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Our apologies to anyone who had trouble downloading our white papers recently. We had some technical difficulty with our servers. Everything has been fixed, so please try again. Here are the current topics.
September 2008 Digitail™: The Convergence of the Digital and Retail Space
August 2008 Clean store policy: A point of view
June 2008 Women and consumer electronics: A love story
February 2008 A point of view on the impact of P.R.I.S.M. on the In-store
In overstimulated Manhattan, standing out is a difficult stunt to pull off, unless your name happens to be Naked Cowboy. Or as of last week, Target.
We first heard about Target's experiment from Neil Sittler, a contributor to the Art Director's Club of Denver blog. The trend-blazing retailer orchestrated the opening of four pop-up stores under the moniker Bullseye Bodega that had the city abuzz. For four days only (during Fashion Week, no less), 22 designers put their braintrust in creating these boutiques and inserting limited-edition goodies that would grace these stores well before hitting super-sized Targets. 
Taking a page from NYC corner stores, produce coolers held Anya Hindmarch's handbags. Grocery shelves held Sigerson Morrison's glam/suede footwear. All of these treasures were treated as bargains, courtesy of little signs flaunting messages like, "Wowsa. Pretty plates, only $2.99 for a set of 8."
Other retailers should take note of Target's recent endeavor. Not only does it create buzz, it's also a way to introduce new brands or even retail formats and experiences short of a national rollout.
- Contributed by Jay Roth
As marketers we are faced with constantly evolving trends for brands, retailers and consumers. In recent years these evolutionary changes are coming faster than ever before. As an agency, deciphering the implications of these trends is our job. However, once in a while when we add up a number of converging trends we see an opportunity to do more than interpret, we see an opportunity to truly innovate.
As a Shopper Marketing agency we carefully track shopping behaviors and retailer trends. As a Promotions agency, we closely follow the effects of changing technology on consumer/brand relationships. Directly resulting from these observations, the Integer Group has created a new practice for our clients centered on the convergence of digital and retail. We’ve termed this new space Digitail.
For information on the pressures that are changing the marketplace and the challenges and opportunities they are opening up for marketers, download the Digitail White Paper here.
Click here to download our Digitail podcast on iTunes and listen to Craig Elston, Senior Vice President, Insight & Strategy, and Morgan McAlenney, Senior Vice President & Digital Czar discuss the topic.
To read the official press release, click here.
"According to OgilvyAction, nearly 40% of U.S. shoppers wait until they are in store to decide what to buy. This is why branding is so important; it's what makes you matter to a consumer... But the greatest brand awareness and preference alone do not always connect through the purchase path to result in a sale." Click here to continue reading the latest Pulse from our Midwest office.
As many of you know, I enjoy cartooning and spend most of my free time painting and drawing. Recently, I came up with a series of T-shirt designs that are reminiscent of the old Wacky Packages collector cards. The Wacky Packages images are focused on poking fun at packaging, but the messages in my designs are more about the person wearing the shirt, as opposed to making fun of a specific product. I have a friend who has the latest digital dye-sublimation printing equipment; we took a chance and invested a lot of time and money to see if the public would embrace these designs.
Over Labor Day weekend, we set up a "Pop- Up" retail store and spent 12-hour days working the Dazed Tees booth at The Taste of Colorado. It was quite interesting to observe the reactions of this very diverse crowd of shoppers. Thousands of people passed in front of our booth, many stopping in their tracks, taking the time to study, read, purchase, and laugh at my designs. I tried to create silly, simple, and iconic images that would make people laugh at themselves and spark memories of when ads and packaging were more fun and in your your face.
The uniqueness of the designs was the key; they were unexpected, refreshing, and different than anything else at the fair. We also printed on high-quality performance-apparel shirts. We had already determined our price point before the show, but I walked through the entire venue and asked each vendor about their price points. We were less expensive than most ($15) while offering something original by a local Denver artist (me).
The cross section of consumers was huge: teenagers, baby boomers, and all ethnicities. Even old ladies were stopping, looking, and laughing out loud. We set up our booth with to have a clean look (white tent and white table cloths) so the designs really popped. I also took time to talk to the consumers to find out what drew them in and which designs appealed to them and why. It was a great experience, and I learned more about consumers in a totally different kind of retail environment. I'm not going to quit my day job, but I extend my thanks to those of you from Integer who stopped in. It was nice to have friends helping me out and experiencing the circus environment with me.
Contributed by: Tom Pounders
