Shopper Culture

syndicated content powered by FeedBurner

FeedBurner makes it easy to receive content updates in My Yahoo!, Newsgator, Bloglines, and other news readers.

Learn more about syndication and FeedBurner...

Current Feed Content

Online Shopper Engagement: Good Deals Vs. Fostering Relationships

Posted: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:05:00 -0700

When it comes to online engagement with brands, online coupons were the most used interaction by shoppers; higher even than visiting brand Web sites. Within this category, Food brands led the surveyed categories with 21 percent of shoppers saying they had downloaded online coupons. Interestingly, a mixed bag of categories (Entertainment, Household Products, and Apparel) follow closely behind—showing that the Web-savvy shopper is looking for discounts across the board.

Where Does Social Media Fit In?

Increasing brands’ presence within the social media space is the cost of entry for many manufactuers, so it’s interesting that only 6 percent of consumers overall reported following a brand via this channel. It’s not surprising to see Entertainment brands (movies, music, books, etc.) lead social interaction as they are often popular topics shared on the Web. However, it’s at a meager 4 percent of social share for all consumers. Even apparel brands, which could potentially offer some amount of social badging and status, reach less than 2 percent of consumers.

For more information on the converging worlds for digital and retail, download the latest issue of The Checkout here.
New Tech Players Lighting Up the Retail Space

Posted: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:48:20 -0700

At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), an unlikely retail player emerged. Fulton Innovation, using their eCoupled technology, showed a surprising transformation to packaged goods:

eCoupled is a wireless power solution. Fulton quickly realized that their technology has infinite uses: from charging devices to heating food to making your packaging more eye-catching – they created these custom-lit cereal boxes for pennies on the dollar.

As we all look for ways to make our goods pop off the shelves into people’s carts, I can see this being the next wave of in-store marketing. While it might not increase trial of familiar products (new look, same great taste), this could be a great way to attract attention to a new product – or to a product with low shelf presence. Either way it will definitely make consumers stop and take a second look.

- Submitted by Desereé DeZalia, Dallas
Passport To Purchase: M-Commerce

Posted: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:53:29 -0700

As online technology and services develop, mobile online technology and services of the same kind are sure to follow. This is true of mobile commerce. E-commerce has grown significantly over the past 10 years; and today, mobile commerce not only offers shoppers the same browser-based purchasing services via mobile, but in fact, allows more seamless crossing of channels from digital shopping to in-store shopping.

Click here to download our latest white paper, Passport To Purchase: M-Commerce, and read more abut the mobile evolution and its implications on CPGs, cross-channel approaches, target demographics, purchase behaviors, and more.
The Evolving Multi-Cultural Shopper

Posted: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:36:34 -0700

The importance of multi-cultural shopping in the U.S. is increasing as companies make the effort to understand Hispanic shoppers and their key drivers. The U.S. Hispanic shopper is evolving and adapting, requiring more creativity and engagement from brands and retailers in order to provide value to this segment and ultimately grow business.

We published some information on this important area of U.S. Shopping Culture in a recent edition of The Checkout. The research examines the Hispanic shopper and how their path to purchase has evolved. You can download the Hispanic edition of The Checkout here.

In an unusual and blatant plug from us here at ShopperCulture, The Integer Group has recently launched a new website promoting the services of Velocidad, the Hispanic Promotional, Retail and Shopper Marketing division of the Group. Velocidad has been a bit of a well kept secret, building its skills and expertise with multi-cultural audiences through the last decade. As the topic raises its level of importance in the conversation about Shopper Marketing and shopping culture, particularly in the U.S., the Velocidad team has started to share its stories more widely. To find out what they are doing and for more information, please take a look at the new site at www.integervelocidad.com.
The Checkout: DIGITAIL® Report

Posted: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 09:32:48 -0700

Everything today has a digital component. Whether it's your own brand Web site, or your role on a customer Web site of varying flavors, plus the use of digital technologies within bricks & mortar, the worlds of digital and retail have and continue to move ever closer together. Giving rise to a new practice that we at Integer have deemed DIGITAIL®.

The lastest edition of The Checkout looks at shopping behavior through the DIGITAIL® lens, and introduces the need for a new shopping mentality:

Scoring a deal was the number-one reason shoppers said they buy online. This isn’t surprising considering online shopping has traditionally been tied heavily to a spear-fishing mentality. When shoppers hunt for a singular item, they search for a good price, attractive shipping options, and then they buy. Categories that require hunting for multiple items at once, like Food and Beverage or Health and Beauty, need to introduce a new online buying mentality. The concept of completing standard grocery shopping online for most is still far off, and manufacturers and eTailers need to understand that there are conventions ingrained in shopper behavior that they must disrupt. And disruption calls for new value propositions supported by a superior experience from eTailers. Look for innovators like Alice.com and Soap.com to lead this charge. However, to truly create a change of serious scale, it’s going to take large eTailers like Amazon.com and Drugstore.com to offer something new.

For more DIGITAIL® data, you can click here to download the latest edition of The Checkout.
Google Helps Bridge the Online Gap Once Again

Posted: Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:14:24 -0700

Google, through the use of its Google Voice service, allows companies to further bridge the gap between online shopping and in-store results.

The company has recently released a Call Metrics feature within its AdWords product, which helps companies directly link online ad dollars to in-store phone calls. In creating a unique Google Voice number, re-routing to a business line, companies are then able to glean call volume as well as other metrics like call duration. Add this to the growing list of ways in-store data is becoming digitally measured.

Imagine using this in partnership with the goals functionality already present inside Google AdWords – you could almost directly link phone traffic (and online traffic) with any business objective.

While this is currently only accessible for certain advertisers, Google is planning to make this capability more widely available soon. In the meantime, next steps include allowing a location-based, dynamically-created Google Voice number giving users more localized, relevant results. And isn’t that what Google search is all about?

Contributed by: Desereé DeZalia, Integer/Dallas
Wishing You A Happy Holiday!

Posted: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:54:58 -0700
Happy Holiday from everyone here at The Integer Group. We would like to thank our loyal readers for another successful year of our Shopper Culture blog. Thanks to your interest and support, we saw more than 80,000 unique visitors across 161 different countries!

As we gear up for 2011 we're excited to announce the release of the some fresh content and thinking coming in 2011. Early in the year we will be releasing:
- A year-end wrap-up of our 2010 Checkout data from the US.
- An edition of The Checkout about Digitail® and the continuing convergence of all things digital and retail.
- A Middle Eastern Checkout issue, with our summary of 2010 data in that region.
- New white papers covering the subject of Loyalty in the retail landscape, along with an in-depth look at m-commerce.
We're looking forward to another successful year in 2011 sharing our observations on the shopper marketing landscape and continuing the conversation about shopping culture and brand strategy from around the world.

Have a Happy Holiday and we'll see you after the New Year!
Ideation Nation

Posted: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:46:00 -0700

In our corner of the world, ideas are our sustenance. Here are three trends that have nourished our thinking and creativity this year and will continue to be relevant in 2011. We hope it’s a gift that keeps giving throughout your New Year.

SMART CODES? SMART MOVE.

Google has made a really smart move in advancing usage of QR codes from a branding and selling perspective by sending out window decals to the top 100,000 most Google-searched local businesses in the U.S. Why is this so smart and such a big idea? Because it actively connects the power of Google’s search online to the offline world in real time. Plus, with Google’s recent $5.3 billion bid for the local coupon site, Groupon, the company is going to be even more focused on local businesses and their paid search offerings. Where could a smart code be a smart move for your business? And what would you feature — more information, a game, an incentive, or even a live body to talk to? Whatever you decide, it’ll be a move toward connecting to your target audience at the point of decision. And that’s always a smart idea.

COUPONS A-GO-GO

Online and mobile coupons are all the rage with the growing tech-savvy population. Digital couponing not only provides instant gratification, but is becoming even more accessible, secure, interactive, dynamic and intelligent. As companies receive detailed data about their redeemers, this allows them to customize future offers that are more appealing to that shopper and more monetarily efficient for that brand, making it a win-win for all. Want to put some couponing into your marketing plans? Ideate on ways to make coupons instantly cool by making them more instantaneous. This is a great way to shorten the time between seeing and buying as well as to give consumers — more on-the-go than ever — a reason to go in-store ... and BUY!

Click here to read more about Ideation Nation in the latest issue of the Integer Pulse.
Black Friday = Check-in Friday

Posted: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:13:03 -0700
Black Friday deals showcased several retailers partnering with check-in services (e.g., Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places) to drive in-store traffic by offering exclusive deals to shoppers who checked-in:
- Toys R Us offered a 15% discount for purchases over $150 to the first 3,000 shoppers who checked-in on Facebook Places, Foursquare, and Yelp;
- RadioShack offered a number of discounts for checking in on Foursquare – shoppers received 10% off when checking in, 15% if they're the mayor and 20% for unlocking the "Holiday Hero" Badge;
- Shoppers who checked in at The Gap received 30% off any item;
- 0:00 /1:34Plotting your Black Friday strategySports Authority randomly selected 20 users who checked-in to Foursquare and posted their check-in to Twitter between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm EST to receive a $500 dollar gift card;
- Shoppers who checked in at H&M on one of the mobile apps received 20% off purchases;
- And JCPenney offered $10 dollars off purchases of $50 dollars or more to checked-in shoppers
Retailers also promoted cause-related programs by making charitable donations based on customer check-ins using Facebook Places at their stores.
- Old Navy pledged 100 minutes of free phone calls for overseas troops to call home once 5,000 people checked-in to the retailer;
- North Face donated a dollar to the National Park Foundation for every check-in;
- And, REI pledged to donate up to $100,000 to various non-profits supporting local conservation efforts based on the number of shopper check-ins.
The social and digital media site Mashable published an article detailing which retailers received the most check-ins based on initial data from retailers, Foursquare, Facebook Places and Gowalla. Target and Walmart were the frontrunners of the Black Friday check-ins.

Now that major retailers like Walmart, Apple and Best Buy are throwing their support behind these social location-based services people are beginning to take notice. Twitter is currently testing the ability to share your location when you tweet and new apps such as Shopkick and stickybits are making waves in
the news, this market seems poised for growth. The services offer customers the chance to receive discounts and gift cards as well as earn points and badges associated with the services. Users also have the ability to see which friends have checked-in or visited a particular store. Retailers are able to entice new customers into their stores through special discounts and offers that can be more contextually relevant than typical coupon offers based on where and when customers checks-in. Retailers also benefit when users share their location with their friends encouraging them to visit the same store.
- Contributed by Brian Hambrick
Retail Rebranding: The Brand Filter

Posted: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:51:23 -0700

This is part 6 of 10 in a series by Craig Carl, SVP Creative Director, The Integer Group Dallas

So the new brand is up and running. But do your sales associates understand the concept? If it's unclear to your employees, imagine how vague it appears to the customer.

When customers or your employees come into contact with any touch point of your business, what is the feeling you want them to come away with? What is the idea or feeling you measure your decisions against?

For example: when Victoria’s Secret launched, they were decidedly provocative, but so was Frederick's of Hollywood. In order to differentiate themselves from all the other sexy lingerie stores, the chain used one word to filter its creative and merchandising choices: “romantic.” This defined their brand vision and let them walk the thin line between sexy and sleazy.

In the mid ‘90s, Target was at a marketing crossroads. They were in direct competition with Walmart and regularly came in second at the "low-price” game. So they made a simple but hard decision: don't even try.

Instead, Target introduced their version of "cheap chic." The “cheap chic” filter was applied to everything the store produced, right through to the advertising. Design-driven products were developed, including a line of housewares by world-famous architect Michael Graves. Famous-label fashion designers created exclusive, inexpensive clothing lines.
Robert Ulrich, Target’s visionary CEO at that time, steadfastly maintained the simple, white box format that kept the focus on the experience, not the architecture. He kept the "cheap" in the building and put the "chic" in the products. The result differentiated Target from Walmart and created a reason to shop that transcended price.
Brand filters are not tag lines. The public doesn’t see them; they experience the result of using them to define the brand.

Next week, Retail Rebranding: It's All in the Mix
Lights! Action! Neiman's!

Posted: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:06:52 -0700

Founded in 1907, Dallas-based specialty retailer Neiman Marcus is best known for their top fashion finds, fabulous foods and their brightly innovative holiday window displays.

At the annual holiday-time City Lights event, held at the retailer’s flagship store located in downtown Dallas, not only does the store turn aglow with thousands of lights, but the popular Palladian window serves as home base from which to unveil new themes to surprise and delight shoppers of all sorts.

This year’s concept is the celestial-inspired “Big Encounters of the Little Kind,” a partnership to aid Big Brothers Big Sisters.

More than just another window refresh, this year’s concept integrates new visual and audio technologies uncommon to window displays of yesteryear."For the adults on the outside, we've turned the windows from static to interactive," says Ignaz Gorischek, VP of Store Development for Neiman Marcus.

And by interactive, he’s totally right. Sidewalk visitors can:

■     Literally “go bananas” by texting a special number to trigger 1 of 6 special space-monkey themed effects inside the window display

■     Use their camera phones to experience controllable space scenes, compliments of QR codes;

■     Communicate from street-side audio devices to children playing in the “crawl-tubes” suspended above the city streets and integrated throughout the store window treatments

These new display advancements will undoubtedly lead to new trends in year-round window shopping behavior by retailers and shoppers alike.

Come On, Get “App Happy”

Going beyond the physical store window, NM’s new Gifts App lets users get their daily dose of wonder by shaking their iPhone/Touch or iPad, then shopping for daily suggested items to explore and purchase. Best of all, Neiman Marcus will donate $1 for each app downloaded by savvy shoppers to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

-Contributed by Patrick Kiker
Carrefour - A Special Planet

Posted: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:30:00 -0700
Carrefour recently launched two concept stores in the area of Lyon France exploring a change in strategy from an “everything under one roof” hypermarket towards more of a multi-specialist operation.

In the process of designing the store Carrefour interviewed more than 50,000 households in France to determine how it is they like to shop, and what they’d like to see.

The result: Carrefour Planet

Highlights of the new stores include:
- A Beauty section inspired French heavyweight Sephora offers 9,000 SKUs as well as services like a nail bar, rapid make-up and hair styling.
- A frozen food department inspired by Picard, another French specialist, is near checkouts allowing customers to finish their shopping here and pay for their goods before things start to defrost.
- An organics section offering similar presentation and selection to that of France’s largest organic specialist, Bioplanet.
- Merchandising in the home section clearly inspired IKEA.
- A “market-style” fresh foods section that covers more than 8000sqft
- A media section that leverages partnerships with Apple, and outsources the cultural component to Virgin in hopes of drawing in more young shoppers.
And perhaps most interestingly, in a market not known for its customer service, Carrefour Planet has added a childcare area where, for a nominal fee, they’ll look after your kids while you shop. This type of service represents a major attitudinal shift for French retailers, and it will be interesting to see how shoppers receive it.

-Contributed by Ian Whitney, Integer Paris
London Woman Tries Grocery Shopping... The Amazon Way

Posted: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:43:11 -0700

Not long after its launch this summer in the United Kingdom, Amazon Grocery had the UK buzzing with feedback on shopper's experiences. And while Amazon seems to have improved upon its grocery-store platform since it's original launch here in the U.S. in 2006, we are seeing similar frustrations from first-time UK users that that those in the U.S. experienced a few years back.

I found an interesting piece by UK blogger Tessa Cunningham, detailing her experience with the new service. Initially, Tessa figured that if Amazon Grocery offered everything she typically bought and more online, it would make life that much easier, allowing her to skip her weekly trip to the local store. What she found surprised her and her readers. She expected lots of choices, cheap prices and efficient delivery service. Not far off from a typical experience on Amazon.com. However, what she got instead was too many choices, none of her regular brands, extraordinarily high shipping costs, and 15 separate deliveries!

It's clear that there are still a few kinks that need to be worked out in order for Amazon to be successful. This begs a bigger question, can an e-retail giant like Amazon whose platform is built on a long-tail strategy, of selling small volumes of harder-to-find items to many customers, satisfy the average online grocery shoppers every-day needs? Or will shoppers opt for an experience more tailored to traditional grocery shopping from offered by retailers, like the UK's Tesco, who offers fewer items but can deliver larger orders more efficiently?

-Contributed by Erica Trout
Target: Bullseye's Mosaic Masterpiece

Posted: Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:10:16 -0700

I picked up this little mosaic kit last weekend at an arts festival in San Diego's Balboa Park.

This little kit is a lot of fun -- and a minor coup for Target's 5% Initiative. Since 1946, Target Corporation has donated five percent of its revenue to communities around the country, supporting reading and education, volunteerism, arts and culture and social services. The arts community has especially benefitted from these initiatives, enabling many leading museums to open their doors to families on given nights and evenings at no charge. That's why this mosaic piece works so well: it puts artistic expression into the hands of many, with a reminder at the bottom about Target's role in bringing arts and culture to all. Yet another reason to feel great about shopping at Target this holiday season.
Retail Rebranding: The Name Game

Posted: Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:31:58 -0700

This is part 5 of 10 in a series by Craig Carl, SVP Creative Director, The Integer Group Dallas

During a rebranding, someone always asks, “Do we have the right name?” Sometimes there are legitimate reasons to question the name. Kentucky Fried Chicken needed to distance themselves from the word “fried”, so they adopted KFC. It seems to have worked, since they can now sell the “Double Down” sandwich: two fried chicken breasts (the meaty bun) sandwiching bacon and cheese. Irony can be a tricky thing, even with chicken wings.

For the most part, though, the customer doesn’t care what the name is as long as the experience is good. Banana Republic began selling khakis and camouflage in a store reminiscent of a banana republic. Palm trees and rusted-out Jeeps were the visual theme. Camp shirts and flip-flops filled the shelves. Twenty years later, the ghost of Che Guevara has been banished, leaving in its place a contemporary, trend-setting clothing store. The only trace of the tropics is the name. And then there's Crate & Barrel. The store hasn’t seen a crate or a barrel in years. Pottery Barn and all its retail Barn cousins bear no resemblance to life on a farm. Old Navy? Undeniably landlocked. Fossil? Brand-new stuff, no bones. And we can only guess at the meaning behind Fuddruckers. If the brand offering is positive, the name is accepted with open arms.

Next Week, Retail Rebranding: The Brand Filter
Searching Locally

Posted: Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:21:49 -0700

In today's world, an SEO strategy for just your brand won't work. If consumers are going to interact with and buy your brand, it must show up in searches that are relevant to them. Local searches have been trending upward for years; even more now as a smartphone adoption increases. Catherine Roe, head of CPG for Google, spoke at the Shopper Marketing Expo in Chicago this year. In her presentation, she said that local searches have increased 140% over the last three years. In addition Google announced that 20% of all searches conducted on the site have a local intent. Whether it is a search for the closest grocery store from home or the closest 7-Eleven, consumers are searching local. Since April of 2009, Google has included local search results, even when searchers used generic terms that don't include a local word.

One of the biggest areas for growth for local searches will ride on the back of increased smartphone adoption. Diana Pouilot, director of mobile advertising at Google, revealed that one-third of all Google searches via the mobile Web pertain to some aspect of the searcher's local environment. And that doesn't even take into account all the searches that happen on mobile apps such as yelp, citysearch, and mobile yellow pages. Does your company have a local search strategy for mobile? Try searching for 7-Eleven on your smartphone. The second result will list 7-Eleven stores nearest to you. This happens without a single reference to location.

What does this mean for brands? Companies like P&G have worked with retailers like Walmart to show listings for stores that sell their products when consumers search one of their brands. Brands must be available to consumers where they live physically and digitally. It's time for brands to think about how they will claim their space on the digital shelf.

-Contributed by Brian Hambrick
The School Of Life, London

Posted: Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:26:00 -0700

Based in London, The School of Life is a new social and cultural enterprise offering good ideas for everyday living through intelligent and playful programs and workshops for adults with enquiring minds.

In this cultural apothecary, unusual products, services, and experiences are available, including holidays, expert guidance sessions, communal meals, and bibliotherapy sessions. Course topics offered include love, politics, family, play, work, and technology. Courses are devised by leading artists, actors, authors and academics.For instance, the current agenda covers subjects as: How to spend time alone? A fry-up with Jack Kerouac. How to stay calm? How to face death? A feast with Epicurus.

The School of Life has recently partnered with Ovi by Nokia in developing a new Carpe Diem phone app that encourages looking at the world in an inquisitive and playful way. Upon activation, Carpe Diem sends you a daily lesson ranging from the witty and light hearted, to thought-provoking andmotivational. Each lesson also comes with a task, such as taking a photo or sharing some lines of text. Responses to tasks can be posted online at www.carpediem.com and compared with submissions by other members of the Carpe Diem community.

-Contributed by Sonia Ratto, Integer Paris
Multi-me

Posted: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 18:22:09 -0700
As marketers, we're no longer faced with simple segmentation. Today, the mass market has not only shattered into different demographics and psychographics, but the individuals within the segments have fragmented as shoppers. In other words, that gatekeeper that you're trying to reach —mom— has multiple personalities that are sometimes contradictory and at odds with one another.

A white paper created by E.B. Lane and researched by Sense Truth entitled "Middle Class Moms and the Recession" explores the fundamental shift of how moms think and feel as a result of the recession. The findings are summed up in these five personalities:
- Family-self: The most rewarding of all facets is her role of being a mother.
- Work-self: Her feelings toward work vary from frustration to fulfillment depending on her level of financial responsibility.
- Social-self: This is the first part of a mom’s life that is neglected and sacrificed when time and money are limited.
- Public-self: This aspect of mom causes her to be self-conscious and aware of what other people think of her.
- Material-self: The recession is causing all moms to evaluate and reset their values of needs versus wants.
Click here to read more about the multidimensional mom in the latest issue of the Integer Pulse.
The Checkout - Holiday Shopping: When and Where Shoppers Will Spend This Year

Posted: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:49:12 -0700

Whether shoppers are doing most of their shopping on Black Friday, over Thanksgiving weekend, or on Cyber Monday, each have a clear goal in mind. Those venturing out on Black Friday tend to fall into one of two modes of focused shopping: the first mode is, of course, shopping based on price. The second mode is quite the opposite—and centers around the experience, or ritual of getting up early with family or friends the morning after the holiday to look for quality items. Thanksgiving weekend shoppers, while slightly dipping down into the price-sensitive realm, are mostly after the novelty that comes with shopping during this time frame. And Cyber Monday shoppers are mostly after saving time and buying quality items. Knowing bigger-ticket items, like flat-screen TVs, are typically purchased on this day, it’s no surprise that quality is given high importance here. Also, the time factor is likely another big benefit in an effort to avoid pushing through the large crowds shopping in the store.

While some brands may continue to play in the price and time areas of the value equation, we expect that more contemporary brands will use more experiential merchandising techniques, playing up the quality of their products this season. Which school of thought will your brand adhere to this holiday season?

For more Holiday Shopper data, you can click here to download the latest edition of The Checkout - Issue 7.10.
Retail Rebranding: You Forgot to Move the Bodies!

Posted: Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:25:07 -0700

This is part 4 of 10 in a series by Craig Carl, SVP Creative Director, The Integer Group.

In the original Poltergeist movie, a new housing subdivision was built over a graveyard. The houses went to Hell, literally, because they moved the headstones but didn’t actually move the bodies. Their ghosts eventually got even, and so will yours.

You approved a new logo, put up a new sign and ran new advertising, but you forgot to rebrand your sales associates. I’m not talking about dressing them in a trendy polo shirt and a new pair of khakis. No matter how good or bad they are at actual selling, the sales associates remain the human connection. They are the brand with a heartbeat.

A hotel guest who registers a complaint and has it taken care of to his satisfaction tends to regard his overall experience better than the hotel guest who never encountered any problems. At the supermarket, how many times in the past month have you been asked, “Did you find everything you were looking for today?” If you say no, the reaction usually rests somewhere between a deer caught in the headlights and a cerebral hemorrhage. Inadequately trained sales personnel are like parrots with their wings clipped: they're birds but they can't fly. Before the first logo concept is presented, ask yourself, how do our employees bring the brand to life in the store daily?

Next Week, Retail Rebranding: The Name Game