No Turn On Red

Social Shopping is an emerging field and E-Commerce Times has a great post that explains what is is, provides a rundown of different social shopping services, and opportunities for retailer involvement within the field.

With social media transforming the way we work and interact, there becomes less of a distinction between the time we spend on and off the clock, so to say. Steve Bendt provides a great look into the ramifications of wage laws in the United States and the impact they have on retailers who look to use social media to connect with their customers.

Get Elastic is talking about the viral marketing video campaign from Office Max that ties in to their Back to School “Penny” marketing. I really like this campaign. It is a series of fun videos that ties in well with the overall brand position for Officemax for this season. Good job by Officemax, I think.

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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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Recently, I wrote about the new Sears marketing plan and slogan, “Where It Begins”. Today, a Google search for “sears + ‘where it begins’” returns an article from AdWeek first and my website second.

Good thing for Sears, I was generally positive about the new slogan and marketing campaign. Imagine if I was negative and ripped it apart.

As a retailer, do you know what your customers are really saying about your brand online?

Are people reacting favorably to your marketing strategy? To you Summer clothing line? To your latest sale prices?

Are people discouraging others from going to your store because of a bad experience? Because of a short tempered cashier they encountered? Because of the ugliness of your new dresses? Because your return policy sucks?

I can bounce across the web right now and show you a Facebook page where a guy is showing off the new polo he bought from Abercrombie & Fitch.

I can show you a forum where people are talking about the perceived lack of training the cashiers exhibit at Sears.

I can even pull up a Myspace group where employees are talking about mistreatment from management at Kohl’s.

This information is out there. It’s freely accessable. I know where to find it and I’m not alone in that.

If you, as a major retailer, are ignoring this information, you are giving away valuable information that could help you grow your brand, increase your sales, and make the changes that you need to make in order to compete better.

If you, as a major retailer, are reading this information but not interacting with your customers on your own, then you are completely missing the point. Start a corporate blog and encourage discussion, good and bad, on your own website.

Hire an evanglist. Someone who will be the e-face of your company. Someone who will interact with your customers through blogs, forums, and social networking websites. Someone who will drive people to come to your website, to your store, strenghten your brand, and build lasting relationships with your customers.

The answers to what your consumers want are all around us. You just have to look for them and let them know that you are listening.

Other industries are already doing this and succeeding. Why the major retailers in America haven’t jumped on, I don’t know.

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Think of Sears.

Now think of opening a book and going on a wonderful journey through the pages.

Does it make you think of shopping at Sears?

The retailer has unveiled their new marketing campaign, featuring a book theme that:

[..] suggests that shopping at Sears is like opening a book which tells a never-ending story about possibilities for life at home. It is designed both to recall the Sears heritage and to speak to customers in a way that is relevant to their needs and lifestyles today.

(More information: from Sears’ own press release, AdWeek, and BrandWeek.)

It appears that the intention of the campaign is to invoke thoughts of the retailers’ catalog beginnings.

I saw one of the commercials tonight, for their Mother’s Day sale. I’ll say this, it did catch my eye. It reminds me of recent television campaigns by Macy’s and Target, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Although I don’t know how much ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” has to do with Sears, I do love that song.

Visually, I do like this commercial. I’ll reserve judgement on the campaign on a whole until I see more of it in action. I think there is something positive with this concept and I’d like to see it work.

Can they execute this marketing package well across print, television, and interactive media while tying this in to the in-store shopping experience?

Last year I wrote about what I saw Sears doing with the Lands End shop concept (see: Sears’ Lands End Shop). At the time I said that I wasn’t sure how exciting the stores were going to be, outside of this new area. I still feel like that today. If this new marketing campaign is successful in bringing consumers back into Sears, what are they going to see? The Sears I have been in lately haven’t been terribly exciting nor inviting.

Once through those doors, are you going to want to spend your money there?

Looking at this as the first step in a turnaround for the retailer, perhaps this is just the first piece. I think Sears has a rich heritage and it is great to see them tapping in to that. If they continue to reevaluate their core competencies and merchandising assortment, maybe they can stop the bleeding that has begun. Same store sales at Sears were down in the first quarter (source), while many other retailers enjoyed hefty gains. Although their profits were up dramatically in 2006, there is only so much bottom line the retailer can slash before things get ugly.

Is 2007 Sears’ year?

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Hadn’t seen this video yet, but it’s from a BART train in San Fransico showing Target’s pretty wild new advertising there:

Pretty awesome effect they’re using there.

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They finally imploded the C-8 building in Asbury Park, as I talked about last week. Here is the video I took, via youtube:

I took a ride down, getting down to Asbury Park before six this morning. It was a wild scene to watch unfold - a ton of people came out to watch, including a lot of the NYC news media and a few of the local radio stations. There was an eight block area blocked off, so I was in the grassy park area near Kingsley between Fifth and Sunset. I was able to get as close and they would allow and I had a good view of the implosion.

For those that aren’t familar with Asbury Park, this construction on this building started in the mid to late 80’s. After 12 of the 16 stories of the building were up, the developer went bankrupt and the land had sat in tax/governmental/political limbo until a few years ago. After the area near Cookman Ave and Main Street had undergone redevelopment, development finally began on the oceanfront area. However, this building still stood as a reminder of what the city once was and overshadowed all of the good going on in the area.

The implosion of the building is a very monumental step forward in the redevelopment. The eyesore is gone and I am very interested in how the city is going to unfold after this.

Here is a recent article from the Asbury Park Press talking about the past and future of the building. And here is another quick article on the Asbury Park Press website about today’s events.

And finally, here are photos I’d like to share. The first is a photo I found that I took on March 29, 2002 that shows how the C-8 building used to look. The rest of the photos are from today’s events.

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I think one of the greatest, yet creepiest, commercials of recent memory all involve Burger King’s “King”. Especially the new one where the King wakes up in his bed, rubs his eyes and looks at the crowd in his bedroom. Because of my fondness for the King (and the fact that I am still mad that I didn’t buy a King mask for Halloween), I find this video especially funny. The King flipping off all of the BK competitors to the tune of the Safety Dance? Hilarious.

Link via Church of the Customer.

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