The Debrief No. 410: Liz Segran: 'The fatal flaw of the growth-at-all-costs model is exposed' — Are we witnessing the natural limitations of 'brand'?

Grab Bag: The strip clubs of IG.
Alton Brown's onion dip. The art of pandemics past. Bloomberg’s new vertical is called “Screentime”. An ideal forest bunker. The latest creation from Chris Thile. Parade’s new primary color collection. A must-listen from Scott Galloway. Radiohead’s now streaming recordings of their concerts. Baselworld could be finito. Architecture and design documentaries to binge. How to properly load a dishwasher. Monocle on earphone etiquette. The juicy TL;DR on WSJ’s Airbnb story. Having weird quarantine dreams? The phone call has made a comeback. Apparently Quibi isn't competing with TV. “My year of free mattresses.” Why there’s no black Barstool. Every single party in SF. And inside the strip clubs of Instagram.

Kyle Chayka on the balance of quarantine consumerism.
Great culturally-focused column here by Chayka who writes at Vox about the quandary and the dynamic of quarantine consumption. Key thought here that has us nodding along: "Quarantine is a confusing moment to be a consumer. So much 'nonessential' business has ground to a halt, yet goods still have to be produced, marketed, and sold in order to sustain factories, companies, and, most importantly, the jobs they create. All the closed storefronts are just the symbol of people, particularly hourly workers, out of work. With a recession or even depression looming, we’re all worried about our livelihoods. The quandary is, should we make ourselves comfortable in the short term by stockpiling whatever’s available, relying on exploitative digital platforms and putting pressure on the supply chain, or should we be saving money for the future?" Thoughts we're all having right now.

With livestreaming, are we witnessing the natural limits of "brand"?
Last week, we came across a brand whose name we won't mention here––one of many that seem to constantly be streaming on IG Live. Out of curiosity we clicked this time. Total viewership? It never peaked above eight viewers. Which leaves us to wonder how effective the livestreaming approach is for brands right now. We'd be be very interested to know what the average viewership for these brands are across these last 2+ weeks since going all in on this format. We definitely have our suspicions, and it makes us wonder: Are we seeing the natural limitations of folks' desires to be immersed in the worlds of individual brands? Emily Singer added some thoughts here for context: “[Live viewership has been] Pretty low. I’ve dropped in on some that only have a handful of viewers. We’re over-programmed and I’m not sure people are adding events to their calendar or keeping track in a meaningful way. It’s best when you can stumble upon it and when the format allows you to dip in and out. Or if a company is working toward habituation by going live at 2pm every day, for example.” Time will tell.

An enlightened post-pandemic consumer? Not likely.
So says longtime Lean Luxer, Eugene Rabkin. Never one to be shy of sharing a sharp opinion, he offers some spot on insights as to what we might expect once the dust has cleared here. Here's Eugene: "Plenty of recent prognoses have been predicting that the coronavirus crisis will prompt…consumers to reassess their values and shift their spending away from fast fashion and flashy, marketing-driven luxury megabrands towards quality, sustainability and general sobriety. We will consume less and consume more mindfully and responsibly, so they say. I am here to tell you that, unfortunately, they are wrong. It is true that in times of crisis consumers reprioritise their needs. It is equally true that once a crisis passes, they often return to previous patterns. . . . [T]his has been the case for decades, so why should it change after this pandemic?" Good question.

Ana Andjelic: 'COVID killed the aspiration economy.'
Another great report from Ana, a piece whose thesis is best captured here: “Modern brand strategy focuses on the sociology of things, not people: it asks how to create social markers of differentiation and dominance around products they sell. The outcome is that products are valued on their story, design, and aesthetics: the dreaded millennial pink; environmental creds as a go-to PR pitch; 'locally made' as the brand promise. This strategic approach shifted dynamics of the capitalist system from making products (that’s been outsourced to China) towards enhancing objects with social, cultural, and environmental value. When a global pandemic jeopardizes production of social, cultural, and environmental value, it jeopardizes the entire economy organized around it.” Go read this.

👋Paul Munford, CEO / Editor
mpm@leanluxe.com
@leanluxe

Wednesday's Big Briefing:

🔥🔥 Liz Segran: "The fatal flaw of the growth-at all-costs model has now been exposed: As sales have dried up, and profitability ignored, an entire generation of DNVBs could find coronavirus to be an existential threat."

Returnly: Save more sales and increase LTV.