Millennials, Magnum and Experience

I'd like to share this piece about TGIF which I think speaks to all of us on various levels:

- Casual dining chains in the US are dying.  

- "....and consumer behavior are constantly changing,  you’ve got to change with it.”  There goes that dinosaur analogy again.  Inescapable, isn't it?

-  The millennials (those born between the early 80's and early 2000's) are at it again.  Dictating how business is being done.  

For a country with such a young population (The Philippines' median age is 23.4 and this can be compared with Singapore's 41 and Thailand's 33) that is becoming the emerging economic force - thanks to the jobs that are coming in - the millennials should be on everybody's radar.  

-  “They’re going to need to look at creating experiences -- creating flavor adventures..."  

At my Dad's birthday lunch yesterday, we'd dropped by Magnum Cafe for dessert and were impressed by the set up that I interviewed our server  and asked - among other things ("Is there a reason why Magnum hires good looking people like you and others?"  just sounded so gay, I know.  Ahh, the perils of research) - what the secret of Magnum is (the place was close to capacity) and he used the word "experience," especially their "make your own."  

True, we saw millennials posing with their creations - presumably to be posted.  

Endless Appetizers 'Will Destroy' TGI Fridays: Analyst

Posted: 07/09/2014 12:35 pm EDT  |  Updated: 07/09/2014 12:59 pm EDT

By Alexander C. Kaufman

 

TGI Fridays is so hungry for new customers that it’s giving food away.

The chain restaurant launched an all-you-can-eat deal on Monday, offering endless helpings of any one appetizer -- potato skins, mozzarella sticks, spinach dip and other options -- for $10 per person. The promotion is meant to draw new customers, and it's getting heaps of press coverage of the sort not seen since the chain's 1990s heyday.

Yet analysts say the endless apps deal is basically Fridays' swan song, a last-ditch move that ultimately cheapens the company's brand. The apps may be endless, but Americans' desire to visit a so-called "casual dining" chain restaurant is just about over.

“In the short term, [Fridays] will definitely have more traffic, but in the long term it damages their plan and will really destroy them,” said Aaron Allen, founder of Aaron Allen & Associates, a restaurant industry consulting firm. “It’s the signal of a desperate brand.”

Sales nosedived at casual chain restaurants during the recession, sending once-popular eateries like Bennigan's and Friendly's into bankruptcy. Even as the economy has recovered, most of these restaurants have struggled to regain customers. Millennials want fresh, cheap fastish food from chains like Panera and Chipotle. The Mexican chain's revenue more than doubled to $3.2 billion from 2009 to 2013. The days of young "singles" flocking to TGI Fridays happy hours are long over.

Even Brian Gies, Fridays’ chief marketing officer in the U.S., said the company was stuck in a "combo-meal malaise" and admitted it needed to adapt to modern tastes.

“There are no silver bullets in this business,” Gies said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “The economy and consumer behavior are constantly changing, you’ve got to change with it.”

Sales are anemic at the 49-year-old company, which has more than 900 restaurants in 60 countries. The chain was sold in May by its longtime owner, hospitality firm Carlson Restaurant Inc., to two private equity firms for upward of $800 million.

Annual revenue at company-owned stores dropped 2 percent to $1.1 billion in 2013, according to numbers shown to HuffPost by PrivCo, a financial data provider on privately held companies. Including franchisees, sales revenue hovered at $2.7 billion last year, the same as the year before.

Gies declined to comment on those figures.

The “endless appetizers” promotion, which runs until Aug. 24, may eat into sales. But for the restaurant that claims to have popularized the term "happy hour" and the Long Island Iced Tea, the real money-maker may be alcohol.

“They’re probably hoping they can make it up on drinks,” said Joel Cohen, a restaurant marketing expert.

But a quick boom in booze sales may just further erode the struggling brand.

“If they’re just up-selling the alcohol, the promotion just looks like a ploy,” said Joseph Szala, a restaurant branding expert at the marketing firm Iris Worldwide.”They’re saying, ‘We’ll do anything to get you into a Fridays for a meal’ -- it’s too kitschy, too car sales-y. It’s low class.”

To survive, Fridays may have to raise prices, Allen said.

“That’s the only way you can compete,” he said. “A casual dining restaurant can never be as casual and as fast and convenient as a fast-casual one.”

Potato skins is one of Fridays' 10 main appetizer options

Or it can jazz up its menu. Sure, Gies said the mozzarella sticks now include asiago cheese and a dusting of parmesan. And, yeah, the potato skins have more cheese and are “more potato-y,” he said. But, according to Jeff Fromm, an advertising consultant at Barkley who co-authored the book Marketing to Millennials, the key to attracting the coveted 20-something consumers Fridays is losing to fast-casual chains is offering some culinary pizzazz.

“They’re going to need to look at creating experiences -- creating flavor adventures,” Fromm said. “Less uniqueness means bigger problems for Fridays.”

Written July 10, 2014

The Flywheel, Bus and....Pop

Hey, promise, promise this will be the last reference on the Spurs....for this year.  Before, though, I'd like to have a little lesson on engineering.  The flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy.  Its application can be seen from anywhere from tractors to those toy cars on friction motion.  

Maybe the ladies out there may be more familiar with those old-style sewing machines where a few presses on the foot pedal created energy that allowed the spindle to keep turning long after.  

Now, before I lose you guys I just want to say there's a point to this.    

You see, Jim Collins, author of the "Good to Great" series pointed out that in a study of 1,435 companies over a 40 year performance period saw that it had seemed that some companies reached a "flywheel" point where, seemingly on some sort of own energy, had grown from, yes, good to great.  Jim illustrates this this way:

"Right now, the flywheel is at a standstill. To get it moving, you make a tremendous effort. You push with all your might, and finally you get the flywheel to inch forward. After two or three days of sustained effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster. It takes a lot of work, but at last the flywheel makes a second rotation. You keep pushing steadily. 


It makes three turns, four turns, five, six. With each turn, it moves faster, and then—at some point, you can’'t say exactly when—you break through. The momentum of the heavy wheel kicks in your favor. It spins faster and faster, with its own weight propelling it. You aren't pushing any harder, but the flywheel is accelerating, its momentum building, its speed increasing."

"This is the Flywheel Effect. It's what it feels like when you’re inside a company that makes the transition from good to great."  

He lists down a number of factors on how they got there, but, what am bringing up today.....I'd like my partner to continue:

"In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. And they stick with that discipline—first the people, then the direction—no matter how dire the circumstances."

Now, keeping the right people on the bus is a story in itself.  This is where the story of Pop and the Spurs come in.  You see, a constant in their success of four championships in 12 years is the fact that it's been the same three core players and coach. 

The key in this story is that all three players turned down the opportunity to make bigger money elsewhere - staying for million dollar discounts.  Why did they?

The team's French point guard (and ex-husband of Eva Longoria) says it best:  "Everybody asks me that.  I was talking with a couple of my friends and they were asking that. I was like, I don't know. I think it's just the atmosphere here, the family atmosphere."

"For me personally, why I did it was because, deep down in my heart I know Pop will take care of me until the end of my career. So that's why I felt like I can take less now and help the team out. And we were able to sign Danny [Green] and Boris. And I know when I get a little bit older, I know Pop will take care of me. I really feel that."

Like my Dad says, "It's not all about the money."  

Written June 26, 2014

Churchill, Popovich and Redemption

My Dad loves telling that Winston Churchill quote about measuring a person's success not by "how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom."  To put that quote in a noun, I think it'll be called "redemption."

This week, in a defeat of my prognosticating skills, the San Antonio Spurs shocked the two-time defending champs, Miami Heat, by winning this year's NBA Championship in a very convincing manner.  



It definitely made up - redeemed them - for last year's oh so close call.  Sometimes, sports goes beyond just being about sports and this is that rare occasion.  

They'd been written of after last year's defeat - that they were too old, players should be changed, etc. - and to come back in a manner they did demonstrated that oh so rare ability to get up and make a go at things again.

The irony, of course, is that had they actually won last year, there'd be no beautiful redemption story.  Sometimes one wonders if things happen to us to allow us to inspire others - more on this later.  More of God's mysterious ways, perhaps?

A few final thoughts on the Spurs' victory:

- The coach, Gregg Popovich, has been coaching 17 years but his success partly comes from the fact that he adjusts to his players and adjusted to the game.  He's understood that those things evolve and he has not pushed his own agenda...style of play.  

- He values his players as human beings - once stopping a coaching session to honor the passage of a law honoring native Australians in a nod to one of his players, Patty Mills, being of Aboriginal descent. 

Written June 19, 2014

Everything you needed to know about us....Part 1

Thought it'd be a great day to impart the wisdom of the late Bill Hicks.  Presenting, the human being in a few words.  I paraphrase here his "It's just a ride.":

The world is like a ride at an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it, you think it's real, because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round and it has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud. And it's fun, for a while.

Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: 'Is this real? Or is this just a ride?' And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and they say 'Hey! Don't worry, don't be afraid -- ever -- because... this is just a ride.' 

And we kill those people.

We tell others:  'Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride! Shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry; look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.' 

But, we forget that it's just a ride. 

But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that -- ever notice that? -- and we let the demons run amok. 

But it doesn't matter, because... it's just a ride, and we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort. No worry. No job. No savings and money. Just a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy bigger guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one.

Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, into a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defense each year and, instead, spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would do many times over -- not one human being excluded -- and we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever. In peace.

Bill Hicks hadn't been a religious person and, in fact, had been known to ridicule that from time to time, but, I think one can see a spiritual slant in that above piece.  

I suppose I'd been inspired to share this piece after a week that saw Carlo share a great speech, I'd understood the human being a little bit more and other things.  

We may have doubts with the things we do - especially if others don't see the wisdom in what we do, but, I suppose you can rest easy knowing that you're doing them because you've a sense of purpose.  Hopefully, it's one that's out of love.  

If you want to watch the piece, check it here.  

Written April 6, 2014

"Do it right, people...."

Too often we've great items out there that don't get to see light because those behind them don't understand the importance of branding and marketing.  

They'll spend time and money developing and then.....

Case in point is this one from "Clark Land."  Not heard of them?  Then, that's your fault because they've done everything to get known including coming up with this really hilarious website ("Dinosaurs Island is  a animatronic theme park and museum that  is designed to  offer visitors a unique interactive learning experience of the dinosaurs ere with life size creatures") that was apparently put together from someone in China whose previous masterpiece is this.

By the way, don't forget to visit their "Dinosaurs Skeliton Museo."

Now, it looks like a fun place - do watch their atrociously done video as there's always, always something endearing about men in dino suits - and I'll most probably take the kids to it, but, am afraid it's not going to bring in tourists.  

I'm not being mean here, but, I'm just saying if you're going to do something, do it great and don't skimp on branding.  Would it have hurt had they set aside a few million Pesos for it?  

For theme parks here, I think Enchanted Kingdom is still the gold standard.  They're saying, "You don't have to be an international brand to do great in the Philippines."

Written December 18, 2013

Black Friday, the Pope, and St Francis

Noticed this year that we didn’t celebrate that grand American tradition involving turkey that happens last week of November  – yup, am talking about “Black Friday” – the day that American retailers start seeing black ink in their books and, yup, when the official nuttiness begins (make sure you watch both videos.  Hilarious!).

Yup, under extreme circumstances - after a super typhoon and during a 50% off sale - we revert to being animals.  

  

This week also saw the Pope officially declare himself as nutty for coming out with his declaration against consumerism, inequality and greed.  I know the Catholic Church has been accused of holding on to the past, but, this is absurd.  Observe:

"We've created new idols.  The worship of the ancient golden calf...has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money...."

"Just as the commandment 'Thou not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life...we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality.  Such an economy kills.  How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points."

"Money must serve not rule!  The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor."

The guy wants us to really go way, way, "way back Thursday" by…gasp…going all the way to Jesus who talked about pretty much the same things.  Ironically, that's a breath of fresh air.  

To me, there seemed to be too much focus in recent past on homosexuality, contraceptives and reproduction and just made one, well....very horny. 

The Pope named himself after St. Francis of Assisi – another throwback kind of nutty guy.  Let’s call him the original anti-consumerist – the rich son of a merchant who gave up worldly possessions and started an order after hearing God’s voice.

This just in:  There is no truth to the rumor that with Paul Walker's death the Pope will be in "Fast and Furious 8."  

Incidentally, been watching a 1961 film on St. Francis on YouTube which you can catch here if you’ve time off from your shopping chores.  Though now found to be wrongly attributed to him, the prayer named for him is a great reminder for 'tis season (you can check out a gorgeous Sinead O’Connor version here):

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Written December 1, 2013

If Your Kasambahay Was Articulate

I know we've all secretly (and aloudly) asked why poor people make"dumb" decisions.  Yes, let's be honest, that's what we call them...."poor people."  

Christianity dictates we care for them and doing that requires empathy.  

I think this piece best illustrates their mindset and, I think, helps one nurture empathy. 

Imagine if your helper could speak English and was articulate, this is probably a piece they'd write.

This Is Why Poor People's Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense

Posted: 11/22/2013 5:18 pm

Linda Tirado

There's no way to structure this coherently. They are random observations that might help explain the mental processes. But often, I think that we look at the academic problems of poverty and have no idea of the why. We know the what and the how, and we can see systemic problems, but it's rare to have a poor person actually explain it on their own behalf. So this is me doing that, sort of.

Rest is a luxury for the rich. I get up at 6AM, go to school (I have a full course load, but I only have to go to two in-person classes) then work, then I get the kids, then I pick up my husband, then I have half an hour to change and go to Job 2. I get home from that at around 12:30AM, then I have the rest of my classes and work to tend to. I'm in bed by 3. 

This isn't every day, I have two days off a week from each of my obligations. I use that time to clean the house and soothe Mr. Martini and see the kids for longer than an hour and catch up on schoolwork. Those nights I'm in bed by midnight, but if I go to bed too early I won't be able to stay up the other nights because I'll fuck my pattern up, and I drive an hour home from Job 2 so I can't afford to be sleepy. 

I never get a day off from work unless I am fairly sick. It doesn't leave you much room to think about what you are doing, only to attend to the next thing and the next. Planning isn't in the mix.

When I got pregnant the first time, I was living in a weekly motel. I had a minifridge with no freezer and a microwave. I was on WIC. I ate peanut butter from the jar and frozen burritos because they were 12/$2. Had I had a stove, I couldn't have made beef burritos that cheaply. And I needed the meat, I was pregnant. I might not have had any prenatal care, but I am intelligent enough to eat protein and iron whilst knocked up.

I know how to cook. I had to take Home Ec to graduate high school. Most people on my level didn't. Broccoli is intimidating. You have to have a working stove, and pots, and spices, and you'll have to do the dishes no matter how tired you are or they'll attract bugs. It is a huge new skill for a lot of people. 

That's not great, but it's true. And if you fuck it up, you could make your family sick. We have learned not to try too hard to be middle-class. It never works out well and always makes you feel worse for having tried and failed yet again. Better not to try. It makes more sense to get food that you know will be palatable and cheap and that keeps well. Junk food is a pleasure that we are allowed to have; why would we give that up? We have very few of them.

The closest Planned Parenthood to me is three hours. That's a lot of money in gas. Lots of women can't afford that, and even if you live near one you probably don't want to be seen coming in and out in a lot of areas. We're aware that we are not "having kids," we're "breeding." We have kids for much the same reasons that I imagine rich people do. Urge to propagate and all. Nobody likes poor people procreating, but they judge abortion even harder.

Convenience food is just that. And we are not allowed many conveniences. Especially since the Patriot Act passed, it's hard to get a bank account. But without one, you spend a lot of time figuring out where to cash a check and get money orders to pay bills. Most motels now have a no-credit-card-no-room policy. I wandered around SF for five hours in the rain once with nearly a thousand dollars on me and could not rent a room even if I gave them a $500 cash deposit and surrendered my cell phone to the desk to hold as surety.

Nobody gives enough thought to depression. You have to understand that we know that we will never not feel tired. We will never feel hopeful. We will never get a vacation. Ever. We know that the very act of being poor guarantees that we will never not be poor. It doesn't give us much reason to improve ourselves. We don't apply for jobs because we know we can't afford to look nice enough to hold them. I would make a super legal secretary, but I've been turned down more than once because I "don't fit the image of the firm," which is a nice way of saying "gtfo, pov." 

I am good enough to cook the food, hidden away in the kitchen, but my boss won't make me a server because I don't "fit the corporate image." I am not beautiful. I have missing teeth and skin that looks like it will when you live on B12 and coffee and nicotine and no sleep. Beauty is a thing you get when you can afford it, and that's how you get the job that you need in order to be beautiful. There isn't much point trying.

Cooking attracts roaches. Nobody realizes that. I've spent a lot of hours impaling roach bodies and leaving them out on toothpick pikes to discourage others from entering. It doesn't work, but is amusing.

"Free" only exists for rich people. It's great that there's a bowl of condoms at my school, but most poor people will never set foot on a college campus. We don't belong there. There's a clinic? Great! There's still a copay. We're not going. Besides, all they'll tell you at the clinic is that you need to see a specialist, which seriously? Might as well be located on Mars for how accessible it is. "Low-cost" and "sliding scale" sounds like "money you have to spend" to me, and they can't actually help you anyway.

I smoke. It's expensive. It's also the best option. You see, I am always, always exhausted. It's a stimulant. When I am too tired to walk one more step, I can smoke and go for another hour. When I am enraged and beaten down and incapable of accomplishing one more thing, I can smoke and I feel a little better, just for a minute. It is the only relaxation I am allowed. It is not a good decision, but it is the only one that I have access to. It is the only thing I have found that keeps me from collapsing or exploding.

I make a lot of poor financial decisions. None of them matter, in the long term. I will never not be poor, so what does it matter if I don't pay a thing and a half this week instead of just one thing? It's not like the sacrifice will result in improved circumstances; the thing holding me back isn't that I blow five bucks at Wendy's. 

It's that now that I have proven that I am a Poor Person that is all that I am or ever will be. It is not worth it to me to live a bleak life devoid of small pleasures so that one day I can make a single large purchase. I will never have large pleasures to hold on to. There's a certain pull to live what bits of life you can while there's money in your pocket, because no matter how responsible you are you will be broke in three days anyway. 

When you never have enough money it ceases to have meaning. I imagine having a lot of it is the same thing.

Poverty is bleak and cuts off your long-term brain. It's why you see people with four different babydaddies instead of one. You grab a bit of connection wherever you can to survive. You have no idea how strong the pull to feel worthwhile is. It's more basic than food. You go to these people who make you feel lovely for an hour that one time, and that's all you get. You're probably not compatible with them for anything long-term, but right this minute they can make you feel powerful and valuable. It does not matter what will happen in a month. 

Whatever happens in a month is probably going to be just about as indifferent as whatever happened today or last week. None of it matters. We don't plan long-term because if we do we'll just get our hearts broken. It's best not to hope. You just take what you can get as you spot it.

I am not asking for sympathy. I am just trying to explain, on a human level, how it is that people make what look from the outside like awful decisions. This is what our lives are like, and here are our defense mechanisms, and here is why we think differently. It's certainly self-defeating, but it's safer. That's all. I hope it helps make sense of it.

Written November 24, 2013