Maggie's Farm

Re Sharper Image: A classic combination of fuzzy corporate image (ironically enough), poor understanding of customers, poor marketing, and poor choice of merchandise (both bad discernment among their buyers and shoddy merchandise) was their undoing. Their target audience always seemed to be Gordon Gekko, and they never moved on after everyone else did

They wanted to be Hammacher Schlemmer for the everyman, and acted as if they were the only place to buy gadgets. But their stuff wasn't extraordinary enough for Schlemmer, it wasn't as well merchandised, and they had tons of competition. Their stores, such as they were, looked like collections of stuff that would not be out of place in a high-end head shop.

Surprised it took as long as it did.

Spencer gifts. That's exactly the kind of place I was thinking of. Yes, it was a "high end" Spencer gifts. A Spencer gifts with delusions of grandeur.

There was such a bad vibe in those stores. And the remarks you guys made comparing the Ionic Breeze to a tube TV are priceless.

I don't mean to beat up on them, really. It's just that I have seen SO MUCH bad management in US companies. There's another company I know from the inside in NYC, a semi-famous boutique store called Kate's Paperie. (Known much better among women than men.) The owner basically hit the jackpot years ago, when he was looking for a cheap place to open an all-paper (and a few gifts, pens, art supplies) in NYC. So he opened it in this dingy part of town where the artists holed up (since he DID sell art supplies, at least to any artists who had money), signed a long lease (not visionary, just to save money) and hoped for the best.

Turns out, the guy rented in the heart of what became the hottest real estate in the country - SoHo. Blundered into it, but it was a blunder with such HUGE upside that it became almost impossible for him to ruin the company, try as he might. Any decent managers who stumbled into the business were appalled by the goings-on and made their way back out as quickly as possible. Finally, the guy got too old to run (mismanage) the business any longer, and sold it to a conglomerate. But they don't understand the business either.

Kate's was a brand that sold itself, thanks strictly to the many fine vendors who fought to get their products sold at Kate's great location. I worked with their marketing manager (now elsewhere, and much happier), who knew what she was doing. Worked with Martha Stewart and others in talking up the brand. But the management style could only be called 'suicidal'. The place was just toxic to work at, you could feel the deadness in their offices. Last I heard, they let their outstanding lease lapse, and they lost the unique location that was key to their success. They're now on a long road to oblivion. There's no one there who really knows the business. And the new management will no more figure out why the company died than why it thrived in the first place. They don't really know what it was they bought, but they made a huge mistake in buying it. The company now is nothing but a logo. Martha (nobody's fool, she) hasn't uttered their name since my friend the marketing manager left.

Long story, I know. But anyway, that is how companies, even great ones, fade away. Lack of vision and leadership. Motorola was like that, what a mess. I've seen great universities run like a fusion of Enron and Animal House. I don't know how Sharper Image made their blunders, but I would bet it sounds a lot like the stories I DO know. The tragedy is that these disasters are often pretty avoidable, given a little more common sense and a lot less ego.

"The macaroon story is a little hard to swallow."

A glass of milk helps.