The Perils of the Wal-Mart Chorus

I was once in business meeting where a senior officer asked,  “Where will you sell when Wal-Mart fails.” After some well covered snickers, snorts and guffaws, he noted he was serious. Nothing is forever, especially in retail. Do you remember Crazy Eddie, Gimbals’, Korvettes, Tower Records, Blockbuster Video? All were leaders in their time, but a superior business model always passed them. It’s pretty standard in retail. Turns out, if you are building your audience through social media,  its true for you too.

Consider your online community relationships.  Remember when AOL was king? Or when MySpace was the rage? Here is a chart from Monday's Wall Street Journal 

It is back to the size it was in 2006, with less income.  Not so good.

Today over 50% of Americans have a Facebook account, yet the business model, which pays for all that, is still debateable.

If you have an email relationship program, you probably loose 20% of your addresses a year just from churn as people switch accounts addresses etc.

The point is, when you build audience relationships, at the very local level, you need to build them on sustainable platforms. Social media are extremely valuable, but the platform is the platform of the moment.  If Facebook is any example, it can change on a dime. Their dime.

So Choral Nation here are three hints

• Always have more then one way to reach each audience member. Helps with both change and technology failure
• Know what your audience prefers. People who like something can be slow to change. 
• Watch the innovators, but let someone else adopt first. If your teenager has moved on, you should think about it. If Grandma has moved on, you’re behind.

 Now, as in the past, your most valuable asset is your database, be it on your computer, cell phone or 3X5 cards. Love it Nurture it, protect it.

For what its worth Wall Street reports Wal-mart is suffering the sales blues. Shop now…..