On Tuesday December 15, Placecast hosted a webinar aimed at finding new approaches that are working for retailers to increase brand affinity and drive repeat traffic into their stores. Moderate by Janye O’Donnell, the retail reporter for USA Today and co-author of the book, Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-somethings are Revolutionizing Retail, the discussion provided insights for retail marketers, agencies and mobile vendors alike.

To hear the entire discussion, including topics such as how mobile fits into your overall marketing mix as well as what retailers are doing this well today, listen in by downloading the recording here.

Technorati Tags: mobile, retail, innovation

1020 Placecast Invites You to Join a Conversation on Retail Marketing
Tuesday, December 15th 2009 at 9:30 AM PST / 12:30 PM EST

Brick and mortar marketers today are facing declines in brand loyalty and a decrease of traffic in their stores from recession pressures and eCommerce alternatives.

Retailers are responding with tried and true mechanisms like coupons, and combining them with innovations in marketing technology such as mining CRM data and mobile marketing.

Join us for a range of perspectives about new approaches to this age old problem from the CMO office to agencies, consumer researchers and mobile marketing professionals.

Some of the topics that will be discussed include:

• Which are more valuable – new customers or the brand faithful? What’s the most effective way to connect with them?
• In an increasingly mobile world, how are retailers breaking through the clutter?
• What mobile marketing options are working at scale today for retailers? How does it fit into the overall marketing mix?
• What are some real examples of successful location-based advertising that are happening right now? Who is doing it right?
• With minimal experimental ad budgets, why should brand marketers explore location-based advertising?

The panel of experts will include:

	Aaron Carpenter VP of Marketing, The North Face
	Kathryn Koegel President, Primary Impact Research
	Dustin Jacobsen Technical Director, Barkley
	Jeff Montgomery Chief Revenue Office, 1020 Placecast
	Moderated by: Jayne O’Donnell, retail reporter for USA Today and co-author of the book, Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-somethings are Revolutionizing Retail

To register for this event, please visit http://cculearning.com/placecast

Click here for full brochure

Technorati Tags: mobile, retail, innovation

From the Los Angeles Times via MediaPost:
At 50 years old, Barbie gets tattoos — and a megastore in China

Barbie turns 50 this month, and to shake off a midlife crisis she’s getting tattooed and opening the doors to her first megastore in China..

I did a little research on percentage of American’s with tattoos and it was higher than I expected. I’m surprised the LA Times article didn’t reference any statistics, because tattoos are becoming the norm.

Tattoo Facts & Statistics

Emerging from their often unsavoury reputation of the recent past, tattoos have gained increasing prominence in the past decade. Life magazine estimated in 1936 that 10 million Americans, or approximately 6% of the population had at least one tattoo. A Harris Poll, done in 2003, nearly triples those numbers and estimates that 16% of Americans now have one or more tattoos.

I haven’t validated all of the research numbers at the site referenced above, but it also references a Fall 2006 survey by the Pew Research Center:

Thirty-six percent of those ages 18 to 25, and 40 percent of those ages 26 to 40, have at least one tattoo.

In an article on microtrends, Newsweek states that about 1/3 of Americans between the ages of 25-29 now sports body ink, so the research above (which varies slightly by source) is pretty consistent: there are a lot of people with tattoos.

So, for people that are upset about this product, I’d like to understand why. I think it’s just Mattel getting with the times and I applaud them for taking a risk. If you don’t like the doll, don’t buy it.

I apologize for the 15 sec commercial preceding the video. It’s from the LA Times, not me.

Technorati Tags: Barbie, Mattel, tattoo, ink, trends

Let me start with my frustration with Best Buy. Several of my friends already refuse to shop there for various reasons. As if retail electronic stores don’t know already, the internet is slowly chipping away at their business, and most of my major items are purchased online, including my recent hi-def TV, which I saved about $750 by purchasing online from buy.com.

But, I like the convenience of picking things up locally when I can and getting a hands on review of products before I buy them is always nice.

If you will humor me, writing this is somewhat helping me cope with my frustration with Best Buy. I’ve had other negative run ins with BB, such as returning products under the “extended warranty” period which I so gladly purchased only to find out they won’t cover the original purchase price, only apply a depreciated amount towards a new product. Or, the time that we went to pick up an entertainment center which we were told was in stock, only to find out they didn’t and “the online inventory or even listed inventory tends to be off, so someone needs to physically check just to make sure.” But, I won’t go into those episodes, as you will find plenty of them on the net.

So, as the story goes, I have been putting off getting a camcorder because I hadn’t had enough time to fully research what I wanted to get. I had asked a few friends, picked up a review magazine and read a few reviews from sites like Camcorderinfo.com to learn more.

We were on vacation this last week and really wanted to capture some footage, so I was pretty much stuck with buying whatever I could get while I was in San Diego. I realized that I would have to pay more, in tax, if nothing else, but I was fine with that. And, considering that most of the camcorders I was looking at were $750-$1,000, I realized I would also be paying probably a 15% markup for this added luxury of picking up locally. And, once again, I was fine with that, because it was my fault for not looking into it sooner.

So, I decided on the Canon HG10.

As Canon likes to quote on their site:

“If you’re in the market for an HDD camcorder, the Canon HG10 is the best on the market.”
Camcorderinfo.com, August 2007.

It records at full HD (1920×1080), so I’m glad I have a new MacBook Pro on the way, because I’m going to need every bit of power it can provide to edit the footage. So far, though, I have been pretty happy with it.

Once I had decided on what I was going to purchase, I decided to check out some of the local stores. Best Buy was one that my sister-in-law was familiar with and had been to before. So, I thought I would give them a shot.

We went and visited the Best Buy store at Mission Valley (San Diego), and to my pleasant surprise, a few of the sales people actually knew what they were talking about. I like to go in to stores and test the knowledge of the sales people just to see what they know. As it turns out, they were decent. I wanted to do some more research and check out some of the other local stores before making a purchase. So, that night (Feb 1), I did some more research and found out that Circuit City had the same model on sale for $850.

I knew that Best Buy had a price match policy, so I thought I would give them a try. I called one of the Best Buys just to make sure and what I needed to do. The person I talked to after being on hold for 20 minutes told me that all I had to do was print off the product page from Circuit City that clearly showed the price, and they would match it.

Sounded straight forward enough, because, after all, there were several Circuit City locations close by, and surely they would match their price.

After being on hold forever (I called a few times before finally just putting on speakerphone and going about my business), closing time was drawing close. We packed up the gang and off we went to Best Buy with the printed page from circuitcity.com in hand.

We got there a few minutes before closing, but, to my disappointment, the open sign was turned off and the door closed. I was fortunate enough to get inside after talking with the door guy (there were still a bunch of people in the store), and made my way over to the camcorder section.

When I got there, they first said that they wouldn’t match an online price and I needed to go to the customer service desk. Fair enough, I can handle that. When I get to the customer service desk, they said that they couldn’t match the price because Circuit City had already closed.

WHAT? You can clearly see the price online, which I so kindly printed off, based on the conversation I had with the Best Buy customer service rep from the local store. That, apparently, didn’t matter. They actually had to call the store and verify the price and availability. When the customer service rep said I was out of luck, I asked to speak to a supervisor. The customer service rep was nice enough about the ordeal, so I thought the supervisor would try and help me out. I mean, I called in advance just to make sure I had the info before I went to the store.

Apparently I was wrong. The supervisor was a complete jerk. She basically said, sorry for ya’. You will have to come back later for us, at best, to match the price you could get down the street, not to mention online. As I pleaded that I only wanted the same price I could get down the street, they said they couldn’t (or let me rephrase, wouldn’t) match the price of a direct competitor.

I also stated that I really had to pick it up that night, since we had plans the next day and if I didn’t buy it right then from them I surely wasn’t coming back later to get it from them.

She referred me to the details of the Best Buy price match policy that details all loopholes. Limited quantities? Of course all stores have limited quantities, especially for sale items. But, regardless of what the website says, even though you could view the online inventory as well as the store inventory online, they needed to call a local store to verify.

What if the competitor does not have the item in stock or has limited quantities of the product?
Sometimes a retailer will advertise a very low price for a product but have only limited quantities in stock. If the item is out of stock or the competitor has limited quantities of an item, it is not eligible for price matching. Likewise, if Best Buy has a product that is advertised as being limited in quantity it will not be eligible for price matching.

I have spent thousands of dollars with Best Buy over the years. Stereo equipment, home appliances, computer equipment, furniture and office equipment, CD’s, phones, gift cards for friends and relatives and the list goes on. Thousands. Not to mention the additional thousands of dollars of purchases that I used to drive there based on product recommendations for my friends and small business owners.

The supervisor couldn’t have cared less. Sure, it was the end of the night and they didn’t know me from any other Joe Blow off the street, but there was little empathy. Not even a lame attempt to try and keep me as a future customer after treating me like an idiot.

No, Sorry, but that is our policy and as much as I would like to help you out, I can’t. Nothing. Only if I wanted to complain about it I would need to call Best Buy corporate.

More along the lines of Even though we can clearly see the price for the exact some model at Circuit City and we have a price match policy, we want to try and screw you out of as much of your money as possible and encourage you to buy online and use price comparison sites like PriceGrabber.com where you can calculate the best bottom line price (shipping and tax included).

Sure, Best Buy didn’t have to match the price of Circuit City, even though in all good faith they should have, but even if they would have shown a little decency and humanity in the process, they might have been able to get me back in the store after a few months to vent my frustration of that particular incident. It is not like I was asking Best Buy to match an unreasonable amount from an unknown internet site. It was CIRCUIT CITY! The reason I didn’t buy it from Circuit City in the first place was because I have a rewards card with Best Buy.

As a side note, the online price at bestbuy.com was different than the store price. How big of a rip is that ($1099 in store vs. $999 online)?

Guess how much I paid for my Canon HG10 down the street, at, oddly enough, Costco? $799. A full $300 less. $1099 was the full retail price of the product to begin with. The online price is now around $699 (no tax or shipping for some stores), but this weekend $799 was looking like the best price around. The new model is coming out in March, so online stores are now closing it out (and thus, the appearance at Costco). I stumbled upon the camcorder at Costco purely by coincidence as I was looking for other stores that carried Canon products.

So, let me say it out loud. Best Buy, you lost my business and have one frustrated customer. And, you won’t get a penny more from me in the future. Not only because of your prices (which are especially high on more expensive electronics), but your poor customer service.

Was it worth it?

Next up is a call to Best Buy corporate. I’m a nobody with what some may call an over-the-top complaint, but I think it is valid.

Technorati Tags: Best+Buy, complaint, customer service, Canon+HG10, electronics, retail

It seems like the minute you subscribe to a magazine they start sending you renewal forms.

The time to renew my Inc. and Fast Company subscriptions finally rolled around.

I’ll walk through the renewal process for Inc. below, but the process is the same for Fast Company, as the parent company for both publications is Mansueto Ventures.

I admit that I’m not an expert on user experience, but I’m sure the issues I encountered are not unique.

1) There is no renewal URL in the direct mail piece, not to mention even a URL for the website in the body copy. There is a URL with the address of the magazine, but I didn’t see that right away. If you want to track renewals from the direct mail piece, just provide a separate URL that redirects the user to the form. That way you can track the renewals from the direct mail piece, yet not have to develop multiple renewal forms.

2) As with most people these days, I hate to write checks and mail forms in to some random data processing center. Online forms with a credit card number? No problem as long as they are secure (which isn’t always the case) and are a link from the main site.

When I visited the main website and selected the renewal link, but there is no where to enter my account number or lookup my account number. The renewal form link takes me to a page that looks just like the new subscriber page with a free trial issue. There are a few different problems with this, including the requirement for me to type in my full contact information, which they have already.

3) The offer on the renewal page is 12 issues for $9.97. The offer on my direct mail piece as well as renewing through the online customer service form? $11.97.

4) There is no option to renew for 2 years online, which is my preference. The direct mail piece does provide this option, but, once again, I don’t want to send in the direct mail piece. Since Inc., according to their terms, provides a full refund on all unmailed issues, even if I decide to cancel later, it would still be worth it to me to not have to mess with renewal forms for an additional year.

5) The customer service form, which allows you to lookup your account information by providing your email address is nice, but there should be additional lookup options since email addresses, just like everything else, change over time.

6) When I renewed my subscription, they missed out on a key data collection time. Why not provide some more optional questions for the user? I appreciate the simplicity of only having to enter my credit card information, but I think that is a missed opportunity. Even if there was a link to survey, I’m sure some people take engage.

7) This is closely related to #6, but why wouldn’t they utilize the chance to get the user to opt in to email notifications or other magazine related content? The user is already saying they are interested in continuing to hear from you and willing to pay for it.

8) No confirmation. The confirmation message after renewing was simply “Thank you for your renewal of Inc.”

No renewal confirmation number, order number, confirmation email. Nothing.

9) When I visited my account status page, it still had the previous expiration date of my subscription, as well as text that stated “you have no other orders associated with this account” besides the original subscription place a few years ago.

I have to acknowledge them for providing Hackersafe and VeriSign secured seals, which, as research has shown, can have a significant impact on conversion rates (contact me if you want more details on conversions).

I’m sure there are reasons for all of the disconnect between the direct mail piece, the online renewal form and the customer service form, but I’m open for somebody to provide this insight.

For now, I’ll just go ahead and renew online and hope that someone addresses these issues before next renewal season rolls around. This was by no means a thorough review of the process, just some of the items I encountered during the renewal process, which, in theory, only took a few minutes.

Anyone else have a similar experience with their subscriptions?

Technorati Tags: Fast Company, Inc., magazine, renewal, customer service, user experience

But, on the other hand, I couldn’t help but share the obnoxiousness of the pricing on the vending machines outside the store in Overland Park.

Notice the nice 25 cent price in huge letters on the side with a clear 40 cent price on the front.

Who’s the genius that changed the price on the front but thought it would be ok to leave 25 cents on the side panel? Who knows how long the 2 machines at that location have had the price mismatch.

While we are on the topic of Sam’s Choice Cola, their product redesign was covered in the Oct 22 issue of Brandweek – Design: Wal-Mart Soft Drinks Add Some Needed Pop.

Dave Dolak posted some links and discussed a few of the new Sam’s Choice cola designs, including Mountain Lightning (aka Wal-Marts attempt at Mountain Dew). He was a bit more harsh than I would have been in regards to the agency that created the new designs and also Brandweek, but I do agree that there isn’t anything innovative about the designs. Since the goal is to make them at least look like their more expensive counterparts from Pepsi, Coke, etc, I think they achieved that goal, but failed at the stated strategy to not ‘knock off’ the traditional brands.

Technorati Tags: vending, Wal-Mart, cola, Sam’s Choice

I was recycling some boxes in my office over the weekend and stumbled upon some text on the inside part of the box of one of my Seagate hard drives (Barracuda 750GB SATA-300, to be specific).

Sure, the pictures are a bit fuzzy, but I have resorted to using my camera phone whenever possible because it is so much easier to work with: click, send, post.

For those that are graphically challenged, the copy reads “Honk if you love internal hard drives.”

Somebody at Seagate has a sense of humor and I appreciate that. It helps to liven things up in the market of after market computer parts.

Technorati Tags: Seagate, hard drive, honk, humor

If you are in PR and haven’t heard of this site, it would be worthwhile to monitor it on behalf of your clients. There’s no worse way than to have your client contact you about an entry that was made and getting blindsided for an immediate response (this hasn’t happened to myself or the agency, but I’m sure it has happened to many others).

I was reading about a recent computer repair sting in Canada that was posted to the site.

Basically, CBC Marketplace did a hidden camera investigation into computer repair companies and found only 30% were able to correctly diagnose their problem. Ouch. Doesn’t speak well for the companies involved.

It would be interesting to see a calculation of the brand damage for a negative post about your company or clients on the site (or similar sites, for that matter). That page in particular has over 2700 digs with 500+ comments on digg and a sizable number on the CBC site as well. Thats a lot of negative coverage for any brand involved.

Yes, I understand the sting was a little tricky to use as a baseline of all computer service situations since computers, in all honesty, are fairly difficult to diagnose. And, thats part of the reason for the string of comments.

Technorati Tags: computer, repair, service, consumerist.com

I always find it interesting to follow the rise and fall of brands, especially when people use their name in their brand or a brand it closely tied to a specific individual.

Macy’s is launching what it is calling its largest brand rollout in its history with an exclusive line called “Martha Stewart Collection.” The collection comprises bed, bath, entertaining, and cooking products. [via]

This is part of the Macy’s 100 million fall advertising campaign.

And to think that 2 1/2 years ago Martha was in jail after being convicted of a felony related to an insider trading scandal. [via]

What a turnaround. Way to go, Martha. The world will no longer be starved of their need to know about proper entertainment and party hosting etiquette.

Technorati Tags: Martha Stewart, Omnimedia, Macys, Martha Stewart Collection