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- [00:01]
Aaron
This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome?
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Pearl Cervat
That's new.
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Aaron
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Pearl Cervat
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Aaron
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Pearl Cervat
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Chino
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Melissa
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Chino
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Pearl Cervat
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- [00:46]
Chino
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- [00:54]
Aaron
Welcome to We Fixed it, you're welcome. The show where we take over companies, you come along for the ride and we try to put them back better than we found them. Today's not my birthday. It's not a major holiday. It's just a day. But wait, is it actually Happy Prime Day? And how do we celebrate? By buying stuff. As you probably remember a few years ago and Amazon picked a date on a calendar, called it Prime Day and said, come shop, we've got extra deals for you. It worked. They boosted sales a lot, so they keep doing it 11 years later. They've expanded on Prime Day to the point where it's become an institution. And it's not the only one. Prime Day is one of many events that are driven by brands throughout the year. From Starbucks Red Cup Day to Cyber Monday to May 4, companies are increasingly inventing or benefiting from moments that feel like culture or but also spike sales. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Everyone loves a good deal or the chance to get something exclusive on one day only, or to be part of a community. So anything that brings us together instead of dividing us can't be all bad. But are these invented holidays and celebrations driven by brands, brilliant examples of inclusive marketing? Or just highly effective cash grabs we've all agreed to throw money at? That's what we're here to fix. And to help us unpack that we've got someone who's actually built one of these moments from the inside. Pearl Cervat Pearl is a fractional CMO who helped scale Verizon's visible brand from zero to over a million customers. During that time, she led the Visible Acts of Kindness campaign that turned brand values into a way of paying it forward. In other words, she was the force behind a time specific social movement created by a company that was also good for business. Sounds like what we're talking about today. So she's going to help us figure out the right balance here. Hey Pearl, give us a little bit more about your background.
- [02:46]
Pearl Cervat
Hey Aaron. Hey Melissa. Hey Chino. Thank you for having me calling in from the beautiful Dallas. I have been a marketer nearly my whole career. I have to act, I do have to give a plug to my communications background. I actually started incomes and media relations and grew organically into marketing. And as a marketing leader I've also been able to leverage the tools in my toolbox for comms and crisis management. I actually got a comms call for a potential client today. I worked in the entertainment industry for close to 17 years at the cross section of talent representation and brand building which is a really unique space to be in. I then evolved. My career has been very nonlinear. From entertainment I went to consumer tech and telco and like you mentioned, I helped. I was one of the early hires at Visible Verizon. Visible Verizon was taking a big, big bet by creating the first D2C telco brand under the mothership umbrella with completely differentiated marketing. So I joined that company early on and then did another pivot into healthcare and animal health before launching my consultancy just last year. And today I focus on where sort of my like a bit of my professional background and passion intersect, which is a care economy, which is my brands within, within the child care and products, women's and senior care. And the headline that I always give it is that these are brands where permanent trust and emotional depth cannot be compromised.
- [04:25]
Aaron
Well, thanks Pearl. With, with you here I think we've got a good chance of fixing this. That's a, that's a lot of background and I always, you know, I, I always love throwing more marketing muscle at these things. So we are primed and ready. Melissa. Celebrations, holidays, social movements created by brands. What are we talking about today?
- [04:45]
Melissa
Well, let's start with the biggest proof point which is Prime Day. Amazon launched it in 2015 as a one day anniversary event and it has since become a multi day, multi country shopping moment that Amazon says drives massive sales, attracts prime members from around the world. Amazon Prime Day is really the clearest modern example of a company invented event that has become a retail force. Amazon says Prime Day 2025 last year was its biggest ever and outside estimates put just US online spending at close to $24 billion. That scale matters because it shows these moments are no longer side promotions. They can move behavior like major holidays. FYI, Prime Day is starting now. It's June 23rd through the 26th, and they're running early Prime Day specials all through June. Amazon, though, is not the first company to do this. De Beers helped turn the diamond engagement ring into a romantic norm, showing how a brand can shape not just demand, but identity and behavior. Cyber Monday was created to extend Black Friday online, while Small Business Saturday, one of my favorite things was designed to redirect spending to local businesses. And American Express has said the campaign helped drive an estimated 18 billion in consumer reported spending at small businesses this year. So, all in now, Hallmark didn't invent holidays, but in the broad sense. But it became one of the first and most influential companies in turning celebrations into retail events and occasions, which is why its name became shorthand for artificially commercialized holidays. And celebrations like Grandparents Day, you know, Galentine's Day, all those kinds of things makes you want to go out, go to a Hallmark store and buy a card. This pattern keeps repeating because the payoff is real. Aaron mentioned Starbucks. Starbucks Red cup day drove a 42.4% spike in visits versus a recent Thursday average in 2024, showing just how a limited time ritual can actually create traffic and urgency. We all know fomo. These events work because they combine that ritual and social proof and scarcity. And once consumers and clients and customers learn the pattern, the brand doesn't just have to sell the product, it owns that time and date on the calendar. So this is why this topic matters now. These aren't just promotions anymore. They're engineered cultural moments that can generate real profit, real loyalty, and real expectations from customers. So are brand made celebrations building real loyalty and culture? Are we just conditioning each other to buy on cue?
- [07:41]
Chino
It's an interesting one because I actually want to pull it back because as we discussed, this is not happening. Just as, you know, a random day, there's a lot of thought and work that goes into picking which day it is. And often, if you actually look at the trajectory, these days are very strategically planned around when in the course of a year, it's usually a dip in sales. So, you know, for example, we talk about Valentine's Day. Everyone's already spent their money during the holiday season. And so this is something else to kind of bring people back into the stores. And it's an incredible way to leverage kind of that fomo, the fear of missing out while triggering, you know, this consumer behavior, saying we need you to buy because you know, traditionally you weren't buying at this time. So I don't want to, um, I, I want to remember too why the brands are doing this. It's not just a random day. It's a very, you know, consumer data driven plan.
- [08:42]
Aaron
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- [10:27]
Melissa
Yeah, and I'd love to hear, Pearl, your opinion as well because I think that there's this consumer psychology that's being built to it that, you know, I think you and Aaron, we've talked about this before in other podcast episodes. But it's really interesting how companies now are really kind of going through that client psyche to figure out how to really drive these types of events.
- [10:53]
Pearl Cervat
I completely agree with you. I've actually been in two different roles at two different companies where we tested with Prime Day and one of them worked very naturally and organically. It was, you know, the one that was a success story. Years ago we partnered, my marketing team partnered directly with the Amazon team to do a live QVC style segment. It was sort of split across the whole day. It was live but, but our shoppers were already on Amazon right before and after prime. So it was sort of really natural environment for them to be in. We did the pre campaign marketing push, everything and then we launched the sort of first part of the campaign several days before prime actually formally launched. Which as you all probably know, that's sort of like a tactic that a lot of brands use. They launched their campaigns before prime and then I also did it in with another company which as a marketer we really do have to test and learn. Right. Our customers weren't there. Our product team worked with us to quickly ramp up the products on the platform, but naturally and organically it's not the place where they would have ever shopped for the product. So we again did the partnership, executed it and it didn't work that well. You know, was for a startup, it was a big learning for our brand. So I think while it can work really well, you have to have the built in audience there and the anticipation, a little bit of it has to already be there and the interest has to already be there a little bit before you really ramp up for Prime.
- [12:27]
Melissa
Well, the operational component of it also, like you've just said, has to be in place. Because I think, Erin, to your point, this isn't about excess fulfillment, like there's excess inventory. This is about they're making deep discounts, they're trying to bring this traffic that's going to increase the overall exposure to all of these different types of products. And if they can't fulfill quickly, if they can't live up to the promises that they're making for Prime Day or for any of these types of events, then you're in a very bad position because you are letting the customer and consumer down. And really that's could hurt you over the long term more than just over the three days of prime days. Right. So I think it is a great example of where the planning and strategy pearl that you were talking about has to come. Really there has to be a lot of thinking that's going on and actual execution of that. Because otherwise we've seen this time and time again where the idea is great. Like you, you know, you're like, oh my God, we're going to get exposure to all these people that have never even seen our product, don't even know. But then it just falls a little flat because you really haven't thought about like, okay, once you've hooked them, how do you get them engaged even further? So how do you get them engaged past that prime or will they never even look for you again?
- [13:52]
Aaron
Yeah, well, after 11 years of, it's like 11 years of prime Day, I'd figure, you know, they probably behind the scenes are still scrambling and it comes down to the wire and you know, they, they managed to pull it off one year at a time, but they've learned a lot over that course of 11 years. And the brands that participate have seen, have had enough market cycles and test environments come and go where they know whether Prime Day works for them or how to re engineer what they did last year to this year. So. But I wonder why. We talked about Hallmark for a minute, you know, in the Hallmark holiday and there's maybe we participate, but there's some cynicism about it. But there doesn't seem to be that type of pushback with Prime Day. And I wonder why that is. Like it has become the celebratory feeling of maybe we, you know, as consumers, we won something. We righted the power, the power dynamic in our favor a little bit. Like why do we feel that way about Prime Day when we don't feel that way? I'm not speaking for everybody, but you know, why does there seem to be that type?
- [14:52]
Melissa
You have one new message translating. Disney and Pixar's Hoppers is now available on Disney.
- [15:02]
Chino
You could say that again. Critics are calling it Pixar's funniest movie
- [15:05]
Melissa
ever and a wildly entertaining ride. Blizzard potato. It's certified fresh and verified hot. Now we party.
- [15:14]
Chino
This is incredible.
- [15:15]
Melissa
Wow.
- [15:16]
Chino
I am clearing the rest of the day.
- [15:18]
Melissa
Disney and Pixar's Hoppers now available on Disney. Rated pg.
- [15:23]
Chino
It's interesting too. So on that right, people reward consistency, right? There's a consistency theory in terms of consumer behavior. The longer, you know, we now, you know, the first time that Prime Day happened again probably brought on because it was a lull in sale. So it was a way for Amazon to say, hey, we have a dip in numbers, let's artificially bring people here, right? That's what these days are about, let's not get that twisted. But in the 11 year tenure of doing this, they've now created this consistency and expectation for us to feel like we can actually rely on this Prime Day. So we believe in wait to buy certain products because of Prime Day. And as a result, people have been rewarding this like, authenticity with it. Right. It doesn't feel opportunistic anymore where maybe the very first one might have because you're like, what the hell's a Prime Day? Where now you're like, hey, as a consumer, I actually believe and can be a part of this campaign and I feel like I'm getting a deal. And so I think when you're doing any of these days, for you to really stick and land is you need to align with the brand purpose, right? Where it's like, you know, Amazon's all about giving you things when you need them at a good deal esque. But if you can demonstrate consistency, which is what they have done, you've now trained and conditioned your consumers to now shop at exactly what this special day is, AKA the lull that used to be in your market and have now, you know, artificially created, you know, a huge sales day. And so I think that trust now within Prime Days and Amazon long term is why this has become such a successful thing and other companies have been looking to do the same.
- [17:06]
Melissa
In the research I did on Amazon prime, one of the things that has been really important is understanding what the competitor's pressure feels like. And Amazon has done such a great job of building this up, Aaron, over the 11 years that now consumers and clients, myself included, are waiting for Prime Day to buy make bigger purchases. So last year alone, the average basket was 40% bigger than what you usually purchase. Right. Which makes sense because that means people are waiting for this event, you know, go buy the Dyson vacuum or whatever it might be. And compared to what Pearl was saying earlier with these pre events and really kind of showcasing what's coming up in prime, people know they're like, oh my gosh, I know that my favorite makeup is coming up and it's going to be on Prime. So I'm going to wait and I'm going to put it in my basket and just wait to buy it until Prime Days. And so that's really habituating to Chino, to your point, habituating the clients to not also feel the pressure to do comparison shopping. So I think at the beginning when prime started, people probably were like, is that really cheaper? I'm going to go to Walmart. Dot com. I'm going to go check it out. Now, people know that when a prime deal comes up, it's a prime deal, right? And you know, the competitors are out there saying, okay, the targets of the world, you know, Walmarts of the world are saying, we'll match the price on Prime Day. You just have to like, let us know when you come into our store. But like, that's not the same experience because, you know, it's that, that psychology, right? Like it's, it's the ticker you got. You see the, the ticker going and you see how many people have put it in their basket and you're like, I gotta get it, I gotta get it. Even though you maybe don't need to get it. So I thought that was interesting when they talked about basket size for Prime Day and how people are really buying in bulk or buying, you know, and willing to wait until the 23rd through 26th or whatever the days are.
- [19:10]
Pearl Cervat
I think if I can. It's so interesting to hear you say this and the research that you uncovered. Melissa and Chino, I love your points about this too, about sort of like the muscle that they're sort of exercising, right, to continue to, to get stronger for how they're building Prime Day. I think the other side of that coin for me, come looking at it from the brand side is it's a little bit of a delicate dance, right? And a fine balance because, yes, you're creating the muscle memory and you're sort of coaching and training the customers and the brands that this is a big moment for the customer to shop and save it in the their cart and so on and so forth. But this is where brand equity is really, really critical because there is such a thing, both on the finance side and on the marketing side as racing to the bottom.
- [20:03]
Melissa
Right?
- [20:04]
Pearl Cervat
And as brand leaders, we want you to shop once, sure. But we definitely want you to keep coming back and keep shopping with us and not just wait for that moment where something is on sale or clearance. So I think it's. As you were talking, I kept thinking about the foundational work that it takes to build brand trust and equity. And I think keeping those elements in mind is really, really critical that a customer is not just one and done because they get to save with your brand and product. In that moment in life when you
- [20:38]
Aaron
finally find your thing, you want the whole world to know about that thing. So you use a thing called Canva to make it an even bigger and better thing. Whether you want to create flyers for that thing. Make presentations for that thing or design merch for that thing. You can do anything so people can see your thing, feel your thing, love your thing. The next thing you know, it's a thing. Canva. The thing that makes anything a thing. Yeah, you're totally right, Pearl. Because if it's. If there was a website called Gary's Discount Bin and there was just everything was on sale and race to the bottom slash prices, you probably wouldn't trust it or you probably wouldn't spend a lot of time or money there. But the fact that it's Amazon and they're giving you deals, you feel like, oh good. Like, I know this exchange and I know how it typically works. And now, like I said, it tips a little bit more to my favor. I'm in. But I wonder, let's take, let's go to the Verizon Invisible because, you know, it wasn't a market, it wasn't a company l, you know, or a calendar lull. It was like similar conditions, but you're starting from nothing. So how do you, you know, you have to get to, we'll say a million, you know, subscribers and you have to do it in a time sensitive way. You know, how did it get to the point where you said, okay, well let's do something. Let's do a campaign. Let's do a motivate, a motivation driven campaign with a mission behind it. You know, like it's got some similar vibe to the prime day. Not, you know, not the sales point of sale purchase, but the communal spirit behind it. Like walk us through that a little bit.
- [22:14]
Pearl Cervat
Absolutely. So you're right. Visible Acts of Kindness was not meant to be a marketing campaign. We kicked this initiative off about five, six, seven days into Covid. Remember there was this moment in time where layoffs were happening extremely quickly. Folks were getting sick, not really fully understanding what was happening. Everyone felt isolated right behind the closed doors of their homes. So our, my colleague who at that time managed customer relationship and our email marketing, he was like, why don't we just reach out to our customers or our email list and ask our customers how they're doing, right? Like brands, some brands were increasing their prices, some brands were lowering their prices. There was so much sort of human vulnerability and brand vulnerability, right. So we sent out this email, really not knowing what we were going to get back. And all the email said was, we want to know how you're doing and how can we help you. And I think this might be the first time ever in the history of all brands that a Company email was sent out and there weren't any unsubscribes. We heard back from hundreds and hundreds of customers who said, no one's asking me how I'm doing. No one's asking me how I can be, you know, how I can be helped. And thank you for the thoughtfulness. Like, I've never seen a brand do this. And right then and there, we knew that we had something in front of us and we were trying to figure it out very quickly. My social team, the colleague on my social, you know, who led social strategy for us, immediately launched a social listening sort of campaign just to get out there and see what people were saying on Reddit, on Instagram, on X, which was still Twitter at that time, I think. And over and over and over, we saw that people were sharing sort of like these anecdotes and short stories of how they had received or extended kindness towards someone. So we married the two, but there was few of them. There wasn't a ton. But we knew that we had something. So very, very quickly we started to reach out to all of our influencer creator and also the customers that we'd sent that initial letter to and said, we want to kick off an initiative called Visible Acts of Kindness, where we want to inspire and encourage acts of kindness peer to peer, friend to friend, family, and just completely random individuals. So we sort of, you know, to sort of bundle it together. We also put, instead of spending on a sort of a market quote, unquote, digital marketing campaign, we took a little bit of our marketing budget and we spent about $200,000 on Amazon gift cards to randomly give out to people on social media. And that whole campaign inspired thousands, I think close to over 13,000 of just direct comments of our social handles, millions of organic and unique brand engagements and brand mentions. And you have to keep in mind, this is a completely new brand. We were only two years old. And, you know, I'll give you a few examples. Some of the acts of kindness that we were seeing was a woman who was in her 70s, early onset of dementia, had no one, and a neighbor who saw our campaign, who'd never met her, showed up at her door and left a full week's meal at front of her door, had never met her. Someone who was homeless was on a train, and another person who had heard about our campaign reached out to them and said, let me take you to Starbucks and get you some coffee and some small bites, right? Complete strangers. Strangers started to come, come together and proactively. I remember at that time, I always share this story at, you know, the gentleman who was at one time Oprah Winfrey and President Obama's chef, he reached out to us or proactively and this. We had dozens of these examples. He reached out to us and said, I've never seen a brand color outside the lines like this. Can I partner with you guys? And we had so many of these examples of content creators, customers, people who were, weren't even customers of ours, were reaching out to us to try and participate in the campaign. Incoming creator interest, you name it, we were getting it. And it was a great example of having strong values within a company, how critical it is and not ever compromising your values. The types of people who are in leadership positions at a company. When we went to our CEO, again, this is a new brand, so every dollar is really critical where you spend it. The CEO of the company at that time was Miguel Quiroga. He didn't even bat an eye because again, like kindness and strong values and sort of genuine intentions came from the top at visible. He was like, let's do it. And to be honest with you, we didn't have strong performance metrics for it. And we developed those way later in the campaign in the initiative, I'll call it, because it was just a. It started with this question of how can we show up for our community, which was our customers, and then that community ended up extending and extending and getting bigger and bigger.
- [27:27]
Melissa
The fact that you were willing to go with an open ended question without guided answers, right. Like NPS is guided answers. Right. It's like, how was your experience with Melissa go?
- [27:38]
Chino
A lot. Right.
- [27:39]
Melissa
You know, and we all know so. And the fact that it was just open ended and you asked and then you actually listened and responded is what is probably what threw people for a loop. Right. To be honest, I always think of corporate MPS is kind of like where, you know, feedback goes to die. Honestly, you know, I just, it's like, oh, we measured it great. You know, but nobody does anything with it. Which I, you know, I have a problem with that as a CX champion, but it's, it's a thing. So I just love Pearl, what you said, because I think that that's so important to understand that it grew from something that wasn't guided. Wasn't like you didn't have metrics already laid out, you didn't say all these things. And so, yeah, you know, jump in.
- [28:28]
Chino
I love it because, you know, fellow Canadian here, Pearl, this in case you didn't know. And so this reminds me of my university day. So in Canada we have like 1of3Cell phone like mobile companies, Bell being one of them. And back in 2015 or 2014 I remember I was a student and they, you know, we were grasp boots on the ground talking about what they've. They partnered with camh which was a mental health hospital in Canada and said we want to make a difference and first of its kind. I think one of the first brands to ever really do something like this. And I remember, you know, canvassing different classes and kind of bringing awareness to this way back when. Fast forward to now Bell let's talked it and what they were doing was saying at the time $0.05 per every text, tweet or view that you send will go to CAMH for mental health awareness. And I remember it's the first and only time that as an Apple user everyone turned their text off of imessage for the day to really build up money. And it was year after year after year it's gotten bigger and now it's actually moved to like they do a lump sum of $10 million. But what I love about this is, you know, it's a brand, it's mobility, it's phone plans. But what they were able to do is say mental health is actually going to become incorporated into Bell's broader corporate identity. And as a Bell user for, you know, since I was a kid I have never moved because I always say on Bell that's top day. I always turn it off to make sure that I'm doing something in my part. And again it has kept me with Bell for a long time. And I think the reason why that has worked is going back to that long term commitment. They've been able to build that trust but they actually did something that as a consumer we're like this isn't just performative. You actually put dollars behind that and you have other brands doing this like Patagonia and you know, Movember even. It was one of the first where it was like a movement for something good if you recall where you're completely changing and the consumer behavior and encouraging something that they might not have done. And I think these days can be really great for pushing a behavior how you want to. So for the example of Amazon prime, you're getting people to come in and purchase things that they might not have purchased. But Pearl, to your point, Melissa and Aaron need to keep them coming. And I think where it's successful is when it feels genuine to the corporate identity of that brand.
- [31:13]
Aaron
Study and play come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the unreal college deal everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox game Pass ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more@windows.com studentoffer while supplies last ends June 30th terms at aka mscollegepc. I love how organic those examples were and how they just kind of became took on a life of their own and the intentionality behind them because not to pick on any one company but that during COVID days, like every company cared, you know, at a certain point, you know, my sneakers cared about me and my breakfast cereal cared about me. And it, you know, a lot of it was performative. So especially in the early days, just to set this precedent of look, we, we don't even know what this is. We just, you know, they, they. It was on the, the Elmo's Twitter account, right? Their X account just one day said what. What's tell Elmo was happening and people did. And I don't know that there was any kind of motivation behind that. It was just, let's have a moment together. And I love when brands do that just for that, that, that own sake. And I feel like some of These examples like May 4th or free comic Book day or record Store Day come from this kind of grassroots momentum. We all want to celebrate. You just give us a designated time to do it and we'll, we'll come out in droves and they feel a little bit more organic. Then let's flip it back to Prime Day, which feels a little bit more engineered. And I'm not saying it's all bad or it's bad at all. Maybe it's not. But it does feel like it was a data driven analysis that said if we turn on the green light and the flashing, well, the blue light special, people will come in the middle of the summer. Let's do this now. That's where the difference is. For me it is.
- [33:11]
Chino
And I think kind of differentiating between the two is kind of like the consumers and how you feel. So for the latter words, like, you know, what Pearl has done with that incredible campaign with Bell. Let's talk these things. It's, you know, creating a community, which is what we always talk about on the pod of like curating experiences for the people who are your loyalists. Right where Amazon, you know, you went from a bookstore to the beast that you are. And whether People like it or not, you're probably buying Amazon, using Amazon to purchase something. And what the difference here though is, is as a consumer, I'm not looking at Amazon Prime Day as like a community driven. I'm trying to see what the best deals I can get. And so I feel like I'm the one in the advantage seat. And so again, whether that's true or not, Right. If you actually look at that over time, just coming out where sometimes it's not always the best deal on Amazon prime days or when the ticker's counting you down, by the end of the ticker, it's probably going to reset again. Right. So there are a lot of little psychological marketing hacks that they're using which are great. But I think the key difference is how the consumer feels. Where this one is, I'm taking advantage of Amazon versus I'm feeling a part of Amazon. And I don't think either are wrong. There are different strategies and tools to use and I think brands need to know when they should pull each lever depending on whatever it is that their goals are.
- [34:36]
Melissa
I love what Pearl and I love what everyone is saying too because I do feel like it's very important to understand that in terms of like if we were going to try to fix Amazon Prime Day, I don't know, but these types of events and I loved your narrative, Pearl. I mean this is, that's an amazing, amazing story about how it started. You really want to, like Chino said, make it feel participatory and not transactional. Like it's not just about the discounts, it's not just about that one time event, whether it's a day or a week or whatever. Brand led events that stick around usually give people that kind of role to play. And so I feel like, you know, you want to feel like you're part of something. You want to feel part of a community. Like you said, Gino, tie it in. Creator partnerships, small business support, customer interaction in between that makes that experience feel shared instead of just guided or extracted. Right. That's usually the difference between a promotion people will actually tolerate and a ritual people will want to actually enjoy in.
- [35:49]
Pearl Cervat
I'm going to go down a little bit of a different path with Amazon if that's okay. This notion of building community and continuously build, you know, pulling consumers and members of your community back in. One of the things, other things that they do that I thought was really interested was I had my daughter just a couple of years ago, so I was learning all the things about the baby Landscape and Amazon Prime Day was a big factor in what I was purchasing and when. But one of the things that Amazon does to provide this sort of let me pull you in mechanism. Right. As a platform, they allow you to build your whole registry on their platform. But what's, what drives, you know, earlier we were talking about brand stickiness, what they do after. You know, the timeline for your registry is open for months after you can continue to get a pretty meaningful discount off of the things that are or aren't on your registry as a new mom. So that's how the platform shows up for you and the brands that are under.
- [36:51]
Melissa
Right.
- [36:51]
Pearl Cervat
And that's sort of like, for me, I was like, this is really interesting because I always look at it also from a marketing standpoint.
- [36:58]
Aaron
Right.
- [36:59]
Pearl Cervat
And also like the human perspective and emoji, emotional depth that we were also talking about. And I thought this was such a cool way for them to continue to show up for me as someone who's completely new to this whole world. Right. And they really curate it for you in a beautiful way. Right. Like product categories and merchandising. We all know that.
- [37:18]
Chino
Right.
- [37:19]
Pearl Cervat
But for months after, I continue to go back on the platform because there was like the discount wasn't substantial but it was still there to continue to pull me back in. And once the discount went away because I was so used to buying all of these products on Amazon, two years later, I've never left those brands. I'm only buying them like my everyday, necessary brands. I'm still buying them on Amazon.
- [37:43]
Aaron
Yeah, that's, that's interesting because Amazon's, you know, they're so, it's such a data analytics driven company and if they're going to do something like prime, they do it like a, like an all, like a catch. All right, we've got all this stuff on sale, come get it. But they have a ton of personalized data points on all of us. You know, what they could be doing is maybe, you know, crafting something that's a little bit more one to one and saying, look, I know you buy, maybe this will get us toward our fix. But I know you buy, you know, you buy work tools for your, for your work or you buy diapers because a new parent, you know, we're going to create this prime day experience. Yes, it's, it's, it's, it's calendar specific and we're all having a shared cultural moment. And within that moment, there's something that we've done for you because we recognize your needs and your behaviors. And, you know, because of that, it's not just come watch the tickers across the entire screen and try to find what you want. It's we know what you want here. Here it is, and here's the best deal all year you're ever going to get, you're ever going to get for it.
- [38:46]
Melissa
And that personalized experience is really important. So our. So as customers and consumers, we're more savvy than ever, and we want responsiveness, we want personalization. So, Pearl, you are the example of every new young mother that is like, I don't know what to get. I know I need all these different things, or I think I do. And I love how they can curate this story for you and also understand that there's a business behind it. And so it's really like after that event, whether it's the birth of a child, whether it's prime day, what, what. Whatever it might be, whether it's, you know, building, you know, you bought a new house, and all of a sudden everything in your, in your basket is light fixtures, et cetera, et cetera. They have a great way of showing you, right? People like you have purchased this, right? So you purchased the diapers, but you not might need the diaper pad, the diaper bag, and these are the kinds of things put in your basket. Also, I've noticed more and more because of the connection now with Amazon, with Whole Foods and other things, they will say, you know, it looks like you bought this almost every week. You know, we can give you a discount if you subscribe and we will send you your cat food every three weeks, like, tell us what the dates are, but you get 5% off. So even though you're like, is it cheaper to buy it there or should I go to Petco or, you know what I mean? Like, but I. It's the convenience of it is like, I don't have to think about it and I don't have to put it on my grocery list because it's always going to be there. So they've really done a good job of taking like an event, a celebratory event, whether it's prime day or whether it's event in your life, you know, buying a house, whatever it might be, and then really kind of capitalizing on that to make and ensure that you will habituate, you will come back, you will come back for more. And so that is one of the things, and I think that was one of the things you mentioned early on, Pearl, is like, it's more than just that event. It's like going forward, is that a match? And so this is an, a great, another great example of how they're kind of using data. They're using, I'm sure they're using AI and analytics to kind of figure out, oh, Melissa likes this, Chino likes this. You know, what can you get in Canada versus what you can get in Colorado? You know, those kinds of things. We know a lot about what Chino likes. So I say that, I say that for a hard time. I think it would be like Subway sandwiches.
- [41:27]
Chino
I don't, I know she's, it's, it's so true. And it's, you know what's interesting about this? I think Amazon is like a best in class when it comes to using the marketing psychology to influence behavior. And I think they've done that in many ways of getting sticky and being a part of the consumer behavior. But I have a question for the two marketers in the room, Aaron and Pearl. So it's interesting because Prime Day is essentially what used to be like the big coupon day. And so looking at shopper marketing, I have a question of, you know, what's the difference other than just giving someone like, hey, here's 15% off your completion discount for your baby registry or here's the, you're going to get $10 off if you buy it at the end of this day on Prime Day. Why do you think it's different from just giving a coupon and people running with it versus creating a whole day around it?
- [42:21]
Pearl Cervat
I think because, you know, the, the market, Melissa just, you know, briefly sort of touched on this. The market is really, really overcrowded. We're all overwhelmed with the number of brands that are out there, the number of promotions and discounts and sales. And you know, it's, it's a lot that's coming at us as consumers at any given moment. So brands view this as a moment. You know, the reason that they launch big marketing campaigns around it is because they need to differentiate themselves. Right. And for some of the things that they're discounting, it may be the first time that ever that they're doing it. So they have to create a lot of noise around it. And while what you're betting on as a brand, you know, Melissa was just saying this, that that is that massive built in audience for some of these brands. Sure you already have like some following and some engagement in your customer base, but there's a vast number of people out there who still don't know you launching on Amazon for brands you know, when it comes to a margin standpoint for your financials is really, really expensive. So the products better sell.
- [43:27]
Chino
Right?
- [43:28]
Pearl Cervat
You know, there are costs associated with doing Prime Day in and of itself. So all of those components, in addition to the noise that's out there, push as brands to have to really, really stand out and differentiate so that once the consumer is on the platform, they're seeking them out.
- [43:45]
Aaron
Prime Day itself is such a strong and compelling brand. If Amazon leveraged out Prime Day to other companies, like, we would all understand exactly what that is and how to play along. So the fact that there's not just time sensitivity, not just discount sensitivity, but where there's that social movement behind Prime Day, and we all know what the rules of engagement are there, it's just an escalation to say, okay, I've got to show up and I've got to follow through. I've been waiting so long, now it's Prime Day, I'm going to complete that purchase that's been sitting in my cart forever.
- [44:14]
Melissa
Well, and on top of that, what they've done over their time is they built amazing trust. They built the trust that they're actually going to deliver on Prime Day, right? So like, it's not just about the discount, which is, is of course the whole reason you're there, but it's also that they're actually going to give it to you, you're going to get it next day, you're going to get it when you know that they actually have the goods. And so I do feel like, you know, there's that component too, is that, you know, when you think about brands and marketing, it's really important to understand, like when you're building trust, there's so many ways to erode trust so quickly that you, and it's hard to build it back up. But prime has done an amazing job of kind of building that and building that to the point where I purchased something the other day and I've been an Amazon prime member forever and I thought it was in prime, right? And then it's like, it'll be delivered in eight days. And I was like, what? Like, what the heck is that? You know what I mean? Like, it's just been so embedded in me that I can pick like the hour that is can I get it today or can I get it tomorrow? You know, and like for them to say, you know, but again, and then there, there was like a little description about why, you know, it was getting drop shipped or whatever, whatever. And it wasn't, you know, and they said if you want it tomorrow, you can try this brand, right?
- [45:41]
Aaron
No, this has to work every single time. Like if Prime Day 2026, I wish I'm all the best. If it's a disaster, you know, they're going to rethink Prime Day. Like this has to work flawlessly, you know, with, with glowing reviews and delivery and all the like. It's just gotta work executionally and otherwise. So it's all on the line every single time. If there's ever a year where it falls apart, there's really, we have to rethink this entire strategy.
- [46:10]
Melissa
But I wonder, like, do you think now that Prime Day has become such a hallmark to, you know, these, this type of event, that it's just, that's just what we call it. It's kind of like, you know what I mean? It's kind of like from a branding perspective, like we call it Kleenex when it's a tissue.
- [46:32]
Chino
You know what I mean?
- [46:33]
Melissa
Like we just call it that now. Now are we going to call this, you know, Nordstrom's Prime Day, you know, or whatever it might be, you know, and so it's a, it's just an interesting thing that this hasn't been around for that long and it has become such a cultural phenomenon.
- [46:49]
Chino
And I think as a brand, like that's the goal is to become an institution, to make whatever it is that you're selling like a Verve. Right. We didn't all used to Google it, but Google created that. And so I think, you know, we look at other brands outside of Amazon, like obviously use them as a cheat sheet, like steal from Jeff in terms of the ideas on how they influence their consumer behavior. But I think when we look at others, like the Bell or Pearl, your campaign or Hallmark or De Beers with the diamonds, right, Those work because that has been built over time and it isn't the phenomenon in the last 11 years. But Valentine's Day has been around for I don't know how long the Beers has said the little diamond anniversary since whenever that started. I don't have the data in front of me, but I think with all of this, if you're going to build a day, we can't just look at it as just a day. It needs to be embedded into like your long term brand goals and you need to look at it from 5, 10, 20 years out and how you can become institutionalized with whatever day that you're trying to create.
- [47:57]
Melissa
Yeah.
- [47:59]
Aaron
All right, well, I think we have enough to fix this. I think we have Enough to determine what to do about Prime Day. I don't think it's going away. None of us have made an argument that it should be go, you know, disappear tomorrow. But maybe there's improvements. And here's the improvements that I think, I think in the sea of deals, they could do a better job of curating, not just curating the categories of deals and the timeliness of deals, but the personalization. You know, if there's something I've had in my wish list for two years maybe that, you know, I get an extra recognition that that's on prime if I have a behavior like, like clearly I'm a new, I'm not, but clearly I'm a new parent and, and I'm buying, you know, all the, all the accoutrements and the, and the diapers and the formula. Like you engineer some deals for me. If you're going to engineer my data, you know, and to determine that this is the right holiday, right time, calendar specific time, you know, do things that are, that I want and not just say come and get it. It's a buffet. And not just me, everyone specifically, they had, like I said, they had data points on each of us uniquely that determine, you know, just if we do a little bit of a pressure point here or there, one more reminder, a little bit 6% discount instead of 5%. Whatever it is, like we'll, we'll get this person across the line. They know that about us. It's, you know, better or worse. They do. So use Prime Day as that opportunity to do that. Yes, the communal event where we all have this social movement and there's, there's that one to one personalization within it, which maybe they do to some degree but, but not enough. They, they have the power to do that. And I'm going to take a page from, from Pearl with, with Verizon invisible. Let's do something social good behind it. And I'm not saying they don't. I'm just saying let's make that front and center. So I had an idea, I just remembered it while we were talking a long time ago, like earlier days of the Internet where it would be a deal site. You see the deals, you'd see the discount, there'd be the communal buying, the time sensitivity and then everything would stop and there would be a charitable component and there would be a charity that comes up, you'd read their story, you'd see what their goal is, you'd see where they, you know, what the, if everyone donates, you'd see what that goal would support and we just freeze time until that goal's met. And we use the same power of social buying and social activity and pressure points and, and influencers, all that. We'll use that for time sensitive social good and help them achieve their yearly goal in you know, maybe five minutes, maybe a minute. Because we all want to get back to the deals and let's, we're, we're willing to do some good to get there and we believe in the mission of this organization. Great, let's do that. So I think, you know, if we mix those in with the deals, I think there's something powerful there. I'll just give that idea away. But I had that one a long time ago and I keep waiting for someone to do it on a deal driven site. Will they freeze time and you know, every, every, every 20 seconds they lose however many millions. I don't know. But I love to see that. I, I do love when brands just use their platform, especially a platform as big as Amazon, probably the biggest one on the planet to say, you know, we brought you here, we're all going to get deals, we're going to make some money and let's use that for some social good while we're here too. Feel free to throw anything else into the mix. But Sheena, how's this looking? Are we fixing this equation of, you know, what, what these brand driven events are?
- [51:30]
Chino
Absolutely. I think we fixed this one and kind of take, you know, jumping onto your last point. Aaron, do a Bell Amazon. You have the money to. I'm a bell customer still to this day, years later, even though they piss me off a lot of the times because of the bell, let's talk date. So if you can pull in some social good aspect, whether we like it or not, Amazon isn't going anywhere. But if you can make us feel as a consumer a little better about that, people will stay loyal. And I think because you've built this brand trust is the first thing that any brand needs to do if they're going to create a day from that and then consistently keep that up for X amount of years. And if you can then add social good. It's very hard for me to say I was going to buy this anyway. Yes, I'm getting a deal, but I'm also able to give back with that. It makes me feel like I'm giving back with the shopping and I love that idea. Aaron, Amazon. Jeff, if you're listening, hey, we're here.
- [52:30]
Aaron
Thank you, Chino. Melissa, what do you think? Do we fix it.
- [52:33]
Melissa
I do. I love what we've said. I think it's really important to look at it more than just a business model, but really looking at it from a very overarching operational strategy and community strategy. I love these ideas. Aaron and Gino, I really think also having it because it can be personalized. They know your zip code. So do community, you know, Community Prime Day. So on the first day it's community Prime Day and they have a bunch of wish lists from teachers and you know, first responders, all those types of, you know, like, you know, where I got my cat at the adoption center, you know, and they've got a list of things and you can buy them. I think that would be amazing. I also love the idea of, you know, every hour maybe they focus on a great, you know, Jose Andres and you know, World Kitchen and they talk about that and they say, you know, this is how much $5 can feed these many meals to someone in, you know, in a. In need. So I just love that idea. I think that's a great way to make it even more of a community than it already is. I love the idea of focusing on what happens after the spike. I think Pearl, you've said it the best. Is that like that that event is great, but what happens that doesn't tell the whole story what happens afterwards. So what matters is whether people come back after that event. And if you can, I hate to say it this way, but ensnare them to come back by using that personalization, using the data analytics. This is a wonderful way to create and habituate the right time, right type of relationship that you have with that brand. And then I love the idea, I mean this is what you're talking about is making it feel participatory and not transactional. I think again that's so important, building that community. We all like to do things together. We also like to beat each other. So like, you know, continue to have these typing type of events is always important in our competitive nature. But I do love what we've talked about got so far.
- [54:43]
Aaron
Thanks Melissa. Pearl, if we add in some type of social good component, if we look at post seasonal spikes and what to do with the audience that came for one day and then maybe went back to their normal behavior and how do we reinforce that if we do just more goodwill all around for to keep the community going. Did we fix the situation here?
- [55:04]
Pearl Cervat
Almost. I think there are two things they have to do. If Amazon started to do social impact tomorrow, social impact initiatives and campaigns tomorrow. I Myself would be a non believer because I think when it comes to impact, it takes time for a customer who trusts in your product but has never seen you walk the talk with impact to now really lean in with the impact work that you're suddenly doing. So I love, love, love Melissa's ideas for if they do impact oriented work, it has to truly feel true to the platform, what they sell, who they sell with and who else. Who else is selling on the platform for them? Amazon, fix your shipping issues. And then once we address these two things, I think we've really, really fixed Prime Day. And then the last thing for me again as a, as a big Amazon shopper, is I don't ever want to feel like I'm shopping on Prime Day and it's a brand, you know, stuff that they're trying to just offload and can't sell, like make it feel, you know, really make it feel elevated like it used to be and really, really special. So, yeah, I think we're 95 there, guys.
- [56:17]
Aaron
No good. Yeah, you don't want one of those sidewalk sales where you look at everything in the, in the big baskets and say, yes, never mind. Oh, thanks, Pearl. Well, that's going to do it for this episode of We Fix It. You're welcome. We don't want to keep any of you from those Prime Day deals. Before we go, I'd like to thank Chin, Melissa and our guest, Pearl Cervat. Pearl, let's say another company out there wants to go from zero to a million customers. How would they get ahold of you?
- [56:43]
Pearl Cervat
Connect with me on LinkedIn. Just look up Pearl Survat. I'm always happy to connect with folks and it's been a pleasure for me to join this conversation with you all.
- [56:53]
Aaron
Thank you, Pearl. Thank you to our listeners and our fixaholics. Because of you, there's another celebration on the calendar every Tuesday. That's when we release our new episodes of this very show. And you can listen to us with or without a Prime membership. We'll take you either way. If you score any great deals on Prime Day, let us know@wefixitpod.com we might want them too. And we will see you next time. We hope you enjoyed this episode of We Fixed It. You're welcome. We go into every episode somewhat cold and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice, financial advice, or anything that would get us in trouble. All trademarks, IP and brand elements remain property of their respective owners.