Hey hey, Flux fam!

Here's everything you need to know today - in under 3 minutes.

Today's big stories

🛠Bunnings crowned Australia's strongest brand

🎵Spotify faces pressure to moderate podcasts

🛍Shein eyes off US IPO

Oh and get this...

Amazon has quietly ended a program that paid employees to post nice things about the company on social media. The program was meant to counter negative perceptions about the working conditions at its massive warehouses.

Bunnings is Australia's strongest brand, so it turns out lowest prices really were just the beginning

Background: Bunnings are Australia's hardware GOATs. The business was founded all the way back in 1886...and has since gone on to turn around $15 billion in revenue each year.

What happened: Home renovations were really popular during COVID, so it's not super surprising that Bunnings has just taken the cake for being Australia's strongest brand. Woolies and Officeworks rounded out the top three.

What else: In extra good news for Woolies, this crew took out first place in the brand value rankings - for the third year in a row.

So what's the key learning?

💡While brand strength and brand value kinda sound the same…they’re actually very different.

💡We've got:

1. Brand strength: a marketing term that refers to a customer’s perception of the brand (aka how likely a customer is to purchase an item from the company not because of the item itself, but because of the brand's reputation)
2. Brand value: this refers how much of a company's profits can be attributed to the brand (kinda like a financial gauge of your brand's worth).

💡Thanks to keeping doors open across COVID - and providing loads of toilet papers in tough times - Woolies' brand value was strong.

Spotify told to moderate podcasts after another one of (controversial turtle) Joe Rogan's chats

Background: Spotify are one of the world’s biggest music streaming platforms. And, as of 2015, they’re also one of the world’s biggest podcasts platforms (Call Her Daddy, Michelle Obama's pod and the Joe Rogan Experience).

What happened: Joe Rogan is...controversial. He's loved by many, but a lot of listeners (and scientific experts) reckon he sometimes crosses a few lines. One of them being the COVID misinformation line.

What else: In a December podcast, Joe Rogan spoke to a critic of the COVID vaccine. As a result, medical and scientific experts…and even your mum’s fave singer, Neil Young, called on Spotify to take the ep down.

So what's the key learning?

💡While most written content is moderated by platforms like Facebook and Twitter, podcasts have been largely left untouched.

💡One reason is that podcasts exist across a number of different platforms and apps (i.e. a podcast on Spotify might also be on Apple Podcasts). This means all platforms would need to agree on the content to be moderated.

💡There are also around 17,000 shows that launch weekly, which makes it really hard to keep track of. But as platforms like Facebook and TikTok receive more pressure to rein in COVID lies...times could be changing for Spotify.

Shein is shooting for a US IPO and will the share price be as cheap as the clothes?

Background: Shein is a Chinese online fast-fashion retailer. They launched back in 2008 and are known for their dirt-cheap clothes. And they're popular, too. In 2020, they were the most-talked about brand on TikTok.

What happened: But Shein has had its controversies. It's previously been involved in trademark disputes, human rights violations and climate concerns...but now, they're about to do something big: a New York IPO.

What else: The plan is to list later this year, and the company's founder is even considering a citizenship change to bypass tough rules for offshore IPOs.

So what's the key learning?

💡If Shein lists in the US, it will be the ultimate litmus test for Chinese companies after Chinese authorities implemented some new rules in July last year.

💡These rules would make IPO-ing in the US more complicated, and more time consuming. They may also affect a Chinese company's ability to report on key business metrics.

💡But there might be a little hack: if Shein's founder changes his citizenship...he may be able to bypass the rules. And it might set the scene for other Chinese founders wanting to list in the US too.