By Leon Gettler, Talking Business

HOW DOES a retailer become successful by selling on Amazon?

Isaac Wolfe, the CEO of Brooklyn-based Real Essentials said it was done by ‘bundling’. That is to say, when customers want several items of one particular products, like say tee-shirts, the company bundles them in a package and sends them to the client, anywhere in the world.

It allows the company to differentiate itself on Amazon, where its online fashion store is one of Amazon’s most popular private brands.

“The truth is, in 2017 when we started Real Essentials, we were the first to come to the market offering more than one piece to a customer,” Mr Wolfe told Talking Business.

“We came up with the concept of bundling products together in clothing. It was introduced in other categories.

“It really wasn’t in the market on a scale in the clothing industry, so that’s really what we built our business on. Anything that a customer wanted more than one piece of, we decided to bundle it up. 

“So tee-shirts, it’s a volume item. Instead of selling one piece, we’d sell five of them.”

He said this was perfect for the Amazon platform.  

“It allows us to offer a stronger value to the customer, without jeopardizing the quality of the product,” Mr Wolfe said.

‘Body type’ advantages of selling online

Mr Wolfe said the online space allows the retailer to sell to customers with all body types.

“Online is a different market to retail,” he said. “It’s a safe space. It’s a spot that you can do on your own and we want to cater to all sizes, all genders. That’s the online world.”

Mr Wolfe said customer feedback was part of the Real Essentials business decision-making process.

“Feedback is a very important area of the business,” he said.

“We listen to the customers very closely and we have teams dedicated to this, just watching what the customer is saying.

“We constantly improve our product based on their feedback. So if we hear that the customers aren’t liking the quality of the product, or the weight of the product, or the feel of the product, we go back out to our development and production teams, we sit down, we align and make improvements to the product to make sure that we are always offering the best product to the customer.”

True value of customer feedback

Mr Wolfe said Real Essentials gets that feedback “every single day”.

“It just rolls in, all day long,” he said.

“It’s such an important area of our business. We really built our data visualisation sets, to understand what the customer is saying on a very in-depth basis. It’s an area we look at every single day, we have teams dedicated for it.  

“The customer is what our business is built on.”

A lot of the feedback, he said, was around fitting quality.

He said having the right relationships with suppliers, with the factories, was the first way to create products that are affordable.

“To top that, we have our own quality control and quality assurance teams overseas that are watching over our production and our quality day to day,” Mr Wolfe said.

In five years time, he said, he wanted to see Real Essentials setting up bricks and mortar stores across the US.

“I’m not sure we’ll have any in Australia over the next five years, but potentially over in the US,” he said.  

www.amazon.com

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-6-interview-with-isaac-wolfe-from-real-esse

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THE CEOs of the Seven, Nine and Ten networks will make a rare joint appearance at a Senate inquiry, to argue the importance of access to free TV for millions of Australians and to point out what they call "significant oversights" in the proposed Bill.

The commercial TV executives will appear today alongside Free TV chair Greg Hywood and CEO Bridget Fair before the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee to call for the prominence and anti-siphoning bill to be strengthened.  

Free TV Chair Greg Hywood said, “We welcome the government’s intention to make free local TV services easy to find on connected TVs and to stop global streaming giants putting our major sports behind a TV paywall. But this Bill contains some significant oversights that we will be highlighting to the committee today.” 

The Bill prevents subscription streaming services such as Amazon, Apple and Disney from buying exclusive terrestrial broadcast rights to iconic sporting events like the Olympics, AFL, NRL and cricket, but they can still acquire exclusive digital rights and lock out the millions of Australians who watch free sport on services such as 7plus, 9Now and 10 Play. 

In another oversight, according to Free TV, the Bill only requires the free apps of local broadcasters and a Live TV tile be available on new smart TVs that are manufactured 18 months after the legislation receives assent, meaning millions will miss out in the interim. 

Seven West Media managing director and CEO, James Warburton, said, “Live sporting moments bring our nation together and must remain free and accessible to everyone regardless of their income. 

“The Matildas proved the importance of free, accessible content last year when they smashed TV audience and streaming records. The Matildas’ FIFA Women’s World Cup games brought millions of Australians together and truly united the nation.

"With more and more people watching sport online, excluding digital rights from these new laws is a serious mistake, one that means the laws fail to keep up with modern viewing habits. 

“We also urge parliament to adapt the prominence framework to better ensure Australians can easily find free content through their smart TVs,” Mr Warburton said. 

Nine CEO, Mike Sneesby said, “All Australians deserve free access to the sporting events, trusted news and entertainment programs that bring communities together. 

“For free to air broadcasters to continue to provide these world class services we need the ability to provide them on all the platforms and delivery systems available to our audiences. It’s critical the government provides the regulatory support required to ensure we can do the commercial deals that are necessary for us to provide these services,” he said. 

Executive vice president of Ten, Beverley McGarvey said, “No other platform or service has the ability to reach Australians and unite Australians like Free TV can. Millions of homes turn to us day and night because they trust us, whether that be to deliver local shows their friends and family are talking about or to stay informed and safe during crises. Only local free TV can deliver all that. 

‘We can’t let guaranteed access to free TV only be for those who can afford a new TV in 18 months time, particularly when families are feeling the pressure on their budgets.

“The government should not delay the implementation of prominence rules because, in our experience, these changes can be implemented much faster on new TVs and even for existing TVs that regularly receive software updates. 

“That’s why we’re asking the government to reduce the delay in implementing this change that could benefit millions of Australian households before the end of this year,” she said. 

Free TV CEO Bridget Fair said, “The government has rightly acknowledged that Australians' access to free TV is under threat – but there are some crucial gaps in the bill. 

“With just a few simple changes, it could become an excellent piece of legislation that fulfills its purpose and safeguards Australians’ access to free TV for years to come,” she said. 

Free TV is calling for the following changes to the Bill: 

Prominence 

• Reduce the implementation period from 18 months to a maximum of six months. 
• Extend the rules to existing TVs that receive software updates. 
• Ensure that viewers are presented with both free and paid options when searching for content. 
• Require electronic TV guides to include local free TV services. 

Anti‐siphoning 

• Require that both the free broadcast and free digital streaming rights be acquired by a free broadcaster before the event can be acquired by a pay TV or subscription streaming provider. 
• Do not extend the automatic de-listing period from six to 12 months as many sporting events are acquired within this timeframe. 

The Free TV Submission regarding the Communications Legislation Amendment (Prominence and Anti‐ siphoning) Bill 2023 – link is here. 

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By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

DOMAIN, Australia’s digital property portal and associated real-estate industry business, does more than just list properties for consumers and agents.

It is also a technology company that services the real estate industry. That is, for consumers, investors and agents.

Frank Greeff, the head of industry at Domain, explains how part of part of Domain works as an aggregator. Mr Greeff had started out as a chef and then, with the help of his brothers, decided to create a real estate-focused technology business that they eventually sold to Domain.

“For example, if you drive past any home for sale, you’ll see a sign board at the front, you’ll see it in Domain, you’ll see it on REA, they might hand out some brochures, you might see it on social media,” Mr Greeff told Talking Business.

“Our business aggregates all the suppliers, all the people who execute those different materials, and the real estate agents will log on to our platform to perform those tasks.” 

Mr Greeff said the easiest way to describe it was “as similar to Uber Eats”.

On one side you have a consumer who wants to buy the property and on the other side you have the agents who, like the restaurants, provide what the consumer is looking for.

“Uber Eats is the aggregator, the gateway between the two,” he said. “We are the gateway between the two. We don’t necessarily do the marketing but we facilitate the process.”

Adapting to meet real market needs

It’s very niche. One of Mr Greeff’s brothers was a real estate photographer and the other was a real estate floor planner.

He said the business (Realhub.com.au) started as a physical service company that created the signboards. They then created a platform.

They challenged the major company that was in this space (Campaigntrack.com), took about 30 percent of their business, and then merged.

The business, Realbase, that he and his brothers created was then snapped up by Domain.

“Roughly we see about 43 percent of all transactions, so about one in two properties across Australia and New Zealand will come to our business. The next closest is about one-tenth the size,” Mr Greeff said.

“This was the unique element for Domain. This is the place where agents come to get not just the online marketing but all the marketing.”

Platform made to order

The technology is totally proprietary, developed by Frank Greeff’s brothers.

He said Domain also offered services direct to agents. These include services for compliance for agency agreements and signing digital authorities – and for data behind the history of the properties.

“This series of products are fragmented, so what we are doing is creating a single entry point and bringing the products together so the agent has one log in and they would see all the different products and processes that they could save within their business,” Mr Greeff said.

That is how Mr Greeff and his team integrate Domain’s businesses.

“In five years’ time, the goal for us is a single platform in terms of look and feel,” he said.

“What we want is one log-in for an agent where they can pick and choose from any of the products, but once they understand one of the products, how it works and how the technology feels, they understand them all.”

www.realbase.io

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness.

https://play.acast.com/s/talkingbusiness/talking-business30-interview-with-frank-greeff-from-dom

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By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

MARKETING whizz Maureen Barten from Maureen Barten Consulting sees marketing as very much an inside job.

“Internal marketing is often overlooked so our marketing journey with a company starts with looking at the inside,” Ms Barten told Talking Business. “How is your team communicating with each other? Because that communication and the consistency of communication and the tone of communication sets the tone for how they are communicating with the outside world, your customers, your stakeholders, your vendors.

“Along with that strategy, we are often involved in creating brand messaging and establishing a voice,” she said. “We will identify avatars and firstly the goals, mission and vision of the company.”

Ms Barten said companies often have this, but it’s not up to date. And if it incorporates changes.  

“One of the things I’ve come to understand over my decades in businesses is that a marketing strategy, a business plan, a marketing plan, they need to be dynamic,” Ms Barten said.

“If they’re not being reviewed on a consistent basis, at least annually, and updated, they are largely out of date.”

Long years of experience

Ms Barten, who has run businesses from the age of 22, works with small to medium businesses that turn to her because they need to outsource their marketing.  She works with professional service providers, accountants, lawyers and allied medical professionals as well as hospitality retail and consumer goods businesses.

She also has clients in wholesale manufacturing as she has a background in manufacturing back home in California. Generally, her clients have a staff of two to15. She has also worked with non-profits.

Ms Barten has run campaigns and helped organisations raise millions of dollars building hospitals. In the United States, she had worked as a consultant to Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer.

Maureen Barten Consulting also builds teams, some with internal and others with external sources.

“I build messages that are timeless, that are specifically targeted to the audience you desire,” she said.

Challenge is in identifying key markets

The firm’s challenges are all about helping clients identify their key markets.

“In doing so, we create new opportunitie,” Ms Barten said. “It’s the backbone of a solid marketing strategy. You’ve got to know who you’re selling to.”

She said Maureen Barten Consulting was now moving into “the exciting space of mentoring business leaders” and owners and their teams.

“We go in and work with them on the key deliverables that we provide which would be the messaging and making sure we are talking to and in the right language to those people, the people they want to meet, we create strategies and plans and we mentor them so they can run with it,” she said.

“Or we make sure we have those teams in place and we project manage.”

Ms Barten said it was exciting for her because she liked production – especially as she has a background in product production.

“I like to see how things are built, I like to see them come to fruition and deliver results,” Ms Barten said.

“So managing a team or mentoring a group so they make those things happen is hugely rewarding for me,” she said.

“If I look over the course of my journey, my most fulfilling moments have been in mentoring and teaching."

www.maureenbarten.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness.
https://play.acast.com/s/talkingbusiness/talking-business45-interview-with-maureen-barten-from-mareen

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