Pampers is launching an initiative that goes beyond Spanish-language translations. “Mi milagro. Nuestra herencia,” which means “My miracle. Our heritage,” is an online initiative which celebrates Hispanics' cultural duality and the importance they place on honoring their heritage with their children. It offers Hispanic parents an opportunity to showcase their Latino pride and share personal baby care tips and information. The initiative includes a dedicated heritage tab that is part of an online offering on the Pampers' Latino Facebook Page. The page has over 44,000 thousand "likes" which is almost 10 times that of the competition. As part of the launch, Pampers is offering daily giveaways including customized baby body suits that represent the parents' country of origin along with a chance to win the grand prize of a family vacation to a Latin American country of choice. The contest runs from through May 31, but the tab and other initiatives will run indefinitely, said Pampers brand manager, Felix Olmo. “The goal of the 'Mi milagro. Nuestra herencia' tab is to offer parents on Pampers Latino Facebook a forum to connect on the joys of raising babies within the fabric of the American experience while infusing and protecting Hispanic cultural pride and traditions,” Olmo tells Marketing Daily. “While we can’t speak to future plans, I can assure you Hispanic parents are very important to us and we will continue to engage in culturally relevant ways with these consumers.” As a market, Pampers recognizes that Hispanics are often more brand loyal than the general market, he said. “We want to continue to cultivate a solid relationship between the [Hispanic] market and our brand by developing resources and programming that is culturally relevant and aligns with Hispanics' passion points,” Olmo said. “Our Pampers Latino Facebook is successful because we engage with Hispanic parents on topics that 'speak' to their needs -- from baby care to special Latino traditions -- and develop one-on-one relationships with our fans.” In addition, Pampers has great support from influential Latina bloggers that share the page with their respective readers as a resource to baby care information, he added. Pampers feels it is important to recognize the 'cultural duality' Latino parents face -- celebrating the American experience, while preserving their cultural roots -- and find new and creative programming that meet their everyday needs,” Olmo said. “Our main priority is to provide support for a baby’s happy, healthy development, regardless of ethnicity.”
As part of its “Drink It to Believe It” campaign, Pepsi Next has launched an “Internet Taste Test” on its Facebook page. The overall campaign is focused on driving trial and brand engagement for the new soft drink, billed as “the first cola to deliver real cola taste with 60% less sugar.” The campaign is encouraging consumers to try Pepsi Next at sampling events being held in 800 Walmart supercenters in 40 cities (the Facebook page offers a zip code-based event locator), or through the online “taste test.” Those who opt into the Facebook-hosted taste test have a chance to be among the consumers selected to be included in improvisational videos in which comedians and actors from FunnyorDie.com will do imitations of the online personas of consumers and “notable personalities” taking their first sips of Pepsi Next. The improvs will employ relevant information from the subjects’ Facebook profiles, such as their “likes” and recent experiences. After the opt-in period (April 2-19), 12 of the Funny or Die entertainers will do the improvs during a five-day shoot (using four different sound stages) in Los Angeles. The final, edited fan videos—shareable with friends—will be posted back to selected users within 24 hours and posted on the brand’s Facebook page. The Facebook page offers a demo video starring actor/comedian Rob Riggle. Riggle describes how the test works and watches his own online persona trying Pepsi Next, referencing his "likes," from skeet shooting to painting with water colors. Other videos already posted on the page feature Funny or Die entertainers doing humorous impressions of digital influencers -- including Internet mogul Gary Vaynerchuck and Internet meme “Scumbag Steve” -- taking their first sips of the cola. (Visitors to the page can also opt to watch Pepsi Next’s “Baby” TV spot.) The Internet taste test -- created by the internal PepsiCo Beverages team, digital agency The Barbarian Group and Funny or Die -- is the latest example of using social media to offer consumer-driven, personalized branded entertainment and experiences. "To launch Pepsi Next, we're focused on getting consumers to 'Drink it to Believe it' – even online, in a fun and uniquely digital way," said Shiv Singh, head of digital, PepsiCo Beverages. Consumers are also being encouraged to share their “Drink It to Believe It” experiences on Twitter, via @pepsinext.
With American shoppers settling into what they see as a gradually improving economy, new research from Deloitte underscores the preference toward online shopping, including the mobile onslaught. Overall, 47% of those in the survey agree that they are buying more online these days, up from 38% last year. And 65% say they are doing more online research beforehand to get the best prices, compared with 60% last year and 52% back in 2010. While a broad range of ages are wielding this online expertise as they shop, explains Scott Erickson, a partner in Deloitte’s retail practice, younger shoppers have drastically different digital demands. “About 40% of shoppers under the age of 45 say they expect stores to provide them with information via downloadable apps and mobile coupons, for example,” he tells Marketing Daily. “Only 19% of those over the age of 45 expect that.” For retailers, the best news in the study is that consumers are feeling less worried about the economy, with 67% saying they plan to spend the same or more this year, up from 58% last year, “which is when there were plenty of headlines about whether we were headed into a double-dip recession,” he says, and 63% in 2010. But they’re still being careful, he says, with half of those expecting a tax refund saying they will use it to pay bills or credit cards, 36% planning to save it, and 36% intending to use some or all of it to cover daily living expenses. Only 10% will spend it on a vacation, which is down from 13% last year. Despite that spending confidence, he says retailers should pay attention to another looming change: A growing sense that stores are not giving people as much value as they used to. “Only 22% agree that stores are offering them more for their money, compared with 27% last year, and 45% in 2010. If you look back at 2010, stores were still feeling intense pressure to mark things down and win customers on price. And it seems that as soon as stores could back away from the steep markdowns, they did.” In contrast, he says, shoppers do feel they get better deals online, with 58% saying they often find lower prices via the Internet, up from 53% last year. Consumers are increasingly adept at using their smartphones to find their way out of the arms of one store and into another: Of the 38% of the sample that own a smartphone, 46% have looked for prices, 43% have shopped a retailer’s website, 34% have downloaded coupons or sales promotions; and 28% have used it to read reviews. Shoppers are warming to the idea of stores pursuing them once they are inside the store, with 19% saying they’re comfortable receiving offers this way, up from 16% last year. “The dilemma retailers struggle with is to learn to use that smartphone relationship to their advantage, and find ways to make it facilitate your experience inside the store,” he says. “Wouldn’t it be great to use your smartphone to find an associate to help you? Or use it as a way to pay?” Younger shoppers are especially eager to use smartphones this way, he adds, “so retailers will have to find ways to make it simpler and more straightforward.”
Acura is keeping up with the superhero scene. The automaker, which was in “Thor” last summer, is now the official vehicle of the "The Avengers," Marvel Entertainment's new multi-hero movie. Acura is cross-promoting the movie with a national television campaign that starts next week, although the film opens in early May. The automaker also has a big product integration position in the movie, in which the Acura MDX, ZDX and TL models, new RDX and a convertible sports car created specifically for the film are featured. Susie Rossick, Acura brand manager, pointed out that the campaign makes sense because it is timed pretty well with the return of the NSX super car, which Acura has been promoting with a campaign starring comedians Jerry Seinfeld and (to a lesser extent) Jay Leno. At the New York International Auto Show, the company had an up-armored, co-branded MDX on display with a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Product Specialist. Street teams in Avenger-themed garb are scheduled at PAX East, Boston and C2E2, Chicago. At the movie's premiere on April 11 at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Acura is planning a stunt, and will have a fleet of its cars and crossovers to ferry the stars to and from the event. The hub of Acura’s national advertising campaign for the movie involves a digital consumer interaction campaign where people can get themed merchandise by using virtual Acura vehicles in combat simulation environments that correspond with Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor. As users attain a specific rank within the fictional organization, they earn the chance to win movie passes and S.H.I.E.L.D. gear. The grand prize is an all-expense-paid Tony Stark-inspired trip to New York City. The Web site www.SHIELDops.com and the Acura.com Avengers section will also feature Marvel’s The Avengers content, including trailers and movie stills. The company says its ad push, which is via longtime AOR Santa Monica-based rp&, includes retail tie-ins and national screenings of Marvel’s “The Avengers” with after-parties in select markets and a TV spot, which features the new RDX crossover that navigates through an extremely hazardous action movie landscape of exploding vehicles, alien spaceships, upending asphalt and other goodies. Acura says video content driving traffic to the co-branded shieldops.com site will also run on entertainment sites like Rotten Tomatoes. The company says that more than 130 Acura dealers will host pre-release screenings of the movie in early May.
Now that baseball season is upon us, it's pretty likely that fans of the Phillies and Red Sox are happiest that things are warming up. Brand Keys' Sports Loyalty Index, which the firm says is intended to give professional sports teams fan loyalty rankings in their home and national markets, puts the Phillies on top of the five teams with the most loyal fans. Since the Yankees are obviously going to have more loyal fans from the perspective of population, the rankings compare pro teams to each other in terms of the relative size of their fan bases. After the Phillies, which was ranked the sixth-most-popular team nationally in 2005, come the Yanks, Bosox, the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals. The teams with the least loyal fans in their own markets are the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Baltimore Orioles, the Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners and the New York Mets. Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, says loyalty isn't just about how much a team wins -- there are other factors: how exciting they are to watch (if I might borrow here from the boxing world, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is technically the winningest fighter in the world, but one could argue that he does not have a passionate fan base to match because he's not exciting to watch); how well they play as a team, although "new stadia and often, new managers can lift this driver," says Passikoff; how admired and respected the players are; and the extent to which the team is part of fans’ and community rituals, institutions and beliefs. In the NBA, the five teams with the most loyal fans, per Brand Keys, are the San Antonio Spurs; Boston Celtics; Los Angeles Lakers; Dallas Mavericks, and Oklahoma City Thunder. The teams with the most lukewarm fans are the Charlotte Bobcats; Sacramento Kings; Golden State Warriors; Minnesota Timberwolves, and Washington Wizards. How about the NFL? No huge surprise here -- the Patriots are number one for fan loyalty, followed by the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Packers (not much else shaking in Green Bay); the Indianapolis Colts; and the New Orleans Saints. Scraping the bottom of the fan loyalty barrel are the Oakland Raiders; the Cleveland Browns; the St. Louis Rams; the Washington Redskins; and the Miami Dolphins. Finally, taking it to the ice, the five NHL teams with the least gelid fans, per Brand Keys, are the Detroit Red Wings; Vancouver Canucks; the Boston Bruins; Philadelphia Flyers; and the San Jose Sharks. The five NHL teams most in need of a loyalty Zamboni are the New York Islanders; St. Louis Blues (although a name change might help here); Columbus Blue Jackets; Tampa Bay Lightning (although, to be fair, Tampa isn't exactly an ice market unless they're selling it in paper cones); and the Winnipeg Jets.
Between balmy weather and an early Easter, the country’s largest retailers posted solid sales results in March, with luxury stores turning in especially strong performances. Nordstrom, for example, says its comparable-store sales jumped 8.6% in March, and at Saks, sales climbed 6.3%, fueled by a strong demand for women’s apparel; fine jewelry; handbags; and men’s accessories, shoes, and clothing. But consumers were shopping hard on the other end of the spectrum, too, with Target reporting a 7.3% increase in same-store results, which the Minneapolis-based chain described as “well above expectations.” Macy’s also bested estimates with a 7.3% gain. "March sales exceeded our expectations beyond the benefits we anticipated from an earlier Easter and a shift in a cosmetics event from April last year to March this year. Once again, our strength in performance was balanced across Macy's and Bloomingdale's, stores and online, geographies and families of business," CEO Terry J. Lundgren says in its release. Sales also improved at the Gap, in an early indication that consumers are responding to some of its merchandising changes. Overall, same-store sales increased 8%, with sales rising 9% at its Gap North America stores, 5% at Banana Republic, and 11% at Old Navy. Limited Brands saw a gain of 8%, and at Kohl’s, sales rose 3.1%. Overall, U.S. chain-store sales rose by 4.1% on a year-over-year basis, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. And in what may be an even more promising sign for retailers, Deutsche Bank, which calculates a monthly Discount Tracker at specialty apparel chains to measure how many stores are cutting prices, and by how much, reports that the total number of apparel promotions declined an average of 10% in March. (The average discount on those items, however, rose to 42% off full price, steeper than the 40% off offered in March of last year.) “All in all, while apparel retailers still rely on discounting to drive traffic, for the near term, we believe the industry is benefitting for the first time in many seasons from a trifecta of relatively clean inventories, seasonal demand, and decent full-price selling.” Meanwhile, while JCPenney announced last month that it would not report monthly sales results as it undergoes its massive overhaul, it did axe 15% of the workforce at its Plano, Tex.-based headquarters, or about 600 people. "We are transitioning from a culture based on management to one based on leadership," CEO Ron Johnson says in the release announcing the restructuring. "We are going to operate like a start-up. We are going to extend the reach and span of control of our very best talent. We are going to be nimble, quick to learn, quicker to react and totally committed to realizing our vision to become America's favorite store.” ICSC expects that April sales will increase between 3 and 4%.
As the number of sales channels continues to increase, so has the need for organizations to get a strong, metrics-based grip on all that data to maximize their successes and learn from their failures. When organizations begin to standardize marketing measurements across their sales channels, business units and media, they will come closer to the more complex process of tracking corporate brand equity, market share, marketing ROI, and product and customer profitability. The alternatives -- misspending, poor targeting and losing competitive advantage -- make this concern a priority. Here are 9 metrics that every marketing organization should be measuring. Tracking fully loaded demand generation costs Multichannel marketers are tracking the costs to generate traffic to their sites from all possible sources. These often include the costs to complete the transaction, which can include a call center or the technical support of the site itself. Marketing spendingMarketers are always trying to establish the ROI value of incremental spending. Some of the measurements in this area include cost per impression, cost per response, reach, frequency, and share of voice. Visitor acquisition KPIs are used to determine the health of the sales funnel. Definitions are very important here, and the critical questions include: what is a visit, what is the source of the visitor, what is a return visitor, and what is a unique. Tracking sources often requires integrating multiple reporting tools such as the ad-serving provider, Web tracking tools, and ad tracking tools. Site effectiveness measurements Site effectiveness measurements analyze the conversion effectiveness of the site. The sales funnel is critical here –- how efficiently can a visitor be turned into a customer? Conversion Definitions are critical in conversion metrics -- especially if the conversions of one channel are to be compared to others. What does a conversion mean? An important challenge is to properly attribute conversions to their sources, and this must be consistent across each channel. The easiest answer is often “last touch” conversion, which gives credit to the last interaction -- but this can be very misleading and off by as much as 50%. Fractional attribution that gives partial credit to all known interactions is a better practice, but this can also be a challenge. Buyer metrics These include the frequency of purchases, or the retention rates of customers that can be rolled up to overall market share, brand equity and/or customer lifetime value. The most-quoted Buyer Metric is typically the Average Order Value, or the AOV, which is used to understand and compare different groups of buyers. Revenue Multichannel and e-commerce marketers track revenue carefully to compare the margin generated from each channel, in order to determine the value of incremental sales, and to guide pricing and promotion decisions. Customer loyalty and customer profitability metrics Companies use these metrics to understand the value of their individual customers, regardless of which sales outlet they have chosen. This is another area where definitions are critical from one channel to the next. The methodology for the measurement of loyalty and customer-level profitability can vary considerably from company to company, depending upon the purchase dynamics of the consumers for different products. Profitability and ROI Each of these categories of metrics can include components such as: