On March 4th 2023, Netflix streamed their first ever live comedy special.
The show was “Selective Outrage.” The comedian was Chris Rock.
It was a one hour show. But it was one year in the making.
Rock starts building a show in small local clubs. He shows up unannounced. Asks if he can do a short set. The club says, “of course.” He’s Chris Rock, right?
Imagine sitting in the club with about 50 other people when the MC says “OK, next up is Chris Rock…”
Rock comes out with his notepad. He tries a few things. Noting what people laugh at. What they don’t laugh at. Some gags that he expects to work, don’t. Some that he expects not to work, do.
Then he does the same thing the next night. Then the next. Then the next…
He’s constantly experimenting. Filtering and fine tuning. Placing little bets.
Until a year later he is doing an arena performance live on Netflix to a crowd roaring with laughter.
Delivering a performance that looks effortless.
Why are we talking about this? In the FMCG world we don’t have a culture of ‘little bets.’ There are two reasons for this.
Firstly, we strive for ‘the perfect’. Planning the perfect product launch. Crafting the perfect merchandising solution. Modelling the perfect promotional plan.
They are things that work in theory. But often don’t work in practice. For instance, the perfect merchandising solution looks fantastic but is too costly to implement.
Secondly, we rely heavily on research. The concept test where consumers say they will pay £x for your new product. The decision tree that pulls apart simple purchase decisions. The model that says “if you do X, shoppers will do Y.”
Again, things that work in theory. But often don’t work in practice. The shopper isn’t prepared to pay £x for the product now that they actually have to pay for it.
To change this you need to experiment more. Place more little bets.
So how can you do this?
Test. Try new things. A new layout or merchandising solution. Different secondary locations. Different promotional mechanics. Different messaging. Do this in a couple of stores. Do things for a couple of weeks. Do it with a retailer who is up for some experimentation. Do it online. Much easier to set up and get results.
Learn. A big barrier to learning is doing things that you can’t properly measure. So, make sure you have a test and control. So that you can isolate the impact of the thing you are testing. Another big barrier is sharing the learnings. In many companies the knowledge is there. But they don’t know what they know. Learnings are only learnings if they are shared.
Filter. See what does work. Get ready to roll it out. See what doesn’t work. Ditch it. See what could work. Adapt it so it can. Then prioritise. Do more of the stuff that does work. Less of the stuff that doesn’t. As you learn more, filter more. Keep updating your “does work” list. Your “doesn’t work” list. Your “could work” list. Keep adding ideas back into your test bucket.
Scale. Execute at scale. It’s no good having the perfect merchandising solution if it’s only in one store (probably the one closest to head office.) Scaling is partly about impact. We know it changes shopper behaviour and drives growth. It is partly about ease. Something that is easy to implement. Across stores. Across retailers. Over time.
Many of these little bets will fail.
But there will be a few that don’t.
That succeed. In a BIG way.
You’ll never know if you don’t try.
Feel free to forward. Have a great weekend. Speak to you in a fortnight.