Social Media Revolution video

A friend of mine forwarded this neat video called Social Media Revolution. Really neat to see how much work someone put into finding statistics of how social media has truly revolutionized the way things work/happen.

Did you know....

• 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. met through social media
• 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brand

Seems like there are some interesting points about how social media will TAKE OVER! Can't wait to see what the future brings for these powerful marketing tools.

Dirty Diaper Wars!

Let's get real...how exciting can diapers be to market? Actually, there's a lot more going on behind the scene & fierce competition with head-to-head rivals Pampers (by P&G) & Huggies (by Kimberly-Clark).

Pampers just promoted its new reality webisode series "A Parent is Born" in Brandweek. The website shows parents tips on what to expect with newborns & to see what a day in the life is like. Here's an interesting statistic about diapers - "though the majority of consumers are cutting back on name-brand purchases during the recession, diaper sales continue to hold up relatively well, with 95-98 percent of households buying the disposable variety". Bet you didn't realize that!

Moving on to Huggies & Pull-ups - The Kimberly-Clark subbrands. Pull-ups also takes the consumers to see the challenges and triumphs of potty-training in The Potty Project. Granted, the Pull-ups are for an older age group of kiddies but still very similar ideas in both companies' websites.

Both companies are working on grabbing the emotional feel to keep the consumer loyal to their product. Loyalty to name-brands will help Kimberly-Clark and P&G throughout this recession & wish them luck with all the potty-training/diaper webisodes they create! The interesting thing to watch is whether it translates into an increase in sales...now that would be interesting to see!

the "not so little" organic food companies

Did YOU know that...
*Bear Naked is backed by Kellogg?
*Cascadian Farm is backed by General Mills?
*Kashi is backed by Kellogg?

The Chicago Tribune did a great piece on how many small organic food companies are and have been bought out by larger companies like Kellogg and General Mills. It makes you wonder...is that small brand you're buying really a small brand? Or, is it backed by a powerhouse brand? Tough to tell since a majority of the time, the larger brand is not mentioned on the packaging.

Abercrombie...finally cooling down its prices

FINALLY A&F has decided to drastically lower its prices because of the recession. Great idea but hello where have you been the past year! Wall Street Journal Online really tears apart this brand with the numerical data to back up how badly this retailer is doing. For example, this past quarter A&F was "at a loss of $26.7 million".

If that wasn't bad enough....one year ago Abercrombie got in a bit of trouble for an ex-worker who was discriminated against because of her prosthetic arm.

A&F has always tried to be on the edge but don't you sometimes come to a point where you actually fall off the cliff?

Sears...on its way up in the world!

Bad news...Sears has had a bad rap for a while in the retail world and is not doing well. Good news...through several different ways Sears is working on rebranding itself - having Disney's Selena Gomez promote a Sears Band Casting Call, including Cotton Inc. in the brand mix of clothing, & with a greater social media appearance on Facebook.

In hopes of re-branding itself, Brandweek describes Sears connection with Wizards of Waverly Place star, Selena Gomez and her role with the Sears Air Band Casting Call. Check out the website and see for yourself how interactive and fun it looks for a kid to apply to this exciting opportunity at the Sears Arrive Lounge.

Cotton Inc. has been working its way back to the marketplace like through the Disney movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic, in which many of the clothing worn was made of cotton. Many cotton items are on display at Sears nationwide and there are many promo events coming up to promote the benefits of wearing this breathable, natural fabric.

Promo Magazine describes Sears' next step to made it's Facebook page more interactive. The neatest thing about this app is that you are able to put together a virtual college dorm room, making it easy to visualize what products go well together before you head out to shop for them. Great idea to use social media in a more innovative way to engage the customer. From this, you can create a wish list & have friends and family members contribute by purchasing specific items. Next step might be to have a printout sheet pop out of the printer for specific items or an iPhone app to let you take your list with you to the store. (Especially considering that you will most likely need to purchase a lot of these college-items yourself.) Now THAT would be cool!

With all these great additions, will Sears make it and improve its status in the retail world or continue to sink a heavy ship?

Cause-marketing becoming more "sexy" less "caring"

I like Will Ferrell as much as the next person...but seriously? Cone Inc. of Boston (an agency that specializes in cause-marketing) describes the buzz-kill of so many cause-related campaigns. One of these trends is described as cause-lite in which "recession-weary consumers are becoming somewhat less receptive to activist messages, no matter how good the cause". With orgs like College for Cancer (the one Will Ferrell represents on the sunscreen bottle to the left), Twitter for Sh-tters, & Wherever the Need makes consumers even less likely to feel the need to buy a cause-product or a product that endorses an unrecognizable cause. Not to say that any of these causes are worthless...just pointing out that they aren't quite as recognizable as say...American Cancer Society or Susan G. Komen.

Mediaspot highlights a positive note of how recognizable causes are standing out through creative ads. Check out the 3 ads available on YouTube for the Blood Center of Central Texas - elevator, shopping cart, & burger to see my point. The outside-the-box stuff is actually working too! There's been an increase in 20% more blood since the campaign started...so get out there and "Redeem Yourself"!

With new beverages come more sales?

With SO many new beverages out there on the market today, who knows what will be the next big hit? Celestial Seasonings has new flavors, Beverage World discusses new industry trends & Coke tests a new dispenser which serves over 100 drinks in one place!

Drinks Business Review discusses Celestial Seasonings newest addition to the herbal tea company, Sleepytime Vanilla. Also, they have recently developed a green tea with mature tea leaves creating less bitterness than typical green teas. As a brand of The Hain Celestial Group, this tea company is celebrating its 40th birthday in style with new flavors and new tea innovations to keep this brand up to date.

Beverage World discusses the latest fascinating breakout flavors to hit the U.S. market. Watch out acai & pomegranate....here comes - mangosteen, yumberry, cherimoya, black currant, cupuacu, shiso, yuzu & rooibos. Also present in the mix of beverage trends is blood orange which was prevalent in many products in this summer's Fancy Food Show in NYC. Can't wait to learn how to pronounce & taste these new superfruit flavors!

Last but not least...check out this crazy/cool dispenser which Coca-Cola has begun testing in 10 Jack-In-The-Box restaurants in San Diego. How neat is it to be able to select one of over 100 options because of the “PurePour” technology? Hope this makes its way to the East Coast so the rest of us can try this out!

Finland's fashion...back to basics this Fall

Discovered an interesting blurp about how Finnish Fall fashions will be more conservative due to the recession. Helsinki Times explains how "sobriety & sustainability" will be two key themes to watch for. Predictions include return to classic cuts, couture will be harder to find, and a combination of grays, blacks, and violets will appear more often (these colors are indicators of wealth). It's interesting to see how fashion abroad has and will be affected especially since typically trends start in Europe & eventually make their way to the U.S. It will be interesting to see how this affects the US now and in the future.

Let's RE-BRAND our company! (copycat copycat copycat...who isn't following this strategy today?)

So if we RE-BRAND our company/product/line...we will increase sales & redefine ourselves in the marketplace today. This is a nice thought if you're the only one out there doing this & you will most
likely stand out in the marketplace.

But, with SO many brands doing this today, things are getting a bit confusing out there! 2 previous postings were devoted to G (used to be called Gatorade) which have confused consumers out there in the grocery shopping world.

Other examples include:

• Radioshack is now The Shack
• Starbucks is rebranding its Seattle locations to give a localized feel by un-Starbucks-ing the store (removing the logo, changing the overall feel of the store)
• Wal-Mart Save money. Live better. - new tagline, updated its logo with a sunburst & is hoping to attract upper income consumers
• Stop & Shop's new logo (no more stoplight..now a bunch of bowls replace it)
• Kraft Foods make today delicious (new logo & tagline to make the everyday brand more of a luxury/modern feel)
• Nickelodeon's new logo...BORING if you ask me!

So...what's all this mean? Some brands will be successful with the rebranding strategy & some will not. After getting hyped up & excited to have a new experience at a nearby Wal-Mart because of the print & tv ads I've seen....I was hugely disappointing by the lack of changes onsite in the store. Why bother rebranding a store if it still looks the same inside? Wal-Mart is still Wal-Mart & the prices are great and affordable but it's not a Target. People don't look forward to the shopping experience...they look forward to saving money (so at least they are correct with the new slogan they've put forth...just not with the target market they're "attempting" to reach).

To end with some food for thought...interesting mini article with logos/info about other companies rebranding themselves lately & some which are fictional. Can you tell the difference on CNET?

let consumers vote on the latest Vera Bradley prints

If Vera Bradley Corporate can't decide, why not have the actual consumers vote on
their favorite patterns coming out this Winter 2009 & Spring 2010. By using Facebook, Vera Bradley's page, now wants customer feedback on the upcoming prints (typically not displayed or known about until a month or so before it's release into Vera stores & other retailers).

The neat thing about Vera is that its prints attract a wide range of female age groups from the Tweens (who enjoy the new Frill line - a patent leather texture for 3 prints Blue Rhapsody, Carnaby, & Pirouette in exclusive, cute designs for this age group), the high school/college girls (with special products like the lanyards, id cases, school supplies, clutches, belts, purses & travel bags), the young-middle aged professional/moms who are mid-20's to early 40's (who like the suitcases, diaper bags, sunglasses, & large purses), and the 40+ group (who enjoy the classic simple prints, & the eye glass cases - really who have a need for the practical side of Vera). And should I mention the menswear line which includes ties and cufflinks?

This is an interesting strategy to get a wide variety of customers involved in the decision making & it's cheap feedback on what their thoughts are about the new designs. (Cheap meaning free of course!) I wonder if the feedback will help them reconsider the designs & reassure them that they are right on track for what the customers want? We shall see come Winter '09 if this has helped or hurt their strategy!

McCafes....helping or hurting the golden arches?

The question that everyone has been asking - now has an answer...or does it?

BrandWeek wrote an interesting piece on how the McCafe subbrand is helping McDonald's earnings. Their CEO believes McD's success is because of an even mix of promoting the Big Mac & new McCafes and fancy coffee offerings. Second quarter sales are up and this is why! Check out their website and see how interactive it is for yourself.

Still not buying it? Not sure if the rest of us are either... Will McCafes be the next "it" cafe over Starbucks & Dunkins or will it lead to a big fat flop? What if people who go to cafes enjoy quality lattes or as Starbucks has begun doing...localizing the cafes in the cities they reside in?

Could it be Starbucks & Dunkins high-er prices that make McCafe more appealing in this recession? Nobody knows for sure but possibly a combo of all things considered will help or hurt this subbrand. Time will tell but we'll all be watching to see how the test markets work out until they move a few McCafes out East for the rest of us to taste for ourselves....