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Netflix’s Halloween Horror: Not Enough ‘KPop’ Costumes; Boston Beer Boosts Outlook; Target to Cut 1,800 Roles
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Good morning. Today, ‘KPop’ costume hunters haunt store aisles in vain; the owner of Sam Adams sees good news despite a double-digit revenue decline; and Target’s next CEO says corporate bloat made decision making too complicated.
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Parents are scrambling to find options to dress their kids as Zoey, Rumi and Mira, the demon-slaying singers of Huntr/x. Photo: Spirit Halloween
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Netflix is missing out on a Halloween marketing moment and some licensing revenue to boot as parents struggle to find costumes based on its hit “KPop Demon Hunters,” Robbie Whelan reports.
Netflix’s official online store offers limited “KPop” garb, but mostly at premium prices: Made-to-order versions of the jackets worn by Huntr/x members Rumi and Zoey each cost $89.95. Spirit Halloween got some costumes in late September, but the “KPop” shelves at a Glendale, Calif., location recently were bare except for a few purple braids and a bucket hat.
Netflix’s consumer products team pitched the movie at licensing expos over a year before it came out, but apparel companies weren’t eager to go big on an untested, original animated franchise, said Netflix CMO Marian Lee.
After “KPop” exploded and Netflix rushed to play catch-up, people carped in Lee’s Facebook moms’ group that costumes were impossible to find.
“I had a lot of comments like, ‘Somebody in Netflix marketing really messed this one up!’” Lee said.
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Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
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Implementing Gen AI for Retail and Consumer Brands
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With a strategic approach to implementation, retail and consumer brands can use generative AI to enhance operations, improve customer experiences, and drive business growth. Read More
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Boston Beer, which owns the Samuel Adams brand, said net revenue slid 11% in the third quarter. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Boston Beer raised its profit guidance for the year, Kelly Cloonan writes, but not because the beer boom is back.
Net revenue slid 11% to $537.5 million; analysts expected $542.1 million.
Instead, the Sam Adams brewer sees a milder tariff headwind than expected.
It’s also encouraged by positive reactions to its Sun Cruiser brand innovation—a canned vodka iced tea—and a second consecutive quarter of growth for its Angry Orchard hard cider business, CEO Jim Koch said.
“We are continuing to invest in advertising and innovation across our portfolio of brands to grow market share and position ourselves well for when the consumer environment improves,” Koch said.
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“Not everyone has to like everything we do. Bad Bunny is f—ing awesome.”
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— NFL CMO Tim Ellis on the halftime performer in the next Super Bowl. Some conservatives have criticized the choice, complaining that Bad Bunny sings in Spanish.
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Target will cut around 8% of its approximately 22,000 corporate employees, with around 80% of the impact in its U.S. ranks. Photo: Allison Dinner/EPA/Shutterstock
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Target will cut some 1,000 global corporate employees and 800 open roles as part of an effort to reverse stagnant sales, Sarah Nassauer reports.
“The truth is, the complexity we’ve created over time has been holding us back,” incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke, a Target lifer, told staff.
Fiddelke wants to improve customers’ shopping experience and speed up Targets’s adoption of technology, but calls style and design “our North Star.”
Roughly half of Target workers in a company survey in June said they didn’t think the retailer was making the changes necessary to compete effectively.
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2.5 million
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Square feet in Macy’s largest and most-automated warehouse to date, opened in China Grove, N.C., as the retailer resets its supply chain to speed fulfillment and increase sales. Robots at the $640 million facility pick clothes, shoes, cosmetics and home goods for online orders and to restock stores.
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The WSJ CMO Council Summit
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This Nov. 18 and 19, CMOs will gather in New York for The WSJ CMO Summit, featuring marketing leaders such as Vanessa Broadhurst of Johnson & Johnson, Cheryl Krauss of Chubb, Alicia Tillman of Delta Air Lines, Laura Jones of Instacart and Taylor Montgomery of Taco Bell. Together, they’ll explore fan-fueled growth, AI in marketing and the evolving CMO-CEO partnership. Join the CMO Council and be part of the conversation shaping the future of marketing leadership. Request Invitation
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Portland head coach Chauncey Billups was arrested as part of a sprawling investigation into illegal gambling and poker game schemes. Photo: Alika Jenner/Getty Images
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The new NBA season is off to a great start (let’s go Knicks!) … [THR]
… if you don’t count the arrest of a player and a coach in a federal investigation of illegal sports gambling. [WSJ]
The European Union charged Meta Platforms under the bloc’s flagship online-content rules, alleging that Meta fails to give users simple ways to flag illegal content or appeal when it removes their posts or suspends their accounts. [WSJ]
Former Miramax CEO Bill Block is launching GammaTime, a microdrama platform with more than 20 shows including two from “CSI” creator Anthony Zuiker: “The Temptress” and “The Lust Cop.” [WSJ]
Fox Entertainment bought a stake in B.J. Novak’s food event company Chain, which offers collaborations between top-tier chefs and restaurant chains like Pizza Hut and Panda Express. [Variety]
Beauty brands are offering accessible options for people with shaky hands or arthritis. (They seem good for everyone else, too.) [WSJ]
WPP made an AI-driven ad platform available to marketers to plan, create and place their own ad campaigns. [Reuters]
The experiential agency that created Airbnb’s Barbie Dreamhouse is cutting staff and salaries as it confronts a cash crunch. [Ad Age]
Review: Nicole Nguyen tried the AI web browsers, and she’s never going back. [WSJ]
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