The Crow’s Nest
It’s not about giving the smartest answer… it’s about asking the sharpest questions.
More seafood into more kitchens.
Join me on the journey through the blue economy as I explore thoughts, probe questions, and share personal reflections.
Lets take a deeper dive to look at our relationship with seafood and the blue economy
Catch of the Day
Today’s Freshest News
Of Economic Theory and The Archive of Life
Exploration and discovery have yet to encounter their bounds, even today as we sail into the first quarter of the XXI century we are frequently bestowed with unique discoveries from the natural world. One of these contemporary findings is a fascinating critter who roams from the tropics to the poles, the coasts to the mountains, the jungles to the deserts, the rural to the megalopolis: Custumarius rationalis logicus. Just as the cavernous files depicted the most prominent features; binomial nomenclature convention follows suit with the scientific name offering us clues as to the creature's most prominent characteristics. Custumarius relates to its unique capability for gathering and collecting, rationalis logicus refers to a unique behavioral trait that is observed when making choices as there is always a rational framework that leads to logical decisions.
The Pursuit Evoked by the Revival of the Analogue
For some reason which I still do not understand, we were convinced that time spent in the meditative states of selecting ingredients and preparing our meals were a waste that greedily ate away at our most valuable asset, our free time.
Back in the soothing warmth that emanates from the heating cast iron awaiting its turn, and the pot gently simmering next to the kettle; we find that the kitchen offers a gift greater than any intoxicating pleasure; true freedom found through purpose as there are few pursuits as noble as nourishing those we love.
Seaspiracy and The Ensuing PR Crisis for the Seafood Industry
In one fell swoop, Seaspiracy lacerated the seafood industry's position as a viable solution for a plethora of the world’s impending challenges around food security, health, economic development, sustainability, innovation, and prosperity through a superbly tuned act of persuasion. In response to this vivid, graphic, and evocative theatrical and scripted tragic drama (can we truly grant it the right of “documentary”?), the seafood industry simply clutched its bleeding gash, began attempting to reason with its adversary, and pleading for compassion from its own supporters; all the while searching for pity amongst the crowd.
What lessons can we take to improve how we communicate with consumer makets?
Beyond the Horizon; the Silent Conquest.
What happens when we step out and away from these kingdoms and into the market’s no-man’s land, its savagery in full display between the packaged, frozen, and shelf-stable products that inhabit the lawless freezers and aisles?
The faux fish tribe has been journeying into no-man's land for a better part of the last three decades, slowly but surely making progress and carving out their share of the market whenever they strike gold in the form of a popularly accepted product.
The Human Side of Product Marketing
Product marketing is not about monologuing our way into a one-time purchase, a lustful hunger that can be satisfied by proximity rather than choice. It is about pointing the light ahead on their journey, rather than shining a light on ourselves; proving that our product and all its features help them better navigate through the twists and turns of life towards that sought after end-state.
In a Marketing Week article Mimi Turner, of the B2B Institute, joked that “if B2C marketers thought like B2B marketers, Coca-Cola would market itself as “brown, fizzy, and sweet”. Forget those cuddly polar bears, Coke just needs to let customers know that it’s 98% effective in reducing thirst.”
A Rift Between The Promise and The Dream.
It is no secret, the seafood industry is in dire need of innovation on the consumer facing front. For the better part of the last decade, the seafood industry has been arduously laboring away at diverting attention towards its two or three presentations: fresh or frozen options of whole or fileted.
Seafood producers and retailers haven’t had to invest beyond logistics and distribution for the most part when it comes to business development strategies. Innovation aimed at efficiency of delivery to specifically meet the restaurant industry’s needs has encircled strategy sessions rather than creating unique selling propositions through value-added products.
The Fall of Icarus and The Chasm
Standing at the edge, looking across the gap, leaders in the seafood industry are asking variations of the same question “How do we make it across successfully?”
In an attempt to position our brand in the marketplace, we run the risk of, as Icarus himself, flying too high; concentrating on our product merely as a functional element.
Navigating the Straits Towards Consumer Markets
Data, or data, however it is you want to pronounce it, is the new buzzword in business. An especially favorite one being thrown around at executive business meetings lately; right next to disruptive.
Data in itself is not the answer but the key that unlocks a peek into the future. Without experience, we run the risk of falling into its seductive spiraling vortex and getting gridlocked, unable to discern between relevant and actionable data and the blinding white noise.
The Demise of an Empire, A New Sun Rises
Today, breaking out of the traditional mold and restructuring business models doesn’t carry the same risks that it did a couple of decades ago; we have much more freedom to test markets and products with minimal capital and scale accordingly when we strike a winning market-product match.
Albeit, this type of freedom and prosperity has its price; the price of talking with our consumers. The price of building and marketing our brand.
Peace Was Not Meant to Last, Even in the Marketing World
The tech world is a volatile place, and it needs to be in order to deliver on its promise. It shouldn't surprise us to see it destroy the very pillars that it has constructed or to cannibalize itself for the promise of speed, convenience, precision, and even prediction.
As we watch the tech giants battle it out over dominance of the digital realm, we find ourselves at an inflection point where we can shift and adapt or we can be bystanders of our own demise.
Lessons From the Dark Underworld of Branding
It is just as important to define our brand’s purpose as it is to show who our brand is, that is what our community looks like. While our businesses will most likely not be violently facing off against others, if you’re looking for a bare knuckle street brawl to defend the sanctity of almond milk over whole milk… you should seek some help… professional help, sooner than later; they are standing for a belief: principles and a purpose. And as we can see from the success that re-branding an idea, not changing it, but simply showing a different face, has on its reach; we cannot neglect the power of the human element in branding.
The Rhythm of Lovemarks
Stepping on toes, elbows to the head, awkward looks, and just an overwhelming feeling of being lost. An unearthly flow, a synchronized momentary chaos, an unexpected sway of the hips that leads to an embrace, and a blissful feeling of connection. You experience one or the other but you cannot experience both; either you look out at the dance floor and feel terror or you see an opportunity to improvise and connect.
Wandering the Stale Plains of Consumer Markets
Let us imagine living in a world devoid of meaning, one in which our only purpose is to produce an output that functions as an input for a system; the byproduct being our very existence. I am not the first to envision this dystopian scenario; many authors, scientists and philosophers have questioned life and its purpose. Theories varying from insignificance to the functional even up to the divine and transcendental; the purpose of life apparently continues to evade consensus.
A Dream Lost in Time.
From a far gone era, they once reigned the vastness of our oceans, lands and skies. Today, fossils are among the few remains that prove that they once roamed our planet. Drastic changes in the environment set off the painfully slow demise of more than a thousand species; leaving only their footprints and bones as evidence that they once thrived in a better yesterday.
Lust in a World Thirsty for Love
Stealing a million dollar painting is useless unless you have someone who can find the right buyer, a fence. They themselves do not commit the crimes, but have access to a network of potential consumers. Utilizing their insight into a network, they are able to choose what items are best suited for their network and which ones don’t make the cut: quality, perceived value, functionality, features.
Why can’t thieves just directly access their market? Consumers of reallocated goods have specific needs: anonymity, privacy, time restraints; they prefer to bypass the promise of a lower price offered by a “direct seller” and pay a premium for their products by paying the middle man who offers them the complete value that they are looking for.
Drowning Loneliness in a Sea of Cheers
With the ever increasing volume of content flowing through social media, it was beginning to get harder and harder to get your consumer’s attention, and even harder still to retain it. With an average time of a little over one second of viewing time per image, hyperinflation hit the social media currency; and I’m talking about Venezuela type hyperinflation. This invalidated the value of the like as a currency, no longer interchangeable for conversions.
So the question now is: What replaces it? Gold? Seashells? Bartering? That would be neat: give me 33 likes and the ceramic mug is yours, 8 more likes for express shipping. The question that we should be trying to answer is; What is it that consumers are searching for?
The Bleeding Edge of Utilitarian Marketing.
Beauty has no place in a world that only values the utilitarian and rejects all which it does not understand or which requires patience. Pages in magazines, hours of videos on Youtube, photos on social media, and entire websites demonstrate how their products work for us in our daily lives. In his 2009 documentary film, Roger Scruton, a philosopher, questions what the use is for a friendship? What is the use of an engaging conversation? You’re not going to use it for an end, but a certain warmth that radiates from the love, the beauty of empathy and compassion envelops you. What is the use of music? Why do we feel overwhelmed with emotions whenever we hear a piano sonata or a violin suite?
We have lived a life deprived from the freedom to search out beauty, markets are inundated with utilitarian products and services. We find ourselves in a world that lacks compassion, where our channels of communication are saturated with solutions to evermore complex problems that originate from deeper needs. A world without beauty is a world that is ill.
You’re Not Disruptive, You’re Bad at Innovating.
Many times I have found myself politely nodding my head with my hands forming the Merkel triangle (yes the one that has been present at all the G20 meetings for the past 8 plus years) as I listen to a prospective client talking about industry disruption citing Amazon, Apple, Uber, Airbnb, Tesla as case studies of how simple it is to come up with a great idea, develop it, test it, finance it, market and launch it.
I do not blame them for not having a grasp on the subject of industry innovation; most of these business owners are too busy looking inward to understand that innovation begins outside and far away.
An Oasis of Empathy and Compassion in a Desert of Indifference.
Finding the proper formula in order to attract customers to our businesses’ front door has proven itself a unique challenge. How do we motivate and invite them to leave the relative safety and comfort of their homes without looking tone deaf to the realities that we are all living?
It is true, our clients, and society at large, expect all businesses to participate in caring for people’s health; so, if this is the case then I just want to ask: “Why do you invest your capital resource, which is already stressed, into repeating to your customers that you are taking care of them?” No one is going to give you a standing ovation for it, it’s the least that they expect from you.
COVID-19 Pandemic, Shifts in Consumer Behavior, and The Economic Recession
Coming off the blocks looking like another great year, 2020 appeared to be a promising year full of opportunities and continuing the 10 year bull market.
We now stand at the edge of a precipice and look down at what seems to be one of the worst global economic depressions in history as a lag in developments in different regions and players of the supply chain shut down out of sync; affecting the supply and demand curves.
Before we ask what’s next, first let’s look into and understand the details.
