakeholders, and the media all engage in the marketing efforts of government policy. One of the most interesting ways in which actors may strengthen their arguments for or against certain policies is the use of doublespeak.

What makes doublespeak distinct from carelessness is deliberate manipulation: “Doublespeak is not lying, nor is it merely sloppy language; it is the intentional use of euphemisms, synonyms, jargon, and vagueness which pretends to communicate but really does not, or which implies the opposite of what it would appear to be communicating.”

In fact, the National Council of Teachers of English started a Committee on Public Doublespeak in 1971. In an interview, former Committee Chairman William Lutz described the institution as: ''The purpose of language is to communicate the truth and to facilitate social groups getting together. The doublespeak committee was formed to combat the use of public language by increasing people's awareness of what is good, clear, solid use of language and what is not.” When we allow for these ualifications of good, clear, solid” to describe certain phrasings, we subsequently label certain frameworks of language as faulty, poor, and obscure.

Thus, the Committee on Doublespeak attempts to identify both victories and failures in the battle of preserving transparent communication. Some critics of this mission do exist. They argue that doublespeak is not something that is in dire need of illumination, at least not in the

way that the group usually warns against.

For example, they argue that doublespeak is a prerequisite of most advertising and that most consumers are aware of this.

While some forms of persuasion may have less genuine motives than others, markets know that marketers have a certain goal: gaining their business. Not surprisingly, most of the recipients of the Committee’s Doublespeak awards, which honors conscious efforts to promote doublespeak and the convolution of language, are either involved in academia or the political sphere. Previous winners have ranged from organizations to individuals including President Donald Trump, President Bill linton, the ational ifle Association, and the tobacco industry. So, what does this acknowledgment of language’s ability to communicate distracting messages mean for the public? It means that different individuals can be swayed on certain issues, whether it be buying a product or supporting a policy, depending on how the subject is marketed to them.

Lobbyists use the practice of doublespeak often when attempting to sway lawmakers. Appealing to party values—or even certain causes that the individual casting votes has previously supported— can shape how influencers approach those in power. From this point, the effects of doublespeak can trickle down to the policy “consumer”: those affected by the regulation. This summer, I witnessed the importance of phrasing when I attended a briefing on the integration of AI in the health care sector. Duke University had set an agenda for the briefing which focused on the positive aspects of the new trend, as well as the challenges that it presents.

In line with their work, they claimed that by obtaining certain health data points

on patients, such as frequency of doctor visits and physical diagnostics, health care providers would be better able to care for patients. In their example, not only would AI be able to aid in biopsy assessments, but it could also serve as a predictor of what

"Doublespeak is the intentional use of euphemisms, synonyms, and jargon which pretends to communicate, but really does not." patients might need more attention based on their previous habits. They explained their findings in a way that was mindful of the audience they were presenting to.

In certain spaces, the goals of the research institute conducting the studies on AI in healthcare overlapped with the interests of lawmakers. Finding a way to streamline the health care system in reasonable ways should be a common goal for all actors involved. However, there were

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 19

19

19/11/2019 6:25 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS certain points on which more room for disagreement was present. The general concern for how individuals’ health data could be protected was a large concern.

In today’s age, privacy is a contentious topic in many spheres. Within the health care sector, this debate has real concerns regarding scenarios as extreme as involving biological warfare. Additionally, the presence of these data points begs the question of how HIPPA laws will shift the industry of health care innovation. Will the system exist in a way that genuinely resists the coercion of patients handing over their information? These issues are all in need of thoughtful legal deliberation as well as the consultation of those who will be affected at large: all of us.

In order to address the understandable, even necessary, concerns that many actors have about AI, we have to recognize the unique nature of the healthcare industry. According to Forbes Magazine in 2018, “There is a lot of interest from pharmaceutical and medical research companies in obtaining data that has information about patient’s treatment and outcomes but does not include patient’s personal information. These datasets become valuable commodities and can be bought or sold without your knowledge or consent. In fact, it is a multibilliondollar market, but you are not getting a dime.” Changing this could allow for the everyday health care consumer to develop a higher stake in their health care practices, rather than only striving to improve their health alone. Not only does this have the potential to stimulate competition between healthcare tech companies, but it also empowers an informed health care consumer to choose how they want to contribute to their own care. Just as we see in examples in everything from “healthier” ice cream commercials to e-cigarettes which are “better” for you—only in comparison to traditional smoking methods, the perception of AI integration will be dependent on how it is marketed. Whether we perceive the proposed technological advancements as helpful or overreaching will depend on which interests are being promoted.

Looking to the past, I am certain that doublespeak will continue to rear its head on both sides of the issue—within the healthcare industry and in every other industry which will undoubtedly be touched by the influence of AI.

Illustrations by Sonia Murthy

20 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 20

19/11/2019 6:26 PM

SECTION

NOVEC. POWER YOU CAN TRUST.

novec.com

novec.com

NOVEC is growing its renewable energy supply, including more solar.

To learn more about NOVEC’s commitment to the environment, visit:

novec.com/renewable BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 21

21

19/11/2019 6:26 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS

The CHILD

Consumer

How children have become new target of businesses in the digital age

BY GRACE CHUAN

I

t is commonly said that the world is becoming a “smaller place” as communicative technologies become increasingly more accessible. While the world itself is not actually shrinking, it feels as if the practical barriers of traveling, retrieving information, and consuming entertainment are minimizing for everyone—including children. Children are now, more than ever, an increasingly reachable audience for digital services.

A growing number of online businesses and industries are creating platforms that specifically target younger audiences to capitalize on their growing profitability. or the first time in human history, children are growing up with access to the internet and social media through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. According to a report conducted

by Common Sense Media in 2017, children on average are spending the same amount

of screen-time per day as they did in 2011.

However, the portion of time devoted to mobile devices increases each year. 42% of the children surveyed had their own devices, undoubtedly contributing to the decrease in traditional television usage.

With the newfound autonomy such devices provide, children, as a demographic, can be considered as an emerging consumer class for the mobile media and telecommunications industries.

Nowhere are companies optimizing for the viewership of young consumers more prominent than within the “app economy.” YouTube Kids was created in response to the public’s demand for kidfriendly services on the internet. It now fosters an environment that cultivates a multi-billion dollar industry in the form of delivering children-specific content.

A whole new wave of viable businesses and entrepreneurship has come from this form of digital media . Five out of the ten top YouTube channels are family-labeled, and channels displaying the latest new

"Major investments in tech education can help children from lower income families grow their human capital and digital services can lower barriers to information and knowledge."

children’s toys or streaming cartoons earn millions of dollars in revenue every year.

While carving out safe spaces within the internet seems to be a healthy (and lucrative) solution to the challenge of integrating technology into children’s lives, a new problem emerges: privacy.

When using digital services, a child, like any user, is subject to data-producing algorithms. In 2018, the New Mexico attorney general filed a lawsuit against game developer Tiny Lab Productions for sharing sensitive location and personal information about their players — most of whom are underage and protected by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act — with third-party advertising companies.

This may sound alarming—and anyone who has seen even one Black Mirror episode would view these recent transgressions as a case against the development of consumerbased technology aimed at children. Many are also concerned over the impact of digital connectivity on children’s ability to communicate with others, as well as childrens’ mental well-being. For example, Facebook’s Messenger Kids was met by worries about disrupting kids’ traditional socialization by introducing online relationships and media usage too early.

Some even called for it to be discontinued.

Shielding upcoming generations from screens and technology is unlikely, as the trend towards complete interconnectivity shows no sign of stopping. It would also be foolish to resist this trend. Complete interconnectivity comes with a wealth of invaluable potential when it comes to children’s development and education.

Major investments in tech education can help children from lower income families

22 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 22

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

DIGITAL DEALINGS

42%

of the children surveyed had their own devices in 2017

grow their human capital and digital services can lower barriers to information and knowledge. Mobile technologies can be viewed as a globalizing agent and they are already starting to bridge the digital divide across the planet. We therefore must capitalize on these benefits by mitigating negative externalities like privacy violations and exploitation.

It is clear that there is not just a growing demand for technology, but for technology that is compatible with our values and supplemental to the human experience.

This is an important business opportunity and indicator for how technology should be designed in the future. Providing new platforms specifically for children could be a step in the right direction.

However, not only should they be created in response to shortcomings, developers

and managers should be proactive in protecting their users, especially if they include children. For example, SuperAwesome, a company dedicated to making kid-friendly technology, is addressing this issue by providing gaming companies services and tools that help keep the child user experience safe. This includes a “kid-safe” advertising platform, parent consent portals, and certification programs on the legal parameters when designing games aimed at children.

While it is unclear what childhood will look like in the future, businesses across the globe should innovate while accounting for social implications. Who is responsible for educating consumers and what that education should look like is a conversation necessary within the consumer technology industry. How do

games verify the actual age of the user, and therefore initialize specific protocols that would comply with child protection laws and regulations? These are tough questions, and they add an interesting layer of social complexity. However, if addressed well, we can envision a future full of empowering, rather than disruptive, technology.

Illustrations by Serena Ren

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 23

23

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

TRENDING NOW

DIRTYLEMON's zesty marketing + rhea park THE DRUG STORE

I

n 2015, a curious object appeared in the photos of many prominent social media influencers. It was a sleek, aesthetically designed bottle strategically placed in the photos of people like actress Minka elly and fashion designer ia Arrobio.

Intrigued by the sudden appearance of the mysterious bottle, people began looking into the drink. They uickly discovered that the company behind the trend was none other than Dirty Lemon, a luxury health beverage firm. Since 201 , irty emon has sold over 2 million bottles and now has over 100,000 monthly customers, despite the expensive price of 10. per bottle. ak ormandin, the of irty emon, believes the company’s rise to popularity has a lot to do with its unconventional marketing techni ues. In an interview

with ast ompany in 201 , ormandin stressed that the power of the brand is actually more important than a product. art of irty emon’s initial commercial success lies in ormandin’s strategic decision to use social media influencers to gain widespread recognition. owever, the recent hype around Dirty Lemon comes not from its social media backing, but from its focus on its brick and mortar store experience. urrently, irty emon has two physical stores in ew York ity called The rug Store and plans to establish more stores.

This transition to brick and mortar retail may seem counterintuitive, as prominent retailers such as Barneys ew York and Topshop have closed many of their physical stores due to beliefs that consumer behavior has changed in favor for more online-based shopping experiences. owever, irty emon believes that with the help of technology, physical stores can once again become the center of retail.

The incentive for irty emon to focus more on brick and mortar marketing is partly due to the oversaturation of social media marketing. It’s at a place now where it’s just unsustainable, said ormandin in an interview with Mobile

Marketer. There was a point for us that it no longer made sense to spend millions and millions of dollars on acebook and Instagram. In fact, ormandin stated that one day of advertising on acebook was e uivalent to one month of rent for The rug Store in Tribeca.

"At The Drug Store there are no cash registers and no staff. Customers can simply WALK inside and TAKE whatever they want from the store." ormandin also believes that one of the inefficiencies of social media marketing is its lack of human to human interactions. ustomers want to actually

24 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 24

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

experience it and feel the energy of what we were portraying visually online in a real environment,” says Normandin. In other words, Dirty Lemon believes that what customers want is an immersive retail experience.

Dirty Lemon thus established The Drug Store to bring about a more direct company to consumer experience. The Drug Store was able to accomplish this whilst also standing out from other typical brick and mortar stores due to its unconventional use of technology. irty emon developed a SMS-based infrastructure that removed the need for human personnel. At The Drug Store there are no cash registers and no staff. Customers can simply walk inside and take whatever they want from the store. Instead of paying on the spot, they are free to text the company whenever they want to pay for the drink. Given that the whole point of The Drug Store is to increase customers’ immersive experience, this idea of a humanless transaction system may seem counterintuitive.

However, the text messaging based service actually increases company to consumer interaction, as customers are interacting with live customer representatives when purchasing and can ask the representatives questions live. Normandin says that Dirty Lemon’s customers actually “prefer conversational interaction” because it “eliminates all unnecessary steps”

of a typical transaction process.

In addition, the technology used inside The Drug Store also helps facilitate Dirty Lemon’s business by collecting data about transactions. The Drug Store uses “heat map trackers that monitor foot traffic and I -enabled refrigerators for inventory tracking” to collect data about the needs of their customers. The data allows them to see in real time how

"The power of the BRAND is actually more important than the PRODUCT" customers respond to the release of new products. “That’s something other beverage brands—Coke and Pepsi included— just don’t have a level of access to in order to make those decisions,” said Normadin.

Although some people doubt whether irty emon’s honor-based payment system can truly be successful in the long term, irty emon reports only a -10 theft rate and is projected to generate

100 million in sales by 2021. hether or not those results are due to the amazing taste of Dirty Lemon’s charcoal water, or their unconventional marketing strategies, the numbers are certainly something worth drinking to.

Illustrations by Eric Lin

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 25

25

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

SECTION

Lululemon and the FitFluencer

BY CAROLINE KIRBY

26 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 26

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

TRENDING NOW

Cultivating a customer experience that’s powerfully local

S

croll down on any teen or twentysomething year old’s feed. Among various posts of their friends and family, you’ll be sure to find some content promoting a good or service. Today’s Instagram—a far cry from the simple photo-posting app launched in October 2010—has transformed the way many companies market their products. With a single post by an influential and popular account, companies can obtain immediate exposure that would have previously taken hundreds of word-of-mouth interactions.

This concept is not rare. In fact, the sheer number of businesses attempting to take advantage of social media advertising is astonishing; at press time, there were 10.2 million posts tagged with #ad. However, though general Instagram advertisements of products remain effective, the dilution of sincere endorsements have prompted some companies to shift their strategy.

According to MarketWatch, the global activewear market is expected to reach $567 billion by 2024. With the explosion of bouti ue fitness and popularity of healthy lifestyles has arrived a consumer obsession with athleisure and many more retailers have angled for a share of the profits. The historic athletic giants of ike, UnderArmour, Puma, Reebok and Adidas have been forced to contend with small pop-up cult favorites like BeyondYoga, Alo, and OutdoorVoices, while continuously battling the newer yet still commanding forces of Lululemon and Athleta. The clash of activewear brands is uniquely rooted in company culture, and the most competitive have shifted their branding and advertising strategy to stay on top.

Traditionally, athletic brands have relied on celebrity endorsements to hawk their

products. ike famously used Michael Jordan to promote sneakers; Adidas did the same with David Beckham and cleats.

Yet (though most of the top players still utilize famous backing in advertisements) in the age of social media other branding is necessitated. Millennials are the generation with the largest purchasing power, and most of their marketing is consumed through alternative methods (i.e. social media). Every brand is seemingly harnessing the power of influencers and social media advertisements—some, however, do it on a more grassroots scale.

In jockeying for a position at the top of the athleisure market, Lululemon uniquely uses distinctive and creative strategy to expand their reach into small communities for a more personal control of the trade.

In a turn against celebrity endorsement, Lululemon outsources much of their advertisements to their ambassadors; in their words, “inspiring leaders, storytellers, and doers from around the world.” This wording is seemingly intentionally vague— for the most part, ambassadors seem to be fitness instructors of some capacity, usually yoga, cycle, barre, or boxing. In exchange for “development tools and experiences, products to try out [and] a network of likeminded people” (essentially free clothes and networking opportunities), Lululemon ambassadors share their products on social media, during their classes, and in their daily life. Small scale, this type of branding seems ineffective a sort of avid to ike’s Serena Williams billboard Goliath. But the success of the Lululemon strategy is not the simple number of people reached; instead, it is the maintenance of a customer base that lives, eats, and breathes the lifestyle that Lululemon and its ambassadors sell.

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 27

27

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

TRENDING NOW

“But the success of the Lululemon strategy is not the simple number of people reached; instead, it is the maintenance of a customer base that lives, eats, and breathes the lifestyle that Lululemon and its ambassadors sell.”

Anyone who has taken a Soulcycle or Flywheel class can explain that what makes the studio special is not the complementary hair ties or the luxurious showers. It is the instructors—the lifeblood of the company—that prompt people to spend upwards of $40 on a single exercise class.

With their unicorn-like combinations of peppy, relatable popularity and friendship, instructors of all kinds easily become celebrities in their communities and online. Lululemon’s effort to capture the instructor's personal connection to their clients breaks the barrier that other forms of advertisement (even that of other influencers on social media fail to leap. Sure, having Tiger Woods promote ike is beneficial but a customer can’t ask Tiger Woods how comfortable his golf shirt really is. In contrast, clients are easily able to reach out and communicate with their local “celebrities.” Lululemon’s ambassadors are, truly, ambassadors.

The symbiotic nature of the ambassador program allows for a give-and-take, giving ululemon a chance to harvest profits from

the personal relationships painstakingly built by instructors, and giving instructors a larger platform to teach upon (in addition to the free clothing perk, of course .

Ambassadors’ photos hang on canvases throughout their local Lululemon store, offering an advertisement of their own classes. Ambassadors are also asked to lead free “pop-up workouts” on the sales floor, further driving in clients to their classes and to the retailer. In this age of disconnected advertisement, Lululemon’s clever utilization of local community leaders stands out among large-scale brand campaigns. When clients feel connected, they return again and again—as Lululemon has seen. espite the declining profits of brick-and-mortar stores, Lululemon’s stores have maintained productivity while still gaining from online retail .

Cultivating an international brand that somehow feels homegrown has been key to Lululemon’s success amongst an incredible competitive activewear market.

Illustrations by Ilene E

peppy instructors

instructor-client connection

returning customers

HOW LULULEMON ATTRACTS CLIENTS

28 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 28

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

Born and raised in Silicon Valley, Mukherjee is a board observer for numerous consumer tech startups, including Casper and MasterClass.

TRENDING NOW

Branding in a brandless and tech based economy Business Today: Given your extensive experience working with startups, what are shared qualities you see in early stage companies who have successfully built a brand and a customer base?

Amit Mukherjee Partner at New Enterprise Associates WITH AMY WANG

Amit Mukherjee: The brands that have connected [with their audience] out the gates have strong resonance with their digital presence. I was an investor in Casper Sleep, and, in a month, they got a million dollars in sales. The value proposition of selling mattresses online, the way they articulated it, the irreverence of it, was really strong and felt audacious at the time. The whole concept resonated, and the customer understood that this was a group of young people with consumers and customers’ best interests at heart. No matter what brand you go to, there is this concept of David versus Goliath for new brands that are coming out. Warby Parker, Hims — these brands are taking a not great experience for customers and turning it into something that's more convenient and simple. The other powerful trend is that Millenials — and this is even more true of Generation Z — are very valueoriented in choosing products to back.

Most of the new products today have some value orientation to them, and people care about the ingredients with which the products were manufactured. If you take a step back and think about why that's the case, you can thank the way we research new products. If you think back to the 1970s when most of the products from Procter & Gamble were created, they were advertising in print and television, and you would walk into your local department store, see a product, and be inclined to buy it. Now, people are quickly able to look up a review for the product and see from someone who has put the time into researching the product, whether or not it aligns with their values, and whether or not it is a good product. The way that we are making decisions has changed dramatically since the invention of the internet.

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 29

29

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

TRENDING NOW

BT: At NEA, you’re constantly evaluating and working with founders. In your experience, how do founders successfully tell an engaging story about their brand and company to VCs? What advice would you give to a founder?* AM: Something that founders underappreciate is how profoundly important storytelling is. When you’re thinking about starting a company from scratch, you almost always have to bridge some gaps, connect some dots, take some leaps across chasms … usually that means convincing people to join you before the proof is there. That could be employees, customers, suppliers, partners, and, certainly, investors. Being able to tell a compelling story to all of those groups is one of the foundational skills of a CEO. When we think about what makes for a great story, ambition is definitely one.

Everyone is excited by the idea of being part of something that is really big. When we saw Marc Lore pitch Jet.com — when it was just an idea on paper — even then he said he wanted to create something that had the ability to take on Amazon.

There were a lot of reasons to believe that was hard to do, but the fact that he was willing to do it allowed him to collect

tremendous talent and capital, and to scale it much faster than anyone could have predicted. You also need to have a tightly wound string of logic. If you’re going to tell a story, you can expect that someone who is listening to you has a sixth sense about whether there is substance behind what you’re saying. It's important to not be dismissive of certain elements that don’t fit within your narrative or over exaggerate — having a strong train of logic through your story is an important component. And world impact is also important. At NEA, we talk about vital change — that companies trying to create vital change in the world are ones that are worth a lot. And by vital change, I don’t mean you have to be double bottom line focused or have a philanthropic initiative, but in general, there is tremendous value associated with companies that create very significant change in the world.

Uber is a great example of that. I don’t think anyone would say they’re a double bottom line company, but they've been transformative in the way that we transport ourselves; they’ve reduced the costs of transportation; they’ve created a job solution that simply didn’t exist before.

That's a big part of any story as well.

"Being able to tell a compelling story to all of those groups is one of the foundational skills of a CEO."

BT: While on the Internet and Digital Media IB team at J.P. Morgan, you’ve been in the weeds of market analysis and worked on large deals, such as the IPOs of Facebook and Zynga, to name a few. Can you share any insight on how large, established companies manage their brand, and how their strategy might differ from that of startups?

AM: With bigger companies, the biggest shift that we’re seeing is that there no longer is a narrative of David versus Goliath.

When Uber was in Series A, the Goliath was the taxi cab industry. Remarkably, over nine years, Uber has become the Goliath. There’s a very kitschy quote from Spiderman — “With great power comes great responsibility.” For these larger tech companies, they do obtain a tremendous amount of responsibility very early on.

Being able to manage that and being intentional is hard to navigate when you’re a high-growth company trying to deliver your best returns to shareholders, but the impact of your company has massive societal and geographical implications for your surrounding community. That can be really challenging. Facebook, Uber, and Google have gone through a period of time where a lot of people were upset with them over how they handled information and how they managed their role of Goliath.

There are companies out there that have done a great job. Walmart, banning gun sales, was really significant. Salesforce, and their CEO and Founder Marc Benioff’s, commitment to a better San Francisco is quite and inspiring. It’s also a great demonstration of leadership. In many ways, it's a continuation of Occupy Wall Street, where there are a lot of emotions tied up in how these companies treat people because people feel like they’re bigger and more powerful than they are. And that's important for brands to understand.

30 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 30

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

TRENDING NOW

BT: Concerns over personal information and collected data are making the targeted ad space fraught with new legal challenges. How do you see this space changing? How will it affect businesses who have relied on targeted ads to draw customers?

AM: The reality is that there’s this duopoly between Facebook and Google that is very strong. It's really hard to see other forms of advertising or other channels that are going to pop up. I certainly don’t know of alternative channels people use with significant success right now. There have been politicians who have cried for the break up of Facebook and articulate that Facebook and Instagram represent a monopoly in online advertising. There are regulatory risks that come with that, just as Microsoft dealt with being accused by the government of being a monopoly around 20 years ago…. There aren’t that many signs that it will change, so we’ll have to see significant platform shifts over the next few years for that to really be broken up. Even if Facebook deals with questions of privacy, security, and monopoly, it's not like there's a visible end to that now.

BT: Even more interesting, you serve as a board observer for Brandless, a company which, as the name suggests, wants to de-emphasize the brand and focus on the quality of products. What does the success of this company show about changing consumer receptivity to branding? How do you see the future of branding change?

AM: There's this paradox of choice, especially in Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), where you can choose from a hundred kinds of cookies, a hundred kinds of laundry detergent, ten kinds of towels,

"In many ways, it's a continuation of Occupy Wall Street where there are a lot of emotions tied up in how these companies treat people because people feel like they’re bigger and more powerful than they are. And that's important for brands to understand." and the reality is your life would be simpler if you didn’t have to make these choices.

There's a lot of cost in terms of marketing and merchandising to get you to buy one good over another. So the concept of Brandless is to offer one company to create these products. This ensures that these products align with what consumers are looking for, with a lower price across the board. By doing this, we create trust that transcends individual brands. For Brandless, maybe there's Chips Ahoy cookies out there, but you’re actually inclined to take the Brandless cookie because we’re both delivering to you at good value and also you have a real sense of reliability of this brand. Brandless is also values-oriented in the way they make their products. In each case, they’ll make sure they’re producing the product responsibly.

The concept we articulate when discussing Brandless is value and values—value

meaning a great return on what you pay for, and values in terms of trusting that the product was responsibly created. *Question submitted by Yashodip Poudel at Pokhara University in Nepal

Photograph courtesy of Amit Mukherjee

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 31

31

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

32 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 32

19/11/2019 7:02 PM

TRENDING NOW

How a relatively new music festival has achieved exponential growth

BY READE BEN

I

n May 2018, over 180,000 people descended upon the Rolling Loud Music Festival in Miami, and nearly 20 million eager hip-hop fans viewed the concert online. To put the numbers into perspective, imagine the entire population of Albany, New York or New Haven, onnecticut filtering in and out of a football stadium over the course of three short days. illed with smoke, blaring speakers, flames, flashing lights, and fireworks, the scene at Rolling Loud was more analogous to Mad Max’s Thunderdome than a rap concert.

With such a strong attendance, one would think Rolling Loud to have a history and background on par with that of Woodstock.

However, the shocking truth is that Rolling Loud is still very much in its infancy. Since its establishment in 2015, Rolling Loud has brought in hundreds of thousands of fans, millions of online viewers, and superstar headliners. Past lineups include current rap industry titans and hip-hop legends, including, but not limited to: Travis Scott, J. Cole, A$AP Ferg, Future, and Young Thug.

Rolling Loud shows no signs of slowing down. It has two festivals planned for the fall of 2019: one in the Bay Area, and one in New York City. Expectations are high.

Over 150,000 fans attended the New York festival, eager to catch an all-star roster of over 60 chart-topping performers.

Among them are Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky, the Wu-Tang Clan, and Lil Uzi Vert.

According to their website, Rolling Loud “attracts a diverse mix of males and females of all ages and race.” When demographics are observed in a more detailed lens, Rolling Loud reels in fans with an average age of 24 years and range of 16 to 35 (while this age range of 21 years might seem relatively small, one must keep in mind that in the world of hip-hop, 16-35 encompasses a range of fans who either grew up on Biggie, Nas, and 2Pac, praise Lil Pump as the savior of the rap game, or fall somewhere in-between). The gender breakdown of festival attendance is skewed, with 61% of attendees being male and 39% being female. Rolling Loud claims its attendees identify with the phrase: “I like to keep

up with style and fashion,” which seems likely, given that the average household income of attendees is $112,000 USD per year. All in all, festival demographics seem to cater to a crowd of die-hard hip-hop fans and likely self-branded ‘influencers,’ all of whom seem eager enough to purchase expensive tickets to bask in the three days of straight partying and deafening music the festival offers.

Although it caters to a diverse crowd, Rolling Loud’s marketing, in theory, really only needs to be sufficient enough to appeal to the common interests of festival goers, which appears to be good music in a good setting. Furthermore, the marketing must be sufficient enough to convince would-be attendees to fork over the pricey $300 ticket (plus additional fees on food, drinks, lockers, and even portable chargers—more on that later).

Rolling Loud’s marketing strategy seems rather simple: it focuses on building an attractive brand name (or at least that’s what one of Rolling Loud’s founders, Matt Zingler, seemed to preach in an interview with Forbes). At a glance, this appears to be true. Rolling Loud has a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, as well as a detailed website. Updates are posted as they come, and the most coveted form of media posted online is the infamous lineup sheet. This poster places the names of its major headliners in a large bold font, with subsequent acts listed in subsequent lines in increasingly smaller and smaller fonts. This is all against the backdrop of the evening skyline in the city where the festival is taking place.

This backdrop is typically illustrated in a cartoonish style with soothing colors.

If anything, the different font sizes of the performing artists likely influence consumer interpretations about the magnitude and seriousness of the festival.

For example, on the 2019 Oakland line-up sheet, superstar artists like 21 Savage and Gunna are listed in much smaller fonts than the headlines Future and G-Eazy, and other chart-toppers like Smokepurpp and Young Dolph are listed in fonts even smaller still. By listing such relevant artists

in a smaller font, Rolling Loud attributes a seeming insignificance to major players in the hip-hop industry in the relative scope of the festival itself. This makes Rolling Loud appear larger than life, and this might be true. According to the Miami New Times, some rappers even paid Rolling Loud to be included in the 2016 Miami lineup.

According to its website, Rolling oud boasts a large amount of benefits, opportunities, and entitlements that companies that choose to partner with it can receive, such as targeted media and email blasts. It appears that Rolling Loud’s existing brand name and popularity permits it to market itself further. On a deeper level, Rolling Loud seems to seek to control every marketable aspect of itself during the festival: no professional cameras are allowed in, and photo passes are only granted to media companies partnered with Rolling Loud.

Despite its effective marketing and impressive turnout, Rolling Loud’s profitability is uestionable. After losing money during its 2015 debut, Zingler claims in his Forbes interview that other years have been more successful, with ROI at around 10-15%. While there are no available statistics to back this claim, it seems somewhat plausible.

According to its website, all ticket sales are final, and almost everything at olling Loud is available for purchase, from lockers to portable phone chargers.

Regardless of revenue, Rolling Loud must be credited for its massive growth and surge in popularity in less than half a decade. Their marketing formula seems simple: build a brand name and bring in big performers and partners to continue to build said brand name. Rolling Loud has become a staple in the entertainment world, and given the turnout and lineups for the 2019 event, it appears that the festival will keep on rolling for years to come.

Illustrations by Melina Huang

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 33

33

19/11/2019 7:02 PM

34 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 34

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

When Countries Act Like Brands

BY LYUBOMIR HADJIYSKI

F

or the past year, the world’s two largest economies have been involved in a tit for tat trade war which has economists talking about the next recession. The United States has imposed tariffs worth more than $360 billion on a wide range of Chinese goods.

The Chinese, in turn, have responded with tariffs totalling more than $110 billion.

The ouncil on oreign elations defines tariffs as taxes imposed on goods imported from a foreign country. Their purpose is to protect local industries by making imports more expensive and therefore encouraging consumers to buy from domestic manufacturers—though experts remain doubtful about their utility.

President Trump’s trade war is part of a wider campaign to “Make America Great Again,” a core tenet of which is bringing back manufacturing jobs from abroad.

In line with this push, the White House has hosted a ‘Made in America’ Product Showcase for the past three years. At this year’s event, the President said that he

wants “to build, create, and grow more products in [the United States] using American labor, American goods, and American grit. When we purchase products made in the SA, the profits stay here, the

"'Made in America' is a brand that consumers buy and that needs to be promoted and marketed just like any other." revenue stays here, and the jobs—maybe most importantly of all—they stay right here in the USA.” In 2017, Trump passed an executive order mandating that “it shall be the policy of the executive branch to maximize ... the use of goods, products,

and materials produced in the United States.” Trump has used executive orders and a trade war to induce US consumers into buying American products and has made the words ‘Made in America’ central to the country’s political discourse.

‘Made in America’ is a brand that consumers buy and that needs to be promoted and marketed just like any other. Nielsen reports that across product types, 70% of consumers indicate that a good’s country of origin is “more important” or at least “equally important” as other factors when making purchasing decisions. Consumers clearly care where their products come from. That’s why multiple firms compile indices ranking how consumers perceive ‘Made in’ brands.

FutureBrand’s 2019 Country Index ranks countries based on how 2,500 cross national survey respondents perceive ‘Made in’ brands. Factors that determine the strength of a country brand include product quality, environmental friendliness of the country, and the nation’s overall quality of life.

As the 2019 report shares, “a country’s product [or ‘Made in’ brand] becomes a

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 35

35

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

representation of a place, and people have a favorable perception (or not) based on this.”

So how do the 75 countries included in the index measure up? In 2019, Japan possessed the world’s most powerful brand, followed by Norway and Switzerland.

Germany and Canada, among others, also made it into the top ten. The most impressive climber was Slovakia, rising by 2 positions. hina failed to crack the top third, ranking at number 29, while the United States—despite President Trump’s attempts to the contrary fell five points, down to number 12.

The strength of a ‘Made in’ brand not only induces consumers to purchase products from a certain country over another, thus supporting a nation’s manufacturers, but also has numerous spill-over effects. As FutureBrand notes, those individuals who are more likely to buy products or services ‘Made in’ a specific country are also more likely to recommend

that country to visit, would consider it for business, and also consider living in or studying there.” In this way, “a product

"Investing in developing a strong country brand attracts consumers, investors, and even immigrants." or brand serves as a powerful symbol of social advancement for a country, and even influences a person’s decision to work, live, or play there.” Investing in developing a

strong country brand, therefore, attracts consumers, investors, and even immigrants.

If tariffs and trade wars are not enough to build a nation’s brand and evidence from the United States suggests it actually has had an opposite effect—what are other nations doing to bolster their ‘Made in’ brands? One example is Made in China 2025, which aims to transform China from being a low-end manufacturer to becoming a high-end producer of goods.

Through this plan, launched in 2015, China plans to be a global leader in AI and clean energy technologies, among other things.

The government wants to transform the ‘Made in hina’ brand from one suggesting unreliability to one guaranteeing quality.

This effort is largely modelled off of Industrie .0, ermany’s state-led strategic program aimed at guaranteeing that the country remains a top manufacturing power throughout the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ of rapid technological change.

36 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 36

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

The European Union is also taking measures to ensure its manufacturers stay attractive in the face of competition from the US, China, and other nations.

Horizon, an EU research and & innovation magazine, writes that despite being the world’s biggest single market with more than half a billion consumers, EU-based companies often struggle to outcompete rivals with lower costs and higher technological capabilities. The ‘Made in Europe’ label aims to counteract this by conveying the positive effects of stringent European regulations on product safety and sustainability, said Carlos Moedas, EU Commissioner for Research, Science, and Innovation at the annual European Industry Day. The scheme is a colossal drive to spur demand, encourage European consumers to buy European, and ensure the EU remains competitive in global markets.

‘Made in’ labels reveal as much about a product as they do about its country of

"'Made in' labels reveal as much about a product as they do about its country of origin. A strong national brand can attract capital— technological and human—that drives growth."

origin. A strong national brand can attract capital—technological and human—that drives growth. Countries build up their national brands over decades, yet China and the European Union are among those launching ambitious programs to rehaul their brands within just several years. This is also the aim of President Trump. Cost considerations may drive US consumers towards buying goods that are ‘Made in America’ in the short run.

But the strength of a national brand also depends on indicators like quality of life, environmental action, and technological innovation—and the absence of a concerted effort by the US government to remain a leader in these areas may turn consumers away from the ‘Made in America’ brand.

Illustrations by Avigail Gilad

1 Japan

2 Norway

3 Switzerland

4 Sweden

5 Finland

6 Germany

7 Denmark

8 Canada

71 Bangladesh

72 Iran

74 Ukraine

75 Iraq

Source: FutureBrand Country Index 2019 BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 37

37

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

Lisa Utzschneider CEO of Integral Ad Science

On digital advertising through the lens of accountability and brand safety WITH QUANG TRINH Business Today: According to research from the New York Times, the number of women in chief executive positions is falling: it declined around 25% in 2018. Based on your career path to becoming a CEO, what would you consider the biggest challenge faced by women, and what can be done to overcome these challenges? isa tzschneider Being a first-time , it’s helpful to have many friends in this industry and other industries, who are rising in the ranks or in senior-level positions. There are some important things that happen through one’s career that really help you get to that -level spot, especially as a woman. The first is to have a supportive network of executive sponsors, male or female. It’s also important to have something like a personal board a group of people who coach you, mentor you, and give you feedback. It should be a safe place that you can go to for mentorship or for uestions about how they get to where they are today in their career. ne of the certain skills that has helped me rise to a -level position is understanding what it is like reporting to a board, and I discovered that having those go-to people for me to ask uestions is really, really important not only for me but also my career. The second thing is that I am a huge believer in If you can see her, you can be her. hat I mean by that motto is to personally know women who take on -level positions and understand how they are successful

while having a full personal life raising children and having relationships.

BT: From 2017, the notion of brand safety has become more and more prevalent. What do you think companies should do to ensure their brand safety?

I agree that brand safety has become more prevalent, especially for marketers, and it is even more important that marketers partner with third-party verification companies to ensure that their ads are running in an environment that is brand safe and suitable for their brands. specially in the area of video, like YouTube, marketers really care

that their ads run next to YouTube content that’s appropriate, not violent or terrorism content, and there are different categories of high, medium, and low risk that they can run their content next to.

BT: In today’s context, what is your perception of a successful brand?

A successful brand entirely depends on what their ultimate goal as a brand is. Is the goal to engage the consumer, or is the goal to drive our lives on behalf of the company There are many brands that I personally love and have struck me personally, but it entirely depends on what the brand’s aspirations are and how it inspires its consumers.

"A successful brand entirely depends on what their ultimate goal as a brand is. Is the goal to

ENGAGE the consumer, or is the goal to DRIVE our

lives on behalf of the company?"

38 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 38

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

SECTION BT: Advertising is important in the way that it connects businesses and communities. How do you view the corporate social responsibility of Integral Ad Science?

LU: We take corporate social responsibility very seriously, and there are a number of ways that we engage with the local community and the broader community.

The most recent example that comes to mind is that we recently did a backpack drive during back to school time. We collected and donated 300 school backpacks that were filled with school items to local schools. This summer, we were also involved in a local class that brings in kids from the urban community in the broader NYC region and teaches them how to code. At Integral Ad Science, since we are rich in data science and engineering, the team loves spending time with the kids from the city, and that has been a very successful project.

BT: In your opinion, what are the important factors to maintain trust between a company like Integral Ad Science and your clients?

LU: For Integral Ad Science, it is just so important that we build a trusting relationship with all the clients we work with. When we say what we are going to do, we deliver it. We also hold ourselves accountable; we are transparent with what we deliver with our project roadmap. We take trust with our consumers very seriously.

BT: As people’s awareness of advertising science grows, how do you think the way that viewers consume advertising will change in the future, if there will be any change at all?

LU: Marketers follow where the consumers are and where they go. More and more consumers are on their devices or are using connected TV. Their expectation is that they can view content 24/7: how they like it, where they like it, and when they like it. Marketers are following that trend in consumption. With that, marketers are learning to make meaningful connections, and that advertising needs to be broader.

Think about a 30 second TV advertisement.

There are many digital video ads that are tactful, using just three to seven seconds: it’s vital to make them shorter in length and impactful, regardless of the size of the screen. Things are in motion, and I think that global advertising evolves with the consumption of content.

Utzschneider was the Chief e e e Officer f a r r er r le a egral c e ce a a ee re e er erf l e le er g.

BT: In recent years, the rise of Connected TV and digital streaming has created a new avenue for advertising. What are your thoughts on the prospect of this avenue from an advertising perspective?

LU: We see a huge opportunity with connected TV and Over-The-Top (OTT) media services and so do marketers. As consumers spend more time viewing digital streaming content on connected TV, there is a huge opportunity to connect with those consumers and for Integral Ad Science to verify the content that is being streamed via connected TV and OTT.

BT: What do you think is the greatest threat to digital advertising?

LU: It is so important for all the players in this digital ecosystem to take consumers’ privacy very seriously. Going back to my point about building trust with consumers, ensuring that all players are transparent about how they are accessing consumers’ data, getting permission to access that data, informing the consumers what they are going to do with that data helps provide the awareness and transparency paramount to the future of digital advertising.

Photograph courtesy of Lisa Utzschneider

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 39

39

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

SECTION

FALL2019 2019BUSINESS BUSINESSTODAY TODAY 40 FALL Final Magazine copy.indd 40

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

Norman Augustine

Former Chairman & CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation WITH MAXWELL CHUNG

Thoughts on defense, technology, and privacy Business Today: With Lockheed Martin recently proposing its own concept for NASA's Gateway, do you believe the Lockheed Martin Company profile will shift to become more space minded or will there always be a need for military tech?1 Prominent in both the public and private sector, Augustine has had vast experience working in aerospace and defense, having formerly been the US Under Secretary of the Army.

Norman Augustine: I should emphasize that being retired I cannot speak for Lockheed Martin; however, I do believe that aerospace companies have enormous opportunities today, in part because the world is turning more and more to systems and products and services that cut across technologies. The aerospace industry has increasingly become a systems integration industry. In addition to its space and other

activities, there will always be a need to support national defense. Having said that, I know from experience that entering new markets can be a precarious undertaking.

BT: The second Augustine Committee in 2009 concluded that the goal of the human spaceflight program was (1) physical sustainability and (2) economic sustainability. How do you think our progress toward these goals has advanced since 2009?

NA: The study you refer to addressed sustainability quite seriously. From an economic standpoint, there have been two studies, each of which has led to a Nobel Prize, that concluded that up to 87% of the growth in the nation’s GDP has been attributable to advancements in just two areas: science and technology.

That’s of course what the space program is all about: science and technology. With regard to the economy, it is interesting that surveys around the world show that people believe that having a good job is the most important factor in their wellbeing.

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019

41

CURATING DEMAND

The ability to create jobs has always been a strong suit for science and technology.

While science and technology can also destroy jobs, it has generally created more jobs and more rewarding jobs.

BT: Due to your experience in the defense and the private sector, how can businesses in the United States play a

role in shaping the future of technology while at the same time ensuring privacy and security for consumers, especially considering the current multi-polar international system and the rise of powers like China?2 NA: One of the great dilemmas of today’s advancing technology is that it is providing capabilities that in some cases adversely

"Ideas for new products tend to be most successful when they originate from the individuals who are in most close contact with customers (sales, service, etc.)—working with the research staff."

42 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY

impact privacy and security. Some years ago, I had the occasion to speak with a CEO of one of the best known and largest companies in the information and technology sector, and I postulated a situation that would impact privacy to a very negative extent. I asked him what we should do about it, and his answer was, “Get used to it.” That’s quite disappointing to me. To what extent are we actually going to give up our privacy? Fortunately, science and technology can also be a positive force, ranging from applications in encryption to more thoughtful overall design to the incorporation of new advancements such as those in quantum science. But this is a legitimate problem, even though I think that it is to some degree generational as older people seem to place greater value on privacy than today’s youth.

BT: What would you say the importance of marketing/branding is in today’s business world?

NA: Having been on the board of Proctor and Gamble Corp. for many years, I have developed a strong appreciation for marketing and branding. P&G was renowned for its branding, and probably even more so for its marketing prowess, particularly in the sense of knowing its customers. I could hardly think of any other firm that puts as much effort into knowing the needs and preferences of its customers. Marketing and branding is increasingly part of the coin of the realm.

Unfortunately, there are many examples of marketing failures. Oftentimes, these occurrences take place when companies decide that a customer should

CURATING DEMAND

have something that the customer does not want. Then the company assumes that the consumer is at fault for not wanting their products. This is rather convoluted reasoning, but there are serious examples of this occurring.

Not surprisingly, ideas for new products tend to be most successful when they originate from the individuals who are in most close contact with customers (sales, service, etc.)—working with the research staff. Ironically, the products that derive from ideas in the executive suite tend to be most prone to failure!

BT: What would you say are the three qualities that young students such as myself need to have in order to succeed in the business world today?3 NA: First, you obviously need to be well prepared in whatever field you would like to pursue. In this regard, one also has to be committed to a lifetime of learning. I always believed that a college diploma should have an expiration date printed on it! While I realize that isn’t a popular notion, in today’s world one has to keep learning simply to stay even. Second, one of my sayings is that motivation will almost always beat sheer talent. Motivation and the willingness to work hard and to enjoy what you are doing is critical. Being both well-prepared and highly motivated is all the better.

Third would be the willingness to take on new challenges. “When opportunity knocks, try to answer the door.”

In today’s business world, things are generally accomplished by teams of people working together, rather than by soloists. Communication skills

"MOTIVATION will almost always beat

SHEER TALENT."

are therefore very important.

In the business world, things are done by The bottom line is to find a job that you like and focus on doing that job to the best of your ability and not worrying much about getting ahead.

Just do your job—it’s amazing how many opportunities will then open up.

Question submitted by Thomas Santini at the University of Bath in England 1

Question submitted by Alejandro Leal at Jagiellonian University in Poland 2

Question submitted by Amanuel Alemayehu at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia 3

Photograph courtesy of Norman Augustine

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019

43

SECTION

Dominique Ansel WITH GRACE HONG

James Beard Award-winning Pastry Chef and Owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery FALL2019 2019BUSINESS BUSINESSTODAY TODAY 44 44 FALL Final Magazine copy.indd 44

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

Meet the Inventor of

THE CRONUT ®

Spearheading creativity in the bakery and managing virality on social media Business Today: You’ve had a diverse set of experiences prior to creating Dominique Ansel, spanning from serving in the military to working at world-class pastry shop Fauchon.

Can you tell us a little about what drove you to create your own pastry shop, and how you’ve integrated the lessons you’ve learned from the variety of other places you’ve worked?

Dominique Ansel: I grew up in a small town in France, not being fancy at all, and my dad used to work in the factory.

When I grew up, we didn’t have much as I was in a family of four kids. I stumbled upon the industry and started working in the kitchen by providence. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. Eventually I found my way there. I worked at Fouchon, a bakery in Paris, for eight years, traveled the world, and opened up shops with them in nine different countries. It was very eye-opening, and it was a really unique experience to be so young and have the chance to travel. I learned a lot about different cultures, different people, and different ways of living; I’ve learned a great deal. When I came back to France, I used some of this spirit to collect my thoughts. I always wanted to open my own shop; when I was a kid, I always wanted something of my own. I didn’t know what it was going to

BT: What is your philosophy at Dominique Ansel, and how do you incorporate it into your team and leadership?

BT: Let’s talk more about the values maintained at your different bakeries and restaurants. The SoHo bakery maintains a core value of “creativity” while the Dominique Ansel Kitchen values “time.”

How did you come up with these values, and how do the restaurants stick to both of those values?

DA: Through all the things I’ve learned in my life so far and all the people I’ve met, they have made me really humble. There’s so much to learn and see from this world, and I’m excited to be able to be creative and express myself through the art of pastry. I think it’s unbelievable—it’s just amazing—to be able to do that. There’s so much emotional connection that I get from creating a story through a pastry, and making sure [customers] remember what they eat is very important to me.

For the values behind our leadership, it has to be honest, simple, and genuine, and if you do that, it means a lot.

DA: It’s hard to be creative; it’s not easy.

You’re not born creative. You have to work for it, you have to bake, you have to research, you have to test, you have to practice, you have to fail, and you have to quickly learn all these skills. Having a chance [to be creative], especially myself, was just amazing, and I didn’t want to bake things as they were. The Cronut® is a perfect example. When it went viral, everyone wanted to create Cronut® shops and open factories across the country and around the world. That is exactly what I did not want to do. I wanted to move on creatively and have a chance to keep on expressing

be, or where it was going to be. Eventually, I came to New York, and I worked for Chef Daniel Boulud. And about eight years ago, I opened up my own shop focused on pastry.

After its launch on May 10, 2013, Cronut® pastry fans spanned the world from Berlin to Singapore, making it the most virally talked about dessert item in history, including being named by TIME magazine as one of the best inventions of 2013.

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 45

45

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

myself for the future and in the momentum of time. Every time we do a new concept, a new shop, a new menu—every time, it’s something new. I don’t recycle ideas, but I challenge myself and my team to think harder and come up with more ideas.

BT: Given Dominique Ansel Bakery’s locations around the world, how do you adapt to different cultures while maintaining a uniform global brand?

DA: We work very much with each local team on their creations. Of course, I work with them to develop the food and its quality. We use a lot of different apps to share photos, share videos, and share ideas.

There’s no idea that comes without hard work. It’s very hard to be connected with different time zones, different countries, and different concepts, so you really have to dive into it and give it a lot of thought and work. Especially for new ideas, you need to consider what is tradition and what makes it successful. Every place is different, so we try to adapt our pastries to where we are.

Another beloved creation

by Dominique Ansel is the Frozen S’more, served on a smoked willow wood branch.

"The most important thing is to create food to share. You don’t create pastries to go viral, you should create food

PEOPLE

for . If you have the right intention at the beginning, then the rest will follow."

BT: You mentioned launching many new concepts, and along that line of thought, how do you market your products? Is it often driven by virality?

DA:I never think too much about how to market a product. I never have to because of the work we do ahead of time—thinking of the idea, the concept, the product, how our guests will react to it, why they like it as well. These connections with the guests makes everything pretty organic. It’s never like we are thinking of how to commercialize the idea. For me, it’s about sharing with our followers, sharing what we do, what we like, what we love. When they like it—most of them like it, I would say—it’s pretty organic.

It’s pretty simple: we show what we love and people show their love for it.

BT: Talking more about social media and virality, the Cronut® was the first worldviral pastry. What is your opinion on the growing emphasis towards trendy, Instagrammable food, especially in places like New York, where there’s a lot of competition between restaurants?

Will this hurt more hole-in-the-wall places that don’t have a social media

46 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 46

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

presence or restaurants where the food may not be as aesthetic?

DA: I think social media is very important.

It’s a platform to express yourself and show who you are. It’s not everything though, and people shouldn’t give themselves a headache to use it. A lot of people use it to promote stuff or to keep track of everything they like. It’s a place to share, and it has to be done successfully. It’s a great tool for business, and it’s great for individuals and New York too. I think it changes, like everything else in life, and nowadays, there are a lot of companies wondering what they should do [with social media]. For me, it’s very important to show who people are in real life. People now hide behind social media; a lot of people look like they have fabulous lives, but it’s just nice photos, you know? Social media is a great tool, and as it changes, we have to change too. We are inspired by and guided by what the future will be. We must be open-minded on how to utilize media, and staying true and real is important.

BT: Your Instagram mixes photos from your own creations to culinary experiences beyond your bakery. What is the importance of showcasing not only your work but those of other restaurants around the world on your own Instagram?

DA: I want to showcase authenticity: real people that create real food. It’s honestly kind of like what my career has been like: humble and casual and good food. There’s no thought of promoting something or promoting someone. It’s people who make good things, and I give them credit because I know how hard they worked to do what they do. It may be a simple craft or a different industry, but I like to show my followers all the people who work as hard as they do every day.

coming up. It happened so fast that I honestly don’t remember much—it felt like it happened in my mind. It was honestly so big, and we had lines of over seven hundred people after day two outside of the bakery before the doors opened. It was just insane, and it was really hard to manage and hard for the employees at the time. But you know, it’s great that it happened. It’s amazing that the Cronut® is a living creation. It’s beautiful to see that pastry can bring people together, and I’m very fortunate to be the one who brought this together. It’s actually a great thing. I don’t think I have any frustrations. Yes, you have a lot of people and you have to worry about making enough. Also, we only had four people on the team at the time, and we had a tiny, tiny kitchen, probably a similar size to what you have at home. We did everything we could.

The frustration is more like not being able to satisfy everyone in the beginning; now we can better afford to do that. We worked really, really hard, and we keep on working really hard to preserve the quality and authenticity of our product.

BT: Alongside all these viral creations, there are many other pastries that are just as delicious. Do you ever consider how to balance both of these pastries?

DA: If I create food to go viral, that’s the wrong way of thinking. You create food because you love eating. I like creating

food because I like connecting with people and telling a story through our pastries because it is an emotional connection with childhood memories. That’s it. The rest will do it on its own. If people like it, then I’m happy, and if people like it less, I’m still happy with my creation.

The most important thing is to create food to share. You don’t create pastries to go viral, you should create food for people. If you have the right intention at the beginning, then the rest will follow.

BT: One of my favorite aspects of DAB is that during long waits for the Cronut®, the Dominique Ansel team will hand out some sample pastries for customers in line to snack on. Can you talk about how small details like these factor into the overall customer experience you’re trying to curate?

DA: I’m a chef; I work with people everyday.

It’s important for me to be welcoming and treat people the best way possible. If you have a line outside, you cannot just ignore the customers out there. They’re outside the shop, and they’re waiting for you.

Of course, we have Cronut pastries that are coming out soon, but I want to focus on hospitality. That’s why we bake fresh madeleines for those in line that morning and hot chocolate in the winter. I want to show people that we care that they line up for us because they are giving away some of their time. We have to be respectful

A personal favorite of the Chef, DKA stands for “Dominique’s Kouign Amann,” similar to a caramelized croissant, e er a la er ea a cara el e cr c cr e.

BT: When the Cronut® did become viral, what was your reaction?

Are there any frustrations you’ve experienced over the years with your pastries becoming viral?

DA: When it happened, it happened very fast. In the first few years, apps like Instagram and social media were just

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 47

47

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND and understanding, and we should be thankful for them coming in and waiting for us. It doesn’t matter if you’re inside or outside, or if the line is short or long.

BT: What has been the most challenging aspect of being a business owner?

DA: Upon becoming a business owner, I had to become a completely different person.

As a chef, you’re constantly in the kitchen and your own department—it’s all about cooking. When you have a business and manage a team, you have to think about many perspectives that you didn’t think about before. You work with employees, you talk about issues with customers, you think about menu creation—there are just so many aspects and decisions that come to you when you lead a company. I think the most challenging is to be there for everybody. I make myself very much available throughout the day. I wake up at

five in the morning I go to bed at midnight every day. I speak with my team every day, almost all of the managers from different places around the world, and it’s hard to make time for everybody. It’s hard to be there with them always, but I try to guide them, follow up, and build a great support system. I always wish I were doing it even more. Time is definitely the biggest constraint. If I had more time, I would give it to all the chefs. It’s okay though because it’s also a time for one to grow and learn. It gives you guidance and support as much as it is a challenge, and you see people growing and learning as well.

BT: You’ve had an incredible journey. What is a lesson you’ve learned that you’d like to share with the undergraduates who read this publication?

DA: One of the most important things I’ve

learned in life is don’t be afraid. People throughout my entire life told me no or it’d be too hard. When I was sixteen, they said don’t go to Paris, it’s too hard, and then don’t go to New York, it’s going to be too hard. People told me not to spend my life opening a bakery in New York because a lot of people don’t make it. People gave me a lot of advice that I didn’t ask for and think they know better when they don’t.

Those people will give you bad advice at times, and they make you worried.

They make you fear, doubt, and question yourself. Don’t be afraid of pursuing your own vision when you’re confident in yourself. To make things work, you have to try. If you fail, that’s okay it’s a part of life for everyone and we all learn from our mistakes and do better work. Don’t ever be afraid of always trying, always doing your best. Not being afraid will give you a chance to really be successful in your life.

Dominique Ansel’s SoHo bakery opened in November 2011, with a team of just four employees.

Today, he has multiple bakeries and restaurants across the globe.

48 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 48

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

Favorite savory food?

I love food so much, it’s hard to choose. I love Taiwanese food. My fianc e is Taiwanese, so we make a lot of Taiwanese food at home and I cook a lot myself. I also love eggs.

Three qualities of your perfect pastry: •

Memory: something that you will remember

•

Emotion: something that will make you feel something

•

Taste: something that will make you want to salivate and eat more

What is the best combination of foods you’ve ever tried, in terms of flavor?

My favorite would be coconut, raspberry, and balsamic vinegar. If you think about it on the flavor profile, it is the best of the best. You have the coconut which is rich, warm, a little bit like Paris, and then you have the raspberry which is acidic, and you have the balsamic which is very nutty and dark. When you put the flavors together, it’s a burst of flavor in your mouth.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you have chosen instead as your profession?

I think it would be something creative. I love design, architecture, modern art, literature. I love creating and designing, so it would be something creative for sure.

Most terrible culinary creation?

I don’t think I’ve had a terrible creation—I’ve worked in a kitchen for 15 - 20 years of making observations.

By the time you’ve spent that much time in the kitchen, you know what works and what doesn’t. You know the flavors and textures, and by the time you start creating, you should have enough experience. Of course, I’ve had pastries that I’m not happy with, where I’ve worked on it for two months and then don’t put it on the menu, but I’ve never had a disastrous creation.

Illustrations by Beverly Shen Photographs courtesy of Dominique Ansel Team, Thomas Schauer, Brent Herrig

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 49

49

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

Tina Sharkey

Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Brandless On maintaining the relationship between customer and company through multiple channels and online community WITH GRACE XU Business Today: What originally sparked your interest for working with media and technology companies?

Tina Sharkey: I was always interested in how to make complex things simple and how to make everything easier for everyone. Through media and technology, I found that I could not only create magical experiences for people to find products that will help them live their best lives, but more importantly, I could connect individuals to their passions. This is why I became so interested in online community-building.

BT: When you’re building a new startup or you’re looking for new ventures, do you have a specific set of interests, goals, or missions that you tailor your search to?

TS: I would say that I’m passionate about helping people live their best lives.

Sometimes that comes through the form of connecting people to their passions, sometimes that comes through the form of surprise and delight, and sometimes that comes through the form of unlocking joy, even if it’s in an enterprise setting.

I’m interested in software, applications, and experiences that make things easier, connect individuals to other individuals, and give people the opportunity to explore their affinities and the things that they care about. These are the goals

that I’ve been committed to for my whole career, and they tend to be the filters I use when looking for new ventures.

BT: In 2013, you jumped from working at BabyCenter to working for a venture capital firm, Sherpa Capital. What prompted you to make the jump?

How do you think working at Sherpa Capital ultimately helped you with founding and managing Brandless?

TS: Leading BabyCenter, the largest global media platform for new and expectant parents was wonderful, but I really wanted to cross-train in my career and explore other categories and industries. I wanted to use my experience of operating and building brands and global businesses to help up-and-coming entrepreneurs and founders, as well as larger boards and businesses. I enjoy being a playercoach and learning the business from the other side. It was part of my own crosstraining, as well as trying to codify the other side of the founding of companies: understanding financing and structuring, as well as identifying, helping, and supporting entrepreneurs accelerate and execute their plan for their brands and their businesses.

I’m also an amateur cultural anthropologist—I like to study people and consumer insights and behavior. I look at the market through different lenses.

Where is the next opportunity? Where will the mass market and changing habits of consumers converge? What are the macro

and micro changes in the local, national and global landscape that will make room for the next great product? I study major consumer behavior shifts and insights. The millennial consumer does not want to buy and consume the brands they grew up with.

Wellness and sustainability have emerged as table stakes for modern consumption, but it was near impossible to find high quality, more affordable products and brands that stood for values beyond just the products themselves. In creating Brandless, I saw a rare opportunity to disrupt a market where we could democratize access to high- uality products at terrific value with community-driven principles at its core.

BT: Could you speak a little bit more about self-branding and how decentralized media feeds into that?

TS: We’re living in a world where everyone is a publisher, and everyone is a network of one. You need to understand that you control your own narrative, and what you do, what you say, and how you choose to live, support, and engage in various affinities, passions, brands, and circles informs your engagement in the world. When you’re thinking about your own branding, it’s important to not only authentically tell your story, but also to follow and support people who you respect, admire, and are interested in the things that you are interested in. Through opensource platforms like Twitter or Instagram,

50 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 50

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

Tina Sharkey has been recognized as one of the top 100 People Transforming Business by Business Insider, named by Fast Company as one of the Top Women in Technology, and chosen as one of Entrepreneur’s Most Daring Entrepreneurs.

you’re able to follow these stories, be inspired by those people, and be a click away from individuals whom you respect and admire. And vice versa—those people are also able to discover and follow you!

BT: Let’s move to Brandless. Can you talk a bit about the products Brandless focuses on, and why Brandless chooses to focus on those products?

TS: Brandless is thinking about how you can live your best life: how you can provide the very best life for your family, for your home,

and for your community. When you think of that sweet spot in your life, it starts with the stuff you reach for every day; the items you use all the time; and then the things you use with your family, your home, and your community. Those rings around you, viewed with a wellness and sustainability lens, were some of the first categories that we tackled. Now we’re tackling more. We’re looking at the tools you need to live your best life, whether that’s a fantastic blender that we launched just yesterday or great high-quality cookware.

BT: Can you talk about brand loyalty and the role it plays in Brandless? How do you promote brand loyalty and build community amongst your users?

TS: When you’re in a conversation with your community all the time, you need to think about how you engage in that conversation.

The relationships built with the Brandless community deepen when the products come into your life, when you’re sharing it with your friends or when you’re giving us the feedback of the recipes you’re using.

I don’t believe that direct to consumer is

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 51

51

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

just a channel—direct to consumer is a relationship! Loyalty is the way you’d be loyal to a friend—by creating the products that they love, by being in ongoing dialogue and communication with them, and by building things that they’re asking for and having them share those with their friends.

BT: What kind of advertising does Brandless do for itself? Do you rely on word-on-mouth, or something else?

TS: I think it’s a blend—there’s roles for capital-M “Marketing,” where you’re creating awareness, and lower-case-m “marketing,” where it’s viral networks, social marketing, and amplifying stories.

Then there’s telling people what Brandless stands for and getting them involved with the brand. For example, the third of every month is Brandless day. When you check out at Brandless on any given day 365 days a year, we support the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, Feeding America, and buy a meal in your honor. You can see it in your shopping cart and you can track how many meals you have helped us donate on your account page. But when you check out on the third of each month ( a day we call Brandless Day) , we triple that—and so some people wait until the third to buy from Brandless because they want to give more,

even though we’re doing it in their honor.

Our customers understand that Brandless is bigger than any individual product we sell and that by buying at Brandless they are helping us help others as well. That is all part of being part of our community.

BT: Since you’ve worked extensively in media and social media, what kind of media does Brandless use to promote itself?

TS: Brandless communities and activations live across all platforms. We look to be in constant conversation with our audience.

We test and learn on all media platforms, including television, as great storytelling and awareness can happen in broader-reach media. And media can have capital-M, lower-case-M, or SM (social media), where you are not only creating things, but you’re actually asking questions and getting people into the conversation, or you’re amplifying their stories, and you’re pulling them into your brand and community stories.

BT: Brandless is an e-commerce company. I have two questions about that: Do you think e-commerce will one day completely replace brickand-mortar stores, or do you think there’s still an opportunity for both of

"We’re living in a world where everyone is a publisher, and everyone is a network of one."

them to exist in the same industry?

TS: We’re actually going into wholesale channels because that gives us access to more people, so they have more access to the products we sell. We’re very, very open to all forms of retail. Television did not replace radio—in a funny way, radio is coming back through podcast—online did not replace television, and print is still alive—they just all play different roles.

It’s important to have a Brandless.com channel where you can directly engage with all our products, but we also have our Brandless communities on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. One day, you’ll find some of your favorite Brandless products in your neighborhood! Some things make more sense to be sold on the web; others may be more conveniently purchased directly from the store.

BT: In general, how do you market startups, so they gain traction at the beginning? How do you incentivize and capture attention?

TS: At the very early stages, even before you launch your product or service, it’s critical to find your people. These are the early adopters, and you want to engage them in conversation. This can start offline with five people, then go to ten people, a thousand people, five thousand people, and more. Start building your community early. As soon as you garner any attention, you must ask permission to stay connected to your early fans and friends. You can create your own media channels like email newsletters and stories on social platforms, so you can have direct conversations with your community.

What you send and share has to be something that feels of value—it has to be additive to people’s lives. It can’t just feel

52 FALL 2019 BUSINESS TODAY Final Magazine copy.indd 52

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CURATING DEMAND

promotional or you will get unsubscribed, unfollowed, and tuned out. We’re all overwhelmed with the amount of media and commerce that we get exposed and marketed to us. It can’t just be marketing, marketing, marketing—it has to be conversational. It has to be give and get.

BT: How do you build and develop talent and elevate people to be at their very best?* TS: Build a culture of shared values and shared intentions. Diversity and inclusion are not afterthoughts; they start on day one. Every team member needs to know what those values and intentions are. There needs to be an active, inclusive co-owned heartbeat in the company from the get go. That doesn’t mean that companies don’t evolve, make mistakes, or pivot and change. Nobody’s perfect, but a culture of transparency and shared ownership of goals, roadmaps, metrics, milestones, and critical success factors gives all team members the opportunity to weigh in, move quickly, and course correct when needed.

People have lots of hidden talents beyond their resumes, and a team that co-owns the company’s success will stretch beyond their training and surprise you in what they are capable of. Celebrate those moments and highlight those team members who make the work fun, who go the extra mile, and who work to help their teammates and the company execute the plan.

I have seen so many companies spend an enormous amount of time recruiting great candidates and then completely drop the ball when they arrive. Onboarding is a real thing. It is critically important to document the companies’ best practices and actively train and communicate how the company operates and functions—in

LOYALTY

" is the way you’d be loyal to a friend—by creating the products that they

LOVE, by being in ongoing dialogue and

COMMUNICATION

with them, and by building things that they’re asking for and having

SHARE those with their

them friends."

particular, who does what and how to get things done. Set up buddy systems for folks outside of their departments, so they can meet other people and accelerate their onboarding and hit the ground running.

An informed and engaged employee base is one that will go the distance and help create a culture that is like a family, a place where people are invested in and want to be a part of: like a second home.

*Question submitted by Ibrahim Rahban of National Institute of Information Technology in India

Photograph courtesy of Tina Sharkey

BUSINESS TODAY FALL 2019 Final Magazine copy.indd 53

53

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

CREATIVITY MAKES BUSINESS HAPPEN. —Alexandra Tanguay, VP of Global Brand, Spotify

Learn more about Alexandra and the resources you need to turn what you love into a career.

Explore your WSJ membership options at WSJ.com/ActivateSchool.

Final Magazine copy.indd 54

19/11/2019 6:29 PM

SPONSORS ENTERPRISE

LEGACY

VENTURE

Gabelli Family Philanthropic Fund

ALLIANCE

PATRON AT&T The Canning Foundation

General Dynamics JBG Smith

MetLife Niehaus, Robert

Rosenthal & Rosenthal The Scheetz Group

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Weiss, Jonathan

CWS Capital Partners DeSantis Breindel Diane von Furstenberg Dow Jones, Inc. Egon Zehnder Elasticity Evergreen Fibres Farmer & Company

Federated Investors Foundation Freedom Mortgage HealthFirst The Hersh Foundation The Ian & Caitlin Blasco Charitable Fund Institute for Advanced Study

j2 Global, Inc. Kapadia, Aman Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Madison International Realty Meridian Capital Group Mitsubishi International Corp.

NOVEC Oak Investment Partners

Penn National Gaming Semper Capital Management Silvercrest Asset Management SmithďŹ eld Trust Standard Fiber LLC Training the Street WideOrbit Yext

C.H. Douglas & Gray Wealth Management Eagle Global Advisors EDF Renewables Halyard Capital Ivy Groupe Key Financial, Inc.

Laidlaw, Michael Lieber, Adam Lim, Yung Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin Mercury Capital Partners Mulcare, Robert

National Futures Association Neidich, Daniel Open Arms Health Care, LLC Simonian, Nancy Souleles Family Charitable Fund

SparePad Strata Decision Technology Symantec Rannoch Petroleum Wade Rakes Charitable Fund Wendell Family Foundation

CONTRIBUTOR Alliant Credit Union ALM Media Armadale Capital Berkshire Partners Bryn Mawr Trust Chase Design Group ContiGroup Covestro

DONOR Ash Stevens Allos Ventures Avrett Free Ginsberg Bailey Family Fund Barshop Ventures Capital Innovators Canusa Corporation

Final Magazine copy.indd 55

19/11/2019 6:27 PM

Want to read more?

journal.businesstoday.org

Final Magazine copy.indd 56

19/11/2019 6:28 PM