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A Retailer That Gets it – The Power of Mobile Through The Eyes of Best Buy

nicolem — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:28:42 +0000

When is the last time that you left your house or office without your cell phone? Or went throughout the entire day leaving your cell phone behind on purpose? For me, my cell is my personal and business lifeline all wrapped up into one. It houses my contact list—the days of remembering a phone number are long gone. My calendar, my email, texts and the internet are all at my finger tips should I need to search something. My social media feeds are there too so I can Tweet and update Facebook as I move throughout my day. My alarm for the morning resides on the phone as well, and yes—it stays by my bed at night when I am asleep!

As your business navigates through the decision to engage in social media, you should be thinking about the ways that your customers will best engage. What are the tools that they use? Where are they likely to best utilize your information to connect—not only with you—and to take the types of actions you want them to make? With so many people as connected to their cell phones as I am, it is vital for every business to be thinking about how they can best leverage mobile.

This post and video from Retails Big Blog by Ellen Davis, VP and NRF spokesperson, is brilliant. It focuses on one of social media’s most important tools—and substantiates the opening to this post— that for the majority of people, this tool is becoming a conduit to engage your customers in ways that have not yet been leveraged. Best Buy is leading the way by acknowledging through this video that they realize and see this as a tremendous business opportunity.

If mobile is not on your company’s radar, this video is sure to change your mind!
Best Nicole

Benson, senior director of interactive marketing at Best Buy, began her presentation at the Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference by asking people to swap cell phones with the person sitting next to them. There was a lot (and, I mean, a LOT) of hesitation, but most people followed directions. Then we were asked to trade phones with another person close by. More hesitation ensued, but most people obliged.

At my table, I ended up holding the BlackBerry of a guy I’d never met and he (gasp!) was cradling my iPhone. It made me cringe. This short exercise was a powerful reminder to me – and, likely, many other attendees – of the personal value we place on our mobile devices.

What does mobile mean to Best Buy? A tremendous business opportunity. Best Buy debuted a video during Benson’s presentation about the value of mobile – not only on Best Buy’s employees, but also on the company. Take four minutes to watch this and you’ll realize, this is a company that gets it.

Partnering With the Customers that Will Purchase Your Product – Brilliant!

nicolem — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:08:30 +0000

It is social media week in Toronto as well as New York City. Two of the cities for which I have spent half of my life thus far. Yesterday I spent the day in a all day seminar of speakers called Case Camp. Thank you to Eli Singer for putting together such a great event. I met some wonderful new friends and learned alot about what some very interesting companies – are doing in the world of social media.

As many of you know my first career was in the world of fashion. Both in NYC as well as Toronto. I worked on the manufacturing side – in the moderate market, producing private label programs for many major retailers across the US. At that time there were no sophisticated computers outside of some msp tracking for data of sales and inventory. Even then we calculated the cost of our garments with a hand held calculator to arrive at the price we would sell to our customers! (looking back it makes me chuckle) With the lack of technology in those days – fashion led and still leads the way with its understanding of brand identity and brand marketing. In conversation yesterday the site Modcloth.com was mentioned. One of the goals for me with our expertise in social media and creative design – is to leverage my many years in fashion – with our digital skills and assist some of the companies that are not yet online and engaged with social media.

Of course whenever you find something great it appears everywhere! Modcloth.com is a company that is leveraging social media to get its customers involved in the purchasing of its product. One of the skills and risks of the fashion business is the selecting and production of fashion items – ahead of an upcoming season and getting those selections right – so you sell your inventory by the end of the season. “As one of my old bosses told me early on – inventory is money and you don’t want that money sitting on the floor or warehouse!” Modcloth engages with its customers regarding samples and lets them vote on whether they like them or not. They select about 40% of the samples that have the highest votes and allow the comments they receive both good and bad – to assist in their decision making as well. This approach takes some of the guess work out of what they will buy and truly delivers on what their customer wants. From the customer perspective they get to be involved in the types of products sold – by participating and sharing their opinions both positive and negative. They are avid users of Twitter and Facebook – where they and their community can share the products they love and don’t love with their friends. Inc.com has written a great article by Lauren Bans about this winning 21st century online business model!

A brilliant example for retailers – on how to engage their customers and minimize the risk of their product purchases – by getting the customers involved in what they truly want, need and will buy.

Best Nicole

ModCloth’s Be the Buyer program lets customers tell the company exactly what they want.

By Lauren Bans | Feb 1, 2010

Courtesy Company

Democracy of Style As a result of votes and comments from ModCloth customers, only the left dress is being offered for sale.

Susan Gregg Koger is a lot like her customers. The 25-year-old co-founder of ModCloth, a $15 million online clothing retailer based in Pittsburgh, Koger lives and breathes fashion, eschewing mainstream mall taste in favor of offbeat, often vintage-inspired pieces such as floral housedresses and flapper hats. “Our customers are young women in their 20s who live for fashion-forward clothes the same way we do,” says Koger. ModCloth has always prided itself on having an open channel of communication with customers, through, for example, frequent contests and an active Twitter feed. Says Koger: “Our internal motto is ‘ModCloth is a company you’re friends with.’ ” So she decided to do what any good friend would do: take her customers shopping with her and ask for their advice before making a big purchase.

In October, ModCloth began asking customers to help the company decide whether to carry certain items in its store. ModCloth’s initiative, called Be the Buyer, encourages customers to vote online on clothing samples. If a garment receives enough votes, ModCloth will sell the item.

In the past, Koger and her three-person buying team relied on their own fashion sense to select the items offered on ModCloth.com. They traveled around the country, sifting primarily through small collections from independent designers. But the buying team sometimes found clothing samples it loved but couldn’t afford to purchase because of the minimum order size. Clothing manufacturers generally need large order commitments — typically anywhere from 120 to 500 pieces, says Koger — before committing to production. If a larger retailer hadn’t already plucked a certain sample out of the lineup, ModCloth often wouldn’t risk committing to the kind of large-scale purchase needed to push it into production.

But now, says Koger, the company can confidently gamble on what were once risky items by securing the most valuable of opinions before taking the plunge — those of its customers. Each sample is put up for a vote on ModCloth’s website for 14 days, and after tallying the votes, the company decides whether it’s worth the investment. If an item is picked, the customers who voted in favor of it receive an e-mail when their chosen design becomes available for sale. There is also a comments section for each garment and a feature that lets customers send a link to the clothes to their Facebook and Twitter friends.

Koger says the program benefits everyone involved. Not only do the customers get to play a firsthand role in choosing their own fashions, but ModCloth reduces much of the guesswork involved in fashion buying. “The customers are helping us make a safer financial bet by eliminating the risk,” says Liz Bensink, ModCloth’s site manager. “Now if we order some of those samples, they’ll be exclusive to ModCloth, and we already know that our customers voted them into existence.” Plus, the designers get a chance to produce the clothes that larger, more mainstream outlets passed on.

The first batch of 66 product samples appeared on ModCloth’s site in late October. By the end of November, those items had received more than 100,000 customer votes, and Koger had decided to carry about 40 percent of them. Molly Miltenberger, a regular ModCloth shopper, weighed in on some of the samples. A self-proclaimed scarf lover, she voted in favor of a green plaid scarf with tassels and another brightly colored striped one with pompon fringe. Only the latter received enough votes to make it into production, but Miltenberger says that’s OK. She will buy the one that will be produced. Plus, she is thrilled that the company is letting her vicariously experience her “dream career” of being a professional buyer.

In addition to the votes, ModCloth also received thousands of comments, some of which were harsh — and often amusing. One customer quipped about a printed yellow dress, “It looks like a cat shred a ’70s polyester and then threw up on the shreds.” Of another multicolored outfit, a shopper wrote, “I like the cut, but the pattern makes me want to kill myself.”

Snarky or not, the comments reflect a high level of customer engagement. Plus, many of the remarks proved insightful, says Bensink. For instance, a heather-gray cotton dress, which did not make it into production, got a fair number of yes votes, but commenters kept pointing out the same flaw in the dress: It was too sheer. In the future, ModCloth may even consider asking a designer to make changes based on the criticisms of customers. “The customers are letting us know why they voted the way they did,” Bensink says, “and the point is to see how comments and votes translate to sales.”

It’s too early to tell what the exact conversion will be, says Koger, but the initiative has already boosted traffic to ModCloth.com. The number of visitors increased 25 percent in the first month after launch, partly because enthusiastic participants were promoting their favorite samples on their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and personal blogs. Thrilled by the response, the ModCloth team has continued to add new samples to the voting page. “Items are getting 50 votes mere minutes after we upload them on the site,” says Bensink. “It’s so exciting for us to watch. We had this customer base ready to interact with us, and we just needed to give them a proper forum.”

Retailers Are on Board with Social Media this Holiday Season! Who is Doing it Right?

nicolem — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:54:47 +0000

Well we are now in full swing with social media and the world has caught up with us! Hurray. Social media is now a prominent tool for many retailers. Most who are using these tools are jumping in with Facebook and Twitter—to get a leg up this holiday season. The new economy is definitely dictating that businesses adapt a new channel to market products and services.

Advertising Age put together a very comprehensive list for all of you who are just beginning to get into the game. We see with our clients that everyone is now ready to build a social media campaign. Our goal (as their social media and creative design agency) is to not only build a campaign for now, but to build a plan for the ongoing dialog and relationship that is built by the initial campaigns we create.

In this Advertising Age article from Dec. 07.09, Natalie Zmuda and Kunur Patel write about the retailers that are using social media for success and those that could use some improvement. We hope that reading about both sides of the story, you can find some ideas for your own business as you get ready to create your marketing strategies in 2010.

Best Nicole

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Retailers are embracing social media like never before this holiday season. More than half are including it in their marketing strategies, up drastically from only 4% in 2007, according to a new survey out from BDO Seidman. Of those who reported plans to use social media, 76% are focusing on Facebook, 50% on Twitter, 14% on MySpace and 14% on YouTube. Ten percent said they expected to utilize each of those outlets.

As holiday efforts peaked on Black Friday, 4.3% of Facebook users and 2.3% of Twitter users visited the website of a top 500 retailer immediately after perusing the social-networking sites, according to data from Experian Hitwise. (For perspective, Facebook was the second-most-visited site in the U.S. on Black Friday, behind Google.)

Clearly, retailers are throwing money behind social media, but are their strategies paying off? We look at five social-media strategies that are getting it right and five that could use a little — or a lot — of improvement.

Social-media strategies we love …

Even its commercials have a social-media tie-in, featuring its Twelpforce Carolers offering gift advice. (Its YouTube channel offers behind-the-scenes footage of actual employees trying out for the Twelpforce Carolers.) The retailer also has a robust Facebook presence, featuring several exclusive applications such as Hint Helper, Secret Santa, Idea Giftr and, coming soon, Christmas Morning Simulator. The Hint Helper will drop personalized hints to friends and family via a cookie placed on their computers. While Best Buy’s application section is robust, it could do a better job of leading the conversation on Facebook, as opposed to simply responding to customer complaints. Still, when it comes to customer interaction, Best Buy has it down on Twitter. Its handles @bestbuy and @twelpforce, not to mention CMO Barry Judge’s own handle, @bestbuycmo, all do a stellar job.

BEST BUY

EBAY
The online retailer kicked off the holidays with a free WiFi offering on Delta flights over Thanksgiving, which earned plenty of mid-air tweets of appreciation. Those following eBay on Facebook or Twitter have also been rewarded with up-to-date sales and promotions data (for example, a Zhu Zhu pet giveaway to the first 100 visitors at the eBay pop-up store). On Facebook, eBay leads the conversation with sales news or by posting content from popular sites such as Chow. And its Twitter handles @ebay and @ebaydailydeal are completely holiday themed. The former supports the retailer’s mobile boutique, which is popping up in 12 cities this holiday, and the latter gives out hints about its “12 Days of Deals” program, which features a new item with limited availability at a deep discount each day. Both Twitter feeds are streamed onto ebayholiday.com. Also, there are streams of texts and tweets featuring holiday gift wishes.

JCPENNEY
JCPenney uses its Facebook page as much for customer service as for marketing. When customers post complaints or praise to Penney’s wall, the retailer jumps in to address them , offering personal assistance and thanking customers for posting their love for the brand. It occasionally posts video content and links to buyer guide CheapToday.com. Another tab on its Facebook page links to a follow-up to “Beware of the Doghouse,” the 2008 video from Saatchi & Saatchi that drew millions of views, as well as a new website from North Kingdom. (The new “Doghouse” site is in itself a user-generated fest and users can post that content back on Facebook.) Fans can also participate in an online giving tree, and view designer collections and sale items. On Twitter, the brand tapped blogger and tweeter @SavvyAuntie to disseminate sweepstakes and sale items on Cyber Monday to her nearly 12,000 followers.

TOYS ‘R’ US
With Shaquille O’Neal, Toys ‘R’ Us will donate $1 to a charity for every new Facebook fan. Shaq even tweeted about the promotion — what he called the “Shaq-a-Claus” challenge — to his more than 2.6 million followers. The brand also appeals to parental nostalgia on Facebook, providing audio and surveys on the old-school jingle “I don’t want to grow up.” Mixed in with callouts of discount products, polls have a substantial presence on the brand’s wall, with queries on favorite board games or Disney characters. The page also contains coupons to use in the brick-and-mortar stores. On the customer-service front, Toys ‘R’ Us is an exemplar brand for responding to fans and managing customer reaction. On Twitter, the brand used tweets to drive traffic to Facebook with offers of online discounts for new fans. While the brand responded to a few customer tweets, next year they should Twitter more in this way.

WALMART
Since the last holidays, Walmart has gone from no holiday traffic from Twitter to being the most-visited retail site during Black Friday and Cyber Monday after Amazon. With nearly a dozen Twitter handles, the brand addresses topics from music to customer service and calls out deals online. The biggest retailer in the world dubbed the week following Thanksgiving “Cyber Week” and used social-media channels to drive traffic to its online specials. On Facebook, the brand features apps to support U.S. troops and generate wish lists, as well as sections that aggregate commercials and photos. While we can offer Walmart lots of advice for its social holiday next year — get into the conversation on the comments wall; Facebook isn’t a broadcast channel, it’s a chance to foster conversation with customers. The brand does a good job with holiday-themed articles, such as “Using Leftovers,” that offer advice and don’t just shill.

… and those that could use some improvement

ABERCROMBIE & FITCH
It’s hard to believe that a teen retailer has such a lack of involvement in the social-media space. The initial link on its Facebook page is for an A&F casting call looking for models for its back-to-school and holiday campaign — in 2010. Its current holiday print ads are posted, though there are no other mentions of holiday products, gift ideas or promotions from the brand. There’s also no response to customer comments, though admittedly the majority are positive. Still, with a following of more than 540,000 fans, many of whom are asking for a store in their area, it’s clear that A&F is passing up a major opportunity to engage this group. Similarly, a Twitter account, @AbercrombieNY, boasts a respectable 7,591 followers even though it hasn’t tweeted since July 11.

AMAZON
Twitter and Facebook drove more total traffic to Amazon than any other retailer on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to data from Experian Hitwise. But even with all that traffic, the brand is pretty absent from social media with a holiday-specific effort, and seems to be resting on its laurels as an early adopter in the space. Amazingly, the e-tail giant does not manage an active Facebook page; its last updates are from September 2008. Amazon’s traffic from Twitter actually dropped more than 30% this Black Friday, and on Cyber Monday it only saw a 1% bump. The brand maintained its steady clip of lightning deals and product call-outs on Twitter, but holiday-specific content was isolated to links to the retailer’s many blogs and a smattering of Cyber Monday mentions.

KOHL’S
Admirably, Kohl’s committed to increasing its investment in digital and social media by 25% this holiday season. On the social-media front, the retailer said it planned to seed consumer blogs with merchandise giveaways, leverage its Facebook page and maintain its partnership with Stardoll, an online community. Where Kohl’s falls down is on Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook page is noticeably devoid of holiday content and deals, though it has posted its holiday commercials and a link to its homepage, which touts “25 deals of Christmas.” But, with nearly 900,000 fans, the retailer is missing out on an opportunity to speak directly to consumers about its sales, promotions and exclusive products. Instead, the Kohl’s page seems to be merely doing its best to address a portion of the hundreds of complaints posted by disgruntled holiday shoppers. And on Twitter @Kohls_Official there was an inexplicable gap in tweets lasting from 12:28 a.m. on Nov. 26 until 8:59 a.m. on Dec. 1, the entirety of the Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday shopping period.

OLD NAVY
The sparse holiday messaging and unanswered consumer complaints on Facebook are a far cry from the engaged fans that were breathlessly posting about how to find deals through the retailer’s interactive circular just a few months ago. The week after Black Friday, an outdated tab on the page continued to promote GobblePalooza, which ran from Nov. 26-28, and the most recent video content, posted about five months ago, promotes tank tops. Similarly, the last videos posted on the brand’s YouTube channel are from eight months ago. Third parties have also taken to piggybacking on Old Navy’s nearly 350,000 fans, promoting their own products on the page. Old Navy’s Twitter page, @OldNavyOfficial, is similarly sparse, with one-way communication about deals linking to the brand’s home page. The brand’s Supermodelquin Twitter pages were also eerily quiet through the biggest shopping weekend of the year.”We currently have content up from prior campaigns as record of our overall campaign. We will update our holiday content shortly,” said a spokesman.

TARGET
Target, a brand touted for its current, youthful appeal, is conspicuously quiet in the social-media space and serves as a prime example of the damage unchecked social-media pages can cause. While it’s created a forum for Facebookers to comment and contribute their own photos and videos, the brand seems deaf to negative comments and fans’ personal promotion. Target broadcasts videos and articles without ever responding to comments such as “extremely disappointed in Target’s customer service. ” Some customers use the fan photo and video section to promote their own agendas — one fan posted a YouTube video and a link to his not-at-all-retail-or-holiday Facebook page. “Some customers have had enough with all the non-related content on the page. “Could you please remove/delete the trashy posts on your site?” asked one fan. The brand does maintain a daily deals Twitter handle, which also tweets to consumers without responding. The main Target Twitter account does a better job of addressing its followers, but only totaled three tweets during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Want to Earn Customer Loyalty? Read This.

nicolem — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:19:20 +0000

As the holiday season is now on its way, most businesses are certainly planning and thinking about how they will provide a memorable and positive shopping experience. With social media providing new ways for your customers to engage with one another and share everything under the sun—including their experiences—it has also become a touch point and, in many cases, a deciding factor for the choices that they make in all aspects of their lives.

What are the elements of a great shopping experience from your perspective? Can you remember the last time you had such an experience and the impact it left upon you? For me, a memorable shopping experience involves sales associates who are knowledgeable and passionate about the products and services they represent. They are eager to understand what my needs are and how they can assist me with finding the answers to the challenges I have, while ensuring that I benefit from each choice they assist me with.

Today’s post features an article from Forbes.com. Written by Knowlege@Wharton, the article discusses the elements of a great shopping experience. The article focuses on Paula Courteny, CEO of the The Verde Group, a retail research and consulting firm in Toronto!

That WOW factor that delights and surprises the customer—both in booming and challenging times—will always keep that customer coming back. Better yet, YOU have the opportunity to encourage your customers to share their experiences with the world. How are you going provide a WOW experience for your customers?

Best Nicole

Paula Courtney found “wow” when she took her daughter to the employee washroom at her local grocery store. A sign by the door instructed workers to remain physically by the side of any customer experiencing a problem until that problem was resolved. Later, when Courtney was in the checkout line, the cashier noticed Courtney’s blueberries were squishy. The cashier insisted on walking back to the produce section to find a fresh box.

For Courtney, chief executive of The Verde Group, a Toronto retail research and consulting firm, that was a “wow” shopping experience.

New Wharton research finds that 35% of shoppers have had an extraordinary retail experience in the past six months. But in order to hit that mark, retailers must deliver on as many as 10 different elements of the shopping experience simultaneously. Retailers are rewarded when shoppers tell others about their experience. “Peoples’ expectations are pretty high. It’s easy to [fall short of those expectations], and hard to eclipse [bad experiences, even] with something that’s over-the-top,” says Wharton marketing professor Stephen Hoch. “Bitching and moaning is more common than praise.”

Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative teamed with Verde and the Retail Council of Canada to discover how retailers can create an extraordinary experience for shoppers. In an online survey, 1,006 shoppers in the United States and Canada were asked: “Can you think of a shopping experience that you had in the past six months or so that was especially great, in that the experience created delight and surprise for you in any way?”

A report based on the research, titled “Discovering ‘WOW’–A Study of Great Retail Shopping Experiences in North America,”points to five major areas that contribute to a great shopping experience:

–Engagement: being polite, genuinely caring and interested in helping, acknowledging and listening.

–Executional excellence: patiently explaining and advising, checking stock, helping to find products, having product knowledge and providing unexpected product quality.

–Brand Experience: exciting store design and atmosphere, consistently great product quality, making customers feel they’re special and that they always get a deal.

–Expediting: being sensitive to customers’ time on long check-out lines, being proactive in helping speed the shopping process.

–Problem Recovery: helping resolve and compensate for problems, upgrading quality and ensuring complete satisfaction.

In all, respondents mentioned 28 elements of a great experience, such as salespeople who “immediately acknowledged you” or “could easily explain a product to you” or “seemed genuine.”

Pulling It All Together
Courtney says the typical wow experience has 10 of those elements at the same time. Further complicating the mission for retailers is the fact that the most important elements vary among individuals. “It’s like a perfect storm,” she says.

Retailers can focus on creating a “bedrock,” or platform, based on the five major pillars of retail satisfaction to increase the probability of creating a wow experience. According to the research, four in five shoppers will tell an average of three other people about a wow experience.

Brand experience and engagement are the strongest drivers of loyalty, according to the survey. The top response was related to engagement, with 63% of those reporting that during their great shopping experience, store employees were “very polite and courteous.” Salespeople who were knowledgeable about the product in the store got the second-highest response at 55%. As for execution, about half of those experiencing a wow shopping trip stressed store employees’ familiarity with products, their advice and the level of interest in the customers’ needs as essential to a great shopping experience. Slightly fewer–two in five–pointed to surprisingly great product quality and store representatives who go out of their way to check stock as crucial elements of exceptional shopping.

Brand experience includes store design and atmosphere, consistently great product quality, making customers feel they’re special and the sense that customers always get a deal. Hoch says this element is somewhat “fuzzy” because chain stores, which account for the majority of shopper visits, often provide trendy merchandise and stylish store environments, but also run the risk of projecting sameness. Earlier research by the Baker Center and Verde found that shoppers reported “mall malaise”–boredom with the similarity of specialty chain stores. “Most chains are cookie-cutter,” says Hoch. “Even if the stores themselves are different from each other, the same store is in every mall. It’s probably a lot easier for a small merchant to provide this brand experience. Unfortunately, if people see the same look over and over again, they find it mundane.”

Speeding the shopping process is another important trait of a great retailer, according to the survey. Three of four aspects of the expediting pillar–helping customers complete their shopping quickly, and being sensitive to time and check-out lines–are rated as “very important” by half of those who encountered each during the shopping experience they cited as “great.” Hoch says many people, especially women, no longer approach shopping as a pleasant task. “Shopping used to be a happy, social event–and it can still be–but more often now it’s part of a larger trip, and you are trying to get a lot accomplished in a certain period of time.”

The ability of a retailer to resolve a problem once it crops up is another key factor in determining whether a shopper will have a great experience. One in four respondents mention that a store representative stayed with them until their problem was resolved. Fewer than one in 10 said they were compensated for a store error, or that a store representative broke company policy to resolve a problem or automatically offered a product upgrade.

Courtney stresses it is important for retailers to have a clear, simple problem resolution process. “The biggest issue is problem ownership,” she says. “If all you can do is train everybody on one thing related to problem-solving it would be getting people to own the problem and not pass it off.” Hoch says that while problem resolution was not as great a factor as some of the other five elements, one common thread emerged from the research: “A person stepped up to the plate and figured out how to solve the problem.” Having that experience changed the consumer’s state of mind from helplessness to, “‘Boy, somebody came up and helped me.’ We all like a hero, but it doesn’t happen very often,” Hoch notes.

The research also indicates that the components of a great retail experience vary somewhat by the age, gender and nationality of shoppers. Younger consumers, aged 18 to 30, were most likely to recall having a great shopping experience. Those over age 50 were more likely to mention store representatives who seemed genuine and caring. They also liked being acknowledged and treated courteously. Hoch notes that younger shoppers’ retail experiences are colored by greater comfort with multitasking and familiarity with the Internet, making them more transaction-oriented than relationship-oriented and less tied to brick-and-mortar stores.

Canadian shoppers cite “getting a deal” as a more important part of the brand experience than do shoppers in the U.S. The Canadians also put more emphasis on an exciting store atmosphere or design. Courtney argues that understanding differences across national lines is critical for global retailers. “It shows the need to recognize the customer who shops in your retail footprint. Creating a ‘one-size fits all’ doesn’t work,” she says. “There are some significant differences between Canadians and Americans. More important, there are age and gender differences that are relevant to every customer you serve and are easy to identify.”

The best way to lay the foundation for customers to have great retail experiences is for store owners to hire and train staff who are able to take basic information about shopper preferences and convert that knowledge to customized service. “If you are a mass merchandiser with no training program, the likelihood of creating wow is slim to none,” says Courtney. “Hiring policy is core to a business that creates ‘wow.’”

In the current recessionary climate, price is important to consumers, but only one factor in the overall wow shopping experience. The researchers found that of those experiencing a wow shopping trip, 43% said having consistently excellent products was a factor in their recent great retail experiences. That was the top response in regard to brand experience, followed by “getting a deal,” which was cited by 31% of respondents. “We have created a value-based consumer,” says Courtney.

While the Great Depression led to an era of penny pinching, today’s economic crisis is leading consumers to focus more on value than price, she adds. “With credit cards and retail and telecom, we are seeing value-based buying. … People are being more scrupulous about where they buy and what they buy. More educated consumers are looking for a better value in everything.”

Still, even in a challenging economic environment, she says, retailers are able to deliver a wow experience if they plan to provide the basic elements of a great shopping experience. “Despite shortages of resources and store closings, it is still possible to delight and surprise,” she contends. “The possibility exists when retailers have everything in place.”

What Do Women Want?

nicolem — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:32:41 +0000

This is the mega million dollar question. We don’t need to mention the stats. All businesses are now re-analyzing their marketing mixes and plans to find out who really is their target market. I think marketing to women is truly key for all businesses. The problem is (as mentioned in a meeting earlier this week) what happens if we market to women and we find out—through our research and analysis—that our target market is really men or a higher percentage of men? What do we do then?

We believe that marketing better to women is better marketing to the individual modern person. Who doesn’t want the sales people you’re dealing with to be better listeners? Who doesn’t want their sales people to understand when a person is ready to buy—as opposed to a person who is gathering information in order to make a correct purchase? All of these things and more can be identified when studying how to better market to women. Men win. We all win.

Canadian Garden Center and Nursey write about some great tips in a new book called “Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How they Buy”, written by Mary Lou Quinlan and published by John Wiley and Sons [ISBN 0-471-36920-9]. What makes this information valuable is that it looks at today’s consumer from a women’s perspective. Men still dominate the business world from a decision making perspective as well as product offering and brand direction in many cases. The facts are clear that we are different genders and understanding each other benefits us all. Having a woman clearly outline what her needs are from a sales perspective, can be helpful to all of us.

Thanks Pam Dangelmaier for forwarding this to our attention. Botanus is 2 for 2!

This is definitely a book worth looking into.

Best Nicole

What do women want?

According to recent research 85 per cent of decisions are made by women and lifestyle retailers major target market is 35 year old women. But, at a recent retail conference I had an audience that was made up of 75 per cent male retail business owners with the majority of them in their 50’s.The challenge for these guys was trying to understand their target market. At last a great book has just come out to help retail business owners understand their target market. “Just Ask A Woman- Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How they Buy” has been written by Mary Lou Quinlan and published by John Wiley and Sons [ISBN 0-471-36920-9]

The book looks at today’s female consumer from a woman’s perspective. It offers advice on what most male retailers are doing wrong and what they should be doing to gain a woman’s loyalty as a consumer.

Some of the key messages that I gleaned from the book were as follows:

Do a Listening Audit
Most women will tell their male partners that they are not listening to them. One of the first comments in this book is that most male salespeople do not give the impression that they are listening to their female consumers. What is the answer to this often heard complaint? Develop a listening audit to check how good your listening skills are in business.

The book suggest among other things, two valuable listening audits. One is to simply ask your female customers how good they feel your team are at listening to customers, and what improvements they would suggest. The other one is to ask your team for the answers to some key questions.

Those questions would include:

“What can our customers not live without?”
“What frustrates you about our female customers?”
“What is the one customer fact you want to be absolutely sure of?”
“What does our typical customer really look like, how does she live, what makes her laugh, what does she worry about?”

These questions force your team to really focus on their customer and her needs and wants. I realize some of your team may have problems answering some of these questions. However, this may highlight that the team are not as in tune with their customers as they thought they were, and some work may be required to bring the team up to speed.

Stress
The book then moves on to women’s stresses. Many women, according to the book, take on the stresses of their partners, friends and family as well as their own. As a retailer we need to accept that these stresses exist, especially when it comes to young moms. The answer is to reduce your customers stress and put a smile on her face. Examine the systems in your business and try to simplify them for your consumer.

I recently came across an example of this in my own family when my daughter, who has a nine month old baby tried to negotiate calling our local bank while managing her offspring. The answer phone system went on and on and then she was put on hold. This may have helped the bank, but it resulted in a stressed mom, with a crying baby, who was not in the frame of mind to deal with the teller when she finally got through to speak to someone. This did the bank no favours in consumer perceptions of the customer service they offer.

Many male retailers are not sure when a customer is in shopping mode and when she is in deciding mode. A typical female shopper in Australia, we are told, shops for 399 hours a year on average, but not all those trips to the shops are in shopping mode. If women are saying they are “just looking” the chances are they are doing just that, and are not in a shopping mode, so leave them alone. When she is ready to buy, she really is and wants service straight away. An astute salesperson can read when a customer is in a looking mode versus a buying mode and can react accordingly.

The Female Consumer and Your Brand
The book talks about the Four Quadrants of the consumers shopping experience when it comes to your brand.

Firstly, your consumer has a powerful memory. She will recall experiences about your brand from the distant passed and then make decisions today based on those memories. Sometimes these are positive and sometimes they are negative. The positive memories of her Beetle car in her youth have resulted in increased sales of the latest version of this iconic car.

Secondly, she is looking for company legends and is often an avid reader of magazines where these legends are generated. Many women, even outside of the USA look to Nordstrom’s as providers of legendary customer service. Many of them have not even ventured into one of their stores, they know the legend though.

Thirdly, and in my opinion this is the most important, is her Board of Directors, her trusted advisors. These may include her closed friends, the local hairdresser, her accountant and near relatives. These people have a huge influence on the buying process and are often overlooked by many retailers. That is why ‘Tipster Marketing’ campaigns developed by retailers are so important in building an advocacy base for any business. You have to get women to talk about you and your business.

Finally, the first encounter with your store is critical to the whole future experience with your business. On this visit she is using all her senses and forming a whole list of impressions and opinions on your business. She is analysing your cleanliness, customer service attitudes, your merchandise, your displays and your overall attitude. First impressions are far more critical to female shoppers than male shoppers.

You need to ensure that you have an image checklist and that the store is checked against that checklist every day. Your entire team needs to be trained in building positive relationships with customers, not just on how to make the sale.

The book covers many other aspects of how to sell to women. I know female readers will say it is all common sense, but to many male retailers, it is rare sense and therefore an essential read.

Written by John Stanley

Mommy Bloggers are Your Target Market. Are You Tapped in and Listening?

bcadgroup — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:15:03 +0000

Share says on it’s home page that women are unique; we have have many voices and we want you to listen to us. Our goal and mission as a business is to engage everyone. And to make others realize the importance of focusing on, and incorporating into their marketing plans and strategy, ways to connect and engage one of the most important and lucrative target markets in this current economy. Women.

How are you incorporating women into your marketing plan? Are you connecting with them to find out how you can gain access to more of that .83¢ of every dollar that they now control?

Ad Age Digital has a video that is titled “Inside the Mommy Blogger Business”. This video shows you how some of North America’s largest retailers have got the picture and are leveraging relationships with women in conjunction with key products and services. They see how tapping into this target market will help them access the huge amount of buying power and sales opportunties that can be made.

In addition to the video, Ad Age Digital also states “Retailers, Publishers and Agencies Adjust to this new reality. Despite their light weight moniker, mommy bloggers have become heavyweight marketing business heavyweights. Now said to number in the millions these online women have cobbled together online networks that rival some mainstream media companies. And, they’re clearly a force that retailers under estimate at their own peril. In this “About Digital” report we talk to a retail giant, an analyst, major publisher and a pr agency to better understand how various segments of the industry are adjusting to this phenomenon.

Need I say more?

Best Nicole

Inside the Mommy Blogger Business

Retailers, Publishers and Agencies Adjust to a New Reality

Ready Set GO! Online Retailers Embrace Web 2.0 This Holiday Season.

bcadgroup — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:41:42 +0000

If you’ve been following my posts, you may have begun to recognize a familiar pattern. One that involves me wading daily through all sorts of trend reports, ezines, e-mails and blogs from every industry you can imagine. In my world, meetings never begin before noon (that’s if I have anything to say about it) and my morning kicks off with a potent cup of joe and a mountain of mail overflowing in my inbox.

Today, as I began to drink away the usual morning fog that always welcomes me, I saw a distinct pattern in the many emails that I searched through. It is clear…retailers are embracing social media to find new ways of getting the word out about their sales, promotions, products and services as the holiday season revs up into full gear.

The first and most interesting read was about NFLShop.com and it’s focus on advertising to women as we approach the holidays. Hoorah for the NFL!! I am a long-standing and proud Pittsburgh Steelers fan, so this was very exciting to hear. From an article in Mediaweek:

Instead of tapping into its predominantly male audience, the National Football League’s e-commerce arm will go after female shoppers, who make up the majority of the site’s business this time of year.

While the online shopping demographic usually skews 70 percent male and 30 percent female on NFLshop.com, around Christmas the numbers flip, said Bob O’Keefe, who oversees NFL Direct, the sports organization’s database of 25 million fans. Last year, 60 percent of the site’s shoppers were women during the holidays, per the company.

There is an ad that will be running on many of the major TV networks featuring a woman giving her husband his favorite jersey as a gift. This will be the first time NFLShop.com has run an ad during the holiday season.

There is already a fair bit of twittering, texting and e-mailing going on thanks to retailers and shoppers hyping sales and bargains. Social networking — be it through sites like Twitter or Facebook — is magnifying the seasonal gift-a-thon more than ever before.

From the MSNBC website:

At JCPenney’s Web site, for example, you can sign up for a wake-up call for the day after Thanksgiving, as well as get “helpful shopping tips” texted to your phone throughout the season. You may want to consider putting your phone on “vibrate” at work.

Sears is launching “Sears2go,” for cell phone users, who want to text in their orders, do product searches or find special offers.

Amazon.com, among others, is also happy to send you a text alert for its “daily deals,” if you’re not already getting bombarded with e-mails from the Internet giant, as well as other retailers. The company has also started a test version of Amazon Windowshop, a kind of 3-D experience where shoppers can sample movie trailers, music and audio book reviews.

It is clear that people want to be engaged! Building brand evangelism is now about companies taking advantage of all the social media tools they can to reach each and every individual customer one by one!

Happy Shopping.

Best Nicole