What Restaurants Can Learn From Convenience Store Food Service-NRA 2013

C-stores are evolving from a place to fill up the tank and grab a pack of cigarettes to an actual retail destination. By offering fresh food and made-to-order options, convenience stores are becoming a one-stop shop for on-the-go shoppers. Check out the impact c-stores are having in the restaurant industry in this blog post. 

  What Restaurants Can Learn From Convenience Store Food Service-NRA 2013

Marketing to the Hispanic Consumer: More Than Spanish POP

According to Hispanic Fast Facts from AHAA, the buying power of the Hispanic demographic currently represents $1 trillion in purchasing power and is expected to reach $1.5 trillion in 2015, or 17% of the total U.S. population.  Even more, a whopping 1 in 6 Americans are Hispanic.  This is clear evidence that the Hispanic demographic represents a powerful force in America and one where serious marketing efforts must be allocated.http://www.pointsmith.com/blog/marketing-to-hispanic-consumers/

Marketing to the Back Seat – QSRs Reaching the Younger Generation

Parents are always on-the-go, running their children from event to event. Convenience is the theme of our lives these days, especially around meal time. I myself have three young boys to shuttle around and have little time in between to stop for meals. Fortunately, as a parent and consumer, I see many QSRs that focus on the family aspect of meals and they market to my kids sitting in the back seat. When it is mealtime, the back seat has a hard time deciding and agreeing on their favorite place to go. It’s interesting to evaluate how QSRs have managed to reach my back seat consumers. With so many QSRs to choose from, there are a few that stood out from the crowd with their ability to market to the younger and older generation at the same time... More here

Customer Engagement at the POS – POP That Rocks

Last week, Diane Longoria, Pointsmith’s Director of Marketing vlogged on the importance the first 10-12 feet inside the entrance of a retail environment through effectively creating a decompression zone. This week I’ll move further into the retail store and look at one of the last touch points a retailer has with the customer: the point-of-sale (POS). http://www.pointsmith.com/blog/customer-engagement-pop-that-rocks/

Flawesome Brands Flaunt Their Flaws

Flawesome [flaw-some]; (adjective): revealing one’s own flaws and using them to show how awesome they really are. During the life cycle of a brand, there comes a time when the brand is faced with a public image crisis and must decide how to deal with the issue. Flawesome is a term used to describe brands that have had their flaws exposed to the public, but chose to admit to their …

Read More at http://www.pointsmith.com/blog/flawesome-brands-flaunt-flaws/

Wrapping up Last-Minute Holiday Shopping

Have you finished your holiday shopping yet?  This week I wrote about my experience finding last minute holiday gifts and stocking stuffers at a few dollar stores, CVS and Walgreens. You can read about it here.

The Grinch Who Stole Retail Marketing Effectiveness

Barely a week removed from Black Friday and just days from Cyber Monday, retail marketers are already checking just how “black” Black Friday was and are adding up their earnings from Cyber Monday.  They are also reflecting on how their marketing efforts resonated with their customer: what they did right this year and what needs to be changed moving forward.

Like any retail marketer, I wait with eager anticipation during the days leading up to Black Friday so it is no surprise that last Friday morning, I arrived at my local upscale mall just as it opened. With camera and notepad in hand, I was eager to take several pictures and jot down my observations, but within a short time, disappointment set in. 

There were plenty of creatively designed window displays filled with festive holiday colors, artificial snow and cozy looking scenes. But after seeing what retailers promoted on digital channels,  lacking was much of a sign of coordinated marketing efforts between digital marketers and in-store marketers within the same brand.

The lack of coordination reminds me of the story line from Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas The Grinch was inspired to ruin Christmas for the citizens of Whoville because of all the “noise, noise, noise” of Christmas. He then schemed and then concocted a dastardly plan to ruin Christmas for all.  Do your holiday marketing efforts reflect more “noise” than they do a peaceful coordinated harmony?   If not, below are tips that will help you: 

1.       Integrate online, digital and in-store channels.

If I had looked at your brand’s website, Facebook page and other digital channels, prior to Black Friday, would I have seen an incentive to shop on Black Friday or would I only have been encouraged to buy online?  Offering digital coupons - redeemable in-store – is a good way to get traffic to the store.  Additional discounts could be offered by encouraging customers to register with your brand, thus giving your CRM valuable data to be mined later.

 

Another thought would be to harvest the power of social media. What if you offered in-store deals if your customers and a handful of their friends checked in on Foursquare at your store on Black Friday? Other possibilities include allowing in-store customers to scan bar and QR codes so that they can get additional information on the product or brand.  With all of these ideas, in-store signing is essential to communicate a cohesive message to the customer. 

2.       Does your cause draw customers in-store?

Even if your cash registers are ringing at a higher rate over the holidays, don’t let your cause marketing efforts fall by the wayside.  A worthy cause, promoted seamlessly across multiple channels appeals to a customers emotions and brings them back time and again. 

3.       What can we learn from in other retail segments?

Retail segments all have their strengths and I am a big proponent of learning from our retail counterparts. The quick-service restaurant industry, for example, has a tremendous advantage over other retailers when it comes to omnichanelling their marketing efforts. Have you taken a look at how your colleagues in the restaurant industry market to their customers? While the target demographics for a quick-service restaurant customer differ from that of a high-end retailer, one can still learn from their overall strategy. For example, in this blog note Subway’s efforts were dialed in when they effectively “omnichannelized” their marketing efforts. 

Reality check

Are these ideas worth some additional thought?  Or when reality sets in do you think that putting these ideas into action is insurmountable in light of the challenges you already have in the retail marketing process?  Some of these challenges are addressed in these excellent blogs Curing the Fragmentitous Blues  and Top 5 KPIs for At-Store Marketing.  

Happy holidays and happy retail marketing!