The Raffi Report - w/c 7th July 2025
The five best Marketing-related nuggets across my desk this week
Welcome to the latest edition of The Raffi Report!
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ONE (if you want to understand the decline of extreme couponing, read this one)
For me the most under-discussed element of a Marketer’s universe right now is cost of living. It’s an invisible killer / maker of brands who have failed to / have succeeded in building meaningful equity over the years.
A tangent here is that, at the same, extreme couponing has been dealt a blow: inflation-weary shoppers are on the hunt for deals deals deals but brands have to fight for margin so much now that the juice is often not worth the squeeze.
CVS is playing ball though, and is set to become the first national retailer to accept "universal coupons" through the Coupon24 app—a new type of coupon that works across multiple retailers.
Curious to see how this inflation vs brand vs margin battle plays out…
TWO (if you want to see consumer sentiment hitting dangerous lows, read this one)
Following on from the dramas in coupon land… I was interested to see that The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index dropped 29% in the first four months of 2025, hitting one of its worst readings on record. Over the 79 years of the survey, a drop this large this fast has almost always predicted a recession.
If growth slows further still, and inflation persists… Stagflation is looming.
The last time we had that was the 1970s, and safe to say virtually no Marketer operating then will be still be in their role today… Unchartered terrain awaits for a set of brand leaders who have grown up on the bountiful budgets of the 2010s and selling into a consumer base on the up.
Fascinated to see how brands grow by mixing a message of aspiration and desire with one of stability and prudence…
THREE (if you want to see the future of creator monetization, read this one)
I’m obsessed with the interplay of online creators and physically-driven revenue (a YouTube influencer doing an arena tour, for instance…)
Take Dude Perfect who just sold out 21 arena shows, with fans traveling an average of one hour and 20% driving 2.5+ hours to see them. That's compared to sports fans who typically travel just 10-13 miles to attend games.
They have 61m subs!!! That is more or less the entire population of Great Britain… Half of tickets sold before Christmas with zero preview content—literally just "Dude Perfect is coming."
I don’t think most Marketers realise what is going on with this social-irl continuum, but you’re starting to see it in the CPG snacking space where traditional salty snack companies are losing share and creators able to use their distribution and presence to rapidly scale healthy brands are eating that share up…
FOUR (if you want to see AI transforming restaurants, have a look at this one)
98% of restaurant operators expect AI to have a high impact on customer experience within three years, according to a new Deloitte survey. AI is already answering phones, handling reservations, and processing orders. Casual dining restaurants are leading adoption, with 55% already using AI for customer experience versus 40% of fast-food chains.
It’s going to be interesting to see the concept of “service” play out in the face of AI. As consumers do we think of service as that which comes from another human? Or if I am served better and my needs are met, will I be happy with AI?
Food (sorry not sorry) for thought!!
FIVE (if you want to see social commerce evolution, take a look at this one)
What do you do if your last retail partnership drove a $100 million sales uplift? You do the next one…
And so Glossier just joined TikTok Shop: now the eighth-largest beauty retailer in the US, with over 60% of Gen Z users shopping there daily. For context: beauty and personal care generated a whopping $2.5 billion in gross sales on the platform last year.
Earlier this year I had the chance to chat with the folks who set up Liquid Death’s marketing… Their no1 reccomendation for 2025? TikTok Shop. It feels like its time has come…
