Must Reads 260

Good Morning Must Readers, must readers number 260 covers the following major themes going to impact us:

• Uniqueness (hint this is how you will win in the near future)

• HR (How HR needs a PR job done on it and fast)

• Chatbot For Everything (how therapy is being touted as a chatbot solution and it just won't work -- as it needs the human interaction)

• BNPL 2.0 (Apple disrupting by offering free payment plans)

• Longevity & GM Plants

>> Have You Or Your Business Lost What Makes You Unique? ⁉️ - How a puppy grooming visit highlighted how many businesses have lost their special or uniqueness and how this might also apply to you...question: have you lost that 'something unique' that made you stand out?

>> Stay Away From 3⭐️ Reviews - Did you know dropping to a 3star review is almost terminal for some businesses that rely on online reviews (anything that's a word of mouth aka referral driven not impacted as much). So many obsess over 5-star reviews they actually hinder themselves as 5 stars are not as trusted as 4.7 for instance. In the near future, we will likely see star reviews being rethought not just for us the customers but for companies as there are well-known platforms that charge for numerous questionable services to improve your visibility.

>> HR Needs Better PR 🆘 - Why TikTok was the best place for HR exec to help others with HR and disprove a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding of HR. Dan does rightly point out HR has a PR problem and he is one of a handful of HR pros on a mission to prove HR can be business and personal facing. FWIW I still recommend companies have a dedicated culture team and not blur the lines between HR and management. Cultural teams will be closer to the heartbeat of the company and can drive the business forward without the fear being created.

>> The Business Of Chatbot Therapy 💬 - The move towards chat has accelerated, the need for therapists has also accelerated, the issue we have now is there are numerous companies fighting to bring the two together. Grief and CBT therapy was a hugely positive step for me personally but receiving help via a chatbot or series of AI doesn't fill me with confidence in its current state.

>> How Hoka Got Popular 🏃‍♀️- Sneaker brand Hoka is unique, it had breakout years when others struggled and competed against the world's biggest sneaker brands by being bold and what many hoka fans suggest ugly. Like On (Running) in Europe (and North of England) their sneakers became part of the culture by collaborating and embracing different and comfortable.

>> Apple BNPL 💳 - Unlike other buy now pay later offerings Apple is being super selective with who gets to use their service right now. Apple BNPL is offering the ability "to split purchases of between $50 and $1,000 into four payments with no interest" — this is a smart way for Apple to sell more products and increase the product re-cyclement period. As someone who is hard on BNPL we will likely see higher-end tech players and lux brands (with huge sums of cash on hand - many actually don't) offering their own versions of BNPL to drive deeper adoption and more affinity.

AI Fashion is having a moment, here are tech leaders as fashion models

>> Tactical Move Away From Google 🔎 - Google has had a monopoly on search for 15 years, this has had a profound impact on businesses from an SEO POV and having to pay for their brand terms through auction-based bidding through paid media. Like with Lush (from a couple of weeks ago), Expedia and other travel businesses are betting on chatAI and other AI tools to reduce their reliance on search engines (especially with Google having their own service). Strategically speaking, Expedia have a number of years before the switchover happens but will ChatGPT and OpenAI be good enough and treated reliably enough to be trusted by those wanting to travel? FWIW travel agents are actually increasing in popularity again and large investments have been made for human-curated travel.

Coachable Moment >> The way to consider how the internet & apps will work in the near future, we will have 4 ways of interacting with machines, people and feeds: (1) Discovery ↕️ - from social media feeds we will discuss products and will have services recommended to us by people, companies and bots. (2) Search 🔎 - on search engines, we will have an idea of what we are looking for and research via a list of results and instant answers with call-to-action buttons. (3) Ask ⁉️ - Asking our friends, family, colleagues and industry colleagues for recommendations via messaging apps & websites (4) Chat 💬 - we will interface via a chat interface with Chat apps for quick-fire answers and then refine down. This is how ChatGPT4+ works and how companies are building chat interfaces to bypass social media paid ads and algorithmic filtering.

Hot Ones is one of my favourite shows and formats, Jake Gyllenhaal is an excellent guest 👌

>> The Importance Of Play 👾- Something that is baffling scientists is why humans alongside monkeys, meerkats and otters need to play. In children, we are led to believe we need play to develop our thought processes and social skills, but in animals, it has divided scientists. Why wouldn't animals want to and need to play. A broader point: I believe we need to lean on common sense and realise some things in life can be more simple and playing is vital to keep all types of animals sane and entertained.

>> Honeybees City Secrets 🐝 - How the honey bees are telling us more about our cities than we could have imagined and how honey bees are critical parts of how cities have to develop. Smart bees...

>> How GM Plants Are Coming & Set To Help Us 👇

Thanks,

Danny Denhard