In prior issues of the Big Story, Consensus partners Billy Busko, Betsy White and Abigail Hitchcock discussed the emergence of the metaverse as a new channel for brands, with gaming as an on-ramp to a future digital world anchored in blockchain technology. It’s relatively easy to imagine how fashion and lifestyle brands will capitalize on the […]

Coca-Cola’s recent announcement that it will discontinue its Honest Tea brand at the end of 2022 sent shockwaves through the food & beverage industry.  Honest Tea was a beloved brand that pioneered the organic, low sugar beverage movement in the early 2000s, and founder Seth Goldman is an industry icon who lives the values of […]

Bachman-Turner Overdrive famously sang, “You get up every morning from your alarm clock’s warning, Take the 8:15 into the city.”  The song is about the daily routine of takin’ care of business (unless you are lucky enough to be a musician). Elon Musk must be a Bachman-Turner Overdrive fan.  Last week, he sent a pair […]

Last week, Target announced its quarterly earnings. The results surprised many – and with Target being a retail bellwether, it had some wide-ranging implications and effects. While revenue grew 4% year-over-year, Target’s operating income declined 43%. Target’s CEO, Brian Cornell, cited a confluence of factors – accelerated shifts in spending, rising costs of labor, transportation, […]

In the last few weeks, we’ve heard from several consumer products companies that after a strong start to 2022, retailers are delaying and cancelling orders scheduled for delivery in the second and third quarters of this year.  It’s hardly surprising that consumers may be beginning to balk and that retailers are getting more conservative, as […]