Two companies have a lot riding on a little electronic device coming to a store near you in the next few weeks. Sprint announced Tuesday it would begin offering the Palm Pre -- the company's foray into the smartphone arena -- on June 6. The phone, priced at $199 (with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate), will be available through Sprint's stores, on its web site and through retailers such as Best Buy, Radio Shack and Wal-Mart. Much has been made of Pre's importance to Palm, which made the forerunner of today's smartphones with its personal digital assistants. The new device garnered much buzz at the Consumer Electronics Show in January for its design and WebOS operating system, which seamlessly connects personal information from the web, personal computer and phone in one place. "The stakes for Palm are considerably higher for Palm than for Sprint," Roger Entner, head of telecommunications research at Nielsen, tells Marketing Daily. "Palm desperately needs a hit." But while the future of Sprint doesn't necessarily hinge on the Pre's success, the company does need to start building some buzz, Entner says. For the first quarter of 2009, Sprint had wireless revenues of $6.4 billion, down 10% compared with the same period for the previous year and down 2% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. The decline was due largely to a drop in wireless customers. For the first quarter of 2009, Sprint served 49.1 million wireless customers, compared with 52.7 million for the same period a year ago. "For Sprint, it would be really nice -- and about time -- for them to have a solid success," Entner says. "It's important to them that they win this. But if it's not a blockbuster, they still have some room before [things] get really dire." With a little more than three weeks before the launch, Sprint executives were unwilling to divulge any details about marketing around the Pre's launch. A company representative, however, noted that the device has been making unheralded appearances in some of its recent "Now Network" advertising. But Sprint is likely to launch something big -- and soon, says Entner. The June 6 launch date is only two days before Apple's developer conference, where the company is expected to announce upgrades to its wildly popular iPhone and its operating system. Any announcement will likely receive generous amounts of press coverage and techno-buzz, Entner says. "Sprint has to come out with all guns blazing and get people to pick up the [Pre] and see how great it is," he says. "They have to get out now with advertising, really build this up and have a blockbuster first week."
Jewelry might seem like a tough sell in a down economy, but instead of throwing good money after bad, Fred Meyer Jewelers is focusing on consumers who are actively looking at jewelry products online.A partnership with NearbyNow, an online marketing services company, is helping the nation's third-largest jewelry retailer connect with those customers and seal the deal. "It's clear the retail world has changed -- and the recession is only part of the reason," says David Kohel, director of E-Commerce at Portland, Ore.-based Fred Meyer Jewelers. "What's key for us is to continually look for ways to leverage trends -- such as the fact that more and more online shoppers want to ultimately purchase in-store. By adding a local search capability, NearbyNow allows us to keep both our online and our retail outlet channels strong." Fred Meyer Jewelers, which is part of grocery giant Kroger Co., was looking for ways to get more people who were searching online for jewelry to find Fred Meyer Jewelers products, and then go into the store and purchase them. Currently, the fastest-growing segment of online shoppers is those who research/search online and then go to a store to purchase, according to a 2008 Forrester Research report. The jeweler is completely overhauling its online site -- a three- to four-year process -- but in the meantime needs a way to temporarily jazz it up. Enter NearbyNow, which has helped online jewelry shoppers discover that what they want is at their favorite local mall and that they can go get it immediately rather than wait for it to be shipped. Since NearbyNow powers search in a number of ways -- for shopping malls, Google, Yahoo and other local search and via NearbyNow.com, searchers are likely to find Fred Meyer Jewelers products through one of those channels. The pickup rate -- the percentage of customers who pick up an item and complete a purchase after reserving products online -- during the first three months increased, to 83%. The in-stock percentage, meaning the likelihood that the local Fred Meyer Jewelers store had the item in stock, went up, to 65%. After this initial success, Fred Meyer Jewelers decided to add NearbyNow's "Find It Local" button on its site, to let online shoppers know that they can search online and pick up in-store. NearbyNow has its own concierge team that calls stores to verify that an item is in stock, and then emails the customer within 10 minutes to verify. When customers reserve items, NearbyNow is able to collect this information (email address, location, etc.) and provide that to Fred Meyer Jewelers; it can use this info to more effectively geo-target customers. "While it's difficult to beat the pure play online jewelers on price, we can cast a wider net by bringing our stores online to compete on service and availability," Kohel tells Marketing Daily. "If anyone is going to cannibalize our online sales, we want it to be our own stores -- not the online competition. We'll win by bringing the brick-and-mortar play into the fold, and by offering services and localized integration." The main way users find out about the "Find It Local" button is through search engine optimization. All of the products Fred Meyer offers are indexed strongly in the major search engines, says Kohel. NearbyNow.com just launched in December 2008 (though NearbyNow was powering search for shopping malls before that) and has been partnering with retailers in this way since then. Fred Meyer Jewelers is one of the first to deploy this "Find It Local" solution. "The 'Find It Local' concept is for the 60% of online shoppers who prefer to see or try out an item before purchasing," says Scott Dunlap, founder and CEO of Los Altos, Calif.-based NearbyNow. "By confirming an item is in stock in their size near them and available for immediate purchase, NearbyNow can set up a sale for a retailer in a way that fully measures the multi-channel effect of any campaign."
For its new campaign supporting the IS C retractable hardtop car, Lexus is advertising on network, but a lot of that is online. The effort features ads with a rakish theme, showing off the car's performance ability. They suggest that getting behind the wheel of the sports coupe might set you forward a few years and back a few pounds, especially if you're into jogging. They will appear on a range of networks, but even more often on those networks' online broadcasts. Tag: "Live a little, a lot." Via Team One, El Segundo, Calif., the campaign comprises three short TV spots and one longer ad for the entire IS line starting this week, plus print, interactive, out-of-home and events. Television is running on prime-time networks and cable, as well as online at ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Hulu, ESPN, Comedy Central, Vogue.TV, AskMen.com, Car and Driver, Road and Track, Facebook and YouTube. One ad shows a guy driving the car along a bridge, slowing down beside a woman in a dress chasing someone. He speeds up, catches up with the woman she's chasing and the two drive off. Another spot has a prankster leaping into the car, squealing off with a mischievous grin, chased by an angry crowd. The third has a couple parked on an overlook, waiting for something. A helicopter roars overhead and they flee. The campaigns' interactive side includes sole sponsorship of ABC's new and short-form content on YouTube. Lexus will also advertise on ABC.com's Full Episode Player and will be the first advertiser on ABC's to run pre-roll footage of the ads on YouTube. Lexus IS C will be exclusive sponsor of UrbanDaddy.com's lifestyle concierge, an iPhone app that finds hotspots and events, and a "Randomize Your Night" microsite that creates itineraries in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. Lexus will also tout the $38,490 car on iPhone applications from Wired.com and Style.com, as well as on digital versions of The Wall Street Journal BlackBerry application and the Fast Company and Askmen.com mobile WAP sites. Traffic will be driven to Lexus' WAP site: m.lexus.com. Why the short-form ads for the car? "We felt it would be best conveyed in a shorter time frame," says a company rep. "Just watching the vehicle speed through the streets at heart-pumping speeds would make anyone want to get behind the wheel of the IS C -- which, of course, is the intent of the campaign." The car may be quick, but Toyota and Lexus have hit bumps this year. Parent Toyota Motor reported a 21.9% drop in net revenues in the fiscal year ending March 31, and in the U.S., April sales were 126,540 -- down 41.9% from last April. Lexus sold 14,195 units last month -- down 39.2% -- and the IS nameplate saw a 43.1% drop in sales year-to-date through April. Competitors have not fared much better. BMW sold 15,705 cars in the U.S. last month, a 41.3% percent drop versus 26,735 vehicles in the same month a year ago. Year-to-date, BMW brand sales were down 31.3%. Todd Turner, president of L.A. auto research firm Car Concepts, says the problem for Lexus -- and particularly for Lexus as an excitement brand in this economy -- is that it isn't. "Lexus in the luxury segment has the most conservative buyers -- the least image-conscious," he says. "They are also consumers who will be the first out of the market when the economy turns down. People who leased Lexus cars and trucks are now keeping them." Turner points out that Lexus sales started tanking last summer, while BMW sales really only started wallowing in February this year. "BMW buyers are the most likely to feel they have to have the car. They will put their neck on the block to have that logo to get into that 3 Series. They are more impetuous." He says the benefit for Lexus is that when the economy returns, it will have a strong buyer base, with low default rates.
With record numbers of consumers in dire need of help with reducing their weight, big opportunities lie in marketing palatable, portion-controlled food choices, concludes a new study from market and consumer research company Mintel. As of 2007, 26.3% of Americans were obese (versus 15.9% in 1995) -- the highest incidence in U.S. history, according to the Centers for Disease Control. This is not surprising, considering that the average American ate 2,749 calories per day in 2007 compared to 2,173 in 1970. Why? More calories from flour and added fats, much larger portion sizes (some estimates put the number of large portions being sold in supermarkets at 10 times the number sold in 1970), and dinner plates that are nearly 40% larger than in 1960. In addition, just 52% of respondents to Mintel's survey understand that a "portion" represents the amount of food you choose to eat as a snack or meal, while 43% confuse this term with a "serving" -- a measured amount of food/drink containing a specific number of calories, such as three ounces of meat. Failure to understand ideal portion size and measure food prior to eating contribute to Americans' propensity to obesity, the researchers point out. Upscale restaurants caught on some time ago to the appeal of smaller, more snack-like portions of healthier foods, and now chains like T.G.I. Friday's are discovering that smaller-portioned meals appeal to some because of their lower costs and others because they are healthier. According to Mintel, the most successful portion-controlled packaged food brands share many or all of the following attributes: they are low-calorie (450 or fewer for meals, 100 or fewer for snacks); high or relatively high in fiber; high or relatively high in essential vitamins and minerals; use natural ingredients and have broad health appeal; offer popular ethnic flavors such as Italian, Mexican and Chinese, as well as "healthy gourmet" varieties; and are targeted primarily to women who want to lose weight or maintain a desirable weight. Other specific opportunities in portion-controlled foods, according to the report:
Marriott International and Nickelodeon are joining together beginning May 29 to bring a new family entertainment program, titled Nickelodeon Getaway, to certain JW Marriott, Marriott and Renaissance Resorts in the U.S. and around the world. The new Nickelodeon Getaway program for kids and parents will feature poolside shows with "messy" games, music and trivia; drive-in Nickelodeon movies; crafts; and character breakfasts with Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants. The promotion is being publicized on YouTube and at www.nickelodeongetaway.com. The hotels will be doing local advertising in their feeder markets and there is some online advertising, says Laurie Goldstein, a Marriott spokesperson. The program begins at check-in, where families will be greeted by a Nickelodeon Getaway Host who reviews the upcoming activities during their stay and includes Nickelodeon's interactive signature poolside game show. Contestants can end up with a pie in the face, dance to music, play games and trivia, or be on the receiving end of a Nickelodeon sliming. For an extra fee, parents and kids can attend "character breakfasts" with Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob SquarePants. A two-night package deal for $169 a night includes a character breakfast for two adults and two children and a sleepover kit with Nickelodeon-themed pillowcases and toiletries for the kids plus a special gift. "This is the largest kid-focused program we have done," Goldstein says. "Several of our resorts have had kids programs, but nothing like this. This is an effort to appeal to families with children." The open-ended program kicks off at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix, and the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson, Ariz., followed by launches at Marco Island Marriott Resort & Spa in Marco Island, Fla.; Doral Golf Resort & Spa, a Marriott Resort in Miami; the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa in Indian Wells, Calif.; Kauai Marriott Beach Resort & Beach Club in Hawaii; Renaissance Aruba Resort; CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa in Mexico; and the Sanya Marriott Resort & Spa in China. The Getaway program will take place on weekends year round at some resorts and seasonally at others. Most activities are free for guests staying at the resort.
Cadillac is the brand that satisfies. In consultancy AutoPacific's 13th annual Vehicle Satisfaction Awards, the General Motors luxury marque won as the brand that owners like the most. Hyundai improved more than any other brand in the study, which measures how much an automobile owner likes his or her car or truck. Hyundai made an 11-position jump, scoring higher in 40 of 48 rating categories this year versus last. The Korean automaker's Genesis was named top aspirational luxury car, and its Sonata top premium mid-sized car. "Vehicles that score highest in the Vehicle Satisfaction Awards hit the mark with their buyers by delivering value and satisfaction across a wide range of attributes," said AutoPacific president George Peterson in a statement. The study is based on a survey of 25,000 buyers who purchased or leased their new vehicles during the fourth quarter of 2008. The vehicle of any kind with the highest overall score was the Lexus LS, whose score was 99 points above the industry average, per the firm. The truck or SUV with the highest overall satisfaction score is the Cadillac Escalade, contributing to Cadillac's win as the top-ranked brand for vehicle satisfaction. By automaker, Toyota had the most winners in the study -- three for Toyota, two for Lexus and one for Scion. Ford was in second place with four, followed by Hyundai and sibling Kia, Chrysler and General Motors, with two each. Honda, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Porsche and Volkswagen each had one winning vehicle. Individual wins for trucks include Dodge for top truck for the Ram 1500; Toyota's Sienna minivan; Kia's Sportage compact crossover; and Mazda's CX-9 large crossover SUV. The top luxury SUV for satisfaction was Land Rover's LR2. The cars that consumers in the study found most favorable included Scion's tC, Honda Fit, Ford Fusion, Toyota Prius, Lexus ES, and Porsche 911.
What does it take to elevate brand loyalty to a nearly religious experience, to turn consumers into product evangelists? For anyone who has ever tried to evade a True Believer's insistent "you have got to try this...." request, check out consultant Kate Newlin's Passion Brands: Why some brands are just gotta have, drive all night for, and tell all your friends about (Prometheus Books). When we recommend a brand we love that much to a friend, who rejects it, she says, "it leaves a little cloud over that person's head." It can even be marriage-changing. When one man's wife didn't share his enthusiasm for Breakstone Fat Free Sour Cream, for example, he was hurt. "I was shocked. It changes the way we eat together. I don't feel free to make recommendations anymore." Not many brands make us care that much, but Newlin has come up with a list of brands that have developed their own cult of consumers-as-spokespeople, a list as diverse as Camel, Red Bull, Jeep, Chemistry.com, Krispy Kreme, and the Boston Red Sox. Then she talks to both consumers and marketing execs who helped shape the brands, coming up with guidelines to help marketers discern if their brand has what it takes to vault through indifference, and into buzz. Acknowledging that passion brands are often for the elite (and she has plenty of examples of brands that lost their core following when they became too popular), she explores the tricky path from the devoted few, the true democratization of brands (her favorite example is Wikipedia) and finally, masstige - a brand that appeals to many but still hangs on to its cachet. Winners in the passion race, she argues, share many things. They take a big view of the world, not some narrow segment. (Red Bull's target market, we learn, includes "the mentally fatigued, the physically fatigued, or both"; some of the most devoted members of Red Sox Nation live far away from New England.) And while the marketing for such brands tends to be witty, the cult is powered not by words, but great design: We may all be tired of hearing about brands like Apple, Martha Stewart, and Michael Graves for Target, but she makes the case that truly exceptional design is one of the surest paths to devotion. Newlin is clearly kind of a fringy thinker, unapologetic about - for example - her reliance on hypnosis as a marketing tool. (Seriously. She talks about watching one 40-something woman being transported back to her first experience with Trix, and "the funny bunny rabbit.") And it gets a little tiresome to hear her constant kvelling about FreshDirect, her own personal passion brand. (There's the parbaking, the way they can find her daughter's favorite cereal ...) But for those who looking to take their brand to a whole new level, Newlin's insights are provoking. *** If the very idea of personal branding - "unearthing what is true and unique about you and letting everyone know about it," writes Dan Schawbel in Me 2.0: Build a powerful brand to achieve career success (Kaplan) - strikes you as a dangerously high level of narcissism, put this book down. From Chapter One ("The brand called YOU!") to Chapter 4 ("Introducing Commander YOU!") to the concluding "Your Entrepreneurial Conquest," Schawbel's book focuses on a level of communicating that, while it makes perfect sense to the Gen Y masses who understand why it's important to maintain multiple Facebook pages, will seem like screaming self-centeredness to everyone else. Still, the book is a must-read for any marketer operating extensively in social media, and an eye-opening testimony to how delicately nuanced communicating with this group is. And it's also a testimony to how differently Gen Y operates in the larger workforce. For Schawbel's core audience, such self-promotion isn't just okay, it's becoming a requirement: A Pew Internet and American Life study finds that 18% of college grads say their new employers expected them to maintain some kind of self-marketing presence online. The sections on starting a blog, and maintaining consistency in your brand over time and different media are especially strong. *** For marketers who love to shop, don't miss George Whalin's Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 best independent stores in America (Portfolio.) In a period when all retailers are getting battered about, it's great fun to pore through this collection of off-the-beaten track stores and rediscover what makes shopping so entertaining. He includes stores that range from the swish, such as the elegant and stylish LouisBoston, to the kitsch, such as Estes Ark, the Rocky Mountain toy store that specializes in stuffed animals, including stuffed scorpions, jelly fish and wolverines. (Since teddy bears are the main attraction, they live on the main floor, and, yes, there is an annual picnic.) Whalin - who as leading retail consultant, more or less shops for a living - manages to capture what it is that makes these stores both independent and remarkable. (When appropriate, expect a tour of the restrooms.) Some stores are icons -- Gump's, for example, or architecturally impressive. But some are hideous, like Toy House & Baby Too, the Jackson, Mich.-store that carries 32,000 toys from more than 550 manufacturers - a greater selection than any other store, including Toys R Us. What makes it special, though, is that toys are selected not because of TV show tie-ins or marketing, but because buyers find them educational, engaging, or "inherently fun to play with."
You spend three or four days at a trade show, complaining about light traffic, standing around with nothing to do, and having very few conversations that seem as though they might really go somewhere. You swear, and so does other key management, that you should really re-evaluate whether or not to attend next year. But six to eight months later you find yourself sending in a booth deposit, starting the same cycle all over again. Why does this happen? Perhaps it is the universal fear of the unknown -- that even though the show wasn't all that great, maybe sales will get worse if you don't go. As Albert Einstein observed, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Here are the top reasons I've heard (and even used myself) for continuing to exhibit at trade shows we know in our gut are not delivering: We will be conspicuous in our absence. What will our customers and competitors say if we don't show up? Most likely they'll say nothing, or "Oh, you aren't going to the show this year?" Unless you really are close to going out of business, not attending a tradeshow won't cause your customer base to think you are. This is the typical keeping up with the Joneses mentality. This show is small and the booth space doesn't cost much. It's cheap - is that a reason to go? That same argument worked well for the Yugo, didn't it? Don't forget to add in your time - pre, during, and post show - the cost of taking sales people out of the field or office, and freight, hotels, food, and graphics. It is probably not as "cheap" as you think. It will be different this year. Will it? If the show is doing the same thing it always does (same place, same location, and same focus) and you plan on doing the same thing, then need I remind you of Einstein's insanity definition. We go because it's really about meeting and greeting our current customers, not new business. This can be a truly valid reason to attend a tradeshow. Just make sure that is really happening and you are using the event to its fullest to build relationships. The head honcho really likes shows and nobody wants to be the one to suggest you don't go.This could be a tough one. Don't just suggest, recommend a new course. Approach the situation with facts -- summarize the previous results, capture comments from sales and other key show attendees, and most of all, offer an alternative. All honchos love ROI -- so explain it in those terms. Shows can make a lot of sense, and not all are created equal. Nor does every show perform the same for every exhibitor. So what shows should you attend? Ones that you've actually thought about and can see tangible results from; for example: