Holiday Shopping Predictions

Here's some great information from our friends at Spots n' Dots, the Daily News of TV Sales.

Each year Booz & Co., a business consulting firm, surveys consumers, retail store staff and retail executives to get an idea of what the retail industry can expect in the holiday season. This year, Booz predicts that holiday spending will be up just slightly over last year. Consumers are still very cautious about spending; 52% say affordability will be a big consideration in their purchase decisions. But 73% expect to find great deals this holiday, up from 62% in 2011.

Just over 50% say that just surviving the economic downturn is a good enough reason to celebrate this year. Fifty-three percent intend to purchase a luxury item--typically one that the whole family can enjoy. Last year, only 41% were planning a luxury purchase.

Gift cards will once again be very popular; 80 million shoppers plan to purchase them, up 4% from 2011. As we have been reporting for quite a while, shoppers are getting more and more internet savvy. For instance, 45% of consumers plan to give a downloadable gift this

year--like an eBook, music or a movie. But that comfort with the web will pose a very real threat to brick and mortar stores, says Booz. Forty percent of shoppers say that their buying strategy will involve “showrooming” (or “showcasing” in Booz’ parlance), browsing in stores for items that they subsequently purchase online.

"The biggest challenge this season for brick-and-mortar retailers is determining how to drive more than their fair share of 'showcasing volume' to their websites rather than Amazon.com or another competitor," said Thom Blischok, chief retail strategist for Booz & Co. "While technology enhancements and economic uncertainty will both impact this holiday season, there is a dose of optimism compared to 2011, as people shop with a value-seeking mindset."

Booz says in order to overcome this showcasing, retailers have to have robust websites of their own and apps that can direct shoppers to their own internet sites, rather than others like Amazon.com. They need to use QR code driven promotions, give free shipping for items bought in their online stores and make sure that salespersons are as familiar with the offerings at the retailers’ websites as they are with what is one the floor. "Retailers will need to adjust their holiday sales strategies to embrace an evolving consumer mindset, favoring a more seamless shopping experience through smartphones and in-store opportunities," said Nicholas Hodson, of Booz & Co.'s Consumer & Retail practice.

Cause Marketing

Has your company ever done any cause marketing? If you aren’t familiar with the term, cause marketing generally refers to a partnership between a business and a charity they wish to support. The idea is to encourage consumers to support your product(s) with the understanding that some percentage of the sale will be donated to the charity. It basically works like this:

  

• The business identifies a charity to support and agrees in writing to collect a certain minimum dollar amount to be donated at the end of a specific time frame (usually a year). 
•  The charity provides their logo and any other materials the business will need to begin their cause marketing campaign. 
•  The business communicates the initiative to its employees, customers, vendors and fans. For a consumer goods provider, they may change their product packaging, update their website, or advertise the cause online. 
•  Sales or other related metrics are tracked so the correct donation may be made. The metrics are directly related to how the company chooses to set up their campaign (examples: buy product A and $.25 from each item sold will go to the charity; “Like” us on Facebook and $1 for each Like will go to the charity). 
•  At the end of the agreed upon timeframe, the donation is made to the charity and press releases go out all around!

In years past, many businesses would either send a check to the charity or would sponsor an event where they would receive name recognition for their sponsorship. In today’s economy, many small to mid-sized businesses are hesitant to spend large sums on sponsorships or simply don’t have the cash to do so. While there are some rules that must be followed to utilize cause marketing, it is an option to allow your business to contribute when you might not otherwise believe you cannot do so. To learn more about cause marketing, contact us at cs@vitalinkweb.com.

News From Auto, Jewelry, Retail and More...

Guest Blog Post by Spots 'n Dots, The Daily News of TV Sales

Fifteen years ago, Cadillac was the top-selling luxury vehicle in the U.S. and it wants that title back. General Motors intends to double the brand’s U.S. sales volume to 294,000 within the next couple of years. To do that it will introduce 10 all-new or significantly updated vehicles within the next three years, Don Butler, Cadillac's vice president of marketing told the Wall Street Journal. The brand has a steep climb ahead of it. According to the WSJ, Cadillac sold 76,229 vehicles in the U.S. in the first seven months of 2012, behind Lexus

at 126,367; BMW at 147,801 and Mercedes with 159,412......For the quarter ended July 31, Zale Corp., operator of Zales Jewelers, Gordon's Jewelers and other jewelry stores, reported a loss of $19.7 million. Sounds bad, but that’s about half of the loss of a year earlier. Revenues rose 7.9% and same store sales were up a very healthy 8.3%--the seventh straight quarter of growth in that category......

It’s expected that U.S. regulators will loosen restrictions on advertising by hedge funds this week and Reuters says many are beginning to look at whether and what kinds of advertising they should do. Michael Mahaffy, CEO of Point Capital Aligned Wealth LLC, a hedge fund that launched earlier this year says, "We are looking to raise money, and the ability to source new investors that are beyond our traditional networks is appealing." Other funds like Whitebox Advisors LLC, Minneapolis, will be looking to establish their brand as a leader in the industry. "I am hellbent on creating a global brand and the only way to do that is through advertising," Anthony Scaramucci of fund of hedge funds SkyBridge Capital, told the Wall Street Journal.......

The very promotional JoS A. Bank Clothiers saw its second quarter revenues rose 12.9% and same store sales jump 6.1%. Online and catalog sales were up 39.3%. The company sees the potential for 800 stores and will open 50 this year and next.

McDonald's Still Dominates Fast Food...

A Guest Post from Spots ‘n Dots, The Daily News of TV Sales

...BUT CHICK-FIL-A MAKES MORE MONEY PER UNIT
It’s not surprising that McDonald’s stands above the rest of the quick serve restaurant industry like a Colossus. It has more units than any chain except Subway (14,098 for McDonald’s vs. 24,722 for Subway) and brings in three times more revenues each year than Subway, its closest competitor ($34 billion vs. $11 billion). But there is a category in which it falls short, at least it did in 2011. Its revenues per store were 2.5 million, very good for the industry, but behind the $2.893 million brought in by every Chick-fil-A restaurant--and that chain does not even open on Sundays! Subway makes only $469,000 per store per year.

QSR Magazine takes the pulse of the quick serve industry each year and publishes a breakdown of the 50 top chains. As noted above, Mickey D’s and Subway were on top for last year. Beyond those two chains, the list gives a pretty good snapshot of those brands that were growing and those that were not, at least last year.

For instance, Starbucks, with 10,821 locations, $9.75 billion in revenues and $1.14 million in revenues per store, actually lost 310 locations in 2011. Wendy’s and Burger King were numbers 4 and 5 on the list, having switched positions from the year before. Both trailed McDonald’s in every category. Wendy’s brought in $8.5 billion in 2011, it had 6,594 locations and averaged $1.456 million in revenues per store. BK’s 2011 revenues were $8.4 billion, from 7,231 locations with a take of $1.248 million per store. Burger King has seen a bit of a renaissance this year, but in 2011 it closed 33 units while Wendy’s was opening 18. Taco Bell had fewer locations that BK, 5,670--36 more than in 2010--but it took in more revenues per store, $1.284 million, for a total take of $7 billion in 2011. Also making the top ten for 2011 were Dunkin’ Donuts ($6.5 billion in revenues, $850,000 per store, 7,015 locations, +115 units in 2011); Pizza Hut ($5.5 billion, $875,000, 7,600, +58); KFC ($4.5 billion, $949,000, 4,780 locations, -275 units); and Chick-fil-A ($4.051 billion, $2.893 million, 1,606 locations, + 69 units).

In the top 50, Little Caesars (#23, $1.48 billion, $465,000 per unit) added the most new locations--305--followed by Five Guys Burgers & Fries (#25, $950 million, $1.156 million) with 182. Quiznos (#26, $921 million, $345,000 per store) closed the most units, 334, between 2010 and 2011.

Evolved Brand Management on Law Talk Radio

Our own Jeanne Frazer was featured last night in a one-hour episode on Law Talk Radio. The session was titled Evolved Law Firm Brand Management, but has tips and ideas on branding for all businesses. The session was recorded and is available on demand. Listen to Jeanne's tips on Evolved Brand Management. If you have feedback or questions, please let us know and we'll do our best to answer them!

Help for Event Planners

Event planning is all about the details. And keeping track of those details can be a challenge – not to mention very time consuming! This month, The Expert Speakers would like to pass along some of the tools that we have either used ourselves or heard about from others that might make your job easier. Here goes!

1. Super Planner (http://howardgivner.com/super-planner-iphone-app#content) is an inexpensive mobile application specifically designed for event professionals. It helps track food and beverage counts, room configurations, staffing needs, AV, and more. This app won the 2011 Special Events Magazine’s Gala Award for Best New/Innovative Event Product/Technology.
2. Track references to your event using Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts). It’s free and allows you to set up multiple alerts on the keywords or phrases you’d like to track. Note that you can use key phrases by enclosing the phrase in quotes and exclude certain words by using a minus (-) sign before them. You can also check out the Alerts feature on Social Mention (http://www.socialmention.com).
3. Add a live stream of mentions about your conference to your website using Social Mention’s Real Time Buzz widget. (http://socialmention.com/tools).
4. Accept credit cards at your event without a bank merchant account using your mobile device. Square (http://www.squareup.com) that provides a card reader that turns your mobile device into a credit card machine. They charge a per-transaction fee plus a percentage of each transaction.
5. If you need to share large files with other planners, try DropBox (http://www.dropbox.com). This tool offers free file sharing for up to 2GB of data or professional plans are available. This tool gets around many company email limitations.

We hope that some of these tools will help make your job easier. Check back at the end of July for a few more ideas! And remember, if you need a speaker, call The Expert Speakers at 919.850.0605.

The Importance of Value

I was talking with a VP from a small financial company yesterday. She mentioned that she had considered attending a three-day industry conference in July but had decided against doing so, even though she felt that she should attend for the networking opportunities. When I asked why she had decided not to go, she said that the session descriptions were not very detailed and she simply couldn’t justify time away from her busy job without proof of the value of the event.

The reality is that most business people are extremely busy and must prioritize – this still applies for even short networking/business events. Personal development and training opportunities tend to be pushed down the priority list to begin with. Add on top of that an event where value has not be communicated, and it is tough to justify a decision to attend the event and pay not only the registration fee but the travel expenses. And when you consider getting three days behind and having to play catch-up when you get back to the office, the conference suddenly seems less appealing.

The lesson learned here for anyone planning an event is that communicating value can be the most important thing you do. While many companies have cut budgets for events and travel, most are willing to pay IF the employee is able to justify the expense in terms of benefit to the company. And if you are looking at attending an event, I recommend before you even ask about going that you outline the benefits that you (and the company) will receive if you are allowed to attend the event.

Do you have a good event story to tell? We’d love to hear about your conference and event experiences!