No Turn On Red

The Retail Email blog has a roundup of this morning’s e-commerce email blasts with attention being paid to today’s email from Saks. The e-mail, entited “8 Great Reasons to Shop Saks.com“, calls attention to some of the new and improved functionality that the retailer has added to their site. Great way to call attention to improvements on the site that may have been implemented over a period of time or that the users may not have realized are there. I think it gets them to explore new areas of the store that they may not have been aware of before.

StorefrontBacktalk has some of the early numbers from this year’s National Retail Federation annual show. Registration and exhibitors are down from last year, but international vendors who will be at the show.

In more NRF news, PredictiveRetailer has a recap of Day 1’s social media happenings. It’s a great review of blog posts and tweets referencing the day’s different sessions. Looking foward to seeing the recap for the rest of the sessions!

For those not attending the NRF Big Show, don’t forget you can use Twitter search to follow the NRF keyword to keep up to date with what’s going in in New York this week. There’s a bunch of attendees who are on Twitter and there’s been some good ideas and comments being posted there. I’ll be Tweeting from the Expo Hall tomorrow.

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• Most Popular Posts of 2008 (0)
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I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine who suggested that it would be interesting to see a list of all retailers’ Twitter accounts on one page. We agreed that it would be interesting to see how different retailers are using the same medium – are they promoting sales, offering ideas for their market, reaching out to customers?

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I just took a look through my statistics for the year and have compiled a list of the most popular posts here on No Turn On Red. Looks like the real-time information provided by retailers via Twitter was the breakout topic that I wrote about this year.

• More Corporations Offering Gustav Information on Twitter
• Hurricane Gustav, Home Depot, and Twitter
• Online travel agencies & the US Presidential Inauguration
• JC Penney: Teen sex advert not ours
• JCPenney, Twitter, YouTube and Viral Marketing
• NJ GOP Proposes Sales Tax Holiday to Spur Consumer Spending
• Guiding customers to the products they need

Happy New Year to all my readers. May we all be surprised and see 2009 turn into a brighter year than we are all expecting! Thanks to everyone who visits, reads, and shares information from this blog. I do appreciate the readership!

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• Express Lane for September 4 (1)

JCPenney has unveiled an intriguing viral marketing campaign called “Beware of the Doghouse”. The concept is simple: Men should get the “right” gifts for their spouses in order to avoid being put in the doghouse. There’s a website and a four minute video out there supporting this campaign.

The campaign is also supported by a Facebook tie-in that some feel is a poorly executed social media strategy. I tend to agree on this one – I’d rather see retailers put their effort into making lasting relationships with their customers, rather than gimicky Facebook apps.

However, I can’t completely fault JCPenney for their social media efforts as the retailer has also unveiled a Twitter account that, so far, seems to be a very effective use of the service. The account (@askJCP) was started last week and there seems to be a real person behind it (rather than a marketing script). Yesterday, there were a lot of Tweets about the Doghouse viral video, which does seem a bit forced and contrived. But there’s also some helpful information about the retailer and I hope they continue to engage people on Twitter and attempt to make solid relationships.

I should also point out that JCPenney uses Youtube to broadcast a weekly run down of the hot items and promotions in-store. Their channel is updated weekly and the commercials are well produced and informative. I believe the retailer started these broadcasts with the Back to School season.

I’m interested to see how the viral video plays out. I personally found it funny and remarkable well produced. So far, it’s getting some reaction on Twitter but people generally see the humor in the video. But frankly, I wonder if JCPenney had any second thoughts about rolling out their campaign so shortly after another major brand has such a nightmare on their hands last week.

Last week, the people being the ibuprofen Motrin unveiled a viral video campaign that most people agreed missed the mark. Reaction was quick and fierce and turned into a PR nightmare for the company.

I am enthused by JCPenney’s use of social media, social networks, and other available web applications. I hope that marks a long term commitment on behalf of the retailer and all of this doesn’t disappear after Christmas.

Here’s hoping other retailers continue to hop on the social media bandwagon and aim to connect with their customers online.

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• Express Lane for August 7 (0)

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.

Did you find this post helpful? Then, you should also view these posts:

• Kohl’s launches online-only deals; Why aren’t they using Twitter? (1)
• Retailers: your customers are talking, why aren’t you listening? (2)
• JCPenney, Twitter, YouTube and Viral Marketing (5)
• Hurricane Gustav, Home Depot, and Twitter (4)
• Hot Topic, lifestyle marketing, and integrating store and web design (1)

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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• More Corporations Offering Gustav Information on Twitter (2)

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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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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A racy advert for JC Penney has been making it’s way around the internet over the past few days. The ad, which won a prize at this weekend’s Cannes Lions Awards, features two teens practicing putting their clothes back on quickly before heading down to the basement for a romp. Problem is, it may not be a legitimate JC Penney ad.

Because the spot is so well made, and because someone had to enter it it at Cannes, JC Penney is blaming its ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. The ad agency, in turn, is pointing the finger at production company, Epoch Films of New York, which is indeed the listed entrant. There is speculation “the video may have been filmed after hours by a producer at Epoch who was working on the Penney ads for Saatchi.”

A commercial like this won’t land with the core demographic of JCP’s shoppers. But on the flip side, teens are too smart for a commercial like this. It fails on both fronts. It pisses off their core and doesn’t the brand’s desirability with teens.

This video is spreading quickly through blogs, social networks, and Twitter. The retailer will need to work quickly to counter it’s message. This is a great opportunity for them to use social media effectively and distance themselves from the video. I’d like to see the retailer working with bloggers to get their message out there. Otherwise, the video is going to continue to spread and fewer eyeballs are going to see their retraction.

Of course, this is a moot point if the retailer, in any way, authorized this advertisement. Then it’s even more of a tangled mess and the only way to resolve it is with honesty and transparency.

It will be interesting to watch how this develops over the next few days and how the retailer responds.

The advert in question is below. As a warning, it does show people dressing and undressing, so it might be slightly NSFW:

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