Probably my greatest professional moment … at the absolute peak of my consulting powers, came back in 2012. It was a simpler time … so much less stupidity and corruption … Macy’s was viewed as an omnichannel leader for the ages … catalog brands weren’t being fired by their printers and catalogers were easily able to procure paper from their favorite paper rep. In my world, I was writing parables via the “Gliebers Dresses” framework.
Why?
A trade journalist and a consultant collaborated to nuke my reputation, publishing a hit piece in a blog hosted by what was called at the time “Multichannel Merchant”. I lost more than half of my business as a consequence (for about nine months), in case you’re wondering why I have issues with trade journalists.
I was able to rebuild my business via the “Gliebers Dresses” framework. I could talk about industry issues without having to have a vendor or consultant or paper rep or trade journalist take me down … what are they going to do, get mad at Roger Morgan, the Chief Operations Officer of a fictional catalog company?
But I digress … at the peak of my powers, I wrote a bit about a Marketing Executive having women wearing dresses from Gliebers Dresses in a television commercial with Colbie Caillat’s “Brighter Than The Sun” playing in the background. Just a throwaway line in a story about corporate stupidity.
Two months later, Chicos released a commercial with two women wearing Chicos clothing … with Colbie Caillat’s “Brighter Than The Sun” playing in the background.
Odd coincidence, don’t you think? Here’s the link. I mean, they read my content most days … I had the data to prove it.
These moments were lost to the digital scrap heap of history … until an agency used by Chicos reached out, asking me to update a link in the post to reflect the current URL of their website.
If you are paying an agency $$$ to ask the agency to spend time talking to an analytics blogger about a “broken link” from a post that is thirteen years old, you should probably ask yourself if you’ve lost the plot. Your job is to generate business today, not spend time asking an analytics blogger to correct a link from a thirteen year old satirical post.
P.S.: Just thought you’d want to see Chico’s home page. Show me the love of merchandise displayed here.
