Shoddy

Fortune reports Amazon is contacting and refunding shoppers who bought "shoddy counterfeit solar eclipse glasses on the company's website."

Shoddy has a scurrilous backstory.

In the mid 19th century, English shepherds would sell scraps of wool to textile manufacturers, who'd mix it with old rags to make a packing material known as shoddy.

Before long, the companies succumbed to the idea to market the stuff to makers of cheap clothing―and sold millions of pounds of shoddy to American war profiteers, soon to be known as "shoddy millionaires."

Shoddy quickly came into use as a term for swindling and humbug of every sort.One shoddy millionaire was Brooks Brothers.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, federal contracts for military uniforms were awarded not to the lowest bidder, but the highest briber.

The bribes inflated their cost of goods, so clothing makers cut corners on product.

Brooks Brothers won orders for 36,000 uniforms that year, and turned out uniforms for the volunteers that fell apart in the first rainstorm.

When asked by legislators why his company used shoddy instead of broadcloth for the uniforms, one brother, Elisha Brooks, responded, “I think that I cannot ascertain the difference without spending more time than I can now devote to that purpose.”

Brooks Brothers was by no means the only "shoddy millionaire." Profiteers materialized throughout the North. Some sold the government shoddy uniforms that were non-regulation color, causing many soldiers' deaths from "friendly fire."

Harpers Weekly described shoddy in 1861 as “a villainous compound, the refuse stuff and sweepings of the shop, pounded, rolled, glued, and smoothed to the external form and gloss of cloth.”

In 1861, there were a couple dozen millionaires in New York City; by 1865, millionaires in the city numbered in the hundreds. One even included the mayor, who in his role as procurement officer awarded Brooks Brothers its contract for uniforms.

The New York Herald proclaimed, "This is the age of shoddy. The new brownstone palaces on Fifth Avenue, the new equipages at the Park, the new diamonds which dazzle unaccustomed eyes, the new people who live in the palaces, and ride in the carriages, and wear the diamonds and silks―all are shoddy."

Ruined Your Relationship with Readers?

Has your relentless pursuit of eyeballs ruined your relationship with readers?

I bet it has.

If all you do is dangle click-bait and recycle sales-talk, you're driving readers away―and wasting your chance for romance on the biggest social network of them all, email.

Only value keeps the relationship alive.

Newsletter publisher Inside proves it. In less than a year, the startup has attracted 300,000 readers. Its newsletters garner 40% open rates, 10% click rates.

The secret sauce? Good content.

"We think news on the internet is broken," the company's website says. "Too much writing is optimized and incentivized for traffic and virality, instead of impact and quality."

By focusing on value instead of hits, Inside keeps readers reading. And a happy reader shares her love―causing your list to grow.

So how does Inside do it?

According to Austin Smith, Inside’s general manager:

• Five full-time staffers and 10 freelancers produce all the content for 28 newsletters. Staffers are generalists with multiple beats.
  
• Each newsletter comprises 70% curated content, 30% original. The content is "deep dive," business-only, and written for an advance audience.
  
• Staffers favor stories readers may have missed because other news outlets have ignored them.

Pleasing the Gods

Several years ago, I hired a cabinetmaker to construct half a dozen cherrywood built-ins with adjustable shelves. Handsome, beautifully-crafted things.

I noticed the man was finishing every edge of every shelf―all 60 of them―and asked, "Why bother to finish all four edges, when you can only see the one facing you?"

His reply was dour. "Because I see them."

It's delightful to encounter mortals who won't run in the race to the bottom.

The sculptor Phidias was commissioned in 440 BC to create statues for the roof of the Parthenon. 

After the installation, the city accountant refused to pay his bill.

"These statues are on the roof of a temple on the highest hill in Athens," the accountant complained. "Nobody can see anything but their fronts. Yet you have charged us for sculpting them in the round―for sculpting back sides nobody can see."

"You're wrong," Phidias replied. "The gods can see them."

There's danger in the race to the bottom, as Seth Godin says: you might win.

And whether you do or don't, the gods can see you.

Stirred, Not Shaken

An angel investor and a tradeshow producer, Marco Giberti and Jay Weintraub, have pooled their considerable talents to write the 185-page book The Face of Digital, a look-see into the turbulent tradeshow industry and the changes that will be wrought by technology in the coming five years―a time they agree "will redefine the way we think of digital media in connection with live events."

Tradeshows, "the original social networks," can stand a stirring, the authors insist. Exhibitors, who foot the bills, cannot calculate ROI; and attendees, shows' raisons d'etre, can barely navigate them.

But the improvements wrought by tech will be gentle, the authors say.

"The events industry is not ripe for a disruption, in the mold of Uber or Airbnb," they write. "Instead, it's more likely that hundreds, even thousands, of small players will emerge to solve individual problems."

Among the problems solved by digital technology:

• No attendee will ever again stand in a line to get in; apps will let them buy their badges weeks in advance, in seconds.

• No attendee will ever again feel lost in a crowd; apps will signal when friends are nearby.

• No one will waste time scrutinizing inscrutable signs; apps will recommend the best path to the next booth you want to visit.

• No attendee will ever miss a speaker's session; livestreaming will let her watch it on demand.

• No attendee will ever go home empty-handed; matchmaking apps will connect her to other attendees and exhibitors even after the show.

• Exhibitors will no longer pay a penny for drayage; products will be demonstrated in virtual reality.

• Follow-up will no longer be dismal; CRM systems will automate and personalize the activity.

• Exhibitors will no longer grouse about foot-traffic; beacons will smooth crowd-flows.

• Rainforests will no longer fear tradeshows; digital will replace paper exchanges 100%.

The solutions to these problems aren't imaginary, the authors point out: they exist now. 

Tradeshow producers just don't know it―or care much.

"Like the newspaper industry," they write, "the events industry is still very much in transition between the predigital age and an era in which digital integration will become commonplace in every aspect of our lives and businesses."

But competition against digital marketing for exhibitors' dollars will wake complacent producers up, just in time for "the Cambrian explosion of digital tools for events."

Giberti and Weintraub's book is a must-read for every tradeshow producer and exhibitor, as well as anyone whose livelihood is derived from face-to-face. Their viewpoints are sensible and admirably realistic.

My own is that the changes ahead will be less incremental; that the tradeshow business is less like the newspaper business and more like the apartment-rental one; and that an Airbnd-ish "disruptor" lurks just over the horizon.

Yes, tradeshow producers have a lock on things for the moment.

But, as James Bond might say, the industry's about to be "shaken, not stirred."

How to Draw a Crowd

Drawing attendees to events remains producers' runaway biggest challenge, as Sam Lippman's latest ECEF Pulse proves.

Six in 10 producers name attendance acquisition their Number 1 challenge, according to the study, while numerical event attendance has declined three straight years in a row.

That's a pity, because drawing a crowd ain't rocket science. The formula goes as follows:

Step 1. Build an evergreen e-list by promoting your event year-round. Use e-mail marketing and social media. Smother prospects with great content. Supplement those tactics with retargeting. And rent prospect lists, to be sure you're covering the universe.

Step 2. Mobilize your speakers, sponsors and exhibitors to help spread the word. Tap influencers to do the same. Make it easy for them to help you. If some resist, move on: there are more than enough enlightened ones out there to make a king-size dent in your universe.

Step 3. Telemarket VIPs. They merit a special touch. And roll out at the same time some targeted direct mail―attendee marketing's Old Faithful.

Step 4. Hire a decent agency. Attendance acquisition isn't a DYI project. If you want a recommendation, I have one.