The Power of Generosity in Commerce

Future Commerce Podcast: eCommerce, DTC and Retail Strategy

The boys are back for a round of musings on the impact of Ozempic and Kim K’s marketing genius! And then, Brian sits for a live interview at Retail Summits with Mike Beckham, CEO and Co-Founder of Simple Modern, who shares how he has built a team that has been built on generosity and relationships and making a real difference in the world around us.

The SKIMS

• {00:07:51} - “Manufacturing virality is not so difficult in 2023. SKIMS leaned into a really smart product launch that created a halo around the thing they really needed to draw attention to, and it completely reoriented the brand at a time when they were being both hyper-feminine and hyper-masculine.” - Phillip
• {00:10:21} - “‘Your enemies are your best PR." {Marshall McLuhan} The critics are almost always the ones that provide the most value. And you're right. This is right out of the multiplayer brand. This is critique at work and in an aged, art form. It's something that was purely utility at its start, and now it's an art form that deserves critique or needs critique.” - Brian
• {00:16:10} - “The problem with tactics is that they work until they don't. If we want to build strong companies, we want to build resilient companies, you've got to build on a strategy that's going to work in a bunch of different climates, and that's not tactic dependent.” - Mike Beckham
• {00:19:55} - “I love the idea of building employees who understand the strategy, who are flexible enough and adaptable enough to understand that tactics have an end date. And, yes, you do have to apply them, but it's because of these bigger strategies that you make those changes.” - Brian
• {00:21:46} - “If you're trying to create profit, then giving money away works against your primary goal of being able to make money, but I had this theory that, no, that's not actually true. What actually happens with generosity is when we give, it turns out, and I don't know why this is, I mean, some of it's reciprocity. Maybe it transforms us in a way, but it just tends to be that people want to repay that and people want to give back, and you end up getting more than you started with in the beginning.” - Mike
• {00:24:41} - “We tend to build teams, as these highly, disinfected, like, you bring these skill sets, I bring these skill sets, like a puzzle. We're just trying to match up all the skill sets. But the reality is great teams have chemistry. And chemistry comes from affinity and trust and affection, and that gets built through relationships.” - Mike
• {00:32:26} - “This generation, there are things that they're gonna need to grow in, and there are things that they're strong in. One of the things they're strong in is that they are particularly focused on that gap that I talked about between the world that is and the world that can't be, and they care intensely about that gap.” - Mike
• {00:39:59} - “People don't leave because they got a better offer from somebody close, and I'm not convinced that that's because we're a perfect company. It's more just that we're thinking intentionally around how are we creating high quality of life.” - Mike

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Mike Bekham and Simple Modern
• FC Insiders #113: Brinkmanship
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• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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