Redbox, the DVD rental kiosk company, is partnering with PepsiCo and Kroger, urging people to "Make it a Movie Night": When shoppers pick up at least three Pepsi or Frito-Lay products, they get a free movie rental. A spokesperson for the Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based company tells Marketing Daily by email that while Redbox participates in a number of cross-promotions, this one is "unique in that it is a 52-week program and involves multiple brands. In addition, given the duration and large number of participating stores, this promotion is setting the bar at Redbox." Initial results for the promotion are said to have doubled sales growth on participating products and increased shoppers' per-basket spending. While giving away freebies may seem like an odd way for Redbox to boost revenues, "rewarding consumers with a free rental code is a great way to encourage trial as well as build loyalty with our existing customers," he says. "We believe that once consumers have had an opportunity to experience the value and convenience of Redbox, they will continue to visit our kiosks." Redbox continues to be one of the fastest-growing entertainment companies. In its most recent results, revenues at parent Coinstar jumped 46.6% to $350 million, including a 70.1% jump in DVD rental revenues, which hit $263.2 million. So far, it has rented out 750 million DVDs at more than 21,600 locations nationwide, including grocery and convenience chains, Walmart, Walgreens, and even some McDonald's. The Redbox spokesman says the promotion is primarily being marketed through in-store signage throughout the soft drink, bagged snack, confection and microwave popcorn aisles of participating Kroger stores.
Consumer interest in sustainable lifestyles and non-polluting products is about to nudge the U.S. bathroom, household and laundry sectors into greener pastures. A report from Packaged Facts says eco-friendly is where the opportunity is, with products offering ideological, practical and functional benefits. The report says that while green cleaners accounted for just "a small sliver" of the overall household cleaner market last year, "more and more consumers will make cleaning a lifestyle choice rather than simply a sanitary chore, pushing green cleaners from the fringe into the mainstream." The new study, "Green Household Cleaning Products in the U.S." on dish detergents, bathroom cleaners, general household cleaners, laundry care and detergent products and other products, says of the $557 million consumers spent last year on green products, $339 million came from green household cleaning products and $218 million from green laundry products. While that $557 million is only 3% of the total amount that consumers spent last year on the category, Packaged Facts says sales of green cleaners grew 229% between 2005 and 2009, more than doubling their footprint in dollar terms and more than tripling their share of the total household cleaner market. "Emotional-, therapeutic- and sensory-influenced benefits such as family safety, health and wellness, aromatherapy, style and design, and environmental concerns have emerged as important drivers in the segment," says Don Montuori, publisher of Packaged Facts, in a statement. He says if the trend continues, sales of green products will reach $2 billion by 2014. The Packaged Facts study says that as of February 2010, 42% of adult consumers reported having used "a natural, organic, or ecologically friendly household cleaning/laundry product" within the previous year, versus 38% of respondents in the February 2009 survey. According to the firm, that 42% usage rate permutes to 48 million households, or almost $12 per customer household. Procter & Gamble, which won several sustainability awards last year from the likes of Dow Jones, Corporate Knights and Just Means, is looking to make industry-manufacturing standards greener with a program it launched this month. The company says the "Supplier Environmental Sustainability Scorecard" will measure suppliers' energy use, water use, waste disposal and greenhouse gas emissions on a year-to-year basis. The idea, per P&G, is that the scorecard will be a kind of "open source" sustainability-measuring tool not just for companies that make the ingredients P&G uses in things like shampoo, but for any company manufacturing anything "To help promote a working discussion and determine common supply chain evaluation processes across all industries." P&G Chairman and CEO Bob McDonald said growing business globally means "we must continually innovate and grow responsibly and sustainably. Keeping sustainability at the core of our business fuels innovation and strengthens our results." The company says the standard on which the new scorecard is based includes protocols from the World Resources Institute, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Carbon Disclosure Project.
The 2010 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test indicates that nearly one in five licensed drivers -- roughly 38 million Americans -- would not pass a written drivers' test exam if taken today. Kansas drivers ranked first in the nation with an 82.3% average score, while New York drivers ranked last, with a 70% average score. The sixth annual survey, conducted by TNS, polled 5,202 licensed Americans from 50 states and the District of Columbia, gauging driver knowledge by administering 20 questions taken from state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) exams. Additional questions explored distracting habits such as texting while driving. Consumers can test their driving smarts at www.gmacinsurance.com, where they can take the survey, play a driving game and challenge friends to top their score. Facebook users can take the National Drivers Test Facebook quiz and challenge their friends, and Twitter users can follow the Drivers Test Twitter page for updates on state rankings and tidbits on safe driving habits. The Twitter feed is new this year, with a pre-launch campaign and a state-by-state countdown specific to Twitter, says Wade Bontrager, senior vice president, GMAC Insurance. "We've also redesigned our Facebook app and upped our overall Facebook presence to include richer, more entertaining content that will drive more sharing and online conversation," he tells Marketing Daily. "We've added more content that people will want to share." In addition to social media marketing, the campaign will reach consumers through the insurance provider's network of 8,000 agents by providing them with a range of online assets they can use with their own clientele, Bontrager says. The study indicates that a number of licensed Americans continue to lack knowledge of basic rules of the road; the national average score decreased to 76.2% this year from 76.6% in 2009. About 85% could not identify the correct action to take when approaching a steady yellow traffic light, and many remained confused by safe following distances. "It's our hope that this test will keep safe driving and the rules of the road top of mind with drivers at all times," Bontrager says. "If it results in one less accident, then it's a huge success." When analyzed regionally, the results reveal that drivers in the Northeast may not be as road-rule savvy as their Midwestern counterparts. The Northeast had the lowest average test scores (74.9%) and had the highest failure rate (25.1%). The Midwest region had the highest average test scores (77.5%) and the lowest failure rates (11.9%). Results also indicate that the older the driver, the higher the score. Males over age 45 earned the highest average test score. Males also outperformed females overall in terms of average score (78.1% male versus 74.4% female) and failure rates (24% female versus 18.1% male). Additional questions from the survey reveal that drivers conduct a variety of distracting behaviors behind the wheel. About one in four participants admitted to driving while talking on a cell phone, eating and adjusting the radio or selecting songs on an iPod. However, only 5% reported that they text while driving. Overall, a significantly higher percentage of females than males reported engaging in the following distracting situations: conversation with passengers, selecting songs on an iPod or CD/adjusting the radio, talking on a cell phone, eating, applying make-up and reading.
A new study finds that only a minority of Americans are buying virtual goods, but average spending is up 14% in 2010, to $99 from $87 last year. The report from market research firm Frank N. Magid Associates and in-game commerce company PlaySpan shows that 13% of the U.S. population bought a virtual item in the last 12 months, up slightly from 12% a year ago. Most people are buying them from within online games (57%), followed by official Web sites outside games or virtual worlds (38%), and e-commerce sites like PlaySpan, (16%). Not surprisingly, young men 18 to 24 make up the single biggest demographic among virtual goods buyers, at 31%. Nearly a quarter (23%) of boys ages 8 to 11 and 12 to 17 each were also customers. In addition to males 12 to 34, Asians, Latinos and African-Americans are the fastest-growing population segments in the virtual goods market. IPhone owners, virtual world regular visitors, and frequent gamers are the heaviest virtual goods buyers, according to the study. IPhone owners in particular are a rapidly growing customer base, increasing from 28% of buyers last year to 44% in 2010. Free Web-based games and social networking sites are the top sites for buying virtual games, with a net of 48% purchasing through a social site. Credit cards and PayPal were the top payment methods, with each cited by 51% of those surveyed. The next closest contender was Facebook Credits, Facebook's virtual currency for buying items in games and applications on the social network, with 16%. That proportion should continue to grow as Facebook Credits spreads to more games on Facebook through the company's new five-year agreement with social games company Zynga and wider usage as a payment option in other apps. The Magid survey was conducted May 7-12. It was a nationally representative online survey of 2,412 people, of whom 1,955 were between the ages of 18 and 64 and 457 were between the ages of 8 and 17.
Percentage of W Hotel visitors more likely than the average American to: 1 Be a member of a frequent flyer program +278 % 2 Go to museums +274 % 3 Connect to the Internet using a cell phone or other mobile device +201 % 4 Go to bars/night clubs +153 % 5 Agree that achieving a higher social status is very important +137 % 6 Have bought a new imported vehicle +112 % 7 Regularly read financial news/publications +107 % 8 Own a digital point-and-shoot camera +101 % 9 Shop at Best Buy + 83 % 10 Believe that having material possessions/a lot of money is very important + 72 % Source: GfK MRI Survey of the American Consumer, Fall 2009
Over the past couple of months, I have been trying to reach an automotive market consultant with whom I've spoken almost weekly since I began covering the auto beat around 2000. This was frustrating at first because he wasn't answering the phone at his firm, and he had almost always answered his phone and if not, always got back to me with alacrity. I called him all the time because he was not only among the most perspicuous interpreters of the business of marketing autos, but because, with his oddly British accent (I think he came from Detroit; I know his dad worked for Ford), it was genuinely a pleasure to speak with him. Anyway, no callbacks, no answers. Nothing. And after nothing, a message on his phone, when I called: "This is a non-working number." I was sure that he had gone to work for Coda, the startup electric car company in Silicon Valley for whom his firm, Iceology, has been doing market research. But no. Not there. Finally, I left a message on Chris Cedergren's phone. Chris runs Iceology. If anyone would know where Wes went, he would. I can't remember when I left that message. Last week? Early this week? Yesterday, I was feeling a bit odd from morning till night, just a bit out of sorts. Late last night I got on the computer to watch that BP robot video of the leak to see how the "top kill" was going, then checked my email out of habit. A note from Cedergren: "I have sad news." He wrote that Wes Brown had passed away. Not a month, maybe two, after my finally having met him in person, he was diagnosed with liver cancer, per Cedergren. That was December; he was gone in February. My meeting with Wes Brown last fall was during one of my rare trips to L.A., and the fact is, I almost wasn't able to stop by Iceology at all because my schedule was packed tight. I was, however, able to shoehorn Wes in between a breakfast meeting somewhere and a meeting with Hyundai folks that afternoon, just before my flight back East. We took a walk, had coffee, talked about Coda. Seeing him in person was astonishing. We all get a mental snapshot of someone we speak to all the time but never meet. Same for me. Although I knew he was probably in his late 30s, my image of Wes was that of a teenager because of the way his ideas tumbled out, and his enthusiasm, and his offbeat take on things. And when I met him finally, he really did look pretty much the way I had imagined. Kind of a big kid -- I think he was wearing a soccer jersey -- and he grabbed me off the elevator, hauled me into his office, and then out to coffee at a place across the street. "I gotta get back to work," he said. I split, promising that we would hook up when he came east. I'd show him Brooklyn. I mean to call Cedergren and find out if there's anything he would have liked people to do in lieu of the usual honoraria. To those of you who knew Wes Brown, I'll get back to you on that.