A Real Jellyfish - Or Why You Can Get Stung By A Retail Partner

Yes, you read that correctly, "A Real Jellyfish" - as it applies to the watch business. 

I have to give full credit to a show I've been watching on Prime - The Patriot. A jellyfish is, a euphemism for a particularly thorny situation that is not easily navigated or solved.

Shamelessly borrowed from the world-wide infoweb

A jellyfish is a very, very difficult animal to kill. Imagine that you, gentle reader, were to get cut in half, not unlike the famous magician's trick (only this time it's no trick!). Chances are pretty good that it's curtains for you. Sorry lovely & willing volunteer from the audience. Now I'm pretty certain that you've never seen a magician try to saw a jellyfish in half. And if you have, I am a bit concerned about where you are spending your free time... but let's get back to the matter at hand. Long story short, if you cut a jellyfish in half? It can regenerate the missing half. So where you once had one stingy, floating thing, you now have two. You've just doubled your problems.

I want to share a story with you that is, in fact, true. A brand manager was very, very keen to get his bonus. As you can probably imagine, brand managers don't really have a whole bunch of metrics to measure performance against beyond sales. So brand manager X was compelled to get as many doors open as possible, because the way the folks back at HQ, thousands of miles and an ocean away saw it, a watch in a store was as good as a sale. I mean, c'mon! 

And in time, one of the independent doors that was opened was doing very, very well - constantly. Funny thing about the owner - he paid his bills on time. And he promoted the brand, and everything seemed rosy. But then events overtook the brand manager, and a new brand head was brought in and things started to change. The new top dog in the US was, in fact, not from the US. And this fellow decided it made more sense to put all of his brand's eggs in a single, bigger basket - one of the larger chains, and decided to close other accounts in the area, even the account of one of the original stores that had done very well. 

But a funny thing happened. That store that was part of the larger, impressive group, pulled a jellyfish, and now where there was one, now there are many. And the cache has now somewhat tarnished and what used to be viewed as exclusive is now being bought and sold en masse through various grey market and "legit" sources. And sooner or later, this small group of jellyfish will lose patience with competing with the other remaining independent retailers - or worse, they will confront another group of jellyfish that might, in fact, have a stronger sting as far as the brand manager is concerned. Long story short - it's a real jellyfish!

Now where this will all end remains to be seen. And in truth, it is not unique in the world watch distribution and retail, but it is also certainly not the way things used to be. It used to be that there was, I am sorry to be old-fashioned, a code. You have a relationship with a retail partner - particularly one that by their efforts alone was responsible for your brand's success in the US, and you drop them for no reason other than avarice? Let's just hope you don't get stung by that group of jellyfish you've now created.