The ubiquitous “Top 10” list, a ranking tradition typically used to generate conversation, disagreement and debate. Pretty much everything and anything can be summarized or ranked into a top 10 list, it’s nothing new and it’s likely going to stay with us for quite a while.
Not too long ago, David Letterman had his famous Top 10 list every night which was a must see segment on his show. Every week we would listen to Casey Kasem count down the top 40 songs in music, but did anyone truly listen until the top 10? After all, were you really going to remember any song outside of the top 10? Taking it further back, God passed Moses the 10 commandments for his followers; or if you believe in Mel Brooks’ version, then Moses helped “narrow” it down to 10.
A list of 10, long enough to have some content but short enough that you might remember all of them when explaining or debating with a friend.
We talk a lot about music here on RetailWit – it’s something we hold sacred and truly believe in the power of. So, when Rolling Stone revamped their “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” you better believe we poured through that list. As we talked through the songs and the list, some lightbulbs started going off.
We are not about to review 500 songs. As I am sure you already guessed, we will be focusing on the top 10 songs from that list. However, even more specifically, we are going to compare this top 10 to the last time Rolling Stone put out this very same list which was in 2004.
Take a quick glance at these two lists, which should be comparable as the same publication is responsible for both of them.
In a seventeen year span, only four songs remained in the top 10. FOUR! And the 6 new songs that jumped in the list are all from 2003 or earlier, meaning they were eligible the last time the list was compiled.
We traded a Lennon “Hey Jude” for an Outkast “Hey Ya!” – which in my opinion isn’t even a top 10 song for Outkast themselves.
Public Enemy jumps to #2, Sam Cooke comes out of seemingly nowhere with a song that was forty years old when the 2004 list was compiled.
And “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, wasn’t even in the top 500 in 2004 – and they make the top 10 now??!!
With all due “Respect”, can someone please tell me “What’s Going On”? Nothing changed about these songs, so how could there be this much volatility in the list?
Maybe someone can explain it “Like a Rolling Stone”, so I looked into where the input to the rankings came from – according to the Rolling Stone website.
“To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results.
More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics.”
Ahhh, there it is! A newer, younger generation of the music industry was used to rank every existing song that has been produced.
That sure “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to me… (apologies, had to get that last one in)
I’d love nothing more than to get on my soapbox and tell you my top 10, and why I am right and Rolling Stone is wrong. But they aren’t wrong. Just like I am not right. At this specific point in time, in September 2021, these 250 people ranked their top 50 songs and the overall list was compiled.
It’s a great conversation starter.
It’s a jumping off point.
It’s something to get people talking.
And, it’s working.
Think about it, all it took was one 25 second viral video of a guy drinking Cranberry juice on a skateboard, and “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac rockets into an all time top 10 song. He wasn’t being compensated, he was just feeling that song at that particular moment and had it blasting in the video.
Music is subjective, it involves your personal tastes and preferences and is dependent on what is happening in your life at that exact moment. And this isn’t different from any other ranking or top 10 list out there.
Which brings me to an article that recently resurfaced as a conversation topic, Boston Consulting Group’s 15th annual ranking of the world’s 50 most innovative companies. Visual Capitalist put together an excellent summary (pictured below) that you can also find here.
Many companies in this list are hard to argue with. They have been, and will continue to be in the top 10 for a while – companies that are always in the conversation (i.e. Apple, Tesla and Amazon). But, who would have believed Pfizer should be on this list until the events of the past year? Especially in the top 10?
There are four COVID-19 vaccine producers on this list of 50. Five years from now, will they still be there? Ten years from now, will anyone remember them?
It’s a great list of innovative companies, I won’t tell you otherwise. But this list only exists in the context of the year 2021.
Just like music, rankings are subjective at best. They can try to be objective, use a scoring system and a sound methodology. Solid sample size, tons of parameters and it could all seem very scientific, but the world isn’t static. In a matter of weeks, days or even hours that list could mean nothing.
Every ranking list should have a time stamp on it. Something to provide the context as to why the rankings are what they are, and what was going on in the world around it. They cannot be 100% objective, and they certainly cannot stand the test of time. It’s nearly impossible.
What’s your favorite song of all time?
What’s you favorite song right now?
I’d bet anything that you just gave two different answers.
And here are the top stories from the last week in retail:
DoorDash Expands Alcohol To-Go Services
DoorDash announces expansion of alcohol delivery at GroceryShop (or as Jason Goldberg referenced it as ‘BoozeShop‘), along with Target’s presentation about the expansion of their alcohol delivery and pickup. According to a recent Nielsen report, alcohol is the fastest-growing e-commerce vertical across all consumer packaged goods
While we are talking about alcohol, traditional beer brands are Pushing the Boundaries of Beer into the incredibly hot hard seltzer market with beer seltzer.
The ‘beer seltzer’ market is growing exponentially, according to IRI the category defined as “beer seltzer centric” was only $30.5 million in multi-outlet in 2016. In the 52 weeks ended this past Aug. 8, sales totaled a whopping $4.48 billion!
Other, non booze related, stories that caught our eye.
Rodney McMullen, the CEO of Kroger, was a keynote at GrocreyShop 2021 said Kroger is seeing its digital efforts pay off as the grocer retains shoppers within its ecosystem.
He went on to say, “We’ve always had the theory of it, but it was the first time we had a true data point that the customer really did switch from one to the other in a totally seamless way.”
Regarding the increasingly crowded Retail Media space, where Kroger was an early entrant he said Kroger is going to stay ahead of the curve and continue it’s customer first approach saying, “we’re not going to advertise Coke to Pepsi customer, and vice versa, because that doesn’t do us any good,” he said. “I’m sure we can get revenue from it, but we’re really trying to figure out a way where all boats rise.”
A new Instacart study released today by Dr. Robert Kulick of NERA Economic Consulting reveals the uniquely positive impact Instacart has had on the U.S. brick-and-mortar grocery industry and the American economy.
- 186,000 net new grocery jobs
- $6.4 billion incremental grocery revenue
Full Study <Here>
Our friends at Analytic Index announced today the expansion of the Analytic Index Platform to include data from and curated reports for Target ecommerce.
“For the first time ever, vendors can gain visibility into the inner workings of the Target marketplace, giving them an unprecedented advantage over the competition, specifically when it comes to organic and paid search optimization.”
– Mike Karlsven, co-founder and chief executive officer
Rite Aid reports Q2 earnings with a narrower than expected second quarter loss of $100.3 million.
“We are pleased with our second-quarter results, which show continued improvement in our underlying business as we delivered another quarter of revenue growth and Adjusted EBITDA that exceeded expectations,”
– Heyward Donigan, president and chief executive officer, Rite Aid.
Hy-Vee has done a really good job in finding the right partners to get into the red hot Retail Media space also partnering with Catalina, Citrus Ad and Quotient launching their own Retail Media Network in May of this year.
Albertsons to bundle online orders from other stores in test program. This story reflects trends colliding—DoorDash looking to expand their revenue streams before time runs out, Albertsons (retailers) driving “traffic” unconventionally, convenience and delivery being a top purchase factor, fragmented markets consolidating, and customers at the center. Chris Rupp, Albertsons EVP, said, “there’s no chance every customer on the planet is going to buy all of their food in one place for the rest of time… we just want to help our customers get done the job they want to get done.”
Walmart makes a new online push for healthy, sustainable products. It’s part of a “Built for Better” online destination. BFB will identify personal health and environmentally sustainable products based on independent standards for the shopper. Walmart, in their commitment to sustainability, is looking to change their perception and respond to current customer needs.
PetSmart Launches Online Pharmacy to Cater to Pet Health Needs. Enough said. Since 20-somethings are treating animals as their own children these days, we expect PetSmart to have success in this area. According to MNB, purchasing a pet increased during the pandemic, and making the life of a new pet owner easier (especially related to health and medication) is solving a real, needed customer pain point.
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