Shopper Culture

Redefining Brand Engagement - British Airways

It’s the time of year when many of us are in planning mode for summer holidays because airline and holiday companies are holding big sales. I’ve scoured the internet for deals to good locations and on a recent glance at my Facebook news feed, I spotted a shared post about the chance to win a holiday. Lo and behold, it was a British Airways competition that offered a chance to win tickets to a chosen destination, such as Orlando or Barbados, every day for a week. Usually these competitions offer one pair of tickets and a highly unlikely chance of winning, but British Airways was giving hundreds of tickets away each day through two entry routes.

I could enter online via Facebook, where one person could win two tickets each day by answering a question about the chosen destination. It was an easy mechanic, and I completed the task in two minutes.

 

2013 Shopper Trends In Light of New Year’s Resolutions and The Fiscal Cliff Scare

Though we have averted the fiscal cliff, I wonder how it will impact shopper trends in 2013. According to BIGInsight’s December 2012 survey, consumer confidence is down month over month (Index of 95) but remains stronger than 2011 (Index 139).  Combine that with post-holiday purse tightening and the popular New Year’s resolution to spend less and save more, shoppers may be a harder audience to woo in 2013. 

With expenses on the brain, shoppers will be looking for more in 2013—more bang for their buck, more entertainment (online and offline) and basically more of everything. The good news is that brands and retailers are already finding ways to do this via interactive retail, subscriptions and fashionization of their products. Trend Hunter’s 2013 trend video indicates that these retail tactics will continue in 2013 and that we should expect to see more semi-permanent (formerly pop-up) retail stores, vending options, upgrades to the average, and immersive branding this coming year. Though digital is an ever-growing force, it appears that digital and physical POS will continue to work in tandem to bring more to shoppers. Do you think this will be enough to woo shoppers in 2013 given the recent damper on the state of the U.S. economy?

 

Turning Subways into Stores

In August, Tesco pioneered the use of subway platforms as virtual stores in Seoul (partly because they ran out of real estate for new stores). Chinese online supermarket Yihodian.com then installed walls in 15 subway stations in Shanghai. P&G launched a similar system in Prague with Mall.cz, the Czech Republic's largest e-tailer.

Now Sears is launching holiday toy walls in airports, movie theaters, and bus stations in the US.

One implication is that any 2D surface (outdoor, wild posting, ambient, print) can become a storefront. There's a new choice in these spaces: advertise or merchandise?

But these programs also reveal something about how humans work. Why doesn't Tesco just use that wall to say, "Shop thousands of products, right this minute, right on your phone"? Why the need to choose 200 or so SKUs and post life-size 2D depictions of them on the walls? 

Our brains need familiar schema, comfortable metaphors, and visual stimuli to spur action. It's why the email symbol is still an envelope, and why 'the red carpet' means star treatment, even if it's two meters long and not very different from the regular passenger boarding lane at Gate A18.

The Bravo Taco Truck

The site of another food truck meandering through Times Square this past Cinco de Mayo may not have seemed interesting at first glance.  However, this was not your typical roach coach.  Roaches were definitely not the on the menu.   True to its name, the Dos Equis “Brave Taco Truck” offered daring participants samples of tacos filled with either ostrich, cow tongue, veal brain or grasshopper.

“Everything we did from the truck branding to the taco fillings is about being truly “interesting”, said Senior Brand Director Paul Smailes for the Mexican beer.  “We tested a lot of recipes and samples but settled on the ones we did because it gives everyone a chance to have an experience they’ll share and remember.” 

From late April through May 7, the truck made multiple stops each day throughout Manhattan to dispense the selection of exotic taco fare.  The tacos were free, but limited to three per person.  Beer was not sampled off the truck.

Beyond the sampling, Dos Equis reached out to its audience through multiple social media outlets.  It’s Facebook page has over 1.1 million “likes” and featured a “Taco Tracker” map indicating all 21 truck stops.  In addition, the Facebook page included Twitter updates and asked fans to check in on Foursquare and Facebook Places.

Dos Equis will measure results based on the social impact that the brand is making through Facebook and Twitter and number of taco samples distributed.  Measuring the impact of elevating shopper engagement and brand purchase is less defined.  As shopper marketing adapts and evolves towards more holistic solutions along the path to purchase, any lack of integration seems a missed brand opportunity.

Photo From Trendhunter.

Contributed by Paul Ballew

 

Bullseye Bodega in NYC

In overstimulated Manhattan, standing out is a difficult stunt to pull off, unless your name happens to be Naked Cowboy. Or as of last week, Target.

We first heard about Target's experiment from Neil Sittler, a contributor to the Art Director's Club of Denver blog. The trend-blazing retailer orchestrated the opening of four pop-up stores under the moniker Bullseye Bodega that had the city abuzz. For four days only (during Fashion Week, no less), 22 designers put their braintrust in creating these boutiques and inserting limited-edition goodies that would grace these stores well before hitting super-sized Targets.

Taking a page from NYC corner stores, produce coolers held Anya Hindmarch's handbags. Grocery shelves held Sigerson Morrison's glam/suede footwear. All of these treasures were treated as bargains, courtesy of little signs flaunting messages like, "Wowsa. Pretty plates, only $2.99 for a set of 8."

Other retailers should take note of Target's recent endeavor. Not only does it create buzz, it's also a way to introduce new brands or even retail formats and experiences short of a national rollout.

- Contributed by Jay Roth

Retail at music gigs

As a fan of live music, and a musician myself, I recently made my way to the Fillmore Auditorium where the Brian Setzer’s Orchestra was performing. Brian Setzer has performed with a number of guitars, but his primary “ax” is a Gretsch “Hot Rod” – a flashy hollow-body that Setzer designed to his own specifications.

 

Gretsch markets and sells the “Hot Rod” as a signature model within the Brian Setzer series.  Of course, as a consumer, you can only purchase a brand new “Hot Rod” at retail outlets like Guitar Center.

What's this got to do with retail?

I wasn’t at Guitar Center when I recently encountered the “Hot Rod” – I was at the Fillmore.  Prior to the acts beginning, I spotted a Gretsch Guitar “pop-up” display positioned around stage right.  The pop-up featured a large graphic panel highlighting the cover of Brian Setzer’s latest CD and an even larger image of Brian himself cradling a vintage Gretsch guitar. Below was a rather large assortment of the Gretsch guitars - beautifully shimmering in a variety of luscious colors.

 

Neither Gretsch or Brian Setzer are brands of the masses – they can’t compete on that stage.  To that end, marketing has to be targeted and the messaging truly engaging. Communicating within an active environment where consumer are open, receptive and can interact with the brands on a purely emotional level heightens consideration.  Breaking through the clutter and noise at traditional retail outlets like Guitar Center or Virgin Music isn’t efficient for these brands or meaningful to the consumer.

While the messaging was specifically targeted at Setzer fans and Gretsch guitar enthusiast, the venue provided natural transitional moments (waiting for the show to start or that time between acts) where consumers felt comfortable interacting with the brand.  How often do brands try to reach us when we are rushed or the setting isn’t natural?

Equally, how often do celebrities endorse brands where the endorsement feels neither real nor relevant? Is a Buick really the car of choice for Tiger Woods? He knows golf inside and out, but what is his credibility with cars?

Brian Setzer knows guitars.  Brian Setzer designs guitars.  Brian Setzer shreds a guitar like no one else.  Brian Setzer plays Gretsch.  I get it.  I believe it.

So, to rephrase the question - is this retail?

At The Integer Group, we have started to think of retail as: 

“Any environment (physical or virtual) that has been constructed to process or facilitate an exchange of items of value (transaction).”

This certainly was a physical environment and the intent was to elicit a transaction between audience and brand – I gave my time and Gretsch allowed me an intimate product experience.  I also gave something else.  Next to the row of glittering guitars was a computer kiosk.  Many of us enthusiastically gave away our names, addresses and e-mail addresses for a chance at winning a Brian Setzer autographed signature Gretsch.

Later comes the true test of audience/brand engagement.  Buying a Gretsch represents a high involvement purchase – they run about $3,000.  None of us at the Fillmore were prepared to pull out our debit cards and take one home, but I imagine (and hope) I will soon start getting e-mails and further messages from Gretsch as they have now pegged me as someone hopelessly climbing from consideration (yeah I would like one) to intent (damn, I need one).

Gretsch wasn’t selling that night and no one was making a purchase. What they did do was to place a permanent brand image squarely within the right hemisphere of my brain – the part where creativity flourishes and any inkling of reason and rational decision-making is noticeably absent.  For me, my aspiration of owning a Gretsch is the epitome of practicality.  It makes all the sense in the world.

No, they weren’t selling that night, but I was buying – buying into the realization that I really needed that guitar.

Now that’s retailing.

- Contributed by Paul Ballew

HBO pop-up pharmacy

What happens when your brand doesn't actually sell any goods but wants the impact of a retail storefront?  Take a look at HBO who just opened a fake pharmacy storefront in Times Square.

Via The Denver Egotist.