Nick Pavone Conferences -ACG /Queers&Comics
Conference Attended: ACG Association of Corporate
Growth
Location: 227 West 27th ST, New York,
N.Y.
Fee: $300.00
The Association of Corporate Growth held a conference focusing on retail and commercial space on November 7, 2018. The major takeaway that I absorbed from the conference was that the New York Commercial Real Estate Business is in turmoil. The majority of consumers are changing their buying patterns and not shopping in person anymore. Retail spaces are now competing with the Internet like never before. It was discussed how studies show their buyers are more willing to shop in person if there is an experience attached.
The opening moderator was Michael Lapel from Lapel Associates, and he interviewed the first guest, Chris Donnelly. Chris is the Managing Director of Accenture’s Global Retail Strategy. This basically means that he helps develop, consult, and initiate transformational ideas to the retail space specifically in pharmaceutical, grocery, apparel, as well as “big box.” Big box is often referred to as the category killer because it encompasses a little of everything. Such examples of this are Target, Costco, and Wal-Mart. I was quite surprised with Chris’s presentation because it seemed like everything popular the media/advertising industry has been reporting is actually coming to fruition. It’s one thing to read about it, it is another to experience and hear someone speak about the transition in buying behavior. A larger thought that was presented by Chris is what retail will look like in a decade. When you sit to ponder this thought, you have to ask yourself why it isn’t so advanced yet compared to other countries. If technology is happening today, right before our eyes with such companies like Amazon and Wal-Mart it is only natural to say this isn’t the future. These companies are only for here and now.
Will the next decade be the Golden Age of the Consumer? Currently we have price transparency, which means that we can search for the best price at our fingertips and larger companies will offer a price match. Delivery patterns are as quick as one hour in large cities. Chris Donnelly says that normal development from start to finish of an idea to its implementation can take up to 18-24 months. Most people want immediate results, but patience and persistence is more strategic than having missed a step in the consumers’ journey. It is all about having an idea and a strategy behind it. The example of Dollar Shave Club vs. Proctor and Gamble is definitely something to study. We take a multi-billion dollar conglomerate that sells shaving razors, but is literally trumped by a small start up. The reason you ask is because there was much more thought put into what the consumer wants and what their expectations are. Their needs were met and this is the story of how a brand doesn’t have to be huge to provide better service than a large entity, that inherently controls the consumer category of personal hygiene products.
Three items feed off of each other in retail: innovation, consumers, and technology. The consumer evaluation is changing; It used to be about cost, convenience, and assortment. These days it’s all about the experience. It’s all about having control. As Chris Donnelly puts it, “it’s the power of experience.” With this being stated, companies can save money by having less stores and it’s more cost effective to put more money into crafting the experience for the consumer, because it proves a positive touch point with expected return business. To summarize, brands can pay less and get more just by changing the paradigm of the buyer’s journey.
Another brand that doesn’t pay for retail space is a car company called Zip Cars. The whole business model is based off of where the car is parked in geographical location to the consumer. A user can easily pick up without having to deal with anyone. It’s a fact that some consumers today don’t want to deal with human interaction. It also takes away the burden of owning your own car and dealing with the variables of that ownership, including car payments, parking, and inspections. The consumer owns nothing except for the experience. How ironic is this, but the trends tell us so. So now Zip Cars has eliminated paying exorbitant rent, they’ve also eliminated paying for someone to answer calls. The consumer does everything in terms of a transaction. There is no having to deal with counter attitudes of poor service. This is an amazing attribute of the service. It’s a business model many other car rental companies are copying.
Another great example of this is the Air BnB model. It is another brand designed around giving the user the ultimate experience. Who doesn’t want to be welcomed when they arrive at a house they are staying in. There is a warm feeling about this type of service that a hotel can’t define. All the service fees are built in so you don’t have to worry about the gratuity scale and you know what you’re getting for your money upfront. Ratings and information about hosts are all done in the beginning.
Tesla is another company that has changed user experience. Ironically I bumped into an owner of a $100,000.00+ Tesla and was shocked to hear some of the attributes of the brand. Basically owning one of these vehicles frees you of the physical burden of driving. I couldn’t believe this myself. I understood this was happening on the West Coast but I didn’t know this actually existed on our roads. So we literally have computers driving humans on the tri-state roads. This happened so quickly it’s almost like society didn’t have a say in any of this. It must be nice to also have the car start itself, drive out of the driveway or garage and pick you up. When a Tesla owner wants to have the vehicle serviced it is done remotely. You can call the Distributor by phone and the basic software upgrades are normal to fix mechanical issues. I would never think this was possible. Besides all of the bells and whistles here the consumer feels great because they are promoting a stand against the carbon footprint here on earth. Having an electric vehicle gives a consumer a sense of satisfaction. The buying experience is another benefit. You can order and purchase a car right off the website. This eliminates the in-person back and forth negotiation that people feel uncomfortable with.
According to Chris Donnelly, the e-commerce market will grow 10% to 40% over the next decade. There are many ways in the future that brands can revolutionize the market and themselves. As we think about this our ideas can almost have no ceiling. If we were to go back ten years ago and ask ourselves where we would be now, some of the ideas may or may not be in touch with the modernization of retail shopping. If we give some thought to the capabilities of three-dimensional design and production, we have many possibilities before our eyes. It makes you think what is really possible; will consumers be able print their own meals in the future without leaving the house?
Another new landscape that was discussed during the conference was virtual reality. Will we be able to try on clothes in our own home? Is their technology available to scan our body measurements? These questions are some of which we already know are true, but have yet to become commonplace in the market. This is really an unbelievable experience a consumer can have within the comforts of their own home.
A different angle that was covered was the potential to have augmented reality integrated into the shopping category. This means that there actually is a computer-designed program that replicates a human. This is helpful in the sense that during a shopping experience a consumer can obtain information while feeling like a human is right there. There are many common augmented reality labels already on the market, such as the wine series,Nineteen Crimes. You can imagine a consumer scanning a graphic from the label of the bottle, and right before their eyes it comes to life.
Imagine realtors using augmented reality to help clients view available spaces. But think even further: What if there is software that can show you potential outcomes of interior design layouts as well as cost of production? All of these possibilities can happen within seconds. Imagine having these tools to help a potential client.
Stores in the future will have an evolved value proposition. In some cases you’ll just go in and test the product then order it later. Who really knows what the future will bring ten years from now? One thing is certain, we are far from where we can be, and we are extremely advanced for where we are.
Conference Attended: Queers & Comics
Location: 209 E 23rd ST, New York, N.Y.
Fee: $20.00
Attending this conference was an eye opening experience into the world of LGBTQ cartoonists, Educators, and Publishers who shared their perspectives regarding the subject manner. To begin, I am not too savvy when it comes to comics except for traditional, old school Batman and Robin/Superman Marvel DC collectibles. This genre, and community was an eye opener. There were several panelists including Paige Braddock and Phil Jimenez. Brad is the first illustrator/cartoonist to produce an award winning gay comic series called “Jane’s World”. This was the first gay comic to receive online distribution by a national media syndicate. It is about an honest young character who is involved romantically with a lesbian group of friends. She originally couldn’t find a publisher for the series so she had to become her own publishing house.
This leads us to our first theme, which was openly discussed, the idea of printing your own LGBTQ comics and getting them placed in Libraries and stores. I was actually quite shocked when some of the panelists revealed that they had to hide their content under the realms of Children’s book titles in order to slide past librarians and storeowner’s eyes. But what if children obtain these books and are subject to their content. What’s wrong with children seeing Gay comics? Children see straight love interests, so why can’t they be exposed to Gay scenes or stories? Mainly because it is still not commonly accepted. The LGBTQ community is still shunned by the mainstream, and if you weren’t part of it, you would never know it. The speakers at this conference were open and pro advocates of this movement. I was shocked to see how many artists that were there that actually published, and were selling their own independent versions of these comics. In a way you have to be your own brander in this taboo landscape. Ironically, Paige Braddock was one of the artists behind the famous comic, Snoopy. She oversees the licensed products for “Peanuts”. She actually produced the Snoopy stamp and the cover of Newsweek when the father of comics, Schulz past away. She has taken her time studying this comic legend and has put it into her own work and meaningful gay characters.
The other guest speaker, Phil Jimenez is known for Wonder Woman, X-Men. He is a writer and cartoonist for both DC and Marvel Comics. He thinks that his relationship to comics has helped him deal with being openly gay. Phil wanted to tell stories and dated someone at DC comics, which eventually launched his career. Today there are characters that are openly gay. This is new compared to 20 years ago. It’s a new point of view. Comics were always inherently gay, but not openly known to be.
Phil said he grew up seeing things in his head that weren’t expectable to society. The comics were able to take him away to being able to come out as a gay man. By attending lectures and events it makes him feel more inclusive to his community. He is always surprised to see more and more fans and illustrators coming out. The X-Men comic is also gay which I never knew. He spoke about how the characters created a network of safety. They fought back against others that would persecute them between the lines of visually strong creatures. X-Men stands for difference, which is a symbol of being gay. Despite the persecution they can join hands and fight the world. Comics serve as self-expression and projections of fantasy. Fighting back through comics is an extremely important message he believes that should be conveyed.
