No Turn On Red

Last week, Kohl’s discussed some of their holiday marketing strategies with the press. They plan on increasing their spending to capture a larger share of the dwindling holiday sales figures, with increased emphasis on direct mail, e-mail campaigns, and online-only sale prices.

Going into the holiday season, the retailer, which has seen Web sales increase by more than 50% so far this year, is making a big push online as well. It plans to send email blasts out to 15 million shoppers — more than double the number that it had on its electronic mailing list last year — and it’s offering one or two specially discounted items on Kohls.com every day through Christmas.

Their website has started advertising these online-only specials on their homepage, with a callout that went live this week (apparently):

This is a very interesting shift in marketing for the retailer that has, until now, always offered consistent pricing in-store and online. Their marketing campaigns even advertised this fact and, for years, coupons that were sent out to customers, in direct mail, were also good online.

Kohl’s needs to be aggressive in order to increase their market share this holiday season. This is a perfect opportunity for the retailer to utilize a service, like Twitter, to advertise these special, limited-time promotions. It is obvious that they want to aggressively promote these deals as they they are utilizing prime screen real estate to push the deal. It even appears that they already have a Twitter account, although with zero posts. They should be using this to promote the daily deals and reach more people, one-on-one.

The usage of the service would be simply - they’d just need to follow the example that other retailers have set to announce daily deals. I look at the Amazon MP3 Deal of the Day and Woot.com as two examples of retailers using the service to effectively promote daily deals.

Maybe the first step, for a retailer like Kohl’s, is the use the service to promote daily deals and then they can evolve into using the service to engage customers in conversation. I think there is always more room for retailers to use Twitter to reach their customers.

What do you think?

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Handbag Planet is a new store that is launching tomorrow and they are using social media to promote their site launch. They’re giving away 24 handbags over the course of the launch day and entries to the contest are gained through posting about the site to blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks.

The contest and social media campaign must be working as word of mouth seems to be strong on various networks. A search on Twitter returns 6 pages of results while a Google blog search returns close to 3,000 mentions. I’d assume that the positive word of mouth could lead into positive first day sales. If they also offer good customer service and a strong product, they can hopefully convert some of the first day customers into repeat customers.

I’m very interested to see how this plays out, how the website looks, and how their long term prospects look. I’ll sure be looking at the site tomorrow to check it out and, of course, with this blog post I wil hpefully win my fiancee a new handbag. It’s a win-win for all of us.

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Wanted to take a moment and thank some other bloggers who have linked to some of my posts over the past few days.

Lorrelle On Wordpress offers a very extensive post on ways that blogs and social media are most effective during a time of disaster. In the post, Blogs Offer Communication, Information, and Connections During Disasters, there is a great rundown of the different ways in which social media was used well in advance of and through Hurricane Gustav. Beyond that, there’s a very interesting look at the evolution of social media and technology since Hurricane Katrina. Very good, detailed post with some great information and resources.

The Business section of Blogs.com has a rundown of what various bloggers are talking about, in regards to the economic and financial impact of Hurricane Gustav.

Finally, Reputation Notebook is also looking at the role social media is playing in the crisis response from corporations. I agree with Mark that the role of social media within corporate communications is going to continue to grow. A crisis, like Hurricane Gustav, shows how important social media can be to an effective corporate communication policy.

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In addition to Home Depot, more companies are turning to Twitter to communicate storm tips and company information related to Hurricane Gustav.

Today, the ComcastCares Twitter account started posting very helpful, electronic/communication-related storm preparation tips. The ComcastCares account is always a very helpful, customer-facing extension of Comcast - but in this situation, they adapted to the situation at hand and are posting helpful storm tips. All of this, and I don’t even think Comcast is available in the New Orleans area at this time. It is great to see them using Twitter to offer their expertise even though there is no direct business impact for them.

Last night, JetBlue Airways used their Twitter to send out updated travel information for the New Orleans area. The airliner also has a large page on their site dedicated to storm information and updates.

Twitter is really shining in this moment of darkness. The service is being used by many to send out real time storm information, updates, evacuation information, etc. I would expect that every retailer in the area is in some sort of emergency operations mode, and Twitter is a way for the retailers to send valuable information to the communities they serve: store closings, special inventory alerts, community information.

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Hurricane Gustav continues to develop into a monster storm in the Gulf of Mexico. With the tragic lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, residents and retailers alike are taking a more proactive approach to the arrival of this hurricane.

Yesterday, I talked about how well Home Depot was using their Twitter account to communicate hurricane tips and store information. Taking a look at the Home Depot Twitter, it appears that they have a dozen stores staying open all night in the Gulf Coast area. They’ve also brought in out of town volunteers to work the stores, allowing the local employees to secure their homes and evacuate. In addition to providing valuable information online, they’re also bringing supplies to the communities in need and staying open to allow people the time to get what they need. Home Depot also offers a section on their website with a wealth of information related to hurricane preparation.

The Wall Street Journal profiled the Walmart emergency operations center in Bentonville. Within the operations center, the retailer monitors the storm, communicates with the stores in the path of the storm, and plans on how to bring needed supplies, merchandise, and resources to the affected region. Walmart rapidly deployed resources to the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and can serve as a model for retailer involvement in disaster relief.

Winn-Dixie has a list of their store closings on their website. Nola.com has several photos showing a very empty Winn-Dixie in New Orleans.

Publix is the sponsor of a website called Hurricane Gustav Resources. This website seems to be a great resource of shelters that are open and evacuation information.

Obvious business motives aside, it is great to see these businesses working so hard to assist their communities. If you know of other retailers working to assist the Gulf Coast, please let me know in the comments.

Photo from Flickr user Maitri, used under Creative Commons.

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As the Gulf Coast of the United States makes preparations for the impact of Hurricane Gustav, I have to say that I am very impressed by the way Home Depot is using Twitter to communicate preparation tips and store information. The Home Depot Twitter account, which is generally filled with helpful home improvement tips, has switched gears to provide information targeted to Gulf Coast residents and those who are in the path of the storm.

Recent updates today have included general hurricane preparation tips about moving appliances, the danger of carbon monoxide from emergency generators, and reminding people to locate their main water and electric shut off switches. There has also been information about store closings and the availability of water.

This is a great use of Twitter by a retailer. They’re using the service to focus communication on information related to this very dangerous storm. I see this as a way for the retailer to assist the community that it serves. Good job by Home Depot.

My thoughts go out to everyone in the path of the storm.

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