David Polinchock

I know it’s hard to believe, especially for some of the youngsters who might be reading this, but there was a time when air travel was so much nicer than it is today. And no, I’m not talking about back in the 40’s! If you were waiting for a flight to depart and there was a problem, the airline might move you to a competing company to make sure you got to your destination. They might even do that if it was your fault, like getting to the airport late and missing your flight. Not that I have any firsthand knowledge of such a thing, I’ve just heard stories.

With #Covid19 closing everything around us, we're all either in a lock down or panic mode. In the NY metro area, everything has been closed. My daughter is home from college for the rest of the semester and everyone is trying to figure out how long this will last. Lauren Thomas, writing about the industry at CNBC, had an article indicating that retail closures could top 15,000 this year.

For several years, I gave most of the presentations at the AT&T AdWorks Lab and of course, the entire discussion of un-bundling and cord-cutting was always part of the discussion. At the time, I used to say that I thought that cord-cutting was potentially more of a point in life thing and less of a generational issue. When you're single and loving alone or with roommates, you don't want to be the one stuck wit that monthly bill, so it makes sense. As you get older and have a family, you start to realize how much all of the channels cost to deliver all of the content you really want.

This post started when I saw a tweet about this article on Econsultancy on being customer centric and how important it is for companies today. I thought that article was well done, so my issue is not with their content or the position it takes. 

(NOTE: I originally wrote this article in 2005 and was reminded of it this morning while surfing the net and dealing with autoplay videos. One more way that we try to capture, not captivate, the audience. And worse, they usually make them very hard to stop or turn off the sound. That little 'x' is so hard to tap, that you end up opening the brand website and I'll put money on the fact that their agency calls it a win. 

So, it looks like Radio Shack filed for bankruptcy, which had been expected for some time now. It's a shame to see a company that's been around for so long close after almost 100 years, but they sadly brought it on themselves.

Back in 2009, I wrote a piece about failing to communicate and how an abundance of information creates a scarcity of information. I wrote back then:

10 years ago this week, I started blogging for the first time. A lot has changed over those years (my daughter is now 13!), but somet hings haven't changed. Some, not all, of the things I discussed a great deal in those, is still relevant today. Like:

While there are certainly things that have changed since I first wrote this piece in 2001, there's a lot of underlying issues that I think still hold true. People want value from their data. Value for them. When companies do that, both the consumer and the company wins.

I was teaching a class for FIT earlier this week and talking about retail experiences. I brought up a slide of an Apple store and mentioned how there is no background music at the Apple stores that I visit and how that goes against the grain of retail pundits who spend great effort building play lists that encourage people to shop and buy.