---
id: "contrarian-rmn-failure-is-relational"
type: "contrarian-insight"
source_timestamps: ["§ The Research"]
tags: ["contrarian", "root-cause", "relationships"]
related: ["claim-rmn-failure-is-relational"]
challenges: "The conventional view that retail media success is primarily driven by having the best data infrastructure, targeting algorithms, or largest audience reach."
speakers: ["Remko Van Hoek", "Stephanie Thomas", "Rodney Thomas"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/the-importance-of-trust-and-transparency-in-retail-media-networks"
source_title: "The Importance of Trust and Transparency in Retail Media Networks"
sources: ["attention"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-attention"
originDay: 4
articleStem: "hbr-foci-71-retail-media-networks-trust"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/the-importance-of-trust-and-transparency-in-retail-media-networks"
sourceTitle: "The Importance of Trust and Transparency in Retail Media Networks"
---
# Contrarian: RMN failure is relational, not technical

**Contrarian insight.** In a field dominated by discussions of data clean rooms, closed-loop attribution algorithms, and programmatic bidding, the authors found that RMNs are actually stalling due to **relational breakdowns** — lack of trust, coercion, mismatched expectations — rather than technical or strategic shortcomings.

**What it challenges.** The conventional view that retail media success is primarily driven by the best data infrastructure, targeting algorithms, or largest audience reach. This is the sharp edge of [[claim-rmn-failure-is-relational]] and is voiced in [[quote-problem-is-relational]].

**Tension to hold (enrichment).** Several sources push back: measurement, identity resolution, and attribution remain genuinely unsolved in many networks, so weak trust may partly be a *symptom* of weak measurement infrastructure rather than a wholly independent cause. A balanced expert treats relational and technical failure as intertwined.