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31 Jan 2012 at 4:54pm
Nielsen pollsters are telling us that 51% of the viewers of Super Bowl XLVI will like the Super Bowl commercials better than the Super Bowl game. If that's really true, then let's hope that those Super Bowl commercial enthusiasts are car lovers, since car company ads will have a dominant presence on the Super Bowl XLVI commercial lineup.
During Super Bowl XLV, Super Bowl commercial fans were treated to more than $70 million of car company commercials. During Super Bowl XLVI, more than one-third of the commercials will be advertising cars, and paying dearly for the privilege.
The car companies that are reportedly paying $3.5 million for 30 seconds of exposure to more than 100 million Super Bowl XLVI viewers are:
Acura
Audi
Cadillac
Chevolet
Chrysler
Honda
Hyundai
Kia
Lexus
Suzuki
Toyota
Volkswagen
Which auto companies and auto brands will get the best return on the $116,000 per second they're paying for Super Bowl advertising exposure? According to Kelley Blue Book, the Chevrolet Sonic will be the big Super Bowl commercial website traffic winner since the model is new and the car is a subcompact, and the Super Bowl exposure should pique interest in both. But the challenge to all auto Super Bowl advertisers is to stand out from all the other auto ads, which, by the end of the game, are all part of a Super Bowl car commercial blur.
According to a highly scientific Super Bowl XLV Commercials poll, the auto brand that made the biggest impression was also Chevrolet. Although an even more scientific study by marketing firm Zeta Interactive declared Volkswagen the biggest buzz winner amongst the Super Bowl auto advertisers with its Star Wars inspired commercial called "The Force."
There are those who will be interested in the winner of the Super Bowl Car vs. Car advertising game, and those who will be interested in the outcome of the actual New vs. New Super Bowl football game. For both groups, the competition promises to be super.
Click here to take the Super Bowl Super Commercial Super Trivia Quiz >>
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The Super Bowl XLVI Battle of New vs. New Is Also Car vs. Car Super Bowl Commercial Battle originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 22:54:00.
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31 Jan 2012 at 4:41pm
Analysts and investors were greatly disappointed to learn that the fourth quarter revenue of Amazon.com (AMZN) was up, but profits were down. The conclusion by the Wall Street Journal and others after hearing the news about Amazon's disappointing profit numbers was that Amazon is spending faster than it is earning, and therefore is not a very good investment. This reaction says a lot about short-sighted investment profiteers and nothing about the business savvy of the retail industry leader who has defined Internet retailing.
When Amazon deliberately shrinks its profit margins on electronics by cutting prices so low that offline electronics retailers have difficulty competing, retail leaders at specialty stores like Best Buy (BBY), and Radio Shack (RSH) are forced to change their product mix and business model to stay alive. With every sale of an unprofitable Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com not only ensures unlimited future digital business, it also steals future digital business away from the rival Barnes and Noble (BKS) Nook, and sends one of the last standing retail bookstore chains shopping for a Nook business line buyer. When Amazon shows signs of getting into the Sporting Goods business, Dick's (DKS), Cabela's (CAB), and Sports Authority start shaking in their brick and mortar boots.
If Amazon can make any profit at all while pinning major competitors against the retail ropes at the same time, the Internet retail company is to be commended, not condemned. Those who think that Amazon's spend-now-profit-later strategy is not sound obviously don't know Jeff Bezos at all. Present-day actions which eventually result in future profits is what Jeff Bezos is all about.
Personally I applaud the decision of Amazon's leaders to forego present-day profits in order to ensure future success. And not just because I'm a big Jeff Bezos fan (which I am), and not just because I own shares of Amazon stock (which I do), but because solid long-term business strategies are abandoned all too often in the pursuit of the approval of short-term Wall Street profiteers.
it's not just nice to see Jeff Bezos doing business in a different way. It's nice to see him succeeding in a different way.
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Amazon Profits Disappoint Short-sighted Profiteers, but Not Long-Term Internet Retail Leaders (AMZN, BBY, RSH, BKS, DKS) originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 22:41:18.
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31 Jan 2012 at 3:34pm
When Wal-Mart (WMT) announced that it would be repositioning its legendary Wal-Mart greeters away from the front of the store and station them instead in high-traffic areas inside the store, retail industry and customer service experts immediately took it as a sign that Wal-Mart was abandoning its customer service values, and the Wal-Mart customer experience would become one of a cold, big box store without a soul. The power that critics have assigned to one employee to set the tone in a a store the size of a typical Wal-Mart filled with the number of employees on duty in a typical Wal-mart is as laughable as the notion that Wal-Mart is anything besides a cold, big box store anyway.
Wal-Mart's company mission statement makes it clear that it has one primary focus - money. And the Wal-Mart mission statement also infers that its target customer base is comprised of people who share one primary focus - money. It's not that Wal-Mart's focus is changing, it's that the frivolous, smiley Wal-Mart non-revenue producing Wal-Mart greeter can't be justified within the framework of the company's saving money focus.
In their new high-traffic location, Wal-Mart greeters have the opportunity to assist in the sales process, and therefore prove their value. In essence, Wal-Mart greeters will become mobile help desks, easily accessible to customers who need real assistance to make real purchases. To me, that is much more of an asset to the Wal-Mart customer experience than the fleeting greeting at the front door.
Disney (DIS) is also a company that is legendary for its greeters, posting a person outside of almost every attraction and near the front of every retail store to interact with guests and create some interpersonal magic. But even Disney knew that these greeters could multi-task for the good of the operation too. So Disney greeters are also responsible for direction-giving, queue-moving, trash removal and stroller parking. The presence was still felt and appreciated by the guests, but the extra services rendered also had a positive impact on the overall guest experience. (I say all of this in the present tense, assuming that Disney greeters still exist in Disney theme parks and Disney stores.)
So the hubbub about the repositioning of the Wal-Mart greeter is not more than just something to talk about. I can't imagine anybody ever chose to shop at Wal-Mart just because there was a senior citizen greeter standing outside saying hello. And I can't imagine anybody is going to not shop at Wal-Mart because they have to retrieve their own shopping cart without the assistance of a cart-handling greeter person.
Greeter or no greeter is just not that important. The real challenge with the sales struggles that Wal-Mart has been having is connected to their price-centric mission statement. If your brand essence is about low prices, then your clientele is going to be price motivated. But price-motivated consumers do not make loyal customers because they can be easily lured away by competitors dangling even lower prices in their faces.
Given a choice between the low prices with a greeter and low prices without a greeter, most price-sensitive shoppers are going to make their purchase decisions based on the lowness of the low prices. Unless there's a greeter at the door handing out something free. That would be motivating.
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Wal-Mart Greeter Changes Don't Abandon Customer Service Values, But Do Reveal a Flawed Price-centric Company Mission Statement (WMT, DIS) originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 21:34:48.
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30 Jan 2012 at 4:46am
With high retail space vacancy rates, low commercial real estate prices, and the promise of economic recovery, store openings were the name of the retail game for the U.S. retail industry in 2011. (Click here for a complete list of 2011 store openings.) The predictions for the coming year, however, include economic uncertainty, political tension, and spend-wary consumers. So it's a wonder that any U.S. retail chain is brave enough to invest in any new store opening in 2012.
Whether they're brave, shrewd, or just delusional, there are plenty of U.S. retail chains that have announced plans to expand and open new stores in 2012. So far Wal-Mart tops the 2012 Store Openings List, with O'Reilly Auto Parts and Advance Auto Parts not far behind with triple-digit store openings planned in 2012. Apparently there is a belief that there will be a lot more car fixing than there is car trading and car buying in the future for Americans.
So far, there are plenty of retail chains that seem to have no plans to open new stores in 2012. But the year is young and the Store Opening announcements usually come along with the year-end reporting in January and February, so undoubtedly the list will grow.
For a complete roundup of 2012 Store Opening announcements and predictions for 2012, click here >>
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2012 New Store Opening Announcements and Predictions Are Low So Far - Complete 2012 New Store Openings Roundup originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 10:46:13.
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26 Jan 2012 at 6:36pm
When retail companies want to build their Facebook audience, a good bribe will usually do the trick. But when people declare they like a retail company only if there's a coupon, freebie, or special discount given in return, how much do those likers really "like" you? Actually they like you quite a bit, according to a recent survey by ComScore.
A notable percentage of the likers of retail Facebook pages such as Wal-Mart (WMT), Target (TGT), and Best Buy (BBY) are more likely to make purchases from these retailers when compared with non-likers. Surprisingly, a notable percentage of the friends of Facebook likers will also make a purchase from these retail chains as well. There's no indication if the friends are influenced by cyber endorsements of their acquaintances or if it's simply a matter of Wal-Mart shoppers of a feather use Facebook together. Nonetheless, the cyber connection is clear, according to ComScore.
So, which members of the U.S. retail industry are the most "liked" on Facebook? Nine companies with significant retail operations had a top twenty most-liked Facebook page at the beginning of 2012. Surprisingly - or not - the largest U.S. retail companies do not also have the largest Facebook audiences. Rather, it seems that the retailers with the strongest connection to their target markets are the ones which now have direct access to them at any time.
Click here for the complete list of the 2012 Most Liked Retail Companies on Facebook >>
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Most Liked Retail Companies on Facebook - How Much Do Facebook Likers Really Like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Other Retail Companies? (WMT, TGT, BBY) originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 00:36:18.
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22 Jan 2012 at 8:56am
After picking up a to-go meal at a Chili's (EAT) restaurant in Texas, I went online and filled out the customer feedback survey that I had been directed to by my Chili's restaurant receipt. The gist of my feedback was "Who spilled the salt shaker?" I expressed great dissatisfaction at the meal that was salty to the point of being inedible to anyone who was not a deer. I also answered affirmatively that my bad Chili's experience would have a negative influence on my decision to dine at a Chili's in the future.
At the end of the customer feedback survey when I was asked if I'd like to be contacted by a manager about my experience, I answered "yes." I always answer "yes" to this question because I'm curious about whether I will actually get a call, and if so, what the nature of that call would be. I've never received one of those requested manager calls, even though I have requested them more than 100 times from every type of business imaginable.
About a week later, I couldn't have been more surprised to answer the phone and hear the Chili's manager Jennifer introducing herself. She had read my feedback, she was dismayed by my feedback, she wanted to respond to my feedback. That, in and of itself makes for a great service recovery moment. You noticed, you cared, you took action - that's all that most customers want when they experience a service failure.
Jennifer went a little further in offering me a free meal. My response to that was, "That's nice and i appreciate it. But the next time I come to Chili's is everything going to be as salty as it was last week? Because if so, I don't need a free meal because I won't use it." Jennifer then promised me that if I would ask for a manager at that particular Chili's location, whoever was on duty would make sure that I got a meal with a reasonably seasoned meal.
"Except for the onion straws," Jennifer said. "The batter is pre-made and people complain all the time about how salty it is."
I appreciated Jennifer's candor, I appreciated her willingness, and I appreciated that she seemed genuinely interested in providing me with a better Chili's experience. From a managerial perspective Jennifer gets kudos for her service recovery skills. And she gets extra bonus points because she was the first manager who ever followed up with me about a feedback form.
Overall, Chili's delivered a positive customer service recovery experience. From my perspective, however, there seems to be one fatal flaw in the Chili's service recovery system. That is, the service recovery doesn't go full circle in order to eliminate the root cause of the service failure for the future.
It's nice that the management team at one particular Chili's location is willing to personally ensure that I not receive a salt lick supper. But it shouldn't take managerial intervention to create an edible meal. And it's nice that Jennifer warned me about the sodium-rich onion straw batter, but if Chili's diners complain about that "all the time," wouldn't it be a good idea to change the batter altogether?
The purpose of customer feedback should not just be to identify individual problems and individually compensate for those problems. The purpose of customer feedback forms should also be to identify global sitewide or system-wide challenges so that the root cause of those challenges can be eliminated. It's good to say you're sorry. But it's even better to get rid of things that you need to be sorry about.
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Chili's Restaurant Customer Feedback Survey and Service Recovery Excels for Customer, But Fails for the Chili's Restaurant System (EAT) originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 at 14:56:26.
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15 Jan 2012 at 4:20am
If Oprah Winfrey opened her OWN retail operations (perhaps a chain of cute little "Favorite Things boutiques?") there's little doubt that it would be big, it would be successful, and it would quickly be global. But Oprah doesn't have her own chain of retail stores (yet). And Oprah has never been the CEO of a global retail organization (yet). So why would a retail industry leader care what Oprah had to say about anything?
One thing Oprah does know is leadership. She managed to lead her television show into global success. She managed to lead her production company into multi-billion dollar success. She managed to lead herself onto just about every most list ever created - Most Influential, Most Powerful, Most Admired, Most Loved, Most Shoes. Oprah managed, she led, she created, she succeeded.
So when Oprah talks about business and success, retail leaders listen - or at least they should be listening if they're interested in the point of view of a woman with a clear view from the top of Success Mountain. Click here for quotable quotes about business and success from Oprah Winfrey >>
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Oprah Winfrey's Views on Business Could Lead Retailers to Business Success of Their OWN - Quotable Quotes From Oprah Winfrey originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 10:20:04.
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31 Dec 2011 at 9:10am
It's no surprise that customer satisfaction with Amazon.com (AMZN) is high. It's also no surprise that when asked to score the largest online Internet retail shopping websites, customers gave the highest marks to Amazon.com based on their Internet shopping experiences during the 2011 holiday shopping season.
There were very few surprises in the annual 2011 Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index published by research firm Foresee. Besides Amazon, the Internet shopping websites of jcpenney (JCP), Apple (AAPL), Barnes and Noble (BKS) and Victoria's Secret ranked high. These companies have a good reputation for customer relationships to begin with, and they've just extended their customer satisfaction acumen to a virtual platform.
Of course for every "best" ranking, there are corresponding "worst" rankings. According to the Internet shopping customers surveyed, Target (TGT), Blockbuster (BBI), Sears (SHLD), and The Gap (GPS) provided the worst online retail customer dissatisfaction during the 2011 holiday shopping season. Not surprisingly, these "worst" Internet retailers have also had a fair bit of trouble with customer satisfaction in their physical store as well in 2011.
The exception to the expected worst rankings is Target, which is generally known for having good customer relationships. Targets website challenges in 2011 were mostly functional, or more accurately, dysfunctional. When blockbuster marketing results drove more traffic to the Target.com website than it could handle, highly publicized complete crashes of its retail website occurred.
The first full site Target.com crash actually created a "Wow!" response. The second crash created more of a "Huh?" response. And subsequent website dysfunctions drew more of a "Grrrr" response from customers. The second-to-last reputation that an Internet shopping website wants to get is "unstable" (which is just slightly better than the reputation of "untrustworthy"). So it seems fairly obvious that stability is priority #1 for the Target e-commerce team in 2012.
To see the best of the best and the worst of the worst rankings for Internet shopping websites, click here. To BE the best of the best of Internet shopping websites (or at least not among the worst of the worst), read the full Foresee Customer Satisfaction Index report here.
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Customers Rank Amazon.com as the Best Online Internet Retail Shopping Website Again - 2011 Rankings of Best and Worst Internet Retail Websites During the Holiday Shopping Season (AMZN, JCP, AAPL, BKS, BBI, TGT, SHLD, GPS) originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 15:10:32.
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30 Dec 2011 at 6:16pm
Deeply discounted year-end clearance sales are giving U.S. consumers both a happy year-end and happy New Year gift reminiscent of the Great Recession retail inventory dump of 2008. After-Christmas shoppers won't have to look very hard to find merchandise discounted up to 90% at major U.S. retail chains like Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Kohl's, and Barnes and Noble on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and on the bonus last last-minute shopping day of the holiday season on Monday, January 2nd, an official work holiday on the 2012 calendar.
But the question is whether shoppers will have the stamina and the willingness to go the distance with retailers who are eager to sustain the record-breaking holiday sales activity through the day after New Year's Eve. It may be that U.S. consumers will drop from their record-breaking holiday shopping before retailers are finished deal-wrestling for the last and first sales of the year.
Consumers definitely won the game of consuming chicken this year by keeping their wallets shut between Cyber Monday and the last week before Christmas. And it may be that shoppers will ignore the mundane after-Christmas year-end 50% discounts to see if they can extract even deeper discounts from retailers again.
Some retailers, however, are not playing the after-Christmas graduated discount game this year. Barnes and Noble immediately filled their bins with the 90% off books. Nordstrom Rack has had its 75% sales racks filled since Christmas Eve. Shoppers can get discounts on top of clearance prices at Macy's, Saks and Nieman Marcus - both online and in the stores.
Everyday low prices at Wal-Mart are even everyday lower on 2,003 clearance items on Walmart.com. You can get 65% off deals at Target.com and "thousands of deals" in Target stores. Even discount-averse Abercrombie & Fitch is giving their too-cool-for-clearance customers a 40% discount on everything. Poor Mike Jeffries must either be out of the country or heavily sedated.
The shoppers who ignore the "final" warning on sale advertisements this New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and Why-Am-I-the-Only-One-Working Monday, though, may lose in the year-end consuming standoff and miss the best year-end clearance deals. For many retailers, the only way they could discount their clearance merchandise any more than it already is would be to give it away in exchange for a Facebook like.
For those who still have the energy to consume this New Year's weekend, remember that unlike the rest of the holiday shopping season, store hours aren't extended this weekend, but rather they're shortened. Stores will close early on New Year's Even and open late on New Year's Day, so make sure to check the list of New Year's store hours so you can strategically plan your last shopping marathon. You may be surprised at the unaccommodating store hours on New Year's weekend after the round-the-clock retailing in the past month. It's hard to believe that Costco will dare to keep its doors closed completely on New Year's Day.
Shoppers will also want to check out the list of New Year's Year-End Clearance Sales to bag the best discounts first. It's still possible that the shortsighted retailers will reconsider those stingy half-off offerings and succumb to some serious slashing. After the aggressively competitive 2011 holiday shopping season, it's hardly worth booting up your computer for less than 60% off.
More About New Year's Year-end Clearance Sales and Deals:
New Year's Eve 2011 Store Hours
New Year's Day 2012 Store Hours
Best After-Christmas Year-End Clearance Deals
Christmas Sales Results 2011
90% Off Clearance Sale Deals Say Happy New Year to Customers, Not Retailers - Best Year End Clearance Deals at Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Kohl's Are Deep Recession-like Discount Buys originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 00:16:46.
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29 Dec 2011 at 7:36pm
The U.S. retail industry would have preferred to bask in the glow of its own record-breaking Christmas retail sales results for the 2011 holiday season a little longer before getting yanked back to post-holiday reality by the Sears (SHLD) and Kmart store closing announcement. Immediately after the Sears and Kmart store closings were announced, analysts and journalists began concluding that ending an old year and starting a new year with major closings by a major U.S. retailer signals trouble for Sears Holdings (SHLD), trouble for the economy, and a generally unhappy New Year.
All three of those conditions might be true in 2012, but the outlook for the economy, the Sears business, and the New Year are not necessarily related, connected or causative. Considering the behavior and performance of both Sears and Kmart in the past few years, the closing of Sears and Kmart stores is not a surprise, and not an economic indicator. It's an inevitability that just happened to unfold at a time that broke the spell of Christmas retail magic.
Sears has been running Hail Mary marketing plays for at least the past two years. Ever since the Selena-Gomez-Air-Band-Casting-Call-Lands-End-Pack-Pal-Facebook-Campus-Ready-Senior-Day-Christmas-in-July marketing mish mash in July, 2009, it's been hard not to notice the desperation that's apparently been driving Sears leadership decisions and running the Sears and Kmart operations.
The decisions of the Sears leadership team to pimp out their brands, drastically reduce their inventory, and literally give away the store one subsection of real estate at a time wreaks of desperation. That's a vibe that everybody can feel. It's not attractive, it's not particularly fun to be around, and at some point it starts to be a little pathetic. Consciously or unconsciously people don't really like to be associated with pathetic.
Unfortunately my June, 2010 assessment of the Sears identity crisis and its crippling effect on the ability of the Sears retail business to function effectively in a rapidly shifting retail environment still seems to be correct. Sears can only hope that this is a mid-life identity crisis because that would mean that there is at least another 118 years in its future. Sears investors can only hope that Sears leaders figure it all out before another one of the great American retail brands proves that there is no such thing as too-big-to-fail in the U.S. retail industry.
Closing 120 stores is busy business, and hopefully Sears Holdings leaders won't get distracted by the details of all of that in 2012. If the occupants in the Sears boardroom give all their attention to short-term "doing," they won't have any time or focus on their long-term "being." It is a certainty that if Sears and Kmart leaders can get crystal clear about what they want their retail business to "be," then what they need to "do" to regain their balance and reclaim their retail territory will also become crystal clear.
If the 120 store closings aren't dramatic enough to change the trajectory of the Sears leadership strategies, perhaps the recent 27% drop in stock prices are. Nothing is quite so motivating to most retail industry leaders as portfolio shrinkage. That's when things get personal.
More About Sears, Kmart, and Store Closings:
Can Sears Regain Its Identity as One of the Great American Brands?
Hail Mary Marketing, Desperation, and Sears
Sears 2012 Store Closing Locations
Complete 2011 Store Closings List
Is Kmart Fulfilling Its Mission?
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Do Sears and Kmart 2012 Store Closings Signal an Unhappy New Year? - Closing Sears and Kmart Stores Not a Surprise and Not an Economic Indicator (SHLD) originally appeared on About.com Retail Industry on Friday, December 30th, 2011 at 01:36:48.
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