I spotted two articles today reporting that moms are postponing or canceling plans to buy themselves things so that they can treat their kids this holiday season.  61% of moms plan to shop less for themselves this year vs. 56% of all women and 45% of men (No comment on that last statistic).

What a fabulous opportunity for clever marketers!  Celebrate the mom!  I’m riffing here:

* Clothing stores, department stores, etc. could have momathons.  A mom would have to sign up in advance (with email address), naming all her kids and their ages, maybe one thing they wish the could buy themselves and then choose an hour or whatever during which moms got special discounts, BOGO, GWP, whatever.

* Brands and retailers, let’s say Pampers (P&G) and Gymboree, could hold contests, sweepstakes, giveaways – do something BIG! – to proclaim the wonderfulness of moms.  And an international company like a P&G or Coke or Kraft could create a worldwide event.

* Spas, hair salons, nail parlors – ‘nuf said.

Get moms interacting with you now and long after the holiday is over.  My recommendations for stores that are seeing a lot of returns is relevant here:  if you’re going to give discounts or coupons, for example, give one for the holidays and one that activates, say, in February 09.

Women are responsible for over 80% of household purchases!  Momfluentials are everywhere!  89% of moms use the Internet at least twice a day, and 35% of moms spend 3 or more hours online.  70% use search engines before making an online purchase.  Yoo-hoo, Yahoo!  78% of mom bloggers review products and 96% of online moms value these bloggers’ recommendations (and moms have higher word of mouth credibility than all women).  Moms purchase appliances at twice the rate of the general population.  Dear Electrolux: shift a little of that Kelly Ripa cash into a big mom idea.  Moms love technology just as much as the rest of us?  Verizon Wireless:  can you hear me now? Do a cool mom promo!

Yes, it seems like it could be Mother’s Day in December for great brands out there… McDonald’s has the Happy Meal – why not a Harried Mom meal for the women running around shopping for the holidays while the kids are in school?  And local shops and restaurants could get in on the act, too.

OK, I’ll stop now…

I love you, Mom.

What a difference a year makes… for Facebook.

2007 saw folks pushing The Facebook Marketing Bible, conference segments and endless articles on the wisdom of marketers hawking their wares on Facebook.  A lot of this stuff is still around, but the climate appears to be changing.

In a recent survey of CMOs, over half indicated a very low level of interest in including Facebook in their current plans.  A third said they have no interest at all.

Epsilon commissioned the survey, and I do agree with the company’s CMO, Steve Cone, that marketers aren’t interested in “teenagers sharing photographs with one another.”  However, I think the fact that that is the case – or even the perception – is a failing that smacks of lost opportunity.

33% of Facebook’s 33 million users are over 26 years of age, and 13% are 35 or older.  That’s nothing to sneeze at.  But are there any particular areas on Facebook that might be attractive or particularly relevant for an older audience?  Nope.  And more importantly, Facebook’s efforts to target advertising by age and other characteristics have failed to gain traction.  At this very moment, there are 3 ads on my profile page:  one for an HP something (dvt5 anyone?) powered by Intel Centrino2 Processor Technology, another for “faith-based universities” and one asking if I want to get an MBA.

Let’s just say that 0 out of 3 of these ads are relevant to me personally.  Based on my zip code and self-reported educational data, at least two of them shouldn’t be there at all.  As a marketer looking to spend precious dollars wisely, this sends me a strong message that Facebook is not the place to do so.

Facebook needs to figure out target marketing quick and take its show on the road to marketers interested in reaching grown-ups.  

People comes out with its Sexiest Man issue today.  And it has a “scratch-n-sniff” section in it.  From what I’ve read, you can scratch and sniff the actual photos of such boy toys as Chace Crawford, Taye Diggs and Law & Order’s Chris Meloni.

Ewwwww!  I get the advertising opportunity… but does it have to be the photos themselves??  Couldn’t it be a little spot off to the side of the photo where you can smell the guy’s favorite sent?

And don’t even try to compare this to my beloved Welch’s grape juice lickable ad.  No way.  Smelling the actual – guy – is -just- ick!

So if asked “Ever wonder what Michael Phelps smells like?” The answer would be no, no I don’t (double ick!). 

No offense to Michael Phelps’ mother intended.  To the left is a picture of her looking shocked that someone would not want to smell his son.

So… what do we tell kids this year about Santa?  Is there a lesson to be taught here about financial responsibility?  Some parents and cooperative mall Santas think so. 

I think that not overpromising a kid is a good idea and there are various articles and blogs that give parents ideas of how to manage kids’ expectations.  But telling your kids that, while Santa makes and brings the toys, he sends the bills to mom and dad?  Wow, that’s harsh!

Then again, Santa himself is looking for a second job this year, so all bets are off.

Is Whole Foods for real?  Even those who don’t read the papers would probably assume that a retailer commonly known as “Whole Paycheck” might be feeling the economic crunch…  but are their snow hats on too tight, as well?

The company has announced “Shrimpsgiving” just in time for the slightly better-known Thanksgiving holiday.  Founded on the “little-known fact” that the Pilgrims and Indians ate seafood alongside their turkey, Whole Foods is highlighting $8.99 shrimp from Thailand and numerous recipes and “time savers for holiday hosts trying to appease hungry families.” 

The Pilgrims played marbles with cherry pits and died of scurvy due to a lack of fruits and vegetables, too… but you don’t see anyone adopting those habits anytime soon.

This is going to be a very bad holiday season.  Families are cutting back and Thanksgiving will not be immune.  Wal-Mart has just announced that it is selling all the ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal for eight for $35 (including a 12 pound turkey and two bottles of wine…).  This is not the year that people are going to experiment and it’s likely that hosts already have plans for any guests who don’t do the turkey thing.

Whole Paycheck squandered an opportunity to generate some meaningful goodwill at a time when everyone could sorely use it.  Forget about selling exotic shrimp from Thailand.  If you really want to “appease hungry families,” call some terrified food banks and feed thousands who will have no Thanksgiving this year without you. 

Whole Foods   Whole Paycheck 

Woo-hoo!  OfficeMax is offering a tidbit of good news by bringing the Elf Yourself campaign back for the ‘08 holiday season.

For those of you living under an Internet rock, OfficeMax’s 2007 ElfYourself campaign is legendary.  It’s a fun, extremely easy to use site at www.elfyourself.com that lets you upload a photo, put it on top of the body of an elf and then make that elf do all kinds of silly dances… You can send your elf to friends… It’s sure to give anyone a laugh. 

Last year the ElfYourself site received 193 million visits and spent the equivalent of 2,600 years on the site.  One in ten Americans visited the site and more than 40% of those who tried the application credited OfficeMax with creating good will at holiday time.  30% also expressed (OfficeMax) purchase intent. 

This year there are new features including the ability to create a YouTube video featuring your dancing elves.

OfficeMax may have lost over $400 million in 3Q08, but this is so smart.  The campaign is relatively cheap and has gotten so much positive coverage.  Companies need to look for and continue to execute on opportunities like these:  ones that lighten the spirit and that do not look outlandish and overly expensive to consumers.  Resist sticking your head in the sand.  Marketers must convince their management that you’re in business until you’re not.

OfficeMax   ElfYourself

Readers know that I’m partial to a couple cartoonists and like to share their work every once in awhile. On www.stephaniefierman.com, it’s Tom Fishburne’s Brand Camp.  Here, it’s our funny friend David T. Jones and Adland. 

Which one are you?

David Jones and Adland

Consumers are feeling guilty about past purchases and are returning items in record numbers.  ‘Turns out that baby does not actually need a pair of $400 shoes after all.

According to a survey just released by the National Retail Federation, shoppers are expected to return a record $219 billion in goods this year, or 8.7% of total sales.  That’s up from 7.3% in 2007.  Holiday returns will fare even worse:  ho-ho-oh-no returns came to 8.8% of the total retail haul in 2007 and are forecasted to hit 10% this year. 

The survey does highlight an increasing number of retailers who are planning more lenient return policies, which is nice, but I sure hope merchants also take the opportunity to get that customer to come back!  The way I look at it, a shopper in line to return an item may or may not be in the mood to purchase other items that day.  But the next time she’s ready to make a purchase? Make sure she thinks of you.  A discount or special offer on a future purchase should be handed to the ”returner” right there at cashwrap.   Make it compelling… and have it start, say, February 1st, so you minimize the effect of gamers who might try to use the offer on an already-planned holiday purchase.

Getting a consumer into your store these days is gold:  you may be giving them money back today, but try to encourage them to give you some tomorrow.

holiday shopping     National Retail Federation     return policies    

Have you ever emailed someone at 1am and regretted it later?  Consider poor Jerry Maguire.  If the movie was made today, surely Jerry would have sent his manifesto by email in the middle of the night.  And you just know that any missive starting with “It’s 1 AM and this might be the bad pizza I had earlier talking, but I believe I have something to say…” should not be sent.

Now there’s hope.

Google has launched a little feature called Mail Goggles that tries to protect you from yourself, late at night, when you’re drunk or otherwise under the influence and should therefore be nowhere near a keyboard.  You set the time range during which you want the feature to be active and then – if you try to send an email during that period – Mail Goggles forces you to answer 5 math questions before the message can be sent. 

If you answer such mind-benders as ”11-2=?” wrong or you’re too slow, all you get is a note saying “Water and bed for you.”  No email crime committed, no sentence before the proverbial judge later.

Ars Technica has called it “a breathalyzer test for your Gmail.”I think this is great.  Now if they could only figure out how to deposit the same kind of feature on everyone’s work email…Mail Goggles

Stop spending your ad dollars on advertising:  it turns out that swag is more effective.  How do we know this?

Because the swag people tell us so!

The Advertising Specialty Institute just released a survey saying that pens, pencils, water bottles and coffee mugs yield a lower cost-per-impression, high memorability scores and, therefore, a higher ROI than primetime television or national magazine ads.  Ta-da!

Oy.   Your average branded baseball cap – no matter how many of them you give away – is not a ready substitute for the story-telling ability of a TV or magazine ad.

That’s not to say that promotional items don’t have their place in many advertisers’ overall plans.  I’m simply pointing out that ASI’s assertions would be far more believable if they’d pointed to this ”key ingredient” philosophy, rather than attempting to deliver an either/or-type conclusion.

Because if you force a shoot-out between a retractable solar-powered mini-flashlight and a well-done primetime :30… you’re gonna have a real hard time not getting laughed at.

Heck, it made this ad guy spill his breakfast gin and tonic!

promotional swag      adscam.typepad.com

Even after I’d read about the site, it took me a few days before I had the nerve to check out www.UnbuttonYourBeast.com. 

The site is a new effort from Levi’s geared to create a lot of talk and viral activity for Levi’s 501s.  Purchases? I can’t say.  But talk?   For sure:

* “The raunchiest ad ever.” Australia’s Daily Telegraph

* “Devilish adverting” that’s “appropriate for a college frat party.” Mercyman53 at UncensoredSonOfGod.com

* “Levi’s has taken sex to a place of an adolescent middle school locker room [sic].  Unbutton your beast?  Please don’t.”  Style site DesignFail.net

You have to see this thing to believe it.



At first I was grossed out, but the ads soon had me pondering Gossip Girl’s advertising (“a sex soaked promo campaign,” according to USA Today), which I thought was absolute genius.

If the Levi’s campaign ultimately influences sales among boys/men, the two campaigns have a lot in common:  they hold enormous appeal for their target audiences and freak out everyone else (which only serves to heighten the effect). 

Did someone say  “Sock nasty??” OMFG!!

Gossip Girl    Levi’s    UnbuttonYourBeast.com

Pity the poor retailer right now.

Enormous job losses.  Foreclosures.  Homelessness rising most quickly among families with children.  Fast-disappearing credit card pitches and credit limits dropping on the cards already out there.  Selling toys and other kid gizmos is not the happiest business to be in right now.

Kmart obviously knows this, and is pulling out all the stops to get holiday shoppers into its stores and on to its website ASAP.   The Sears Holdings-owned chain has launched a Disney-themed “Wish & You Could Win” sweepstakes seven weeks before Black Friday.  It is also publishing holiday circulars and newspaper inserts already.

All this produced in me only a fleeting ”this-stuff-starts-earlier-and-earlier-every-year” eye roll - until I saw Kmart’s new TV ads – promoting layaway.

Layaway??  Now? I think that this is truly repugnant.  A low blow.  Apparently most others agree, given that Kmart is one of the few remaining national retailers to offer the service.  Wal-Mart and Target discontinued their own layaway services in 2006.  Perhaps because such programs prey on the poor?  After all, the idea of layaway actually rose to popularity… during the Great Depression.

Suzy Orman is going to have a coronary when she finds out about this…

Word to Kmart:  Santa has class, and only wants to bring toys that parents can actually afford.

Kmart    Kmart layaway

Wow, I feel like I’ve been living under a rock.    I read an article about First Check’s desire to change its packaging.  I didn’t even know these things existed! Look at this site!! 

And for the love of all that is good in the world… If you are administering the 12-Drug version to someone in your home, you may have a problem bigger than your local drugstore can handle.

home drug test

Alan Wolk thinks it’s “amusing” to hear people “react in horror and utter amazement” to McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin.  He says that it’s a sympton of “Nascar blindness,” which is essentially the affliction of many to assume that everyone shares their own beliefs and values.

I think that’s a knock on Nascar.

Fortunately, Wolk says that the cure is “listening” – so here we go:

- “They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan.”

- [The Vice President is] “in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better”

- “Dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time.”

See you in four years, Alan.  You betcha!

Hey you:  why are you reading this blog today?? 

There are 13,900,000 search results for “Obama branding” on Google.  Let’s see if it does him any good.

For whatever you believe in: VOTE.

For ice cream?  I might do a lot more than that…

Ben & Jerry’s is doing its part to get out on the vote with – what else? – free ice cream.  Bring your “I voted” sticker, or a picture of yourself at a polling place, or do the “‘I voted’ dance”… and you can scoop up a gratis scoop tomorrow from 5-8pm at participating stores.

And to help you find a participating shop, the chain offers a Google store finder on its website.  Nice touch.

This program is in keeping with the company’s long commitment to economic, social and environmental initiatives.

I’m wondering if they’ll also give out grocery coupons; it’d be a smart thing to do.  It’s highly unlikely that, at this point, grocery cannibalizes ice cream shop traffic:  the brand is too mature for that.  Ben & Jerry’s is also so active online… maybe they give out coupons in-store, but you can get higher-value “I voted” coupons online by giving the company your email address.

Starbucks is also offering a free tall coffee to anyone that says she voted.    Or how about a free red, white and blue donuts from Krispy Kreme? 

 Ice cream, coffee and donuts.  My kind of election.

Ben & Jerry’s   Free Ben & Jerry’s