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Brown paper packages tied up with string
How to craft a business which is fundamentally human using a barren, soulless medium called the internet.
Recently, scrolling through the news from the few people I follow on Instagram, I was interrupted by an ad from The Revival Club, a mens clothing brand. I don’t have a problem with that. It’s the price we pay for choosing to share our lives with friends and family online. It looked more interesting than my feed so being an easily distracted male I followed the link to explore further. I was disappointed to find that my oversized shirt/jacket (it was already mine) was out of stock. Not entirely surprised, I looked around only to find other items that I would have willingly modelled instead were also unavailable. My disappointment turned to frustration. In this world of media efficiency why bother advertising when you don’t have the stock?
Normally, I would have dismissed it as a wasted opportunity and some badly-timed advertising. Another marketing department that doesn’t get it. But they’d got so much of the experience right, down to describing the colour of the shirt as ‘Clifford Red’. I was sure this was a throwback to the children’s tv series which my kids had enjoyed as toddlers — nice touch. When I didn’t get a quick response about restocking I wrote a mail which was direct and admittedly designed to prod a bit.
