Personalization in Marketing

I have seen first hand how merchandisers are so busy they can barely begin to move forward on future-leaning initiatives.

Missing out on personalization is a big miss however and should not be allowed to happen.

Salesforce estimates that adding Einstein personalization to your marketing sorting rules for grid pages, PLPs, will have a positive impact on revenue in the range of 6-9%.  Why leave that money sitting on the table?  Companies such as Certona are thriving on doing the work for you.  Just set up a data feed of your order history and the company will personalize recommendations, resulting in a revenue lift.

Oh, did I mention Amazon is in that game too?  Yeah.  Another threat from Amazon.  Just what you needed right?

Do it.

Here is a story on the subject of how marketers are failing to make this a priority:

https://www.clickz.com/personalization-powerful-priority/243913/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

It’s been a big news week for Amazon. The ecommerce giant’s shares have surpassed those of Walmart. Amazon announced the end of its restaurant delivery service, while launching a credit card an AI-powered recommendation service to improve personalization. Oh, and thanks to a 52% year-over-year increase in brand value, Amazon displaced Apple at the top of WPP and Kantar’s annual ranking of the most valuable brands in the world.

The latter two are certainly related. Available in a handful of regions for now, the recommendation service enables marketers to incorporate product recommendations and tailored search results on websites, in apps, and within content management and email marketing systems. It’s called Amazon Personalize, a nod to the company’s signature move.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS I found this great little complementary article that is also worth your time, especially if you are in the supermarket industry.
https://retailleader.com/personalization-digital-food-retailing

BRotD - Entry 0258 Facebook's Next Move

Best Reading of the Day

The wonderful narration of the opening paragraphs had me completely drawn in.

Do you love Facebook?

Or hate it?

Read this piece:

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/29/18511534/facebook-mobile-phone-f8

Here is a snippet from it:

Facebook’s core social network isn’t going away anytime soon, but there’s a good chance — probably a great chance — that the way you use Facebook’s products in 10 years will look and feel very different from the way you use them today. The device you use it on? That may change too.

Zuckerberg isn’t just thinking about that reality, he’s already betting on it.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

The New Nike Mobile App Store

We've been hearing it for years now.

Bricks & Mobile, the play on the descriptive "Bricks & Mortar".

Truer words were never said.

When I was building the shopping assistant app for regional supermarkets the concept was an in-store shopping assistant.  I envisioned mobile would soon enable concierge level service for the masses.

Hello Nike.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

A year later, the mobile strategy is showing results with direct-to-consumer sales that rose 34% and comparable store sales gains of 5% in fiscal Q4 2017 from a year earlier, per eMarketer research. Nike's website also had about 11% of the online traffic generated by the top 10 U.S. apparel retailers in Q1 2018, one of the only direct-to-consumer brands in the top 10, according to SimilarWeb.

Here is the full article:

https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/nike-melds-mobile-physical-retail-with-new-la-concept-store/527832/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Small Towns and Walmart

The story of this little Massachusetts town really caught my eye.  Not only for the urban planning aspect but for the small business savvy and differentiating strategy.

Well worth the read.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Downtown Hudson was quiet when Michael Kasseris stepped out into the late night air in 2012.

Behind him was a Main Street space that had once housed a printing shop, a bagel shop and a gifting shop.

His uncle owned the building. Kasseris and his two business partners had just opened Rail Trail Flatbread Co. -- a trendy new restaurant featuring wood-fired pizza and craft beer.

He looked around. The downtown stores, tucked inside historic brick buildings, were empty. The parking spaces were empty. There was no foot traffic.

He and his friends were investing everything they had into this place.

In a moment of panic, Kasseris thought, "What are we doing building a restaurant?"

Here is the full story:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/08/hudson_how_this_small_massachu.html

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Why Are Some Restaurant Chains Struggling?

It isn't technology.

Some of the smartest folks I've met in retail are involved with loyalty programs for one or more chains.  Using technology at the table to enhance the relationship between the retailer and the customer.

These chains are struggling because their menus are too loaded in fat, salt, and calories according to one analysis.  Worth the read.  Here is one revelatory quote:

While fast food has received plenty of flack from nutrition-savvy critics, the biggest culprits when it comes to calories, salt, and fat are often sit-down, casual dining joints.

A Big Mac contains 540 calories. Buffalo Wild Wings' Cheese Curd Bacon Burger contains 1,620 — before you add fries or sides.

Read that again.  The burger alone is 1,620 calories.  You only need about 2,000 calories in a day.  What in the world are they doing over there?

Here is the full article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/health-concerns-show-why-casual-dining-is-failing-2017-7

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

When Should You Buy ... Anything?

This is really cool.

Business Insider has mapped out the time of year to buy a huge variety of products.  Basically, when are "things" at their best price?

So cool!

Check out the first month:

New furniture models come out in February, so bargains arrive in January. Keep an eye on office furniture, as retailers target entrepreneurs launching new ventures in the new tax year. With the holidays over and winter setting in, department stores lure shoppers with "white sales," making this the best time to buy linens.

Here is the full article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-time-to-buy-almost-anything-in-2017-2016-12/#january-1

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

In-store Shopping Still a Thing for Mobile Shoppers

Interesting piece, though some argue broad generational definitions such as "Generation Z" are not useful or actionable.  As an amateur historian I think of broad generational changes that are useful when examining a people. For example, a person who's formative years occurred before the automobile was generally available would have formed certain habits around their lives that would be unrecognizable to the post-automobile generations.

This article certainly continues the thread of thought around the ongoing necessity for brick & mortar stores, just not for everyone all the time for all of their needs.  Some shopping will migrate to online, some will not.  Looking at a purely digital/mobile generation helps us see what the world is becoming as they have no pre-conceived notions around what they should or should not be doing.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

While the youngest generation of shoppers is the one most accustomed to life online, a report from IBM shows that shopping in-store is still important to them, with 98 percent making purchases at a physical store.

This piece of data will be helpful for retailers looking to target Generation Z as they grow into marketable consumers. While mobile will remain paramount to targeting them, it will have to work in tandem with physical shopping experiences.

Here is the full article:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/despite-mobile-savviness-98pc-of-gen-z-still-shop-in-store

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Apps: Slim in the Cloud or Large on the Phone?

Great little read over on Mobile Commerce Daily.

Moving data "to the cloud" is all the rage but there are advantages and disadvantages.

I had one client overseas with a very unreliable phone network for the country.  The use case they provided was limited, brief coverage that couldn't be relied upon.  They needed bursts of updates and a heavy package of data on the phone.  The idea of cloud based data just wouldn't work for them given their country's infrastructure.

This article is right in line with that scenario.  Read on:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/shopping-apps-shedding-space-run-risk-of-inhibiting-experience

Here is a snippet from the article:

Retailers with mobile applications that take up a significant amount of space on smartphones can mitigate the problem by moving features to the cloud and using eight-bit images, but larger apps with unique functionality may have an edge.

Walgreen’s is the latest example of a retailer slimming down its app to save room on consumers’ smartphones, which can significantly reduce the risk of being the first to go when users run out of space, although the benefits of doing so may be moot in a few years. Retailers that are looking into slimming down should be careful not to do so in a manner that inhibits the user experience, as those with beneficial features that stand out from the competition can be successful despite a larger app size.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Pinterest Advertising

Cool news for CPG brands and maybe not so great for Pinterest users.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/social-networks/22473.html

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Pinterest’s recent move to open its ad platform to all brands has the potential to significantly disrupt budgets this year, especially among marketers seeking to test direct response advertisements and target forward-looking mobile users.

The social network’s new advertising management tools have expanded their reach beyond Pinterest’s primary brand partners, enabling smaller and mid-size companies to bulk-edit their campaigns and use customer database targeting, among other features. Although Pinterest has generally been overshadowed by social behemoths such as Instagram and Facebook, the channel does offer lucrative revenue potential for brands that engage in long-term marketing strategies that will appeal to consumers planning for future home redesigns, parties or wardrobe shopping sprees.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0229 Amazon's Challenge

Best Reading of the Day

Your best read today comes from the folks over at Re/Code.  The story covers Amazon's difficulties getting customers to find new products, or products they didn't know they wanted/needed.  This is the phenomenon long relied upon by traditional brick & mortar stores.  Walk in looking for one thing and walk out with several more things.

Here is the story:

http://recode.net/2015/08/10/amazons-next-big-challenge-getting-you-to-buy-stuff-you-didnt-know-you-wanted/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Amazon’s pitch to these startups, which sell their goods to Amazon at wholesale prices, is that the e-commerce giant can get their products discovered by way more people than through other sales channels. But some of these categories of goods may pose problems for Amazon because they fall out of Amazon’s sweet spot. Amazon is an amazing place to shop when you know the exact brand, or at least type of product, you want to buy. It is, at its core, a search engine — one that’s fast, precise and increasingly a big competitive risk to Google’s own product search business.

But it is still a long way off from being a top source of inspiration for shoppers to discover completely new goods they had no intention of buying.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

More About Target's Mobile Beacons

Great little story by the folks at Mobile Commerce Daily.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/target-innovates-in-store-beacon-marketing-with-newsfeed-like-content-stream

Here is a snippet from the piece:

One of the more interesting aspects of the program is the Target Run page. Once a shopper has downloaded the Target app and enabled Bluetooth in the settings of an iPhone, product recommendations related to the department they are located in may pop up as a push notification or in-app update on their phone.

This same information can also be found on the new Target Run page, which operates similar to a social media site’s newsfeed, with the latest content – meaning product recommendations or coupons based on the user’s location – being added on the top of the page.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Target Tests Mobile Beacons

Wow!

The age of the beacon is upon us (forget the whole idea of the "year of the beacon" we are way beyond that).  I've been waiting for one of the really big retailers (other than Macy's that is doing a TON in mobile) to take on beacons.

Here we go.

http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/target-testing-beacons-50-stores-more-stores-features-come

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Target Corp. has made its first major foray into beacon technology as the retailer continues to look for ways to enhance the in-store shopping experience with digital tools.

The retailer announced it is testing beacons at 50 stores nationwide, including locations in Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, New York City, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle. The company said it plans to expand the service to more stores later this year.

Target joins Macy's, GameStop, Lord & Taylor, real estate giant Simon and others that are experimenting with beacons.

Given the Target app already has Apple Watch interactions I expect it will be just a short jump to personalized notifications tapped on your wrist as you walk through Target.  Cool!

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Hershey's Center Store Kiosk

Center store, literally the center of the supermarket, has seen sales steadily decline over the years as shopping behavior migrates towards fresh and the perimeter of the store.  Company's with processed foods such as Hershey's chocolates have had a negative impact as a result.  They aren't sitting still.

Hershey's has a kiosk to place in the center of the aisle, in the center of the store, that customers must smile in to for a sample product.

Brilliant.

Here is the story:

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/even-tom-brady-smash-phone-itd-make-zero-sense/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0223 Beacons

Best Reading of the Day

This is an excellent time to be in mobile and digital.  If you aren't sure about that, this great story on beacons should help you see why:

http://www.mytotalretail.com/article/offering-store-shoppers-beacon-hope-via-mobile/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Beacons are a mobile marketing technology poised to transform the way consumers shop in stores and the ways stores market to and interact with their customers.

Push notifications triggered by beacons — tiny store-based transmitters that communicate with retailers’ mobile apps on consumers’ smartphones via Bluetooth Low Energy wireless technology — will influence $4.1 billion in U.S. retail sales at the top 100 retailers in 2015, mobile technology research firm BI Intelligence estimates. The firm predicts that number will soar to $44.4 billion in 2016 as use of beacons increases and merchants begin to formulate actual mobile in-store strategies.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

In-store Product Scanning and Home Depot

In-store product scanning by customers is becoming a big deal.  I'm not talking about reading a bar code.  I'm talking about using the camera to "look" at anything you put in front of it and the app tells you where products like that are located.  Have a blue dress you like?  Scan it and locate it.

Home Depot is the latest to roll out this technology.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/home-depots-visual-search-beta-highlights-technologys-appeal-beyond-apparel

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Once customers find the item they are looking for using the visual search, they can purchase it online or pick it up in the store.

The move into visual search is part of a recent update to the retailer’s iOS apps that also included an iPad app redesign to give it a landscape orientation, something users had been requesting.

Visual search is a popular feature addition for large retailers’ apps in the past year.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Walmart's Approach to the Participation Age

If you think of retail over the last 100 years it is convenient to think generally of eras.  Richard Tedlow from Harvard Business School lists in 1996 the three phases of Consumer Product Marketing and mentions but does not define a pending 4th phase as the internet dawned.  Walmart thinks about it similarly but with different description of the various phases or eras.

The 1950's might be approximately the start of the Age of the Brand.  Major nationally manufactured brands were able to push their products all over the country with a sophisticated logistics network and they pushed down their message through the new media platform television.

Later the retailers became much more adept as they introduced private label brands that shifted the power away from the brands and in favor of the retailer.  This started the Age of the Retailer.

Then the internet came.

The Information Age is transforming all of life as we know it.  Within retail, the consumer is now the holder of power and the determinant of the brand.  This might be called the Age of the Customer, or the Participation Age, where the participant actively works in the creation of a brand.

My pending white paper is titled:


Impact of Phase IV Product Marketing


The Story of Mass Marketing in America Continues

Walmart has a similar approach in mind as is detailed in this interview:

http://www.pymnts.com/in-depth/2015/how-walmart-is-reinventing-the-age-of-the-customer/#.VYHGHvlVhBc

Here is a snippet from that piece:

...according to Walmart’s VP of eCommerce Nikhil Raj, our imaginations may be misled. As it turns out, Walmart is onboard and ready to get reinventing.

“When we think about reinventing something, we really have to go back to what it was before and how it is changing now,” Raj told MPD CEO Karen Webster in a recent conversation.

“Early on it was ‘the age of the brands,’” Raj remarked. “Twenty-five or 30 years ago retailers, in general, relied heavily on our brand partners and followed their guidance. It was the age of the retailer.”

And, according to Raj, this “the age of the retailer,” is an age that is now drawing to a close.

“In the last five years, we have really seen the beginning of the age of the consumer, and that is how retail is re-inventing itself. The breadth and depth of the choices consumers have today to help them shop is truly amazing. It is also putting the power square in the hands of the consumers and we as retailers have to be focused on that to be successful for the next 50 years,” Raj noted.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

The Future of Retail - Malls and Boxed

Two stories that speak to the potential future for retail are worth checking out today.

First is a great read on the eCommerce startup 'Boxed' that ships mostly national brand CPG products in bulk.  I think they'v recaptured a bit of the spirit of Mr. Cullen's original supermarkets and have a real threat to traditional brick & mortar retailers.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/boxed-wholesale-ceo-mobile-made-success-for-us-possible

Here is a snippet from that piece:

The CEO of Boxed Wholesale, speaking at the Global Mobile Internet Conference New York 2015, explained that his company would not have succeeded if not for mobile, where shopping behavior is not as rigid as on desktop.

During the “Using Mobile to Deepen Customer Engagement” session, the CEO detailed how developing an application first, allowed its brand to take off because there is room in the mobile space for a retail service such as this.

Next is PYMT.com on some new analysis regarding foot traffic and spending habits at malls as provided by the folks at RetailNext:

http://www.pymnts.com/in-depth/2015/why-a-decline-in-foot-traffic-has-retailers-looking-up/#.VXrbj_lVhBc

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Keeping in line with the unfortunate trend of 2015 so far, RetailNext’s latest survey on physical retail has a whole lot more red ink on it than the nation’s merchants wanted to see. On average, traffic to physical stores was down about 9.8 percent on average, while sales have fallen off by 7.6 percent.

However, RetailNext’s VP of retail consulting, Shelley Kohan, said that there’s more to measuring the health and well-being of physical retail than foot traffic and sales numbers.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  One more story is a great testament to 'bricks & mobile':
http://www.businessinsider.com/retailers-are-making-a-huge-mistake-2015-6

Here is a snippet from that piece:

American shoppers have become addicted to checking consumer reviews on everything they buy.

But stores have failed to find a way to make reviews readily available in stores, and that's killing business for many traditional retailers such as Macy's, JC Penney, and Best Buy.

Regards

BRotD - Entry 0208 VP of Marketing for Coca Cola

Best Reading of the Day

I find the structural outline of organization at Coca Cola to be an interesting view in to the changing landscape of marketing for national brands.  CMO.com has an interview with a VP over there:

http://www.cmo.com/articles/2015/4/8/cmocom-europe-interview-mark-elkins-vp-digital-sales--marketing-cocacola-enterprises-.html

Here is a snippet from that piece:

In a traditional marketing sense the split is pretty clear; The Coca-Cola Company leads above-the-line and we manage below-the-line. In a digital world it's a lot more complex.

We think about digital in five broad ways: The first is about using digital to encourage consumers to fall in love with the brand; brand digital engagement.

You have to take in to account digital in today's world and the 'Participation Age'.  They are attempting to account for the changing landscape and from what I've seen they are doing a pretty good job at it.  Doesn't mean they'll help their declining sales considering the issues with the products they sell but this is a solid approach.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

The End of Mad Men Begins

If April 13th is not yet marked on your calendar then either you don't recognize the ominous signs of the number 13 or you aren't a fan of the incredibly successful show 'Mad Men'.

The Thagent 21st Century blog is about technology products and the participants that engage with those products.  If you love all of that you should love 'Mad Men'.

Here is a great little article about the coming end of the show:

http://www.wired.com/2015/04/mad-men-end-of-drama/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

TV IS AN odd mishmash of a medium. It shares enough qualities with film that we can use the word “cinematic” as a blanket compliment, yet its traditional broadcast model more closely resembles radio. In fact, with the advent of original programming from online-only platforms, it’s increasingly difficult to tell what, exactly, TV is. Maybe that’s why, dating back to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, TV is so often about itself. There’s a long history of scripted TV that’s about making TV. Yet, for all the literal examples of it—Sports Night, 30 Rock—Mad Men, which returns for its final seven episodes on Sunday, is the most self-reflexive series of them all.

Happy Viewing,

J.W. Gant

CPGs, Digital Coupons, Mobile Grocery, Digital Ads, eCommerce Delivery, and More

The Blizzard of 2015 is finally nearing an end though snow is still falling here north of Boston.  Looks like a couple feet of snow in my area and a major event for most of New England.

Here are a slew of stories I've found that are worth visiting.

First up is the life of a category leader especially as a consumer packaged goods company:

http://www.canadiangrocer.com/worth-reading/the-secret-lives-of-category-leaders-48724

Next up is new data from Inmar on digital coupons and the add to card method:

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/research-data/market-trends/redemption-digital-load-card-coupons-doubles-study

One supermarket chain has added new functionality to its mobile app and the news is good for their provider GPShopper:

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/departments/technology/lunds-and-byerly%E2%80%99s-add-new-features-mobile-app

Digital advertising gets two stories: first is a line of thought on brand ads vs. performance ads, then an AdAge.com story on who to blame when digital campaigns fail.  That second one has several great links so be sure to dig deeply there.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/242440/beauty-and-the-geek.html?edition=79667

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/blame-a-digital-campaign-wrong/296761/

Finally is news of delivery services such as the alcohol delivery startup 'Drizly' in Boston and the impact the Blizzard of '15 had on them in the NorthEast:

http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2015/01/27/alcohol-grocery-deliveries-spike-as-blizzard-batters-boston/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant