Thursday
November 13, 2008
Some stories that are on my radar this morning:
McDonald’s is testing no-brand marketing in Japan by opening a store without any of the colors, logos, or branding of their traditional stores. Supported through non-traditional marketing such as hand outs, viral campaigns, and a unique website, the store offers two menu choices and that is it. Intriguing concept and I wonder how long it is until we see that more often in the United States. Jon Sykes also shares his thoughts on this campaign.
Linda at Get Elastic has a very informative post about the benefits of pushing educational content, rather than sales promotions, in e-mail. In Should Retail Email Sell or Inform? An A/B Split Test Case Study, she provides a look into an study into different types of e-mails that were sent out from a retailer and provides concrete information on ROI, conversion rates, and sales results. Summary is, content is king and the e-mails that were focused on educational content and information performed better than the sales oriented e-mails. Good information for all retailers.
Over at CNBC, Cindy Perman writes about the impact the economy is having on second hand and consignment shops. Some intriguing sales numbers from Goodwill and quotes from consignment store owners that reflect the uptick in sales and traffic they are seeing this holiday season. At least someone is seeing positive gains this season.
Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:
Let’s play a game. I’ll name two retailers and you guess which one has more locations in the five boroughs of New York City. Ready?
Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts
McDonald’s vs. Burger King
Rite Aid vs. CVS
Coach vs. H&M vs. Pinkberry
Best Buy vs. American Apparel
According to a new study from the NYC-based think tank, Center for an Urban Future, the numbers are suprising.
Dunkin Donuts has more locations (341) in the five boroughs than Starbucks (235). Though Starbucks’ has more than double the amount of Manhattan locations (186 vs 78). McDonald’s has 248 locations compared to Burger King’s paltry 92. Rite Aid has 209 locations to CVS’s 108, but not as much as NYC-favorite Duane Reade (with 216 locations). Coach and H&M have as many NYC locations as California upstart Pinkberry (all with 12 locations in the city) and would you believe that American Apparel has more locations than Best Buy (16 vs 9).
The details revealed by the study are interesting, with a thorough breakdown of how many locations each retailer has in each borough. It is worth downloading the PDF and taking a look at their results.
Couple of interesting commentaries on the report from the New York Daily News, the New York Observer, and the New York Post.
Photo above from Flickr user lab2112, used under Creative Commons.
Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:
