Shopper Culture

Making the most of a Super Bowl promotion

The Super Bowl is a tremendous opportunity for anyone in the retail business to capture momentum in sales volume early in the year.  Though cash-strapped from the holidays, consumers spend an estimated $11.7 billion on Super Bowl parties, a month after the traditional holiday season is over.  The event is bigger than the game, as we all head to Super Bowl parties to sample part of the $5 billion worth of goods the hosts bought, or the $6.7 billion worth of goods the rest of us guests threw in nationwide.   Sales data shows us that its not just chips ($33.4 million), meat ($16.6 million), soda ($18.6 million), and beer ($20.7 million), being purchased incrementally, but nearly 4 million HD TVs (65 % bought at Wal-Mart or Best Buy) and 1.8 million pieces of furniture outfitting living rooms. This, and the fact that it is consistently the highest rated TV program of the year, makes the Super Bowl a boon for all the brands that stand to benefit from the occasion.

Brands market at retail for the Super Bowl in a variety of ways. Brands like Coors Light, Pepsi, Doritos and others pay the NFL for official sponsorship and rights to the marks for the Super Bowl. Non-sponsors like Coke, Miller Lite, and Kellogg’s use generic terms like the “Big Game” to try to capture the essence of the big game. The biggest retailers “took back” the Super Bowl by creating their own programming themes. But promotional programs that most brands execute offer fewer, bigger prizes, don’t interact with the shopper beyond their experience at the shelf. Despite their efforts, most promotions seem generic because everyone is doing the same thing. Brands with the greatest connection to football parties – especially food and beverage brands – tout the “Ultimate Party” but don’t give us a compelling reason to believe them.

It’s as if most Super Bowl brands are talking to themselves and not their audience – the fans. And the fans can tell the difference.

We the fans want to have the best experience possible.  And, unless you are a one of the few fans that has connections, your chance of getting tickets to the game is nil. The biggest fans, the most loyal ones, are watching at home because they simply can’t go to the live event.  So the game becomes a reason to get together with friends, consume copious amounts of stuff and enjoy a pop-culture event with no equal. Outside of the host stadium, the Super Bowl is 28 million parties with 154 million viewers, who are there for the game, the advertising, and to be with friends, in that order. The host's success is measured on putting out a great spread, showing off the home theater, or placing a friendly bet on which quarterback will throw the first interception.

So, what can brands do more to enhance our experience before, during and after the pinnacle moment of kickoff?  How can brands connect with the shopper at retail when there is so much clutter and noise in the context of a shopper wants to get in, get out and get to where they are going?  At a time when everyone is sponsoring everything, how can a brand be authentic to an increasingly skeptical audience? 

When there is so much opportunity to make a great impression for the Super Bowl, brands need to create programming that breaks through the clutter at retail and communicates a relevant message for the shopper. Brands must connect with the consumer in a meaningful way, understanding the insights of what the Super Bowl occasion is about. And perhaps most importantly, brands need to connect to their audience in a way that is authentic to the brand, while most of all remaining true to the fans.

- Contributed by Eric Anhold

Source: ACNielsen: average weekly sales for two weeks ending Feb. 10 2007; BigResearch: CIA survey, Jan 2007

Image credits: In-Store Marketer

Dear Customer; Please come inside - Thanks Mgmt.

On my way home from skiing this weekend I stopped in a small town called Dillon to fill up on gas and this sign at the pump caught my attention.The hunter orange sign was offering a 5 cent discount to anyone willing to pay for gas with cash. Now, I don't usually carry cash and the convenience store ATM fee would have cost far more than the dicsount I could have recieved, so I ignored the offer and payed at the pump with my credit card. But it got me thinking about why they were pushing such a significant discount. Is it because convenience stores are trying to cut down on the transaction fees credit card companies charge, up to 7.6% according to NACS. Or is this some sort of an invitation to draw pump payers into the store? According to a 2006 convenience store case study done by Envirosell, 46% of those who purchase gas don't even enter the store. With a tightening economy and rising gas prices many consumers may opt to just pay at the pump and leave. When you are paying more attention to your wallet things like energy drinks, chips, pop and gum all seem like "luxury" items. And in a business where the sale of gas accounts for such a small precentage of their profit, convenience stores need a draw to get people back into the store. Are c-stores hoping for an impulse purchase of things consumers are less inclined to buy if they aren't within reach? In the current state of the economy we plan on seeing more taticts like this executed by c-stores.

The Minority Report takes a step closer

The February 2008 edition of MediaPost had a short article about an interesting technology that was shown at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show that took place in Las Vegas recently.  It's a technology that moves us a step closer to a world portrayed in the film The Minority Report - that scene where tailored, targeted outdoor ads are delivered to John Anderton (the Tom Cruise character).

The technology, called the Reactrix WAVEscape, has been developed by two silicon valley companies - TYZX, a 3-D Imaging company and Reactrix, a point-of-sale display company. It uses a 3D camera mounted atop a display and it can capture movements, gestures and at some point in the future, speech.  The system can then mainputale the image (and everything else it captures) on the screen, morphing it with whatever you like.  So it sounds like a Nintendo Wii for the advertising world!

While the report claims the technology is at an early stage, you can see how it could be used in an in-mall or in-store environment (or anywhere there is high traffic) to create a bit more fun for people to play around with ads. Maybe some games for local stores, with promotions and coupons as prizes?  And it is not too big of a leap to see how we could get to The Minority Report biometric recognition to talk directly at (with?) you.

- Image from gizmodo.com

Who's Hungry?

From a macro point of view we know that we feel good when we purchase a product that helps contribute to a cause.  From Susan G. Komen to (PRODUCT) RED, a lot of marketing support is put behind these efforts to make us aware and encourage us to purchase these products.

From an in-store perspective I think this is one of the best executions I've ever seen.  Leo Burnett Canada and Campbell's soup teamed together in the grocery channel for local foodbanks.  Here is a description of the program from directdaily:

In a grocery store 4,820 can s of Campbell's Soup were used to build an installation piece that spelled HUNGER. Signage beside the piece encouraged shoppers to buy one and donate it to their local food bank. As shoppers bought cans from the display the word HUNGER slowly disappeared. This allowed people to see how their individual effort could help bring an end to the problem of hunger.

This example works on a variety of levels, it 1) increases sales of Campbell's products 2) supports a great cause 3) provides a visual example of the difference one person can make.

- Contributed by Todd Cameron