I’ve never been a big Costco person, probably because I live in an apartment the size of a postage stamp. But just this year – when my mom moved close to one in the New Jersey burbs – I took the leap and bought a membership. Now I love going there: the warehouses are like Disneyland! There’s a pie as big as my couch! Cool!
Sidebar: when I finally did buy, it’s because I saw a specific product I wanted that Costco carried at a great price. I bought enough of that product (plus some gum, I think) to “pay for” the $50 membership fee on my first visit. Making a purchase a no-brainer is every retailer’s goal , no?
Now we get a little glimmer into the company’s customer service smarts, as well. Like many membership-based retailers with preferred shopper programs, it’s easy for Costco to keep track of a member’s purchases and to retain specific transaction-related data, such as the date and time of purchase. It turns out that one of the ways in which Costco delivers value back to members based on this information comes in the form of product recall notifications.
While Costco routinely sends letters to customers who have purchased recalled products, it is now the first major retailer to implement an automated calling service that dials and leaves messages for members warning them of problem products.
Costco uses an external vendor that can make up to 500,000 calls per hour. The company estimates that it has already made 1.5 million calls so far related to the ongoing recall of peanut butter products alone.
Would a company focused only on this quarter’s profitability do the same? Probably not…. especially since Costco will give the customer a refund for any recalled product that is returned to a warehouse (with or without a receipt). But how much is a call like this worth to a customer about to serve tainted food to his or her family? It’s invaluable. And, if the company doesn’t already, it would be fairly straightforward to measure the monetary value of the program.
This is a worthy practice. Let me know if you see holes in it.
Monday January 26th 2009, 9:52 pm
Filed under: advertising,women
Simmons Research’s profile of Super Bowl viewers is fun to peek at as we head into this weekend.
A few highlights:
Folks in the Midwest and the Northeast are likely to watch the game at a higher rate than would be expected based on their percentage of the population overall. Couple this with the fact that 32% of all Super Bowl viewers watched the 2008 game away from home… and you’ll find me throwing a Super Bowl party at a sports bar in Cleveland!
And if I was really smart I’d get one of the game’s big advertisers to pay for it, since Super Bowl viewers are also more likely to have positive feelings toward commercials and say that ads help them get information about new products. And these are hardcore fans: football watchers watch football, period. If they can’t watch a pro game, they’ll watch a college game. If they can’t find a regular season college game, they’ll watch one post season. So if you advertise and like football as a medium, your next marginal sports dollar should most likely be spent on the ol’ pigskin, as well. Not all that interesting, but productive.
Lastly, over 37 million women watched the Super Bowl last year! 37 million. It’s hard to draw any advertising-related conclusions, though, because some women have been known to ”watch” against their will…
In last year’s film, Sex and the City, Carrie and John (that’s Mr. Big to you) finally get hitched at City Hall in New York City. I need to take a look at that scene again, but I’m vaguely remembering the fake location looking a whole lot better than the real one.
You see, everyone in New York knows that it sounds awfully romantic to just run down to City Hall to get hitched. We’re in love! Just get your shots first, because the room beside the County Clerk’s office where you’re able to get married looks like Gitmo. I mean, it’s bad. Perhaps “Gitmo” is a wee exaggeration, but it’s awfully depressing and you really do not want to know the source of the (4 decades old?) stains on the carpet.
Enter Businessman Bloomberg. Our Mayor has just completed a new $12 million, 24,000 square foot space “designed to put some glamour into City Hall weddings.” The mayor had his own interior designer consult on the project.
The guy’s a d*mn genius. Do you frequent skeevy movie theatres, even if the movie is ok? No. Do you return to restaurants with uninviting ambiance but decent food? Unlikely.
New York City issued 70,000 marriage licenses in 2008, putting it behind the #1 most popular destination, Las Vegas. With tourism down and NYC & Co. creating all sorts of promotions, look for programs that will get couples into the new space down on Worth Street.
Yesterday, I wrote a post saying that perhaps the press shouldn’t rule out weight-loss companies just yet: that perhaps cost-effective programs will actually fit nicely with the trend toward dining at home.
Now comes news that recipe websites are doing great business. I always knew that someone out there was cooking… [Sidebar: I had dinner with a neighbor the other night. He brought over take-out. He asked me for a big pan and a set of tongs. I had neither. It wasn't pretty.] Allrecipes.com had 8 million unique visitors in October! That’s a lot of tongs.
What other types of business and websites might benefit from the nesting trend? I know that some of the recipe sites allow a user to print a shopping list containing all the ingredients required for a given recipe. What if a site also allowed you to customize that recipe? Say you wanted to make a chicken dish, and you could enter a budget and the number of adults and children you wanted to feed? Or what if a site had a partnership with grocery chains, so it could tell you that chicken is on sale at your local Kroger but not Publix?
There have to be a lot of ideas (or at least good experiments) here for grocers. At stores with floor space, what if a grocer partner clustered all the ingredients for a site’s “recipes of the week” in one frozen and one non-frozen spot on the floor? For the grocers who already offer delivery, what if you could call or contact a grocer online, specify the recipe and have the store know what ingredients you needed?
Grocers have been on my mind as the economy has continued to crater. In a walking city like New York, at least, a grocer probably sees a person more frequently than just about any other retailer. What is that grocer doing to fully leverage that visit? Frequent shopper discounts are good, but standard. Once you’ve got a customer in your store – 3 or 4 times a week – there has just got to be opportunity at a time when everyone is looking for ways to make things easier (and less expensive than eating out). recipe_websitesAllrecipes.com
There have been a couple articles recently on how weight loss companies might fair in a down economy. The subtle or not-so-subtle implication is that this may be a very crummy time for Weight Watchers, Atkins, Jenny Craig and the like.
I’m not so sure. Nearly all the best-known companies have new work out right now in an attempt to take advantage of what is usually the plumpest (sorry) time for new sign-ups: each year’s first quarter, right after those resolutions are made. And some of the pricing is quite good. Weight Watchers can cost next to nothing if a member has enough willpower, and some of the others that do rely on selling there own food are offering some great deals.
I was smugly pleased when I saw a snarky article today mentioning that NutriSystem had recently lowered its price for a monthly program from $400/mo (including food) to $300. The point was that $300 was still impractical. I guess that writer doesn’t channel surf enough: just this weekend I saw NutriSystem selling this same program on QVC – and with a lot of bonus food - for under $200/mo. Forbes.com just found that NutriSystem is the least expensive holistic weight loss program available.
Whether these companies do well in a down economy will in large part depend not only on consumer priorities but also on whether committed people use these programs as substitutes for more expensive behaviors, such as dining out. these programs for other, more expensive behaviors, such as dining out. Having every week’s breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners delivered to your home could actually fit nicely with the trends toward budgeting and entertaining/dining at home.
Let’s not count all these companies out just yet. It’s possible that some clever investment in 2009 may help superior competitors scoop up savvy, motivated consumers who not only see the opportunity to lose weight but whose current (expensive) habits make weight-loss programs look like a pretty good deal. NutriSystemweight_lossWeight_Watchers
It’s been a very odd few weeks in the fast food marketing business.
First, there’s Burger King’s effort to spread “ugly Americanism” around the globe with its odd “Whopper Virgins” campaign. “What happens if you take remote Chang Mai villagers who’ve never seen a burger, who don’t even have a word for burger, and ask them to compare Whopper versus Big Mac in the world’s purest taste test?” I don’t know the answer, but I’m doubtful that this campaign will shift any new business to Burger King – it may fuel the fanatics (and I’m not knocking the importance of retention) but I wonder if it’s enough to balance the heat the company has received as a result of the campaign. Early results already show that the campaign is putting off women, and positive chatter on the Web is dropping quickly. Barbara Lippert judging the work as “culturally tone deaf” was one of the nicer phrases critics have used.
Then yesterday, the Pizza Hut “anti-Main Street” (my phrase) ad debacle hit Twitter, care of Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus. Pizza Hut has created this odd viral campaign in which actors walk into mom-and-pop pizza shops and order pizza delivery – from Pizza Hut. So… in a recession, Pizza Hut puts out ads in which people order pizza that we all know is not as good as the product you can find in your own neighborhood, AND mocks/steals business from little restaurant owners just trying to make a living.
While it has not received much credit for it, Burger King actually did donate some money to the towns in which the Whopper Virgins ads, so the company wasn’t entirely tone deaf. The Pizza Huts ads are just, well, mean.
And lastly, there’s just not a whole lot to say about a Burger King body spray for men that smells like… meat. “Flame” offers “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.” Nah, I’m not going to take the bait (pardon the pun) – it’s just too easy.
So there you have it: a strange time in fast food land. Go offer some love (and cash) to your neighborhood diner today!Burger KingWhopper VirginsPizza HutIan SchaferDeep Focus
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.
I wrote a post last week about marketers who are creatively capitalizing on the mangled economy, highlighting both Wal-Mart and KFC. All are trying to do something.
More and more fast-food and casual dining chains are introducing value meals, including IHOP’s $4.99 all-you-can-eat pancakefest, lunches at Applebee’s for $5.99 and hamburgers at Ruby Tuesdays for $1… and now we learn that several states are stepping up their lottery advertising with messaging like, “Maybe It’s Your Lucky Day.” Taking real advantage is Missouri, who is offering gas discounts with the purchase of a $2 lottery ticket.
What do fast food and lotteries have in common? They both disproportionately impact low-income individuals who can least afford the come-ons, with respect to both their financial affairs and their health.
September is the big month for fashion magazines. The cover of this month’s Bazaar shouts “1207 New Looks!” and Vogue is 798 pages long. Every year I get out a wheelbarrow and tote them home. It can take a month to get through them, but it’s a fun tradition.
Much of the entertainment value comes from the advertisers, who sometimes try to seem a little sexier, a little whackier, a little more avant-garde in these annual issues.
So I guess that’s what Perrier was going for with its “Riskier” ad, but is demonstrating the use of electrical products in the bathtub all they could muster??
It certainly does give a whole new meaning to the dangers of bottled water…
When an endorsement is (a) highly valuable to all or a majority of your core audience, (b) likely to hold its value and (c) not likely to get in trouble, it’s a beautiful thing.
So it is with General Mills garnering a Weight Watchers endorsement like no other for its expanding line of Progresso Light soups: Weight Watchers assigned a “zero” rating to the line last year.
Weight Watchers’ system assigns point values to foods; foods typically low in fat and high in fiber get low point values. You can eat a lot of these foods and still lose weight. A dieter is assigned a target daily point value and must keep his/her meals and snacks within this limit.
So a “zero” for a food that is tasty, filling and easy to prepare is a big deal. Since launching in 2007, the Light line has generated $77 million in sales. New ads will try to reach men by touting these benefits, plus the Weight Watchers factor.
Lifebooker.com is a pretty nice idea. The site says it’s my “personal online concierge” to real-time discounted spa appointments.
Every woman knows that getting a last-minute spa appointment (let alone finding a good deal) is essentially impossible. But on Saturday around noon, the site informed me that I could get my eyebrows shaped at 4:30 at Rita Hazan at 15% off, and my guy could get a 50% off man’s mani-pedi at Sunpoint on the same day.
Great site, especially for us hurried ladies in the big city. I would add the ability to sort not only be service and time, but also by specific salon or spa. LifebookerRita Hazan
I am watching a movie on the Lifetime Network called “A Job To Kill For.” Sean Young plays the head of an ad agency who takes on a promising young protege. Unfortunately, the girl is a murderous psycho. So far she’s killed two people, and it’s not looking good for that uncooperative creative director.
This has me thinking about the mentor-mentee relationship and how many of these movies are out there. I think I saw one with Sherilyn Finn, one with Billy Moses (or I am thinking about the one where he played a professor who kills a female student?) and one with Lara Flynn Boyle, at the very least. Then there’s also Nicole Kidman’s “To Die For,” probably the poster child for the “I’ll do anything for this job” genre.
What do these movies say about power? What deep emotional vein are these flicks trying to tap into? Is it, “You don’t want power because it makes everyone else want to kill you?” or, conversely, that to make it up the ladder you might have to bump off a couple co-workers? Hmmm…. Sean YoungNicole Kidman
Select Soho House clubs and hotels in NY and the UK are now offering emergency same-day wardrobe service in partnership with NetAPorter.com. Designer shoes, accessories, dresses… forget – or ruin – something while traveling? These two premium brands have you covered.
This is so very clever and useful. Beyond the service’s usefulness, though, I think women will take advantage of it for the fun and the splurge of it, too: a new dress chosen with your significant other – for a special dinner that same evening in a chic hotel in a chic city – will add to the experience for many. Soho Housenetaporter.com
Does an article in this Saturday’s Wall Street Journal mean that we can stop thinking about Barbie vs. Bratz and starting pitching products to young girls because we think they’re smart? That would be nice!
The article, “The Secret to Marrying a Billionaire: Brains,” says that, although the media heralds beauty as the key to man-snagging, it appears that many contemporary billionaires believe that finding a smart partner is more important. Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Michael Dell are all held as examples of men who “married smart.”
Unfortunately, the WSJ article also links to Forbes’ “Billionaire Wives List,” which includes a feature that allows you to check out the chicks ”In Pictures.”
When was the last time you saw one of these lists offer a photo gallery of Steve Schwarzman, Carl Icahn and Vikram Pandit (hey, sexy!)? I thought not.
Babycenter, CafeMom, ClubMom… there have always been plenty of websites for moms, but what about us single non-baby-person aunties? What do we buy, where do we go, what will they like?
A new website, SavvyAuntie, targets us PANKS: Professional Aunts With No Kids Of Their Own. The site offers blogs, forums and the Auntiepedia. There is a “digital fridge door” for kids’ artwork, a gift shop and info on kid-friendly restaurants and local activities and events (delivered in partnership with Nickelodeon’s GoCityKids). It was created by former beauty editor/marketing exec, Melanie Notkin.
An article I read about the ad-suported site points out that PANKS control 85% of their households’ spending, so I hope Melanie makes it. Because after Serendipity, the Children’s Museum and the Statue of Liberty… we NYC PANKS can go blank pretty quickly!
Transitional Sizes is a new company helping dieting women dress well without breaking the bank. The company rents out brand name clothing for temporary use while the pounds come off.
Great concept. There have been companies that rent maternity wear for some time, but there is so much more business in dieting! Let’s face it: many more women end up dieting for longer periods of time – and sometimes over and over again – then there are ladies who get pregnant (and don’t forget the overlap!).
The company rents women’s clothing in sizes 4-26 for monthly rental fees ranging anywhere from $3 to $25 apiece. A customer orders the items she needs and can keep them as long as she likes; once she is ready to return, she’s asked to clean the pieces and send them back in the original box free of charge.
A woman does not need to be a member of the site to use it, but membership packages give dieters a variety of extra perks including discounts and weight loss incentives. The site is still a little new, and no one’s winning an fashion contests wearing the gear that’s currently available, but let’s assume they get it right.
And when they do, there are so many opportunities to drive revenue. How about an option where the member automatically gets a new box of clothes when she has committed to being one size smaller: and the cost is automatically billed to her credit card? Money can be motivating… And I would strongly consider partnerships with weight loss companies (Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers), relevant media (parenting and self-improvement magazines, like Parents and Self) and possibly the medical community (a la the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology).
What other untapped “leasing” opportunities are out there? We’ve got clothing, handbags, jewelry (ever see Borrowed Bling?), cars, cell phones from hotels and airports…
A Wall Street Journalarticle this week describes how retailers are becoming increasingly focused on exclusive merchandise available through brand licensing.
Phillips-Van Heusen has Calvin Klein, Meredith has Better Homes & Gardens and Toys “R” Us is the only place you’ll find Hot Wheels MP3 players.
I don’t doubt that this is a fantastic way to refresh retail environments and create revenue – I’ve seen it myself at DC Comics and written about licensing several times.
For the moment, however – when 75% of women are saying that they are buying only the clothes their family needs – I doubt that the label on a shirt will make much difference. And few moms are likely to drive out of their way for a parity product, just because it’s Hot Wheels-branded.
Long-term, savvy licensing will remain effective. Short-term, revenue goals should be adjusted downward and I would think twice about pushing in-store exclusives, in particular: if Toys “R” Us wants to sell those MP3 players, they should be available on the chain’s website (I couldn’t find them…)
By the title of this post, I am attempting to emphasize the basic importance of not insulting the exact customers (or influencers) you need: hence my “Why, this isn’t Rule #1 – it’s practically Rule #0!” thinking.
The subject of my shock-and-awe today is Cadillac’s “Cup Holders” ad staring Monica Bellucci. If you haven’t seen the commercial, Monica appears to be driving a Cadillac, all sly looks and mellifluous tones… playing a part that could only be described as… I don’t know – cheap woman for sale? She explains that research has found that the most important thing that women want more of in cars is cup holders. Then she gives the camera a come-hither look and posits that perhaps these researchers need to start spending time with “a different kind of woman.” At that point, I am expecting her to hold up a card offering various sexual favors in exchange for a Cadillac purchase. Here’s the commercial:
What I don’t get is why GM felt the need to insult – by implication – all of the obviously dull, pathetic, robotic suburban soccer moms who want cup holders. It’s just so dumb. Women control 83% of all consumer spending in the US and, even more directly relevant to Cadillac, the Luxury Institute reports that automobile purchases are controlled by women in 40% of wealthy households.
In the same campaign, Cadillac manages to poke fun and allow Kate Walsh to enjoy herself without insulting anyone else.
The Berllucci ad really rankles.
Now we get a little glimmer into the company’s customer service smarts, as well. Like many membership-based retailers with preferred shopper programs, it’s easy for Costco to keep track of a member’s purchases and to retain specific transaction-related data, such as the date and time of purchase. It turns out that one of the ways in which Costco delivers value back to members based on this information comes in the form of product recall notifications.
Costco
peanut_butter_recall
Super_Bowl 
Super_Bowl_advertising 
Mayor_Bloomberg 
Michael_Bloomberg 
New_York_City_Hall 
Yesterday, I wrote a 
recipe_websites
Allrecipes.com
NutriSystem
weight_loss
Weight_Watchers
Lifebooker
Rita Hazan
This has me thinking about the mentor-mentee relationship and how many of these movies are out there. I think I saw one with Sherilyn Finn, one with Billy Moses (or I am thinking about the one where he played a professor who kills a female student?) and one with Lara Flynn Boyle, at the very least. Then there’s also Nicole Kidman’s “
Sean Young
Nicole Kidman
Swing tags in every room will promote “
Soho House
netaporter.com
Sergey Brin
Larry Page
Michael Dell
