Shopper marketing once mostly took place in stores; tactics included placing coupon dispensers on shelves, designing eye-catching end-aisle displays and giving away product samples. Now, the battle to land on shopping lists or in shopping carts is waged long before consumers set foot in stores as they spend more time researching potential purchases online or asking friends on Facebook what to buy.
In another sign of the growing role for shopper marketing, units of two agencies owned by WPP — JWT and Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide — have formed a joint venture in North America to help marketers and retailers guide consumers on the so-called path to purchase. The joint venture, called JWT/OgilvyAction, is the brainchild of the Malone Advertising unit of JWT, which is being renamed JWT Action, and the OgilvyAction unit of Ogilvy.
JWT Action and OgilvyAction continue as autonomous agencies as they work together as JWT/OgilvyAction. The joint venture is handling tasks for clients that include American Express, John Deere, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, SC Johnson, Nestlé, Sara Lee and Unilever.
•
The goal is to “help us transform someone from a consumer to a buyer,” said Deborah Hannah, integrated marketing planning director at the Neenah, Wis., office of Kimberly-Clark, which is working with JWT/OgilvyAction on brands like Cottonelle, Huggies, Kleenex and Kotex.
Retail marketing can influence a shopper “as she goes from watching a TV ad on the couch to writing a list to going to Walgreens or Kroger,” Ms. Hannah said, “and then, once she is in the store, help us close the deal with her.”
The aspects of shopper marketing that are focused on consumers outside stores are assuming more significance, she added, with “the explosion of e-commerce and social commerce.” The latter refers to the combination of shopping online and networking on Web sites like Facebook and Twitter.
“Now that shopper marketing is no longer just in the store, there are so many opportunities,” Ms. Hannah said, offering an example of “shopper apps for the iPhone.”
“We need someone to help us navigate who is our target and how she decides to buy,” she added.
JWT/Ogilvy Action has 3,400 full-time and part-time employees in offices and field offices in cities like Akron, Ohio; Bentonville, Ark.; Chicago; Cincinnati; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; and New York. The joint venture is being led by Fred Bidwell, executive chairman, who continues as president and chief executive of JWT Action, and Sheila Hartnett, chief executive, who remains chief executive for the North American operations of OgilvyAction.
“There’s a major sea change going on in this space, which requires a different kind of agency,” Mr. Bidwell said. “We needed to bring a broader array of tools to the party.”
As a result, “we approached OgilvyAction and said, ‘Let’s go in this together, in a strategic partnership,’ ” he added.
•
He and Ms. Hartnett decided that a cooperative effort would “need to be a true business unit of WPP,” Mr. Bidwell said, “so we approached WPP with the idea of creating a joint venture.”
The joint venture is “having some early success,” he said, and it recently added a couple of marketer clients. Although they declined to be identified, Mr. Bidwell said, he was able to describe one as “a significant over-the-counter pharmaceutical company” and the other as “a significant food company.”
Asked for examples of cross-pollination — clients of one agency or the other that are working with the joint venture — Mr. Bidwell listed John Deere, “a Malone client, for which we’re bringing in thinking from OgilvyAction,” and SC Johnson, “an OgilvyAction legacy client, which people on the JWT side are deeply involved in helping.” Ms. Hannah said Kimberly-Clark, a longtime client of Malone, was obtaining from the joint venture services that are specialties of OgilvyAction, like product sampling.
Chip Martella, managing director for the New York office of JWT/OgilvyAction, singled out Kimberly-Clark, along with Procter & Gamble, as among the marketers that are “accelerating the growth of shopper marketing.”
“They’re telling their agencies: ‘Don’t come to us with a campaign idea that starts with TV or print ads and then show us how it works in the store. Start with the store,’ ” said Mr. Martella, who is also executive director of strategy for the North American operation of OgilvyAction.
The store can be virtual as well as real, he added, citing research that shows “over 50 percent of those shopping Wal-Mart stop at walmart.com first.”
Another indication of the increasing role being played by shopper marketing came last week, when a former executive of Procter — the world’s largest advertiser — was hired as the new leader of Saatchi & Saatchi X, the shopper marketing unit of Saatchi & Saatchi, part of the Publicis Groupe.
Dina Howell, who had been vice president for global media and brand operations at Procter, joined Saatchi & Saatchi X as worldwide chief executive. She succeeds Andy Murray, the founder of Saatchi & Saatchi X, who becomes chairman, a new post.
WPP is known for reorganizing and reconfiguring its agencies to better serve clients. For instance, in 2006 WPP formed a joint venture named Team Detroit by combining five agencies that worked for the Ford Motor Company in North America.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Are agencies finally getting it? From NYT. Marketers Aim to Sway Shoppers, From the Couch to the Store
Are agencies finally getting it? From NYT. Marketers Aim to Sway Shoppers, From the Couch to the Store
Shopper marketing once mostly took place in stores; tactics included placing coupon dispensers on shelves, designing eye-catching end-aisle displays and giving away product samples. Now, the battle to land on shopping lists or in shopping carts is waged long before consumers set foot in stores as they spend more time researching potential purchases online or asking friends on Facebook what to buy.
In another sign of the growing role for shopper marketing, units of two agencies owned by WPP — JWT and Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide — have formed a joint venture in North America to help marketers and retailers guide consumers on the so-called path to purchase. The joint venture, called JWT/OgilvyAction, is the brainchild of the Malone Advertising unit of JWT, which is being renamed JWT Action, and the OgilvyAction unit of Ogilvy.
JWT Action and OgilvyAction continue as autonomous agencies as they work together as JWT/OgilvyAction. The joint venture is handling tasks for clients that include American Express, John Deere, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, SC Johnson, Nestlé, Sara Lee and Unilever.
•
The goal is to “help us transform someone from a consumer to a buyer,” said Deborah Hannah, integrated marketing planning director at the Neenah, Wis., office of Kimberly-Clark, which is working with JWT/OgilvyAction on brands like Cottonelle, Huggies, Kleenex and Kotex.
Retail marketing can influence a shopper “as she goes from watching a TV ad on the couch to writing a list to going to Walgreens or Kroger,” Ms. Hannah said, “and then, once she is in the store, help us close the deal with her.”
The aspects of shopper marketing that are focused on consumers outside stores are assuming more significance, she added, with “the explosion of e-commerce and social commerce.” The latter refers to the combination of shopping online and networking on Web sites like Facebook and Twitter.
“Now that shopper marketing is no longer just in the store, there are so many opportunities,” Ms. Hannah said, offering an example of “shopper apps for the iPhone.”
“We need someone to help us navigate who is our target and how she decides to buy,” she added.
JWT/Ogilvy Action has 3,400 full-time and part-time employees in offices and field offices in cities like Akron, Ohio; Bentonville, Ark.; Chicago; Cincinnati; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; and New York. The joint venture is being led by Fred Bidwell, executive chairman, who continues as president and chief executive of JWT Action, and Sheila Hartnett, chief executive, who remains chief executive for the North American operations of OgilvyAction.
“There’s a major sea change going on in this space, which requires a different kind of agency,” Mr. Bidwell said. “We needed to bring a broader array of tools to the party.”
As a result, “we approached OgilvyAction and said, ‘Let’s go in this together, in a strategic partnership,’ ” he added.
•
He and Ms. Hartnett decided that a cooperative effort would “need to be a true business unit of WPP,” Mr. Bidwell said, “so we approached WPP with the idea of creating a joint venture.”
The joint venture is “having some early success,” he said, and it recently added a couple of marketer clients. Although they declined to be identified, Mr. Bidwell said, he was able to describe one as “a significant over-the-counter pharmaceutical company” and the other as “a significant food company.”
Asked for examples of cross-pollination — clients of one agency or the other that are working with the joint venture — Mr. Bidwell listed John Deere, “a Malone client, for which we’re bringing in thinking from OgilvyAction,” and SC Johnson, “an OgilvyAction legacy client, which people on the JWT side are deeply involved in helping.” Ms. Hannah said Kimberly-Clark, a longtime client of Malone, was obtaining from the joint venture services that are specialties of OgilvyAction, like product sampling.
Chip Martella, managing director for the New York office of JWT/OgilvyAction, singled out Kimberly-Clark, along with Procter & Gamble, as among the marketers that are “accelerating the growth of shopper marketing.”
“They’re telling their agencies: ‘Don’t come to us with a campaign idea that starts with TV or print ads and then show us how it works in the store. Start with the store,’ ” said Mr. Martella, who is also executive director of strategy for the North American operation of OgilvyAction.
The store can be virtual as well as real, he added, citing research that shows “over 50 percent of those shopping Wal-Mart stop at walmart.com first.”
Another indication of the increasing role being played by shopper marketing came last week, when a former executive of Procter — the world’s largest advertiser — was hired as the new leader of Saatchi & Saatchi X, the shopper marketing unit of Saatchi & Saatchi, part of the Publicis Groupe.
Dina Howell, who had been vice president for global media and brand operations at Procter, joined Saatchi & Saatchi X as worldwide chief executive. She succeeds Andy Murray, the founder of Saatchi & Saatchi X, who becomes chairman, a new post.
WPP is known for reorganizing and reconfiguring its agencies to better serve clients. For instance, in 2006 WPP formed a joint venture named Team Detroit by combining five agencies that worked for the Ford Motor Company in North America.
Are agencies finally getting it? From NYT. Marketers Aim to Sway Shoppers, From the Couch to the Store
Shopper marketing once mostly took place in stores; tactics included placing coupon dispensers on shelves, designing eye-catching end-aisle displays and giving away product samples. Now, the battle to land on shopping lists or in shopping carts is waged long before consumers set foot in stores as they spend more time researching potential purchases online or asking friends on Facebook what to buy.
In another sign of the growing role for shopper marketing, units of two agencies owned by WPP — JWT and Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide — have formed a joint venture in North America to help marketers and retailers guide consumers on the so-called path to purchase. The joint venture, called JWT/OgilvyAction, is the brainchild of the Malone Advertising unit of JWT, which is being renamed JWT Action, and the OgilvyAction unit of Ogilvy.
JWT Action and OgilvyAction continue as autonomous agencies as they work together as JWT/OgilvyAction. The joint venture is handling tasks for clients that include American Express, John Deere, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, SC Johnson, Nestlé, Sara Lee and Unilever.
•
The goal is to “help us transform someone from a consumer to a buyer,” said Deborah Hannah, integrated marketing planning director at the Neenah, Wis., office of Kimberly-Clark, which is working with JWT/OgilvyAction on brands like Cottonelle, Huggies, Kleenex and Kotex.
Retail marketing can influence a shopper “as she goes from watching a TV ad on the couch to writing a list to going to Walgreens or Kroger,” Ms. Hannah said, “and then, once she is in the store, help us close the deal with her.”
The aspects of shopper marketing that are focused on consumers outside stores are assuming more significance, she added, with “the explosion of e-commerce and social commerce.” The latter refers to the combination of shopping online and networking on Web sites like Facebook and Twitter.
“Now that shopper marketing is no longer just in the store, there are so many opportunities,” Ms. Hannah said, offering an example of “shopper apps for the iPhone.”
“We need someone to help us navigate who is our target and how she decides to buy,” she added.
JWT/Ogilvy Action has 3,400 full-time and part-time employees in offices and field offices in cities like Akron, Ohio; Bentonville, Ark.; Chicago; Cincinnati; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; and New York. The joint venture is being led by Fred Bidwell, executive chairman, who continues as president and chief executive of JWT Action, and Sheila Hartnett, chief executive, who remains chief executive for the North American operations of OgilvyAction.
“There’s a major sea change going on in this space, which requires a different kind of agency,” Mr. Bidwell said. “We needed to bring a broader array of tools to the party.”
As a result, “we approached OgilvyAction and said, ‘Let’s go in this together, in a strategic partnership,’ ” he added.
•
He and Ms. Hartnett decided that a cooperative effort would “need to be a true business unit of WPP,” Mr. Bidwell said, “so we approached WPP with the idea of creating a joint venture.”
The joint venture is “having some early success,” he said, and it recently added a couple of marketer clients. Although they declined to be identified, Mr. Bidwell said, he was able to describe one as “a significant over-the-counter pharmaceutical company” and the other as “a significant food company.”
Asked for examples of cross-pollination — clients of one agency or the other that are working with the joint venture — Mr. Bidwell listed John Deere, “a Malone client, for which we’re bringing in thinking from OgilvyAction,” and SC Johnson, “an OgilvyAction legacy client, which people on the JWT side are deeply involved in helping.” Ms. Hannah said Kimberly-Clark, a longtime client of Malone, was obtaining from the joint venture services that are specialties of OgilvyAction, like product sampling.
Chip Martella, managing director for the New York office of JWT/OgilvyAction, singled out Kimberly-Clark, along with Procter & Gamble, as among the marketers that are “accelerating the growth of shopper marketing.”
“They’re telling their agencies: ‘Don’t come to us with a campaign idea that starts with TV or print ads and then show us how it works in the store. Start with the store,’ ” said Mr. Martella, who is also executive director of strategy for the North American operation of OgilvyAction.
The store can be virtual as well as real, he added, citing research that shows “over 50 percent of those shopping Wal-Mart stop at walmart.com first.”
Another indication of the increasing role being played by shopper marketing came last week, when a former executive of Procter — the world’s largest advertiser — was hired as the new leader of Saatchi & Saatchi X, the shopper marketing unit of Saatchi & Saatchi, part of the Publicis Groupe.
Dina Howell, who had been vice president for global media and brand operations at Procter, joined Saatchi & Saatchi X as worldwide chief executive. She succeeds Andy Murray, the founder of Saatchi & Saatchi X, who becomes chairman, a new post.
WPP is known for reorganizing and reconfiguring its agencies to better serve clients. For instance, in 2006 WPP formed a joint venture named Team Detroit by combining five agencies that worked for the Ford Motor Company in North America.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
'Tis the season for predictions. Here's an exciting one from Oracle.com: NFC Will Be the Killer App for 2011 (Insight-Driven Retailing Blog)
« Google Leverages Like.com | Main | A Look Back at 2010 Predictions »
NFC Will Be the Killer App for 2011
By David Dorf on November 29, 2010 12:40 PM
As a former smartcard engineer, I've seen many different electronic payment schemes come and go. Payment technology is saddled with the "chicken or egg" problem. That is, you can't justify the expense of the infrastructure without a critical mass of consumers, and the consumers won't bother unless they know the new method will be around for a long time. For this reason, most emerging payment techniques remain in campus settings (e.g. universities, corporate campuses, sporting arenas) and fail to go mainstream.
But the momentum behind mobile commerce is about to introduce us to NFC, a short-range contactless technology that's been waiting for the right moment to pounce. With NFC-enabled phones, consumers will be able to quickly and easily communicate with retailers to accept marketing offers, pay for goods, and receive loyalty points.
The following news stories illustrate that momentum:
- April 2010, Apple files patents for iPay, iBuy and iCoupons that include the use of NFC.
May 2010, The French government-backed NFC trials in Nice commence as a dry-run for a planned national rollout. The trial involves four mobile operators, two banks, and the city's transit system.
June 2010, Nokia spokesperson Anssi Vanjoki announces (and later clarifies) that Nokia will begin including NFC technology in some of its phones starting in 2011.
August 2010, Apple hires NFC expert Benjamin Vigier and continues filing patents for mobile payments, including the use of NFC.
November 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced Android "Gingerbread" 2.3 will support NFC.
November 2010, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless announce joint venture to build national mobile commerce network using NFC-enabled phones. The Isis™ mobile wallet will eliminate the need to carry cash, credit and debit cards, reward cards, coupons, tickets and transit passes, fundamentally changing how you shop, pay and save. All with your phone.
Retailers would be wise to begin looking at what it takes to add an NFC reader to their POS. Oracle Retail will be demonstrating integration with the VivoTech NFC reader at the NRF Big Show in January. Stop by the booth and see.
Comments (4)
Tom Chorn:Smart phones already are vulnerable to a number of security threats. The Wikipedia entry for NFC enumerates additional threats for this technology.
IMHO, the biggest threat comes from NFC relying on the phone to authenticate the user. There are a number of ways to get around this --yes, you can circumvent the phone PIN... So, if you lose your phone, what protection will you have when someone starts to use it to rack up hundreds/thousands of bucks in purchases?? I bet it won't be the same as the protection you get on your credit cards.
Posted by Tom Chorn | November 29, 2010 1:34 PM
Posted on November 29, 2010 13:34
Tom, the technology has its shortcomings, but I don't see it as worse than current magstripe cards. Once lost, your phone can be deactivated by your TSM to minimize the damage. Good point, nonetheless.
Posted by David | November 29, 2010 1:47 PM
Posted on November 29, 2010 13:47
One way to facilitate deployment of NFC services can be through infrastructure, not only POS payment equipment, considering every usage which could benefit from contactless. We have been working on this and are proposing both infrastructure equipment, modules to allow other companies to integrate contactless in their own equipment such as kiosks, and also dedicated mobile devices when needed. All of our products are NFC and Zigbee capable, then you can add mid-range to short range communication, the communication flow being secured between both protocols.
More information on our website http://www.taztag.com
You may also visit us at CARTES in December or CES in January.Posted by Michel | November 30, 2010 3:30 AM
Posted on November 30, 2010 03:30
chip:Another option to prevent an unauthorized use of phone is to have IMEI of your device printed on your driving license. heh ...
Posted by chip | November 30, 2010 8:59 PM
Posted on November 30, 2010 20:59
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Some of the best things in life can be free. From MediaPost. 10 Tools for Digital that Don't Cost a Dime
Which tools do experienced digital marketers rely on to develop their marketing strategies, plans, and programs?
Before building your next digital plan, be sure to check out these terrific free tools for input, support and guidance in 10 important areas.
1) Competitive site traffic: Compete.com estimates the number of U. S. visitors to practically all the top web sites, enabling users to enter up to five website names and receive Traffic Volume for each, along with additional site analytics. Quantcast.com provides U. S. audience composition stats, including gender, income, age group, visit frequency, and other sites visited. Alexa.com ranks sites comparatively based on traffic by millions of its toolbar users.
2) Search volume: Google Trends lets you enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched on Google over time. It calculates how many searches occurred for the entered term(s), compared to total Google searches, and graphs the results. The Hot Searches feature displays the 40 fastest-increasing searches in the U. S., and is updated hourly. Google Insights enables narrower analysis to compare search volume patterns across specific geographic regions, subject categories, time frames and other Google properties. Google Traffic Estimator shows predicted search volume, average cost-per-click, and ad positions for specified keywords.
3) SEO Evaluation: WebsiteGrader.com, a free SEO evaluation tool, grades any site on its SEO effectiveness, based on factors including title, meta description, keywords, headings, images, Google Page Rank, inbound links, Google indexed pages, directory inclusion, and Delicious bookmarks. Entering your own url or a competitor's delivers a quick SEO assessment.
4) Competitive search activity: SpyFu.com reports the keywords a website buys on Google Adwords and the keywords causing a site to rank in search results. It also provides cost per click, search volume, and estimated search advertising spend. Other available information includes keywords used, organic search rank, top competitors, sites purchasing specific terms, and sites ranking organically for a given query.
5) Social media dialogue: SocialMention.com tracks the most current conversations about a company, product, or any other topic across the social media landscape, encompassing blogs, forums, bookmarks, comments, events, news, etc., by monitoring over 100 social media properties like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and YouTube. Technorati.com is the leading blog search engine, indexing over a million blogs, tracking the authority and influence of blogs, while providing an index of what is currently most popular in the Blogosphere.
6) Twitter monitoring: TweetMeme.com aggregates all the popular links on Twitter to determine which are popular, organizing these into Categories, Subcategories and Channels, so it's easy to filter and find what you are most interested in. Klout.com measures influence on Twitter (and Facebook), on a scale from 0 to 100, using variables like the number of retweets, the Twitter audience size, and influence of followers, while also providing influence monitoring tools.
7) Social media case studies: To keep abreast of social media marketing activity by industry leaders or competitors, visit these wikis/sites, which provide a wide range of case studies. For Social Media Cases across all industries, check out A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples. If you're focused on the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, read the cases at the Dose of Digital Social Media Wiki.
8) Sample Size Calculator: If you aren't a statistician, but require a simple, quick way to quantify the validity of your results, or establish the correct quantities for an in-market test, either of these two tools will do the trick: http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm or http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html.
9) Online Advertising Impact: Both DoubleClick Research and Atlas Institute Insights regularly publish valuable white papers with insightful analyses of online media performance impact, benchmarks and trends.
10) Marketing Stats and Presentations: Slideshare.com lets you share presentations, or view documents written by others, across a whole range of topics and industries. PewInternet.org is an ongoing research project providing a rich resource of trends and statistics about consumer usage of digital channels.
These are among the most powerful, free tools that equip digital marketers to plan and analyze more effectively, but if you have other personal favorites, please share them by posting or emailing.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Online Retailing is on the Rise - and So is On-Air! From The Guardian - QVC: Sale of the Century
Inside the QVC studio, a model shows off a ring in front of the cameras. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
It's Christmas time at QVC. But then it often seems to be Christmas time at QVC. It is 25 November when I visit the HQ of the home shopping channel in Battersea, south London, and it is gearing up for its Big Christmas Weekend. That's different from Early Bird Christmas; that was 25 September. Or Christmas In July, which took place on 25 July. "If there's a 25 in the month – there'll be Christmas," says Dermot Boyd, QVC's twinkly CEO. "It's the best time of year for us. We do make a feature of it." The channel's buyers, almost 100 of them, have already done their buying for Christmas 2011. You can see why.
But then QVC has reason to feel extra-specially Christmasy this year. Profits are up 6%, and it is now the UK's most widely distributed retailer. One-in-four homes have had something dispatched from its mile-long Liverpool distribution centre, one that's six times larger than Wembley Stadium. Last year it handled 15.1m calls, generating £368m. Six weeks ago, it launched a second channel, QVC Beauty, to tap into the UK's £16bn lipstick and mascara market, which has proved impervious to the recession.
"The demand for beauty over the last couple of years has been incredible," says Kate James, head of buying for the channel. Her clients agree. "On a good day, we've done £1m on QVC," says Andrew Rodgers, European marketing director for cosmetics company Bare Escentuals. "That would take a year in a department store."
QVC now reaches 106 million customers across five countries (QVC Italy opened in September, joining Germany, Japan and the original US parent company) with new-customer growth at a 10-year high. Just in time for 2011: QVC's 25th anniversary.
This will be the economic downturn, you'll be thinking. With no money left to leave the house, people are slumped in front of their digital TVs, morosely dialling up for cut-price Butler & Wilson PVC mock croc skin shoulder bags or Jack LaLanne compact power juicers. QVC has heard that one before. "It's not to say QVC does better in a recession than a boom," Boyd says carefully. "But relative to other retailers, it's a very resilient model. In the UK, we were founded in a recession, in the 1990s. And we grew successful in that." But QVC's biggest recent success may be one that's harder to put a figure on. That's a subtle brand repositioning.
The Apprentice's memorable 2007 candidate Katie Hopkins may have spoken for many (though perhaps not in quite the same language) when she described QVC's audience as "bored, big-boobed housewives called Mavis", balking at having to go on and sell plastic footspas and chocolate fountains (her amiable Apprentice rival Simon Ambrose faired better, going for the high-risk strategy of the pricier folding wheelchair). The perception was that QVC sold cheap tat, cheaply. Seventeen years ago, that may have been hard to argue with: when QVC UK launched, its must-have item was a yellow alarm clock shaped like a Volkswagen Beetle. Today, it stocks boutique-level beauty brands Decléor, Elemis and Bobbi Brown, alongside Bose stereo equipment and 3D-ready plasma TVs.
In April, it sold £1m worth of Dell notebooks in 24 hours. Before that it had some £19,000 necklaces for sale (it only sold two, but then you only need to sell two – the Simon Ambrose model). Marco Pierre White, Jemma Kidd, Lulu Guinness – and, indeed, Lulu – have all appeared on QVC, selling their own product lines. In the US, the channel has courted upmarket vendors such as NARS Cosmetics, while Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant launched her collection on the channel. With co-sponsorship from Vogue, celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe recently helmed a New York fashion week show during which, noted QVC's US merchandising boss, "the inventory kind of evaporated".
That's not to say QVC is ever going to be confused with the Beverly Hills appointment-only boutique The House of Bijan: in the UK, the median purchase price remains £35-£40. You might recall the laughter directed at James Arbuthnot, chair of the House of Commons defence select committee, during the MPs expenses' scandal, when his claim for a four-piece garlic-peeling set was revealed – bought from QVC for £43.56. But at least it wasn't a yellow alarm clock shaped like a Volkswagen Beetle.
"In the early years, TV shopping had a negative connotation that came from the US, because they had a lot of infomercial channels that made unrealistic claims," says Boyd. "Here, the Advertising Standards Authority regulates very strictly what you can say. We think that's a good thing. We do a lot of work measuring brand recognition and, actually, in the UK, people don't have a negative [opinion of QVC]; but they don't have a positive. That's an OK starting point."
This year, Boyd set out to build on that, to "raise the profile of the company". In February, he handed a £500,000 contract to the PR firm responsible for Channel 4 and BAA. Their brief was to reposition his presenters as experts in their field, and build awareness. There have subsequently been a number of those PR perennials, the consumer survey, making their way into the papers. In June, thanks to a QVC-commissioned poll, we learned that 10% of the country "would rather give up their partner than their TV"; and then, in July, that women "are at their most beautiful at 31". But that was small fry compared with November's bright idea: within hours of William and Kate's marriage announcement, QVC had dug out an Epiphany Platinum-Clad Diamonique oval cluster ring, branded it "The Royal Engagement Look" and watched sales jump 800%. It has been sold-out ever since. To HRH: a priceless family heirloom. QVC price: £34.42. "We probably sold £40,000 worth of rings with a blue stone," says Boyd. Who would buy such a ring? "One assumes it's people who approve of the royal couple," says Boyd, smiling. "I think it's the feelgood factor."
A selection of items for sale on QVC. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
Then there is 2010's most surprising innovation: pop stars going on QVC to sell their albums. In February, the famously shy and retiring light entertainment polymath John Barrowman suggested he come on to promote his new collection of songs from musicals, selling 1,000 copies in the first three minutes. He was already a QVC devotee (he got his shopping card out on air to prove it). Where Barrowman leads, others can only follow. Charlotte Church, Jamie Cullum and ecclesiastical supergroup the Priests subsequently all launched their new albums on the channel. You can see the thinking. With few CD shops and even fewer music shows left, here's an hour to sing live, have a nice chat and, in Church's case, not be asked any awkward questions about Gavin Henson.
"You have to take advantage of the promotional opportunities there are," says the Priests' Fr Martin O'Hagan. "A lot of people don't go down the street to do their shopping any more." Boyd says that currently "all the main record companies are talking to us", while QVC's PR says the labels have told them "what a relief it is . . . how it's been an absolute nightmare to find new platforms". In May, the Official Charts Company changed the rules to allow QVC sales to contribute to the Top 40. You don't have to be Paul Gambaccini to spot that QVC's acts have all come from one place: the middle of the road. You're not going to see Motörhead on there. Or are you? "Actually, metal's interesting, because a lot of metal fans are in their 40s – our core audience," says Boyd. "Motörhead in full-flight wouldn't work, but maybe Lemmy acoustically. Rap would be tricky, though if I got Dizzee Rascal I might be tempted."
QVC was started in Pennsylvania in 1986 by Joseph Segel; founder of the coin and memorabilia supplier The Franklin Mint. Having watched a videotape of the Home Shopping Network, he felt he could do better. Segel insisted his presenters sell by informing. They would have to gen up on their products beforehand, and there would be no staring down the camera, hard-selling – the high-pressure tactics of the infomercials were out. Products were never "cheap", "cheaper" or "a bargain", but "good value". The presenters should convey the idea that they're shopping with a best friend.
"I look for voice tonality," says Tina Halvorsen, QVC UK's guest presenter manager. "Lots of our viewers keep QVC on all day, like a radio."
As any Apprentice fan knows, producers constantly direct their presenters via an earpiece. In the gallery, a live database tracks precisely how well a product is selling, and how much stock remains. Anything that triggers a sales spike – a certain phrase, or stroking a jacket's lining – is encouraged to be repeated. If sales-per-minute numbers are not good enough, it's on to the next item. An underperforming product might get a second chance in another time slot. After that, it's out.
"Even if you're presenting something that you personally don't like, the head you have to put on is: 'Well, my neighbour across the street would'," says Julia Roberts, QVC's longest-serving presenter (no, she's not that Julia Roberts). "You do a Worzel Gummidge."
QVC presenter Julia Roberts: she says her viewers look on her as a friend. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
Roberts used to be a hostess on The Price is Right with Leslie Crowther. Before that she was a cabaret dancer, supporting Cannon and Ball in summer season in Guernsey. For her QVC audition, she was given a pencil. "They said: 'Now sell this for five minutes.'" Her audiences love her. They come and chat in the supermarket. "Then you can see them thinking: 'I don't actually know you! I feel really stupid!' I take that as a compliment. They think I'm their friend." Judging from the number of enthusiastic montages on YouTube, she's also got more male friends than QVC's demographic would suggest. "I don't even want to know!" she wails.
Halvorsen gives me a tour of the building. It's like a village and is home to 500 planners, buyers, set builders and producers – all making 17 hours of live TV, 364 days a year. Everyone is very cheerful. Behind one door, a team have been prepping Christmas puddings since 7am.
"Hello, Tinee!"
"Hello, guys! How's everyone?"
"Oh, busy, busy!"
In the gallery we watch Dale Franklin – son of one of the Wrigley Doublemint twins – selling gold rings. "One thing you never hear us say on QVC is, 'Buy these as an investment because they're going to go up in price'. We don't know. Buy it because you love it. Buy it because it's something perhaps you want to pass down to your family . . ."
"'You're saving over £300 . . .'" nudges his producer, James Faulk.
"£686 regularly," Franklin parrots. "Now it's £374 – the one-time-only price . . ."
Faulk glances at his database. "Dale, we've lost 'R' for 'romance'," he says, indicating the sold-out ring size. "We've got S, T, V only . . ."
Halvorsen turns and beams. "I always say QVC is like a jigsaw puzzle: you need to look behind the scenes to see how it all fits. It's such a hard combination, isn't it?: broadcasting and selling."
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Electrifying. Just grabs and shakes you up. From AdAge. Dana Anderson's Celebrity Rules for Digital Marketing
Stay on top of the news, sign up for our free newslettersDana Anderson's Celebrity Rules for Digital Marketing
What You Can Learn From Robert Downey Jr., Angelina Jolie and Lady Gaga
By Kunur Patel
Published: November 30, 2010NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Dana Anderson, senior VP-marketing strategy and communications at Kraft, brought a gaggle of pop icons to the ME conference in New York. Even marketers can learn a thing or two from glossy celebrities such as Robert Downey Jr., Angelina Jolie and Lady Gaga.
--> For Ms. Anderson, celebrities and musicians show the course for big marketers looking to evolve for digital communications. Here are her simple rules for dragging a big, old-school organization like Kraft into the digital age.Pete KoloniaDana AndersonHave swagger
Ms. Anderson first looked to bad boy Robert Downey Jr., whom she dubbed the king of swagger."If you want to inspire people to go with you, you need the charisma and swagger," she said. "You need a little bit of Robert Downey Jr."
Ms. Anderson herself was a prime example of the value of swagger. Her confidence and ability to energize the crowd and to frame marketing lessons in easy pop-culture references and humor were evidence enough that the bad-boy rule also applies to girls. Badness is equal opportunity, she said.Related Stories
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Be sly
Digital experiments also require a different set of rules than the typical measurement-driven campaign. Where new digital programs or media may be difficult to quantify by old standards, there are ways for an organization to dip a toe in and get people used to a new format."Pilot is my new favorite word: It means we are going to learn and going to have less risk," she said, adding, "Recess trumps calculus every time. Playing beats math. We're not going to worry about that [measurement] right now, we're just going to play."
That experiment mindset could also lead to an unexpected discovery of something valuable. "Two things I want you to remember are penicillin and electricity," she said."'Should we do social media?' is kind of like saying 'Should we get a light bulb?' when electricity was invented."
Play house
A next step is bringing people together to learn digital lessons in a more meaningful format than a training session. At Kraft, those events are called "digital hothouses." People are asked to bring their work problems to the hothouses and can expect to leave the event with an outline of a solution."It's not that people don't like training; they just don't have time for it," she said. "If you make it valuable ... they'll show up."
Don't settle
Ms. Anderson stressed that marketers should follow the lead of Angelina Jolie, who as an award-winning actress, mother and philanthropist, never settles. While her reference was playful, she acknowledged that digital means culling the herd.This advice especially applied to staffing, talent and agency partnerships, where settling should never be encouraged. "Be like Angelina," she said. "Learning about digital is hard for some folks," she said. "Not everybody is a 10."
"Not only do I want my guys to demand the very best, I want them to be the best, too," she added. That said, marketers and others need to be realistic -- or at least self-aware. She outlined the Rule of Two, where on a scale of 1 to 10, a person can only date someone two points above or below them.
"Let's say I am five, I can date two up and date two down," she said. "The same thing applies to being a great client. If you're a 5, you'll buy a 7 or 3, but what are the chances you'll inspire a 10?"
Be a little reckless
Next on Ms. Anderson's list of pop icons was Lady Gaga. From her, marketers can all learn a lesson in recklessness."Sometimes if you only color within the lines, you miss a lot," she said. "A lot of times when our folks get started, they think it's all about community, but pushing them beyond that can mean something great."
Live large
Staying in music, Ms. Anderson took a page from rap mogul Jay-Z's book. He does it big -- he even bought his wife, pop icon Beyonce, an island for $19 million. With him, Ms. Anderson emphasized the sheer scale of digital."We're moving to the big-D digital," she said. "Whether you're the new-products guy, the customer-service woman, there's a way for big-D digital to play a role in what you're doing."
Kiss and tell
Following pop star Katy Perry, Ms. Anderson says we should remember to kiss and tell. (She kissed a girl, and she liked it.) Especially in large organizations such as Kraft, marketers have to remember to share successes and new projects."You have to walk those halls and tell people what's going on," she said. Ms. Anderson tells her teams to take pictures for her.
"I'm going to tell these stories later," she said. "You have to work inside to let other people know you're having success."
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Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Encouraging news. Hope it happens. From AdAge. Marketers, Media Execs: Silos Breaking Down as Ideas Matter More
Stay on top of the news, sign up for our free newslettersMarketers, Media Execs See Silos Breaking Down as Ideas Matter More
WPP's Scanzoni: 'Clients Want Integration'
By Maureen Morrison
Published: November 30, 2010NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Marketers and media executives at Ad Age's Media Evolved Conference said they see silos of media type breaking down, and content mattering more than devices.
Scott McCune, VP-integrated marketing at Coca-Cola; Mark Kaline, global director-media licensing and consumer services at Kimberly-Clark; Rino Scanzoni, chief investment officer at WPP's Group M; and Matt Seiler, global CEO at Interpublic Group of Cos.' Universal McCann, participated in a panel discussion on the future of the media and how marketers can work with media companies and agencies to establish a new model built on partnerships and innovation.
From a marketer's perspective, Mr. McCune said, "We're looking at why we are buying media. It's no longer looking at spots and dots. We're thinking about how do we start to partner with content owners in a way that can actually drive our business." Mr. Kaline echoed similar sentiments. "You have to look at why you're partnering with these media companies in a certain way. It used to be because of efficiencies and scale. That is still valid but what we're trying to do is build programs around ideas."
Media agencies are recognizing clients' needs in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. "There are still siloed vendors and agencies but those are breaking down quickly because clients want integration," said Mr. Scanzoni. And Mr. Seiler observed that if agencies continue to think of media owners as vendors -- rather than partners -- then "we will continue to be in a buyer/seller antiquated world."
With all the talk of integration and breaking down of media silos, mobile still stands out. Mr. Scanzoni noted that with content being distributed through all channels of media, including mobile devices, content and engagement will become increasingly more important. "The way the consumer is going to engage is going to be more relevant to content than the device. The device is less relevant to experience."
Mr. Seiler added that mobile is not as much about the device, except for it's proximity to the purchase. "Is the consumer the same through all devices? The person is the same person. But at what point are they a consumer? Close to point of purchase. The moment of interaction is a much more interesting way of thinking about the cycle of entertained person to engaged shopper."
As for the future of media, Mr. Scanzoni reiterated the importance of content over devices; Mr. Kaline said the future media landscape will be dominated by strong media brands -- be it a magazine, network or mommy blog; and Mr. Seiler thinks it will be a mix, as opposed to one dominant player or medium.
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