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40% of shoppers decide in-store

A new global study by Ogilvy Action indicates that 39.4% of US· shoppers wait until they're in the store to decide what brand to buy; about 10% change their minds about brands in the store; 29% buy from categories they didn't intend to buy from; and almost 20% leave a product they'd planned to buy on the shelf. In all, the study found 72.4% of shoppers make one of four major purchase decisions in the store – but not across all of their purchases.

The two factors cited most by shoppers in the study as influencing impulse decisions in-store were sampling and product display, ranking ahead of price, even in this time of grocery price inflation.

The new study up-dates and adds detail to the oft-cited (and often unattributed) statistic that shoppers make 70% of brand decisions in-store (1995 study for the Point of Purchase Advertising Institute by Meyers Research Center in the USA).

Written by Sarah Dorey

Comparison shopping sites popular with cash-strapped consumers

A recent survey conducted by E-consultancy and DoubleClick shows that the number of online purchases that have come through comparison sites, aka comparison shopping engines, has increased in the last 12 months, accounting for about 10% of retailers’ online sales. Cash-strapped consumers are using CSEs at a growing rate, making it increasingly important for retailers to have a visible presence on these sites. The report found that most retailers use several CSEs, with 63% of those surveyed using Google Shopping/Google Base. Kelkoo, the next most popular is used by around 50% of retailers, while Shopzilla, PriceRunner and Shopping.com are each used by about 30% of retailers. Google Shopping was regarded as the most easy to use site and the best for quality of traffic.

Amazon and Ebay are used by a minority of retailers (41%) and social shopping sites such as Jellyfish, Kaboodle and Twenga have yet to make an impact with online retailers.

Meanwhile Verdict Research reports that online retailing now accounts for 6.7% (£19.4 billion) of all retail spend in the UK and predicts that online spend will increase to £44 billion by 2012. The same reports states that loyalty to retailers is generally 10% lower than in physical shops, making good service, low prices and ease of navigation crucial in ensuring that customers come back to your site.

Written by Penny Crossland

Opportunities in the banking sector?

With the crisis of confidence in established banking brands, are there opportunities in financial services for trusted brands from other sectors? It seems that Tesco thinks so. It has bought out its banking partner Royal Bank of Scotland, paying the £1 billion for its 50% stake in Tesco Personal Finance. Tesco claims that it has seen the number of applications for savings accounts double in recent weeks and has announced that it plans to expand its banking business, offering current accounts within the next year and mortgages "in due course". Others are expected to follow suit.

There also seems to be an opportunity for new entrants. Cisco in the US recently published results of a survey into customers’ attitudes towards payment trends, both online and offline. It found that people increasingly trust online payment processing solutions such as PayPal and Obopay. And baby boomers, the biggest and richest consumer generation, trusts these alternative payment providers more than traditional banks.

Conversely, traditional banks could up their game and improve their services to these connected consumers.

The Pelorus Group estimates that by 2010, payments made via emerging methods such as radio frequency identification (RFID), SMS, and biometrics are expected to grow to $400 billion. In addition, consumers are increasingly interested in using a mobile device to make contactless payments in physical stores.

According to Jim Greene, vice president and global head of financial services, Cisco IBSG, "consumers not only recognise the conveniences enabled by the internet but now also require the totality of their shopping experiences to afford those same benefits. Given their current interaction with both consumers and merchants, banks are in a unique position to provide these 'connected' propositions and the insight that leads us into 21st-century commerce."

The land of luxury

The worsening problems in the global banking industry continue to dominate the news headlines, but has the demise of the most wealthiest industry impacted the luxury travel and tourism market as yet? Juicy was in Dubai last week, a place where it seems there is no shortage of demand for high-end luxury hospitality and where new constructions on the skyline are as guaranteed as the blue skies.

In the UK, there is still optimism. At a recent ABTA travel convention, Travelmole highlighted that the luxury end of the market continues to prove resilient for UK providers, with ultra luxury cruises set to record 2-3% growth into 2009. Luxury Travel Magazine also reported that the luxury sector will largely remain insulated driven by demand for experiences. However, airlines are already feeling the pinch of the financial turmoil, suggesting that luxury travel operators may be next. BA outlined that September sales of business and first class tickets were down 8.6% as reported on Bloomberg. As the high levels of redundancies in the finance sector take effect on the affluent's disposable income, the broader luxury travel sector could well experience some turbulence in months to come.

Green trends + sources

As most of us are now only too aware, environmentalism and the broader issue of sustainability are becoming more important trends impacting the very nature of how businesses operate. IBM's latest Global CEO study finds that of the main issues creating change, environmental issues have gained prominence over the past two years, but they still rank well below market factors, globalisation, people skills and technological challenges.

Whilst many companies develop standalone green policies or use green elements in their marketing, moving forward the real challenge is to put environmental concerns at the heart of all business processes and decisions, to create a sustainable framework right across the value chain. Consumers are demanding this from their brands. Research by Havas Media, finds that consumers expect brands to help solve climate change. To quote from this article

"Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of who is credibly making changes and who is not, despite green stereotypes associated with different sectors. The result: green marketing strategies and good environmental practices are no longer a “nice to have” for brands, but increasingly a “must have” in terms of not only maintaining brand image but also in maintaining market share."

Global brands across multiple industries have been making considerable noise of late about their commitment to sustainable causes of late. Coca-Cola rolled out a series of films featuring ‘green’ Olympians at the Beijing games, as part of a series of changes it is making - including its own US recycling plant for all cans and PET bottles. Microsoft’s ‘Get Green, Stay Green marketing’ program was launched back in May 2008, although with mixed reviews. Sony Electronics has been focusing on sustainability with an e-recycling program, working with Waste Management Recycle America. It has 155 electronic recycling points in the US and is to hold an event in Boston that will invite consumers to recycle their unwanted electronic products, with the first 2,000 people receiving a gift in return. The initiative is to be supported with recycled ads used back in the 1970s.

Meanwhile, the range of ‘green’ brands is expanding, offline and online. Trendwatching does a great wrap on some of the latest brands to hit the shelves. The new search engine Forestle caught our eye, with its pledge to save rainforests with each search, but it now appears to have lost its relationship with Google.   

Digging deeper into ‘green marketing’, we found a wealth of thought leaders, blogs and media, which may prove useful to some marketers out there. This list is by no means exhaustive, just some interesting links we found:

The Green Biz Blog at Businessweek is a good starting point

La Maguerite – an environment blog with a section on green marketing

Future lab has a good article around green marketing, with some useful examples from the auto and energy sector.

Environmental leader looks at the green initiatives from US corporations

ecoAmerica reviews a lot of the major and regional press on this subject

Promo Magazine has a pretty good green section looking at all elements from branding, advertising through to implications in terms of direct mail and fulfilment.

We shall endeavour to build on this over time.

The enterprise of the future

As nations from around the world fight it out for Olympic glory, IBM’s third global CEO survey* reveals that leading enterprises also face a tough battle in the corporate sphere.

On multiple levels, the speed of change has increased dramatically, but corporations say it is not always easy to keep pace. Market factors, people skills and technology are the top three change drivers, but environmental issues have also gained ground over the past two years. 

In this more dynamic landscape, enterprises must be ‘hungry for change’, and able to adapt quickly with strategies that take advantage of such challenges. Aligned with this thinking, is the requirement to be ‘disruptive by nature’, whereby organisations disrupt elements of their business or industry to create competitive advantage.

Organisations also need to be ‘innovative beyond customer imagination’, producing products and services that meet the needs of sophisticated and demanding customers around the world. Two-thirds of CEO’s believe there is a significant opportunity in targeting the growing communities of affluent consumers in fast-growth markets.

The growing pressure on corporations to be open and honest will continue to force them to be ‘genuine, not just generous’ in their approach to corporate strategy. Corporate social responsibility policies are likely to be extended deeper into the value chain in a bid to be more transparent about their activities. 

In terms of the global agenda for enterprises, the issue today is centred around how best to organise and operate the global business. Securing what IBM terms ‘global integration’ opportunities, via collaborations and partnerships is hugely important. The survey found that over half of CEOs are planning to change capabilities, knowledge and assets to better integrate their business globally.

*The IBM Survey questioned 1,130 CEOs, general managers and business leaders in 40 nations and across 32 industries.

The full survey is here

Share something juicy

We couldn't resist writing about this campaign from Starburst created by hot digital shop Digitas. Sharing 'Juicy' content is high on our own agenda and this is a really nice approach from the Mars brand tapping into consumers' desire to share. As reported by imedia and ClickZ the branded content division of Digitas, named The Third Act, has created some great video content where amongst many things, people share a bit to much 'juicy' information. The Starburst YouTube Channel and stage setting on Starbust.com are gateway to a host of entertaining clips, sponsored vlogs, plus the animated web series 'Nite Fite'. The content is also syndicated on a number of different channels including NextNewNetworks to facilitate the sharing process.  

Getting closer to Gen X

At the Cannes International Advertising Festival last week, Proximity revealed some research that aims to get closer to the Gen X crowd (today aged 30-40 roughly). A common theme across most of the seminars - hosted by agencies across the globe - was the need to send more relevant message to more targeted groups. In line with this Proximity sought to look more closely at this group and identified three key types of gen X'ers.

Gen X have grown up in an era of unprecedented change. The first generation to grow up with the Internet and mobile, to witness the growth of global markets and to see the fragmentation of families. They are among the most influential in management and arguably the most marketing savvy, seeking out brands that reflect who they are and what they believe in. They are stressed but like being busy. Technology is seen as a tool, but they know when to 'switch off'.

Three sub-sets:

Cruisers: Carefree and independent with individual, yet electic needs that take them away from the mainstream. They are into urban brands, thoughtful and opinionated. Less inclined to be connected 24/7 and more disillusioned with life in general than other sub-sets.

Nesters: Cultural conoisseurs where life centres around social groups, friends and family. Their broad liberal values mean they value freedom highly and are big on local communities. Many are still looking for fulfillment in their lives.

Super breeders: As the title would suggest, it's all about the kids for these guys. Their inherent competitiveness is filtering into how they raise their kids, with some feeling strongly about preventing kids seeing overt advertising. Stong concern about the bigger social issues - they want to be connected. Expectations are felt to be able to 'do it all': raise the kids and retain a strong personal identity/job.

The survey was undertaken in 18 countries with over 5,000 respondents.

Entertaining the older generation

The older generation as we know is a vast, growing audience many of which have a lot of free time and disposable income on their hands. In Japan, toy manufacturers are now targeting this audience (one-fifth of the Japanese population is 65) to compensate for poor sales at the other end of the demographic spectrum, as reported by Physorg It's not just about entertainment though. Manufacturers are also tapping into bigger issues such as the health/obesity issue - perhaps taking a cue from Wii - creating products that help this generation keep in shape. Others are looking to support the large numbers of consumers living alone.

Products to hit the shops:

- The "Taxi Walker" - a pedometer that has as a taxi meter showing people how much they save in taxi fares.     
- The "Pekoppa" - a two-leafed plant that can bow and flap its leaves in response to noise, is produced by Sega to help adults that are lonely or stressed.

Social media sites continue their ascent

This is perhaps no big surprise but provides us with more evidence of how social networks are now a dominant communication platform for UK consumers. Nielsen Online has reported that in the year to April 2008, the total number of minutes UK consumers spend on Facebook grew from 500m to 2.4bn. Their latest research shows that the large social networking platforms appear to be stealing share from instant messaging platforms, such as MSN, and the arrival of Facebook IM is likely to bolster that trend.

Entertainment and search sites have both experienced 8% growth in total minutes over the year. By comparison, consumer-generated media, which incoporate social networks and blogging sites have seen a 47% climb in minutes (+1.3 billion) over the same period. Nielsen calls this a 'seismic shift' in how people are spending time and communicating online.

The full Nielsen Online press release can be found here