Third Screen Showing a Preview of Potential January 28, 2009

WHAT’S HAPPENING:

Mobile advertising promises to deepen customer engagement. Mobile advertising has grown rapidly in markets like Japan, but outside Asia, activity is still dominated by “text and response” campaigns. So for now, the mobile phone remains the third screen, behind television and the computer. Still, the potential is impossible to ignore.

• About a billion mobile phones will be sold globally this year, and there are more cell phones than PCs.

• Facebook is now the 10th largest “country” in the world with 132 million people. MySpace comes in at number 12.

• The third screen is frequently used “to kill time”, for entertainment or news updates, which makes the medium highly effective.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS:

Mobile advertising clearly appears to be the next big thing, but for now the emphasis is still on “next” – not “big”. The vision being laid out for mobile advertising has yet to be realized. The industry is still a long way from delivering a personalized, contextualized, real-time location-based mobile advertising platform.

However, with so many people interacting with their mobile devices so often, there’s certainly plenty of incentive to begin incorporating this platform into today’s media mix – as long as you temper expectations. So when cooking up your next media plan, think of mobile advertising as a spice, rather than a main ingredient.

Heart strings vs. Purse strings January 21, 2009

WHAT’S HAPPENING:
With unemployment rising to levels not seen in 16 years, consumers have pulled back sharply on spending. So in attempts to entice cash-stricken consumers this Valentine’s Day, beauty brands are rolling out a host of specially created gift sets and limited edition products. Romance is taking a back seat as women are being targeted with a bevy of products that promise to seduce and empower. This translates to cosmetics in vampish scarlet tones with tongue-in-cheek titles. Limited edition packaging, with a price tag to match, also becomes a key focus. This transcends the mid- to uber-luxe markets, from Tommy Hilfiger’s pearl-embellished bottles to Caron Paris’ solid gold bracelet.

Clinique's Heart Lip Gloss Set

Rose Candle by Diptyque

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS:
As consumers cut back on their spending and strive to form more disciplined habits, the “urge to splurge” occasionally becomes stronger. Holidays such as Valentine’s Day provide the perfect excuse for consumers to treat themselves to something special. Special gift sets and limited editions appeal to this need and provide an emotional reward, thus making it easier for consumers to justify their purchase without feeling buyer’s remorse.

Meals that new moms can almost call their own by Grace Jidoun January 6, 2009

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• Daily menus are tailored to the specific needs of individuals, whether the goal is weight gain, weight loss or energy for nursing.
• Three meals plus snacks (to satisfy cravings) are prepared daily and delivered to the client’s door. The price is $45 to $55 per delivery.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• Nutritional needs change after having a baby, and many new moms struggle to find their footing. Women are clamoring for services that help them strike that balance between weight loss and eating right at such a critical time.
• New moms are more willing than ever to spend extra dough on convenient creature comforts.

RESOURCES Mothers and Menus was founded by Karen Gurwitz, a mom herself, in 2003.
The Well-Rounded Pregnancy Cookbook by Karen Gurwitz, Clarkson Potter 2007

Nomadic pop-up shop brings its goods to different neighborhoods January 5, 2009

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Where do all the pop-up retailers go when their rental leases are up? Luxe fashion label Iisli packs up its nomadic store and moves it to another location (WWD.com 9.22.08). Iisli’s 1,000 sq. ft. temporary store, dubbed ”the cube,” can be retrofitted into an empty retail space. It carries its own lighting, dressing rooms and shelving. It’s address is 25 Bond Street in lower Manhattan until February 1, 2008. The owners would like to see it travel to TriBeCa, Miami, Las Vegas, Tokyo or Berlin. WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS A nomadic pop-up shop could give consumers what they’re craving — access to cool goods and a better variety of brand offerings. Brands and retailers might benefit by reusing their temp store materials and testing new neighborhoods.

Brown paper packaging- tied up in string? January 2, 2009

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• The stealthy shoppers can get their threads, bags, heels and jewels delivered in an unbranded recycled brown paper bag — a sharp aesthetic turn from the retailer’s iconic sleek black boxes.
• Even the direct marketing email promoting the new packaging is a throwback to more demure times; a black and white pic shows two 1950s gals whispering, and the copy assures customers that the new bag will hide buys from inquisitive eyes.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• The financial shake-down has made elite shoppers more empathetic to the situation of the less fiscally fortunate, but they’re not entirely dressing down for the occasion. And those who can afford luxe labels are more sensitive to how others’ perceive their purchases.
• High-end retailers may want to explore providing discreet purchasing and packaging options so their customer can keep splurges to herself.

What’s in YOUR purse??? January 1, 2009

According to In Your Purse, a book looking at the woman’s purse, 98% of women’s purses contained reward cards and memberships, 91% contained skin or hair beauty aids, 63% contained food, gum, or candy, 61% contained coupons, 31% contained nail care, 28% contained feminine hygiene products, 27% contained tissues, 22% contained oral care products and 14% contained weapons.

In Your Purse by Kelley Styring

Bluefly helps shoppers dress like a Gossip Girl December 23, 2008

WHAT’S HAPPENING

What would Serena wear? Bluefly is taking a guess with its Haute Gossip e-shop — helping customers dress like their favorite Gossip Girl characters. Why? As the retailer says, “There’s more than just skeletons in [the characters'] closets.” Like taking a peek into their hypothetical high-society walk-in wardrobes, Haute Gossip compiles the apparel and accessories that Nate, Serena, Chuck, Blair, Dan and Jenny might wear. Haute Gossip stays true to the teens’ on-screen style: Jenny likes lesser-known labels, Blair’s got lots of bling and Chuck’s closet is packed with argyle and ties. WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS We’ve come a long way since the days of Sex and the City when clotheshorses were on their own to find apparel that reflected their favorite character’s look. Now consumers want immediate access to constructing a closet that imitates the ensembles of their fashion icons.

Iconoculture

Smart Girls party on in a new web series December 19, 2008

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• Forget mean girls. Smart girls are the real queen bees. Ambitious, creative and all-around brainy chicks are the stars of fellow smarty-pants Amy Poehler’s new web series, Smart Girls at the Party.
• The show features tween girls “making a difference by being themselves.” The first episode features Cameron King, a budding mystery writer. The 10-year-old walks viewers through her storytelling process while Poehler keeps it light with questions like, “When you get writer’s block, do you flip over a table like I do?”
• And who’s sponsoring the party? None other than Barbie, featured prominently on the Smart Girls landing page.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• The newest generation of girls is a confident, can-do force ready to show off their creative chops — and welcoming new platforms with which to do it.
• Early feedback on the series has been overwhelmingly positive, though some have questioned the Barbie tie-in: “It’s tough to stomach pop-up ads for … a toy that basically represents an impossible image for young girls while you’re watching a show that so gracefully strives to do the opposite,” says Jezebel.com blogger Hortense (11.15.08).

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E-Commerce Holding Steady With Incentives December 17, 2008

I tried to shorten this article- but it was so great  I kept most of it!  Enjoy!!!

From Amazon to Yahoo, the e-commerce industry — largely based in the West — has been resilient during one of retailing’s darkest hours, with a mix of discounts, customer service upgrades, shipping deals and enhanced assortments.

Although not immune from recession fallout, online retailing has the advantage of a clientele that remains relatively affluent, as well as enhanced convenience and service and competitive pricing, experts said.

“The value of what online presents is being magnified at a time like this,” said Patti Freeman Evans, vice president and research director at Forrester Research, which has projected Web sales growth of 12 percent this year “When things get bad, deep and long from a recessionary perspective, nobody is on the sidelines. However, because the online customer is more affluent, because it is still a bit of a new market and because of the benefits of shopping online are so directly aligned with peoples’ needs right now, you see a little extra life.”

The major e-commerce players, including Amazon, eBay, Yahoo Shopping and even wal-mart.com, are predominantly run out of Northern California and are significant drivers of the state’s economy, which is sagging under a budget deficit that might reach as much as $41.8 billion in the next 18 months, rising unemployment, falling home values and declining consumer spending.

Pure e-commerce, online components of traditional retailers and online auction companies in the U.S. employed more than 381,000 people last year and generated $171.2 billion in revenues, according to research firm IBISWorld.  To be sure, major sites such as eBay and Yahoo have slashed jobs and seen their stock prices fall. Yahoo’s stock price fell to $13.36 on Tuesday from $23.04 on Dec. 17 last year, and eBay shares have tumbled to $15.17 from $31.89 during the same period.

Online holiday sales, however, are edging up even as the National Retail Federation predicted traditional retail will crawl 2.2 percent ahead of last year and deep discounts seem to be doing little to goad shoppers into opening their wallets wide.

Market research firm comScore reported that e-tail sales increased 15 percent on Cyber Monday, the kickoff to online holiday shopping on Dec. 1, to $846 million, and rose 3 percent from Dec. 1 to Dec. 12 to almost $8.3 billion, although sales turn flat when extending the period to Nov. 1. Results from the first half of this week could boost the figures because it is expected to be one of the heaviest stretches of online shopping this year.

Overall, e-tailers known for their value have fared better than their online higher-end counterparts. Traditional retailers have entered the online deals territory this holiday season with aggressive markdowns that may have siphoned off some consumers less accustomed to the Web and drawn to the immediate gratification of store shopping, said Patrick Byrne, ceo of Overstock, based in Salt Lake City. “We are in a very competitive environment — more than we have ever seen,” he said. “Word on the street was that the good deals this year were in brick-and-mortar. We are hunkering down in the bomb shelter to withstand the radioactive plume overhead.”

In an online environment flooded by discounts and shipping promotions, those offers alone don’t distinguish one e-tailer from another. That’s where customer service and selection comes in. Many online retailers have sought a broader pool of consumers by expanding their assortments. Seattle-based Avelle added watches this year; Gap Inc.-owned online accessory site Piperlime is offering handbags for the first time, and Skymall.com expanded its holiday selection to 15,000 items from 7,000.

More generally, online retailers have been enlarging their apparel and accessories collections, the fastest-growing product category tracked by comScore during the Dec. 1 to Dec. 12 period with a 21 percent increase.

Overstock’s Byrne said the closeout destination’s selection of apparel and jewelry is larger than in past years. “That is turning into a very nice category for us,” he said. “It is second tier, but it is close to being first tier.” The sour economy has been a boon to Overstock’s selection as manufacturers need to off-load merchandise. “We are getting calls from manufacturers that wouldn’t even return our calls two years ago,” Byrne said.

At Yahoo Shopping, apparel became the number-one search category this year after eight years of consumer electronics’ dominance. At PriceGrabber, president Ron LaPierre reported that searches of women’s skirts and dress suits were up 227 percent year-over-year, women’s overalls and jumpsuits increased 129 percent, and women’s boots were 31 percent higher. “It is practical stuff,” said LaPierre of the apparel pieces that PriceGrabber users are looking for this season.

Yahoo Shopping’s Hintz, who singled out Ugg boots in particular as a frequently searched item, said shipping offers and simpler returns, abetted by providing return labels and packaging, have contributed to the mounting popularity of apparel online. Apparel’s online growth could also be a consequence of more women, who have historically followed men on technological adoption, migrating online.

The impact of customer service programs on revenue are difficult to quantify, but that hasn’t stopped online retailers from pursuing better service. Avelle, operator of online rental service Bag Borrow or Steal, brought its customer service in-house this year and ceo Michael Smith said that is partly responsible for the company’s largest jump in return customers in November since its 2004 founding.

“The customer service piece is something that we have always believed strongly in,” Smith said. “We all come from places like Nordstrom and Lands’ End. We wanted to get closer to the customer, and we feel that with doing it ourselves we can provide better service.”

Online firms have aided shopping with reviews, as well. A Shop.org survey found that about one-third of online retailers added product reviews this year. SkyMall.com and costco.com, which launched product reviews this year, have discovered they are valuable tools to get feedback about online customer service. “Anything that has to do with tailoring the experience to you as you shop — we are seeing nice results from. We are looking at how to leverage that,” said Christine Aguilera, ceo of Phoenix-based SkyMall.

Despite attempts to improve customer service, online satisfaction has slipped this holiday shopping season. According to ForeSee Results, which measures online customer service satisfaction, that metric was down 0.91 percent to 76.6 on Cyber Monday, 0.93 percent to 76.3 from Dec. 1 to Dec. 7, and 3.09 percent to 75.2 from Dec. 8 to Dec. 14.

Larry Freed, president and ceo of ForeSee Results, expected the lower figures given the economic climate. “I’ve still remained cautiously optimistic,” he said, while admitting the drops are “starting to look a little worrisome.”

Online customer service and selection improvements are not just about short-term gains. Freeman Evans of Forrester Research estimated that new online buyers, a group that is dwindling as Internet use proliferates, will account for one-third of holiday sales this year. Pleasing new and longer-term clientele could generate loyalty as returning customers become more critical in a maturing online environment where new customers get rarer. IBISWorld’s senior analyst George Van Horn predicated that e-commerce growth rates will be in the 8 percent range in the next few years, versus 20 to 25 percent in its formative years and 12 to 14 percent from 2004 to 2007.

“We will see more efforts toward long-term relationship development” as online retailers mature, said Freeman Evans. Overstock already has plans to retool its loyalty program, called Club O, in the first quarter to enhance its customer relationships.

Online players are keenly aware that the impression they make this holiday season, during which consumers are focused on value, could affect their performance down the line — a by-product of online shopping satisfaction isn’t obvious in holiday financials.

“We have always believed that good companies gain market share in down economies,” said Ginnie Roeglin, senior vice president e-commerce and publishing at Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco, “We are trying to make sure we are the best value in the market and at a time like this, when people are paying attention to that, I think you do capture market share.”

WWD

What comes after menopause? December 16, 2008

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• Cause — and pause — for mass celebration, The Secret Pleasures of Menopause encourages women over 50 to fully embrace menopause as the beginning of a new period of sexuality and sensuality.
• In a message that is part Goddess^SM and part Health Monitor,^SM doctor and author Dr. Christiane Northrup guides women on ways to maintain and enhance their sexual lifestyle by knocking down all conventional views associated with menopause and intimacy.
• Dr. Northrup has also authored bestsellers Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• The power of positive menopausal thinking has become infectious as women embrace and actively fulfill their passion points and personal potential.
• Women are actively pursuing ways to maximize their physical and emotional wellbeing. A resource that helps promote openness and the importance of sexual health is not only liberating, it’s empowering.

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