Sq1 War Room

Archive for the ‘Shopper Marketing’ Category

Digital Shopper Marketing – Digital Coupon Clipping Comes to the iPad via CardStar

August 31st, 2010 by Judge

According to Mashable; Digital Coupon Clipping Comes to the iPad via CardStar

Today, a Verizon-backed startup is releasing its iPad application and introducing a new functionality — digital coupon clipping.

CardStar makes mobile applications to digitally manage retailer club and membership cards. CardStar for iPad doubles as a personalized, digital circular for coupons. The app lets users discover coupons relevant to each of their stored rewards cards, clip and save them to their loyalty cards, and redeem them on their next shopping trip. Clipped coupons will automatically be deducted at the register for all applicable purchases.

At launch, Zavers, an online coupon provider, is powering CardStar’s repository of coupons; but the startup plans to work with additional third-party online coupon services moving forward. Zavers primarily issues online coupons for grocery store chains such as A&P and Superfresh on the East Coast. With the CardStar iPad app, users can add their Zavars account to browse and clip coupons with ease.

Users can fire up the iPad app to browse available coupons by club card. They then simply click a coupon to attach it to their card for future redemption. They can also view coupons by All, Unsaved and Saved filters; send a coupon via email to a friend; and track how much they’re saving.

The iPad app comes with a few additional nice touches, including Foursquare integration and the ability to view nearby coupon offers on a map.

Given that coupons are limited to Zaver’s offerings, CardStar for iPad’s coupon clipping functionality is a bit premature to be useful for everyone. Still, the app was released to keep CardStar ahead of the curve and prove that the service can be a platform with the power to complete the loop between loyalty card, consumer and retailer coupons. On those fronts, it certainly delivers.

Would you find this app useful? What other coupon sites should CardStar include next?

Square One a Dallas Digital Agency are experts in Shopper Marketing and Digital Shopper Marketing

 Digital Coupons, Digital Shopper Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

---

Digital Shopper Marketing – The Time Is Now to Take Shopper Marketing Beyond the Store

August 18th, 2010 by Jennifer

According to Deloitte’s 2010 Back-to-School Survey, three out of 10 consumers plan to use their mobile phones to assist in their back-to-school shopping. No doubt, as shoppers look to social media for product information, reviews and sales, the ecology of shopping is changing rapidly. As it does, marketers are trying to address two challenges. The first is how to strike the right balance between verified traditional methods and the pursuit of new ways of communicating with shoppers. The second challenge for marketers is to garner shopper attention, then earn and cultivate a relationship with the shopper.

To be most successful, shopper marketing must be holistic. It must be aware of the tools today’s shoppers are using. Studying how shoppers use social media not only provides an understanding of shoppers, but it also represents a vehicle for getting relevant information to shoppers when and where they need it.

Marketers must be aware, however, that consumers have not historically trusted corporate blogs and have looked to other, more transparent information sources. Marketers cannot just begin marketing in all social media because it simply won’t be viewed as trustworthy, transparent, authentic or relevant.

AD AGE WHITE PAPER

This Ad Age Insights white paper uncovers tips and trends for reaching people in store aisles.

Nowadays, shoppers are increasingly turning to “social heuristics” as a part of their shopping toolbox. Heuristics are that method for problem-solving or decision-making that arrives at a solution through experimentation, trial and error, or evaluation. The “social” refers to both social media and the use of the wisdom of the crowd — going beyond one’s own knowledge to trusted and relevant sources.

According to Marketing Sherpa’s Social Media Marketing and PR Benchmark Study, 2009, about 70% of consumers report using social networks and communities to obtain information about brands (higher than company websites, followed by online news and reviews). There is no market for messages, here, only relevant, useful and trusted information.

Social-shopping sites such as Kaboodle, Etsy, Crowdstorm, Woot, iliketotallyloveit, Zebo, MyItThings, ProductWiki, ShopStyle and My.zappos have at their core sharing reviews with others. Other social-shopping sites promise to connect independent-minded shoppers with hard-to-find products. Others combine two favorite online activities: shopping and social networking. Facebook Connect, for example, allows users to ask their Facebook friends’ opinions on purchases made directly on the social-shopping site.

Additionally, shoppers are making use of mobile shopping apps such as Google Shopper on Android, Peem Shop Mobile Search, Frugalytics, Piranha Pricecheck and Abidia Wireless. Similarly, mobile-shopping sites like Yahoo Shopping, Frucall and Amazon Anywhere are changing the ways shoppers think about shopping and actively shop.

Search engines are becoming better at understanding shoppers’ individual search needs, but social media represent an alternative (and competition) to search engines. Shoppers use social bookmarking sites like Digg or Delicious, but they also search Facebook, Hi5 or Orkut about products and services they are interested in purchasing.

Shoppers also make use of social media via its daily updating. As they scan through updates, shoppers can look for entries most relevant to them, and/or query their social network, getting help where and when they need it.

At the same time, marketers have become acutely aware of the power of relevant, useful conversations with shoppers — in other words, conversations worth the shopper’s investment.

Individual tailoring of offers (for example, Sam’s Club’s eValues are tied to its Plus card) allow targeted offers to shoppers based on past purchase history. Where coupons might deliver 1% to 2% response rates, programs like eValues — or Kroger’s Dunnhumby direct program, Costco, CVS Extra Value — typically see 20% to 30% of shoppers collect their discounts.

To drive website traffic, lead generation and both online and offline sales, many marketers are becoming fast fans of social media that work outside the store, which has proven not only effective and efficient during the recession, but, most important, represents a new way of establishing an ongoing conversation with shoppers.

One way retailers and manufacturers have been leveraging social media is by accommodating social shopping and reviews — a practice advanced and facilitated by the recent introduction of Facebook social plug-ins. Companies such as Vans and Jansport.com have developed the social-shopping experience to improve the online shopping experience. More recently, Levi’s “Friends Store” shopping site (using a Facebook “Like” plug-in) allows shoppers to see what friends and everyone else likes (“Like Minded Shopping Starts Here”), as well as share with the community. And it allows shoppers to access live advice of friends through Facebook.

Other retailers leveraging social media include Charlotte Russe, using Decision Step’s Shop Together, which allows shoppers to shop together, from browsing to synchronized shopping. Zappos allows shoppers to seek live advice and/or link with affinity groups, for example, other shoppers interested in golf, running couture or the outdoors. Vans.com (using Fluid’s social-shopping app) makes customization a social activity, allowing friends to co-customize sneakers.

Wet Seal, an apparel and accessories retailer, launched its social-shopping program in late 2009, highlighted by several useful features. Its “Outfitter” program allows shoppers to see the possibilities, create and rate outfits. To date, 400,000 outfits and 2 million ratings have been created. In addition, three-fourths of Wet Seal customers are on Facebook, and Wet Seal allows its shoppers to link with friends via Facebook to provide feedback.

Walmart’s Elevenmoms is based on 21 bloggers conversant in a wide range of topics from parenting, to easy recipes, to spreading the word on product giveaways. They represent a diversity of opinion, age, family situation, stay-at-home moms, working moms, etc. Participation is voluntary. Participants must disclose their relationship with Walmart, for example, compensation received, travel opportunities, expenses and products. Guest bloggers also appear periodically. Shoppers follow those moms with whom they have the greatest affinity, but any relevant conversation or view can be a useful source of information. Walmart has also made inroads with its Facebook page — “Save Money, Live Better” — as a kind of leaderboard for shoppers wanting to save money.

Best Buy’s Twelpforce, introduced in July of 2009, allows consumers to ask tech questions of Best Buy employees via micro-blogging site Twitter. This beyond-the-store media operates on Best Buy’s promise that consumers will know relevant information as fast as Best Buy knows it. This helps and allows consumers to make purchase decisions they are trying to make, weighing lots of opinions and Best Buy customer support in the process, with many other consumers learning from watching the conversations unfold.

Bottom line? Social media is one of the most promising marketing vehicles for retailers. From the shopper’s view, its trustworthiness, relevance and accessibility make it an ideal aid to the shopping process. From the marketer’s point of view, it is a way to reach tough-to-reach shopper segments — like teens. Navigating social media may be challenging, no doubt, but it’s well worth the effort.

Square One a Dallas Digital Agency are experts in Shopper Marketing and Digital Shopper Marketing

 Digital Shopper Marketing, Mobile Shopper Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

---

Digital Shopper Marketing – Aisle by Aisle, an App That Pushes Bargains

August 17th, 2010 by Ernie

According to The New York Times; Digital Shopper Marketing  Aisle by Aisle, an App That Pushes Bargains

It’s like the most persistent sales clerk you’ve ever encountered.

Major retailers are working with a new smartphone application that tracks and offers promotions to shoppers as they move from outside the store, to counters, to cash registers — even inside the dressing room (now that’s persistence).

The app, called Shopkick, will be available on Tuesday for the iPhone and in the fall for Android phones. And with five major companies supporting it — Macy’s, Best Buy, Sports Authority and American Eagle Outfitters, along with the Simon Property Group, the prominent mall operator — it is getting a big introduction.

Customers with the Shopkick app will get points (called kickbucks) for entering a store. Pick up a putter at Sports Authority, and points drop into the app. Stop in the dressing room at American Eagle, and more points arrive.

The points are redeemable for gift cards at the retailers, along with music downloads or credits toward Facebook games. It takes a lot of points, however, to earn even a $5 gift card, although the stores say they may adjust the point system to make points more valuable.

Whether shoppers will get a kick, so to speak, out of being followed — and pinged from one floor of a store to the next — remains debatable. What retailers see as sophisticated marketing, privacy advocates see as intrusive. Shopkick knows “where you are, what you buy, your spending habits, passions, excesses,” Jeffrey Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said via e-mail.

Unlike apps like Foursquare, Shopkick tells retailers when users are inside, not just near, a store.

“That’s unusual,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Will it lift sales? That remains to be seen, but everyone is eager to experiment.”

The app lets stores “influence their behavior,” said Mikael Thygesen, who is the chief marketing officer at the Simon Property Group and the president of its Simon Brand Ventures division. Simon, along with the other companies using Shopkick, will install it in stores in and around New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles initially, with Chicago to follow next week.

Before introducing Shopkick, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, Cyriac Roeding, tested how willing consumers would be to “check in” to a location in exchange for a reward — in that case, money for charities. That app, called CauseWorld, was introduced in December 2009 and was downloaded more than 550,000 times in its first five months, with almost $1 million going to charities so far. Ms. Mulpuru called it “a success story of the retail-app world.”

Shopkick goes further.

On Monday, Mr. Roeding stood on a slim strip of sidewalk on 46th Street in Manhattan, trying to avoid Times Square tourists as he demonstrated the app. As he stood a few yards from the entrance to an American Eagle Outfitters store, the app showed him all the nearby stores where he could check in — including American Eagle or the tiny candy store nearby. For each check-in — which did not require him to actually go inside — he could receive 0 to 2 points.

That was fine, but “foot traffic is so important,” Mr. Roeding said. “Why does no one ever reward anyone for visiting a store?” By actually going inside the American Eagle store, the app told him, he could earn 35 kickbucks. The app knows someone is in a store by listening for an audio transmitter placed in each participating store; the phone’s microphone picks up the signal, which people cannot hear.

Once inside, Mr. Roeding swiped through offers: a 15 percent discount, a sale on jeans. Enter a dressing room — once a shopper tries on clothes, sales rise, retailers know — and posters on the walls offer points for scanning the bar code.

“It’s the first reward programs for desired behaviors,” Mr. Roeding said.

Shopkick earns a small fee for each kickbuck a customer earns. If a customer buys something after using the app, Shopkick gets a percentage of the price.

Right now, it takes a lot of kickbucks to earn anything — a $5 gift card at American Eagle requires 1,250 kickbucks. And retailers limit the number of eligible visits each day, so someone cannot sprint in and out of Best Buy all afternoon.

Soon, the retailers say, they hope to become more sophisticated, giving points or promoting items based on sex or age, where people live, how frequently they shop or their buying history.

The companies can even weave in rewards-card numbers, as Best Buy is already doing. With that, “we have the ability to target down to even an individual level,” said Mike Dupuis, the vice president for marketing and operations at American Eagle Outfitters Direct, the Web and mobile division of American Eagle.

Privacy advocates like Mr. Chester said that was problematic, especially given how that data could be combined with other available information about consumers, and that Shopkick’s privacy policy was too broad.

“What appears to be a relatively harmless trade-off of your information for rewards or discounts is really misleading,” he said.

Mr. Roeding said he believed that because consumers had to turn on the app, the privacy problems were minimal. “The device does not detect your phone, the phone detects your device,” he said.

 Digital Shopper Marketing, Mobile Shopper Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

---

Digital Shopper Marketing – Apple Hires Wireless Payment Guru, Prepare for iPhone Credit Cards

August 16th, 2010 by Judge

According to Fast Company;

Digital Shopper Marketing – Apple Hires Wireless Payment Guru, Prepare for iPhone Credit Cards

Apple’s hired an expert in near-field communications to be its new product manager for mobile commerce. This is big news, in ways you may not immediately grasp: Propelled by Apple’s cachet and iPhone’s appeal, wireless payment tech may now be about to sweep over the world.

The man in question is Benjamin Vigier, who’s been working in near-field comms (NFC) since at least 2004. In previous roles at flash memory firm Sandisk and Bouygues Telecom in France he worked on NFC tasks, and while at mFoundry–a mobile payments firm in the U.S.–he was responsible for PayPal Mobile and Starbuck’s mobile service that made use of unique on-screen barcodes for payments. He’s basically one of the big go-to guys if you’re interested in cell phone payment systems.

Near-field comms is how some contact-free metro, train and bus ticketing systems work: You’ve probably used one if going through the pedestrian barriers at a station involved you merely waving your ticket over a sensor pad instead of shoving it in a slot (it’s also how those injectable pet ID tags work). NFC uses very short-range radio signals to send data between two system, typically with a flat spiral metal antenna–this is concealed inside those smart train tickets, since it’s both cheap and flexible. In the ticket-like implementation of NFC, there’s a tiny silicon chip in the ticket that gets both power and data from the radio waves when it’s in use, and the unique codes on the chip tell the ticketing system which journey you’ve paid for an so on. This is the low-technology version, which is basically about as smart as a barcode identity system but a deal more secure.

In high-tech NFC implementations, the antenna is hooked up to something much more powerful like a smartphone. When the phone is placed on or over an NFC sensor pad, much more complicated data can then be sent between the two systems, with data going to and from the phone.

Now remember what happens when you hand over your credit card in a store: All the card contains is a very short string of numbers that identifies you and your bank data. You confirm the transaction with a PIN or a signature, and the store uses this data to sort out the payment. Now imagine your phone has the low-tech NFC circuitry in it, and instead of handing over a card, you plop your phone on a pad–the store gets the same numbers, and the payment works exactly the same. But if your smartphone has the clever NFC tech inside it, all sorts of astonishing stuff is possible: The store could transmit ads to your phone, loyalty card points, free apps, games … the possibilities are literally endless.

NFC tech has been available for years, but it’s only really taken off in a few markets–like Japan–since the benefits have been pretty much limited to its contact-free nature. But now, with smartphones becoming the norm, the cleverer uses of NFC could mean the tech is about to explode into usefulness: It’s why Nokia’s interested in the technology too. But which company out there could grasp the interactive aspects of NFC, and turn it into an immersive, secure, innovative and clever way to connect your smartphone to store computers, or ticketing computers (or computers in all sorts of other places, like airport check-in desks)? Apple. Check out the list of patents they’ve been filing about NFC over the last couple of years. Think about the App Store and how third party developers could use NFC. Think about Apple’s cool geek-chic image, and how wildly popular the iPhone is, and how it’s transformed the face of the modern smartphone industry. Remember the new iPhone 4 has a glass back, perfect for transmitting radio waves to and from a flat spiral antenna, which could easily be squeezed inside the iPhone 5.

Benjamin Vigier may be about to transform how you think about credit card payments, and turn your iPhone into very much more than a phone/credit card/mobile internet device. You can bet everyone else is going to follow soon after, too.

Square One a Dallas Digital Agency are experts in Shopper Marketing and Digital Shopper Marketing

 Digital Shopper Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

---

Digital Shopper Marketing – Digital Coupons Beamed to Shoppers’ Cells in the Mall

August 13th, 2010 by Judge

According to Marketing VOX; Digital Coupons Beamed to Shoppers’ Cells in the Mall

Simon Property Group has teamed up with a Silicon startup, Shopkick, to give its retailers a new option with digital couponing: an application that beams offers to shoppers as they walk by the stores.

Simon Property Group is one of the largest retail real estate owners in the country, with some 370 shopping centers. It will be launching this program in 25 of its stores in New York, Chicago, southern California and San Francisco, with plans to introduce it in 100 centers over the next several months. (via the AP).

This is how the application works: retailers install the Shopkick application on small speakers at the entrance to their stores. These emit an inaudible sound – which contains a code for the store – that is picked up by cellphones’ microphones. Consumers need to have the Shopkick app on their phones to receive any offers.

The Future of Retail

Shopkick is fueling several new retailer online applications. It is the partner behind Best Buy’s location-based service that rewards shoppers when they enter a store- without having them check in. Best Buy plans to introduce it in several additional markets in the coming weeks.

Similar to the Simon Property offering, Best Buy integrated Shopkick directly into its point of sale system in its San Francisco store. When the Shopkick app is open on the smart phone, it detects the signal technology installed in the retail location as the consumer walks through the door, and the shopper instantly receives rewards, called “kickbucks.”

kickbucks can be immediately redeemed for Facebook credits, songs from Napster, in-store cash-back rewards at shopkick partner stores, magazine subscriptions, or donations to charities.

Square One a Dallas Digital Agency are experts in Shopper Marketing and Digital Shopper Marketing

 Digital Shopper Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

Subscribe   Comments Off

---

Digital Shopper Marketing – ShopKick.com

August 4th, 2010 by Marian

Digital Shopper Marketing – ShopKick.com

Digital Shopper Marketing revolution

About ShopKick- We thought that shopping in the offline world can be done much better than it’s been done for so many years. Why does no one reward you for visiting their stores, only for buying something? Why does nobody make shopping more individual and give you offers that matter to you? Why is there no fun social sharing and other stuff when you go to your favorite store? And where are offers that really matter to you, especially if you don’t read the Sunday paper?

Watch this quick video:

Square One a Dallas Digital Agency are experts in Digital Shopper Marketing

 Digital Shopper Marketing, Mobile Shopper Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

Subscribe   Comments Off

---

Shopper Marketing – Calculating Shoppers

August 4th, 2010 by Lauren

According to Center for Media Research; Calculating Shoppers

The recession has made it necessary for Americans to rethink and adjust their shopping patterns, resulting in a more strategic, informed, and even calculating approach to shopping previously driven by impulse, advertising responsiveness and the fundamental attractiveness of brands. A joint study by Deloitte and Harrison Group titled, “The 2010 American Pantry Study: The New Rules of the Shopping Game,” found that 92% of people surveyed have changed their grocery shopping behavior in the last two years. 89% said they have become more resourceful while 84% say they are more precise when they shop.

Key findings from 2010 American Pantry Study:

93% expect to continue spending cautiously even when economy grows
92% have made some kind of change in their pantry related shopping habits
89% feel they have become more resourceful because of the economy
84% have become a lot more precise in what they buy
81% say fun to see how much they’re savings with coupons or loyalty cards
55% of those cutting back have suffered no decline in income, but feel they “should be… ”

Source: Deloitte and Harrison Group, July 2010 In addition, the survey showed that while this new shopping approach is generally based on spending less, 65% of people do not feel like they are sacrificing much. 79% reported feeling smarter about the way they shop versus two years ago. But consumers have embraced a persistent recessionary mindset, as 93% surveyed said they will remain cautious and keep spending at their current level, even if the economy improves. Pat Conroy, vice chairman and Deloitte’s consumer products practice leader, notes that “… personal gratification and a desire to feel smart about what consumers are putting in their shopping carts are trumping brand satisfaction… price-consciousness, value-orientation and bargain-hunting will remain prevalent for years… ” The study revealed four distinct shopper decision strategies, embodied by four segments of consumers, each reflecting their own attitudes and resourcefulness:

Super Savers manage their resourcefulness at the cash register, hunting for and taking pleasure in savvy price management through extensive coupon collection
Sacrificers manage resourcefulness at the shelf, selecting among competing products on the basis of unit price, shopping more store brands and eliminating convenience shopping
Planners address resourcefulness through pantry management where they plan out meals, accept bulk pack discounts and set fixed spending limits
Spectators are the most loyal to national brands and were the least impacted by the recession, but still strive to be resourceful. They learn how to save by taking advantage of in-store discounts
The Super Savers, Planners and Spectators, accounting for about 80% of shoppers, see the changes they have made as having led to emotional, as well as practical rewards, and they do not believe they have made unacceptable trade-offs in the marketplace. Dr. Jim Taylor, Harrison Group’s vice chairman and director of syndicated research, says “… the recession has given people the motivation to learn and adapt new strategies…. family gratification has replaced product satisfaction as the ‘go-to’ goal for America’s shoppers…”

The study also uncovered that loyalty cards are very important to shoppers with 84% reporting having at least one:

81% say fun to see money saved using coupons or shopper loyalty card
65% say shopping loyalty cards “essential/very important” money saving method

According to consumers surveyed, coupons are another popular tool with 67% of people increasing their coupon usage:

45% using more coupons received in mail
43% reading/clipping more coupons from newspaper
43% using more coupons available in store
39% downloading and printing online coupons
67% using at least one of these practices

According to the survey, consumers don’t believe they are sacrificing when buying store brands, with 85% saying they have found several brands that are just as good as national brands. 80% of those surveyed believe that most store brands are manufactured by the traditional national brands.

Perceptions of Store Brands
Perception % of Respondents
Believe that most store brands are manufactured by traditional national brands 80%
More open to trying private labels than 2 years ago 74
Only 2 or 3 brands they can’t live without 51

Feel that traditional national brands are superior (in quality) than private label 48
Intend to purchase more national brands as economy improves 35
Feel as if sacrificing when purchasing store brand instead of national brand 32
Source: Deloitte and Harrison Group, July 2010

Conroy concludes that “… Consumers have become so skilled in executing their new approaches that most feel they have become smarter, more calculating shoppers… ”

Square One a Dallas Advertising Agency are experts in Shopper Marketing

 Digital Shopper Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

Subscribe   Comments Off

---

Digital Shopper Marketing- Foursquare Checkins Now Part of Customer Loyalty App for iPhone

July 29th, 2010 by Marian

According to Mashable; Location Services – Foursquare Checkins Now Part of Customer Loyalty App for iPhone

CardStar offers mobile phone users a simple way to manage physical loyalty and membership cards in a digital manner. Today the service is introducing integration with Foursquare to support checkins for users of the iPhone application.

Now, when a user scans their club or loyalty card via CardStar () during checkout, they can also tap to check in on the location-based service.

The idea behind the integration is to eliminate the extra steps required for CardStar users to check in on Foursquare (), and help merchants better verify user checkins. Additionally, the company hopes to facilitate more engagement between customer and retailer, as well as encourage additional rewards for Foursquare checkins.

“The typical CardStar user already launches the app at point-of-sale in retail locations, airports, gyms and libraries. The CardStar integration with Foursquare was the next logical step to deliver a more cohesive mobile experience,” says CEO Andy Miller.

The enhanced application also includes a few updates to improve the overall card storage and scanning experience. It has been updated to include support for iOS 4 and now includes a geo-aware favorite places list.

When it comes to the bigger picture, CardStar’s Foursquare integration exemplifies the continued convergence of loyalty programs and location-sharing.

Tasti D-Lite has been very experimental in its integration of social media into its rewards program, even going so far as to build social functionality — which automatically rewards points for tweets and checkins — into their point-of-sale software. Mobile application Topguest also seeks to turn checkins into rewards points that can be redeemed at pricey hotels. Of course, many retailers like Starbucks, Ann Taylor and Domino’s UK are simply turning to Foursquare for a location-based loyalty program that rewards mayorships or checkins.

Square One a Dallas Advertising Agency are experts in Digital Shopper Marketing

 Digital Shopper Marketing, Location Based Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

Subscribe   Comments Off

---

SQUARE ONE MAXIMIZES BRAND ROI WITH DIGITAL SHOPPER MARKETING STRATEGY

July 27th, 2010 by admin

SQUARE ONE MAXIMIZES BRAND ROI WITH DIGITAL SHOPPER MARKETING STRATEGY
- Leading ad agency supports online shopper efforts with key hires; industry thought leadership -

DALLAS (July 27, 2010) – In the new digital landscape we live in today, online and technological advancements have created a 24/7 all-access shopping environment. This new dimension of shopping has ultimately shifted consumer and shopper behavior from a traditional “purchase funnel” model. Dallas-based Square One, an insights driven branding agency specializing in shopper marketing and business-to-business clients, continues to leverage insights about these new behaviors to create opportunities for industry-leading brands to successfully reach consumers wherever they are shopping.

Square One turns shoppers into buyers with the execution of its One2One approach, a highly strategic, results-based process that identifies a manufacturer’s brand’s most valuable shoppers at specific retail locales. With four critical phases involving insight, strategy, activation and evaluation, One2One works to identify and address the needs of the retailer, the shopper and manufacturer’s brand. Combining their experience with digital marketing tools, such as Search Engine Optimization, Web Development and Social Media, with more traditional marketing tools Square One is able to organize, execute and evaluate complete marketing strategies for their clients.

Leading the agency’s digital shopper marketing strategies is Marian Leonard, recently promoted Vice President of Client Service for the agency’s Shopper Marketing Practice Group. Marian’s job is to help the agency’s clients navigate the vastly complex world of shopper marketing. One of her main goals is to uncover valuable shopper insights that can be leveraged to help clients reach their shoppers and consumers in both the traditional retail environment and the rapidly growing digital marketplace. She has over 12 years of industry success helping clients gain increased distribution and sales, launch new products, and gain and maintain shopper’s loyalty.

Also adding value to the digital shopper marketing team is Jenna Kaetzel. Serving as Account Executive, she ensures new and creative approaches are developed to help clients achieve their business and marketing goals. Jenna’s years of experience in shopper marketing have not only helped agency clients reach the consumer effectively, but specifically allowed consumer packaged goods clients to successfully navigate the traditional and digital shopping world. Jenna has helped grow her clients businesses through the successful development of strategic platforms that include various elements such as digital promotional campaigns, partnership tie-ins and enhanced manufacturer-retailer relationships.

“Based on the current retail environment shift, it is imperative that our team identify and execute relevant strategies that agree with digital-friendly consumer groups. Square One has found great successes in recognizing the factors that determine purchase decisions, and transforming this knowledge into serviceable shopper marketing programs for our clients,” said Ernie Capobianco, CEO and partner of Square One. “By offering consumer-centric programming via digital shopper marketing, retailers are presented with valuable opportunities to engage shoppers comprehensively, be it at home, on-the-go and in-store.”

About Square One Agency
Founded in 1995, Dallas-based Square One Agency is an insights driven branding agency specializing in shopper marketing and business-to-business clients. For more information, please visit www.sq1agency.com.

 Digital Shopper Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

Subscribe   Comments Off

---

Top 5 Mobile Commerce Trends for 2010

July 23rd, 2010 by Ernie

According to Mashable; Top 5 Mobile Commerce Trends for 2010

Considering that most people would rather lose their wallet than misplace their cell phone, it’s fitting that the mobile world is quickly becoming a new hub for business. For many of us, our cell phone never leaves our side. It holds a place at the dinner table, is easily accessible in your bag’s front pocket, and often, somehow it even manages to end up sharing your pillow at night. Busy schedules mean people are often on the move and when marketers and companies can’t reach consumers at their computers, on TV, before the previews at the movies, with billboards, or magazine and newspaper ads, they must feel assured that they can still reach them on their cell phones.

Mobile commerce, or m-commerce, is simply the ability to conduct business transactions through a mobile device. With smartphone sales rising 49% in the first quarter of 2010, never before has it been so easy to shop, anywhere, anytime from the palm of your hand. There is an enormous amount of ongoing market research, and though there has been a variety of numbers estimated and reported, they all conclude that mobile commerce is a profitable and rapidly growing market.

By 2015, it’s estimated that shoppers from around the world will spend about $119 billion on goods and services bought via their mobile phones, according to a study by ABI Research released this past February. In the United States alone, mobile shopping rose from $396 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009, and mobile campaign spending also increased by 25 to 30% over the past year, with companies shelling out just under $313 million according to the same study. Senior Analyst Mark Beccue, said that he’s forecasting U.S. sales to reach about $2.2 billion in 2010.

Here are five mobile commerce trends to keep an eye on for the remainder of 2010:

1. Bargain Hunting

It would seem that mobile purchasing often lends itself to an impulse buy. Maybe you just have to suddenly download that song from the iTunes Store or really want to make sure you have tickets to that hot concert. In this case, it’s the savvy shopper that has taken note of mobile commerce. Beccue said that in the fourth quarter of 2009, he started to notice something unexpected and a bit “weird.”

Bargain hunting has become extremely popular with apps like RedLaser that allow users to scan product bar codes and discover it’s various prices at different retailers. Shoppers are melding the two worlds of online/mobile shopping with actual physical shopping to make sure they get the best prices.

2. Mobile Ticketing

“Do you have the tickets?” We’ve all been asked or have asked that question always expecting an affirmative answer, but despite our positive thinking someone often forgets the tickets. But that could very well be a conversation and frustration of the past given that mobile ticketing transactions are expected to exceed $100 billion world wide by 2012, according to a study released this month by Juniper Research. No doubt, the convenience of mobile ticketing, where customers can order, pay for, and validate tickets anywhere or anytime from their cell phones, is a driving force in its popularity.

Websites like Fandango and MovieTickets.com have made snagging seats to the hottest movie of the moment that much easier (or more competitive) with their mobile ticketing apps. This past weekend, Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was sold out all weekend, but mobile ticketing likely helped movie goers nab those last few seats. And industry sources say that mobile ticketing can account for up to 10% of ticket sales for blockbusters like Avatar on opening weekend. “It’s a small but growing percent of overall ticket sales,” said Harry Medved, director of marketing at Fandango.

3. Banking

We’ve been getting used to mobile banking for a while now. Most of us have our accounts setup online and check our balances on the phone. But according to data released by comScore, 13.2 million people accessed their bank accounts from their phones during the month of April alone, which is a 70% increase from a year ago. And similarly, the number of people using mobile banking apps more than doubled, to about 5 million in the last year.

4. Tangible Goods

So what are people actually buying with their phones? According to a survey by the Mobile Marketing Association, 17% of mobile commerce was used for purchasing applications and ringtones, while another 6% of people used their phones for discounts and coupons, and another 6% used their phones to buy tangible goods — that is, actual goods that you can put in your hands.

According to Beccue, eBay has been the standout leader in mobile commerce with their iPhone app that launched in 2008, and their Blackberry and Android (Android) applications that launched in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, the company saw more than $600 million dollars in goods sold via the mobile app, which was a 200% increase from 2008. The launch of their app notified bidders with push alerts and SMS notifications when they had been outbid, and allowed them to cast another attempt or keep track of ending auctions. According to eBay, one item is purchased every two seconds using eBay mobile app, with apparel, auto parts, cell phones/accessories, sporting goods and collectibles ranking as the top five categories of purchased items.

5. Marketing

Mobile commerce is growing and it is directly related to the amount of mobile marketing that companies are investing in. A reported 74% of online retailers either have in place or are developing mobile commerce strategies, while 20% have already implemented their complete plans, according to a study by the National Retail Federation.

Text message marketing, where customers opt-in to receive news about deals or offer coupons, has been a widely adopted practice as it’s a direct way to engage with consumers that has a high likelihood of being read. Retailers are also investing more time and money into creative ways to reach consumers via their mobile phones with campaigns that enhance the brand identity or the shopping experience.

eBay’s recent launch of their Fashion App is a great example. The app allows users to browse for clothes, have access to exclusive sales, and “try on” an outfit by snapping a picture with the iPhone’s camera. It then let’s you share your outfits with friends on Facebook (Facebook) and Twitter (Twitter). All of the features really add to the shopping experience, but most importantly, consumers are able to buy and bid on what they like.

Square One a Dallas Advertising Agency are experts in Mobile Shopper Marketing

 Digital Shopper Marketing, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Shopper Marketing, Shopper Marketing 

---

Subscribe   Comments Off

---

« Older Entries