Italian-themed quick-serve restaurant chain Little Caesars is launching a promotion that includes advertising with Pepsi and Sony Entertainment. The program, "Buzz In to Win," centers on scratch-off coupons and dangles 450 PlayStation Trivia Prize Packs in total. The packs comprise PlayStation devices with various games, including Quiz TV, The Hollywood Quiz, Mega Quiz, and RoboJam. The "Buzz In to Win" promotion begins this week and runs through April 27. Communication elements to support the promotion include print, broadcast and Web materials along with in-store point of purchase displays. Customers get the "Buzz in to Win" scratch-off code cards when they buy a "Hot-N-Ready" pizza with any Pepsi beverage. Once they have revealed the codes, customers can enter them at www.LittleCaesarsBuzz.com to see if they have won prizes, which range from a coupon for items at Little Caesars to one of the 50 PlayStation Trivia Prize Packs the company is offering each week. Mintel studies from the first and third quarters last year show that consumers have slashed restaurant spending. Eighty-nine percent of respondents to a Mintel survey last fall said they purchased pizza in the year ending August 2007 versus 76% for the year ending July 2008. Mintel says that although Little Caesars is No. 4 among the Top 4 pizza chains that control 71% share among them, it is the only one that is making headway. While Pizza Hut (32.7% share), Domino's (19.4%), and Papa John's (11.9%) saw sales drop in 2007, Little Caesars (7.9%) posted over 5% growth, which Mintel attributes to an increase in units (2,045 in 2005, to 2,415 in 2007), and aggressive promotions and marketing. Little Caesar's appears to be stealing market share from the other three major chains--and in particular, Domino's, says Mintel. The firm says another, smaller chain--California Pizza Kitchen--has benefited from a cross-cultural menu offering varieties like Cajun Pizza and Vegetarian with Japanese Eggplant. Indeed, the booming Hispanic population in the U.S. may offer an exit from the doldrums if the chains start offering Mex-Italian varieties, notes Mintel. In 2008, Domino's and Papa John's did their own promotions around major film releases: the former with "The Dark Knight" and Papa John's with "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." Says Mintel: "Promotions are ubiquitous, and Pizza Hut may be the leader. Any occasion seems to merit a promotion, and they usually involve the purchase of multiple pizzas in return for a discount."
JC Penney is launching an interactive, virtual runway show on JCP.com that shows spring styles from designers like Nicole Miller and Michele Bohbot, as well as new designer collections from Allen B. Schwartz and Charlotte Ronson. The site is intended to recreate the feel of a live show with music, 360-degree views of models and a "Meet Our Designers" section, which are video vignettes where the designers talk about their new clothing lines. JC Penney says more than 800,000 women visit JCP.com each week. A company release cites consumer research showing that customers want a richer online experience that would give a more realistic view of clothing, and that customers look for inspiration for new styles from the very brands they like to wear. The "Runway" section of the new site includes an area that categorizes fashions by spring trends: maxi lengths, floral, frill seekers (ruffles) boyfriend fits and cardigan. Customers can also view the outfits by designer, by model or all at once. There is also an online purchase feature where one can buy the "head-to-toe" looks, or check to see if they are available in local JC Penney outlets. The 360-degree view also lets customers pause the image, rotate or zoom in and out and email the looks. The company is supporting the site's launch this week with an e-mail campaign targeting 15 million customers. There is also a direct-mail piece to customers that complements the online experience with the same "head-to-toe" looks, trends and background on the designers. The site will be refreshed with new merchandise several times throughout the year.
Apparently, there's only one microphone brand Roger Daltrey chooses to swing above his head during Who shows: Shure. Daltrey and his bandmate Pete Townshend are among about 15 artists featured in a new campaign for the microphone maker. The campaign--which also includes artists such as Brad Paisley, Maroon 5, G. Love, Martina McBride and the Black Crowes--looks to move beyond simple concert shots of artists using the product to a deeper place where artists can talk about their loyalty to the equipment, Shure director of global brand communications Terri Hartman tells Marketing Daily. "It's a great way to remind the world of our importance to the artist," Hartman says of the campaign. "It's a great cross-marketing tool for us and it gives us a chance to give back to the artist." The campaign has the working theme the "Reason Why," although it retains the company's tagline, "Legendary Performance." "Performers all over the world start with Shure and then stay with Shure throughout their careers," Hartman says. "Many of them say that they won't walk onstage unless there's a Shure microphone waiting for them. We're thrilled to be able to share their stories with aspiring performers worldwide." Targeted to a wide range of people (from entry level to working professionals), the campaign is intended to give readers of musician magazines a glimpse "backstage" with a conversational tone, Hartman says. The ad featuring the surviving members of The Who, for instance, shows Townshend and Daltrey posed on equipment cases, and a quote from Daltrey: "These mics are the only ones I'll use." Body copy on the ads encourages consumers to log on to Shure.com, where they can see a videotaped interview with the artist endorsers. "We talk about how they use the microphones," Hartman says. "It gives insight into them as an artist."
One way of looking at Mintel's latest data on green shoppers is that hard-core environmentalists are as committed as ever. The Chicago-based market research company says that 36% of consumers surveyed say they almost always or regularly buy green goods. That's unchanged since last year--and considering what's happened to consumer prices as well as incomes in that year, that's pretty impressive. But what is different is that the percentage shows no growth, when in the prior year it tripled. Cost is the major reason that people avoid green products, with 54% of respondents saying they would buy more green products if they were cheaper. And those statistics are consistent with earlier studies-- including Mintel's October report, which found that 78% of U.S. consumers say they would buy more organic food if it were cheaper--and a January study that found that 52% of shoppers believe green cleaning products. "People's priorities have changed because of economic hardship," Mintel says in its analysis. "A substantial number of shoppers are now struggling just to provide the basics for their families, so green living is no longer top of mind for many Americans." An increasing number of consumers were loyal greens throughout 2008, despite the economy's growing upheavals. Nielsen says that "natural" food generated $22.3 billion in sales in 2008--up 10% from 2007, and up 37% from 2004. And consumers spent $4.9 billion on organic foods--up 16% from the year before, and up 132% since 2004. Still, there was a sharp pullback in food spending in the second half of the year, with the fourth-quarter falloff in food spending the largest on record since the U.S. Commerce Department began tracking food spending back in 1947, reports the Food Institute. And certainly, marketers that can offer consumers green purchases that also save money have an advantage. A spokesperson for Goodwill Industries, for example, says its same-store sales are up 6.7% in 2008, and while much of that is from consumers buying secondhand clothes to save money, "we've definitely heard from the green consumer, often fashion mavens, who are happy that they can buy recycled clothing and help the environment," she says. Mintel still forecasts green growth, and expects that while the recession will affect sales through this year, there will be a 19% growth for green products overall through 2013 with personal care and household cleaners expected to do well, while organic foods--a more mature segment--will grow at a slower pace.
To drive awareness of its new, lower-priced menu, Quiznos is giving away one million subs to consumers who register online for coupons. Consumers may use the coupons at any participating Quiznos nationwide without restrictions on day or time of day. During the sign-up process, visitors are also being encouraged to invite friends to register for free sub coupons. In addition, each day during March, Quiznos will award one individual free subs for one year as part of its "Making the World Better" campaign. Site visitors can nominate themselves or others for the prize by writing or videotaping a short essay describing how the person has made the world better and qualifies as a "hometown hero." Quiznos will share the stories received on the site. The sub giveaway and contest build on Quiznos' recently introduced "New Lower Prices Every Day" national campaign and tagline, "Better Prices, Better World." Starting in January, the QSR reduced prices on 37 of its most popular sandwiches, entrees and other menu items, including 20 subs now offered for under $5. "We've made a lot of positive changes, including offering the same great quality at lower prices and making delivery available through more than 1,800 of our restaurants," Quiznos EVP Marketing Rebecca Steinfort told Marketing Daily. "We want to make people aware of this and get them to give Quiznos another look. There may be people out there who love our food but didn't view it as affordable on an everyday basis." To drive awareness of the promotions and traffic to the dedicated site (www.millionsubs.com), Quiznos is using banner ads on a variety of Web sites, its presence on Facebook and Twitter, and local radio exposure. Radio stations have been provided with sub giveaways to use on-air. Registrants for the coupon promotion and contest are being added to the Quiznos marketing database. By mid-afternoon Monday, only a few hours into the promotion, the number of free subs given out was already headed past 70,000. Steinfort says that Quiznos hasn't set a cut-off date and will run the coupon promotion "as long as it's bringing in new people."
For the first time in the 22 years since it has been publishing its annual Communications Industry Forecast, Veronis Suhler Stevenson has issued a "mid-term" update, due to the sudden, pronounced shift in the global economy and its impact on the media industry. The update, which comes amid a flurry of similar downward revisions by other leading industry forecasters and analysts, calls for media spending from all sources--including advertising, consumer and institutional users--to decline 0.4% in 2009. That's a revision from VSS' initial 2009 projection of a 4.9% growth rate. The VSS report, which is among the most highly regarded in the media industry for both its accuracy and longitudinal nature, also revised its 2008 estimate to a growth rate of 2.3%, down from the 5.4% it originally estimated when it released its last annual report in August 2008. The update calls the revised rates the "industry's lowest growth rate" since it began tracking the marketplace 30 years ago. It's also the second time ever that total media industry spending declined based on VSS criteria. "The continued negative outlook for economic activity, coupled with secular shifts and cyclical trends underway in the media and communications industry, are expected to limit the sector's overall growth in 2009," the report says, adding that the media industry would nonetheless outpace the growth of the overall U.S. gross domestic product. Advertising as a sub-segment, however, will be among the most severely impacted by the economic downturn, and VSS now expects it to decline 7.4% in 2009, following a corresponding dip in 2008, and marking the first back-to-back years of advertising recession in 75 years. "Steep reductions in traditional advertising spend, such as newspapers, television, and consumer magazines, are being driven by fragmentation of target consumers and brand strategies, which are increasingly focused across multiple venues and platforms," VSS notes. It added that some emerging and new media sectors will continue to grow, albeit at more moderate rates than projected a year ago. The "pure-play" Internet and mobile services segment will grow at 9.1%, down from VSS' previous forecast of 15.5%. Other "alternative communications" segments, including branded entertainment, digital out-of-home and professional business information services, are also growing more rapidly than other sectors and much faster than the general economy.
Over time, consumers who receive a retailer's permission-based email become more likely to do business with--and develop a more favorable opinion of--that company, according to new research from direct marketing agency Epsilon. And while the deck is clearly stacked in favor of company-friendly consumers, the research still proves that email only strengthens bonds between the brand and consumer, according to Kevin Mabley, Epsilon's EVP of strategic services. "These are already hand-raisers--yes, but it's still encouraging to see that email is improving consumer-brand relationships," he said. A full 56% of recipients of permission-based email from retail companies said they were more likely to make purchases from the sending retailers. Meanwhile, 52% said they had a more favorable opinion of the retail companies that send them email because of the communications they receive. In addition, 48% of respondents reported feeling more loyal toward the retailers and their products as a result of receiving permission-based emails. A clear majority--87%--of respondents who receive permission-based email from retail companies said email is a great way to learn about new products, while 63% of those who receive permission-based email from retail companies said they want to receive personalized content based on their Web site activity and past purchases. What actions did respondents take as a result of receiving permission-based email from a retailer? About 88% reported downloading or printing coupons, while 79% clicked a link in an email to learn more about a particular service, product, or promotion. Keeping in mind the skewed consumer sample, a staggering 75% of respondents reporting purchasing a product online as a result of permission-based email, while 67% reported purchasing a product offline. "Those are very high numbers even when you consider the test sample," Mabley noted. "To see consumers following up offline says a lot about the strength of email."
These are the Top 10 DMAs in which live adults who have remodeled their kitchens in the last 12 months: 1 Laredo, Texas 2 Quincy, Ill./ Hannibal, Mo./ Keokuk, Iowa 3 Traverse City/ Cadillac, Mich. 4 Bangor, Maine 5 Burlington, Vt./ Plattsburgh, N.Y. 6 Paducah, Ky./ Cape Girardeau, Mo./ Harrisburg, Ill. 7 Terre Haute, Ind. 8 Lafayette, Ind. 9 Evansville, Ind. 10 Wausau/ Rhinelander, Wis. Source: MRI's Market-by-Market study, www.mediamark.com
The current economic situation, along with retailers' strategies for helping shoppers cope with it, are probably doing more to change your customer than your marketing budget. Fortunately, at this point the situation represents both opportunity and challenge. It's an opportunity because this recession, so different than most of its predecessors, has forced shoppers/consumers to re-evaluate their habits, routines, rituals and behaviors. Over the past 12-18 months, the average grocery basket has increased about 10%. Bad enough with the fluctuating price of gas, shrinking personal worth, etc. But during that same time period, staples like eggs, milk, bread and pasta have seen price increases anywhere from 20% to 50%. So the "cooking from scratch" solution is not as much of a "stone-cold, lead-pipe lock" (quoting ESPN's Mike & Mike) that it might have been during past downturns. The insight here is that while people are more economically pressed, they don't necessarily have more time for many of the things that can be done to cut costs, i.e., meal preparation, cooking, cleaning, etc. Recession re-evaluations A year ago, a consumer might not have thought twice about ordering out for dinner after a long week of work for him and his spouse. Likewise, shoppers would have happily displayed their purchases from Neiman-Marcus or Nordstrom's. No longer. There's even evidence that women are waiting longer between visits to their hair salon. That's because luxury is now out. Not just for financial reasons, but because "conspicuous consumption" is no longer cool, smart, or fashionable. Cheap is chic! These are all recessionary re-evaluations consumers and shoppers have made of their own volition. And they are re-evaluations that no amount of discussion, marketing, or other forms of persuasion would have changed 12 months ago. Research from the Food Marketing Institute suggests that shoppers are becoming more "planful" in their stock-up shopping trips. And a number of IRI studies suggest that shoppers/consumers are rapidly changing many of their behaviors to help cope with the current recession. They are generally in a thoughtful mood and are more open and willing to take action on rethinking and re-evaluations. Co-opetition Retailers The challenge comes in several forms. First, retailers are vying for the title of "value retailer" in the minds of consumers/shoppers. To achieve this, they are turning to manufacturers of consumer packaged goods for ways in which to communicate value to their shoppers. Basically, the idea is for the retailer to be perceived as the choice editor and the value guru, rather than the brands. The retailer has become the brand intermediary. Moreover, as retailers vie for the value merchant title, they are creating "co-opetitive" situations (i.e., both cooperating and competing with the brand manufacturer). To be perceived as the value merchant, retailers are often featuring their own store brands alongside manufacturer brands in an effort to help shoppers manage their expenditures. For example, retailers are communicating about value in a number of different ways: