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Amazon Canada Feature: Supporting Outstanding Canadian Businesses

November 8, 2020 by Johnny Russo Leave a Comment

For Holiday 2020, Amazon Canada asked to interview me about one of the largest growing brands on their platform, Jellifish Kids. It was a feature to support Canadian businesses during the peak 2020 Holiday season. They also prepared a digital lookbook to share with media and customers during the key Holiday season. Below are some images and links to the feature.

Thanks to Amazon Canada for all their support.

Here is the excerpt of that article as it appeared:

Johnny Russo, VP of Marketing and E-commerce, Jellifish Kids, Montreal, QC

How did Jellifish Kids get their start:
Jellifish Kids is part of The Kersheh Group, a manufacturer and marketer of sleepwear established in 1978. The brand was started to fill a void in the kids sleepwear market. Jellifish Kids is all about comfort and focuses on fun, colourful and playful themes in its designs. We also have an established line of licensed sleepwear, including partnerships with Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and more!

Tell us about your role and why it’s important to Jellifish Kids:
When I joined the business in 2019, the core focus of my role was developing our brands – most crucial of which was Jellifish Kids – and scaling the e-commerce business across Amazon, various other marketplaces and our own e-commerce sites. It’s been amazing to see the support the company has put behind this role and, most importantly, being supportive of the vision we have, which is to become the largest sleepwear destination in North America.

What does it mean for a small business like Jellifish Kids to have a VP of Marketing and E-commerce:
I was asking myself the same question during the hiring and recruiting process before I joined. For me, it meant Jellifish Kids was seriously getting behind developing their brand and launching their e-commerce division. I’ve had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with our executive committee and I can tell you they are all big believers of what we’re building. I’ve got a great team that embraces challenges, supports each other, is adaptive and is positive along the way. After all, we sell pajamas, so we have some fun throughout the journey.

Check out the entire feature article and see all the great Canadian businesses supported by and with Amazon.

Here are some of the images featured in their lookbook highlighting the Jellifish Kids brand and products.

Take a look at the entire Digital Lookbook Amazon put together to support successful Canadian businesses during the peak Holiday 2020 season.

My Blog Is Changing, Because I Have Changed – My Blog Manifesto

March 24, 2018 by Johnny Russo 3 Comments

More than 3 years ago, I started a blog. I have a Journalism degree, so it was not that hard. I probably should have started one 10 years earlier, but I guess I thought I didn’t have anything interesting to say, which is kind of odd for a marketer, right? As I developed my career – and more importantly, gained new life experiences that have helped me grow – I started gaining a voice. And I wanted an outlet to share that voice. And over the years, that voice has grown and continues to grow. And since I advocate strongly against the status quo, I thought it was time I changed this blog and what it will stand for.

Currently (or at least in the recent past), my blog is/was focused on writing about Ecommerce, Digital Marketing and Social Media. I currently publish about once per month. Posts range from 1,500-2,500 words. Many posts have a lot of research attached to them. But I read a lot of books, blogs, and articles, network a ton, learn from mentors and mentees, and have opinions I’d like to share, more often. However, in the current context of my blog, it does not necessarily fit with the 3 main pillars of Ecommerce, Digital Marketing, and Social Media – though it usually does tie back to them in one way or another for sure.

Helping People Has Become A Passion

I also have a love of helping people, and topics surrounding leadership, inspiration, motivation, transformation, and retail that I have trouble intertwining within my blog as it currently lives. Also, I would rather share my experience and thoughts and feelings, than spend so much time researching posts to write about.

[Read more…]

How The Fairmont San Francisco Messed The Bed

June 28, 2016 by Johnny Russo Leave a Comment

In the last 7 months, my wife and I have stayed at a Fairmont property 3 times.

The Fairmont is one of the most popular luxury hotel chains, and takes service to a whole new level, including calling the instant you enter your room to make sure everything is ok. We have stayed at the Fairmont in Montebello, Quebec and the Fairmont in Lake Louise, Alberta. Both of those properties are stunning and tranquil, extraordinary, yet with a boutique feel.

Fairmont San Francisco Early Check-in Fee: $75

So when a Google event was being hosted at the Fairmont in San Francisco last May, I was looking forward to the stay. It’s also at the top of San Francisco on Mason Street, which presents beautiful views, yet is also hard to navigate with steeps sidewalks that make your calves burn.

Anyhow, we got there at 10:00 a.m. after a weekend in Napa, which, granted, is way earlier than normal check-in. The lady at the front desk politely told us that our room was ready, but there was a $75 charge if we wanted to take early possession of the room. Since it was a company expense, we wanted to be fair and passed on the pricey early check-in, leaving our luggage with the concierge, and taking in the sights and sounds of one of the greatest cities in the U.S.

Good News: the Fairmont has Gone Digital

When our room was ready, we got a text saying we could now check-in (loving the Fairmont’s digital mindset. Their lobby bar also uses tablets as their menus).

We checked in a little while after receiving the text.

The next morning, I received a text asking how everything was, and asking me to rate the experience thus far, on a scale of 1-5, in which 5 was excellent. I shot back a text minutes later with a score of 3.5. I was not trying to be difficult or harsh, but I thought that was more than fair.

Service Fail: an Apology, But Nothing Else

They immediately apologized and asked why it was a poor experience. (You get the picture of their high standards). I assured them it was not poor, but that the room had a terrible view and the toilet made noise for a few minutes after each flush. Also added the fact about the early check-in fee for a room that was already ready.

And here was where they could have been customer service heroes.

They could have asked to upgrade me to a room with a nice view (I did mention it was our third time staying at the Fairmont in the last few months). Maybe there were no rooms left? I believe they did have availability, but say they didn’t. They could have done something special, perhaps a voucher for a restaurant, or a voucher for a potential next stay. But they simply apologized, missing the chance for me to become an evangelist, like I am for the Fairmont Montebello and the Fairmont Lake Louise, where the staff went over and above our expectations.

Customer Service Lesson For All Brands

As Damon Richards once said: “Your customer doesn’t care how much you know them until they know how much you care.”

There’s a lesson here for brands. We all say we take customer service very seriously. But brands that action that statement better, win more.

The Fairmont San Francisco is very, very nice. They just missed a chance to hit a homerun when the situation presented itself.

Stop The Archaic Sales Pitch!

October 11, 2015 by Johnny Russo 2 Comments

First off, my apologies to all my sales friends out there, and also to the awesome sales people who truly understand relationship building. This post is not aimed at them.

I can’t pinpoint when it all started to go downhill, but I assume that Linked, social media, and the fact we all have websites has made it easier to get in touch. There is also more information out there on potential prospects then there has ever been. And therein lies the problem. With more info at sales peoples’ disposal (for the sake of this post, I will loop you all in together), their selling habits have not changed.

They are aggressive on first touch point. They know very little about you or the company you represent. They throw out numbers that have little true meaning. Or they offer a client roster that is irrelevant to your business, industry, or department. And they over-confidently ask for budget or the sale way too early.

So let’s get started on what annoys us – your potential prospects – the most.

**Change the *!c%en Font!**

Through discussions and informal polls of what irks us as digital marketers and Ecommerce professionals the most, none is further up the list than the template email. Here is what it looks like. “Hi Johnny…” which is followed up by a 2,000 word novel that borders on a diatribe throwing out some industry terms like ROI, SEO, SEM, and social commerce. There are a few flags as to why we know this happens (so listen up, and fix this, pretty please).

The “Hi Johnny” font and font size are completely different than the text that follows. (Sarcasm coming). Well done on the copy and paste.
You have forgotten to insert the current company I am working at, so for instance, instead of writing in “Bentley Leathers,” it reads “insert company name.” Or possibly worse, you call us by the wrong name (damn CRM system) or insert the wrong company name.
Your sign off name is a completely different font than all the text above.

I understand. You are likely using a marketing automation tool to get this all done. But if you can’t make the effort to personalize the experience, then why should we take the time to respond?

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Why Facebook’s Change to Page Counts is a Good Thing

April 3, 2015 by Johnny Russo Leave a Comment

On Monday, March 16, 2015, many agencies, brand managers, social media gurus, and numerous other entrepreneurs who manage their brand’s Facebook page woke up to disaster. Facebook likes on their page crumbled. Ok. Maybe that’s stretching it, as most brands saw only a slight decrease in brand likes, perhaps as much as 5%-10%.

But here’s what happened.

Facebook Eliminated Deactivated Accounts From Brand Page Counts

Deactivated accounts are accounts that users have chosen to turn off but not completely delete. Many people want to step away from Facebook for a little, and if they deactivate their account temporarily, then when they return, all their friends and liked pages would be turned back on. So a Facebook Page liked by these deactivated accounts loses the like count on the Page for now. However, the like will automatically come back when the account is reactivated.

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