Well furloughs aren't so unproductive after all - lots of time to study the competition

Now it is clear why 1-800-Flowers is thumping FTD.

Here's what they did during the LAST economic downturn in the USA...

THE CEO WENT ON TV ON "UNDERCOVER BOSS"!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=SaePFkSeGr0

Also, interesting to note that their CEO built a business out of early entrepreneurship running a flower shop:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/undercover-boss-1-800-flowers-chris-mccann-interview/

Competing with this high profile company is like going up against the floral industry's version of Tom Brady. Welk, no wonder these people are thumping the competition. They, themselves, are led by founders. They're HUNGRY. They've sacrificed.

They MARKET during economic downturns.

Not to sound disloyal by marveling at the competition (FTD has better looking flowers), but this is an impressive and savvy competitor. A great leadership case study.

Peter Thiel teaches to ask what it is that others are NOT doing, or what company is no one else building. Chris McCann built a company that's "Built to Last" (author Jim
Collins) by DOUBLING DOWN ON MARKETING DURING TOUGH TIMES. That's their secret sauce.

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Someone internally asked someone in leadership what FTD's value proposition was, in relation to competitors.

Will avoid publicly stating the answer on the forum.

You'd better have a value proposition in a market space that includes 1-800 though!

Three different CEOs in 2 years??? R U exaggerating or serious?

Well, if true, the latest flavor of the month is Charlie Cole, formerly with TUMI/Samsonite luggage.

How appropriate, being that after watching competitor 1-800-Flowers CEO Chris McCann doing critical pre-Mother's Day marketing by appearing on Varney & Co on Fox Business, etcetera, the new FTD CEO has a lot to UNPACK (pun intended).

https://www.dailyherald.com/business/20200326/ftd-appoints-new-ceo

https://www.therobinreport.com/one-on-one-with-charlie-cole-global-chief-ecommerce-officer-at-samsonite/

I looked everywhere and saw only a mediocre marketing effort from FTD. Not non existent, but certainly not on par with the competition. There was more PR just to say that they got a new CEO (again). What about the guy who used to run Kodak? The interim leader wasn't made permanent? Or did he not want the job permanently? LOL

Maybe Mr. Cole, the former luggage company executive, is going to send the lame marketing top executives packing? Wouldn't that be appropriate after being absolutely ignored by news outlets that invited Chris McCann of 1-800-Flowers to come on their shows ahead of Mother's Day?

Never ever ever back off on marketing spend and PR going into a make or break critical holiday season during an economic crisis. All you read about is "bankruptcy" online these days. This is how the brand is currently defined. The hole to dig out of is enormous.

Neither Kellogg nor Chicago Booth would teach a distressed company to pull back on marketing spend when the brand is up against major competition.

Unless they lacked the $$$. In that case, what exactly is Nexus Capital doing if not actively managing appropriately? They're getting management fees, no doubt.

If Nexus bought the wrong company, it's a shame. It's sad. Because the execs from Nexus used to be with Apollo Global Management, which saved Hostess from going permanently under.

Watching this train wreck is a good case study for business scholars, however. Lesson for the day: INCREASE, not decrease, your marketing spend and effort!!!

I bet this guy is peter thiel, theres been a lot of articles bootlicking that guy on this website. Good luck mr thiel, Theres been 3 different CEO in the 2 years I worked there, they came and went but the execs are still there.

Thread regarding FTD layoffs

Well furloughs aren't so unproductive after all - lots of time to study the competition

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