What happens in Vegas ends up on this blog. Below are a few pictures from ERA’s Annual Convention in Las Vegas. Check back often - more pictures will be posted soon.
Archive for September, 2008
Vegas Baby, Vegas!
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Billy Mays at Livemercial’s Office
Saturday, September 27th, 2008What happens when a direct response pitchman accepts a job at your office? The employees of Valparaiso, Indiana-based Livemercial learned some funny lessons when Billy Mays came to town. The following video played during the recent ERA Awards Gala. Enjoy!
Credit: Livemercial, Jim Barnthouse, Kevin Miller and Corey Morrisson
To Be a Direct Response Host…
Friday, September 26th, 2008
As we wind down from ERA’s Annual Convention, it’s always fun to look back at some of the things that distinguish the direct-to-consumer industry from the greater retail and advertising industries at large. I recently conducted a Q&A with well-known DRTV host Beau Rials. When asked how he’d seen direct response evolve over the years, Rials had this to say:
It’s moved from the punch line of Madison Avenue to something they must do. Sure, people still make fun of infomercials and short-form spots, but a huge percentage of Fortune 500 companies now make them an integral part of their advertising plans. What’s great is, one week I’ll be shooting a show for some start-up’s dream product, and the next I’ll be selling $4,000 air conditioning systems for Mitsubishi Electric or $3,000 fish finders for Johnson Outdoor. In my 17 years, I’ve seen direct response advertising go from laughing stock to something you better be doing if you’re a VP of marketing.
Click here to read the entire Q&A article where Rials discusses a variety of aspects of the DRTV industry. As an on-air host, all of the products Rials represents must receive his stamp of approval. Being a DRTV or live shopping host can be a very daunting task. We’ve shown bloopers on the Electronic Retailer blog before, but the video below may take the cake.
(Note: Watch until the end if you have the time—the entire demo continues to snowball into tears and laughter!)
Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia editor.
What’s the General Process of Selling Unsold Radio Inventory?
Friday, September 19th, 2008
National cable television networks largely solved the problem of unsold inventory by instituting a “direct response rate†structure. Generally speaking, this structure involves preemptible rates in very broad dayparts (or no dayparts). To qualify for this rate, TV direct response advertisers must have a specific telephone or URL call to action. It’s a simple, straightforward and well-understood process.
Radio, unfortunately, does not have such a process, either on a network or local spot market basis. The result is that for many decades, radio stations have not had an easy way to offload unsold inventory without feeling like they are degrading their inventory value. Consequently, local radio stations in particular have relied upon specialists who negotiate low CPM buys or per inquiry advertisers. Such buying mechanisms, however, are difficult to scale for advertisers because not very many stations like to deal with those buyers. Advertisers have also found it difficult to scale their buys with those specialists.
It was this lack of an adequate process for accessing unsold radio airtime at discounted rates that got me wondering if there wasn’t a way to leverage the power of auctions and the Internet to accomplish this. I knew that there were companies that had tried in the past to create online auctions or advertising exchanges, but had failed. The concept of Bid4Spots came out of my realization that with a high supply of inventory and a relatively low demand (advertisers being concerned more about buying next quarter than next week), the others had simply not realized that a forward auction with buyers competing for the highest price should be flipped upside down. A better way to create media buys with high value would be to have the sellers competing and the lowest prices (CPMs) winning.
Dave Newmark is CEO of Bid4Spots.
ERA Minute: Tips on Managing a Campaign
Thursday, September 18th, 2008In this ERA Minute, Steve Edelstein, CEO of The Logical Step, shares the three key things you’ll need to remember when managing your DR campaign. If you’re interested in making the next ERA Minute, contact Peter Howson at phowson@retailing.org.
Do you agree with this assessment?
Behavioral Tracking or Behavioral Stalking?
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
Just when I thought social websites, such as Facebook, were attempting to provide a little more security by tweaking the adjustability of the privacy settings, I began to take note of the sponsored link ads that creep along the sides of my homepage and the pages of other unsuspecting users and wonder just how confidential my profile actually is.
Facebook knows my name, my sex, my educational background, my e-mail address and my face, literally. But just because I am a 21-year-old female does not mean I need to visit a website to meet a man, apparently of my dreams, or review a casino’s website with hopes to spend the wads of cash the typical college student has hidden under his or her dorm mattress. Should I take offense to the airbrushed images flashing on the screen promoting weight loss? Hmm, who knew simply taking a weight-loss supplement could make any girl centerfold worthy?
Is it ethical for a website to require such user information and then allow its users to be hounded with what advertisers deem relevant to our being based solely on keywords found scattered amongst our online identities? And it’s not just social networking websites. My e-mail accounts are being bombarded with sponsored links containing keywords evidently scouted out from my e-mails as well. Sure, we have the choice to sign up for such services, but should we not have to give consent for our online personalities to be analyzed and solicited?
I can accept search engines tracking my queries and on some level understand and appreciate the effort and help. Facebook and Gmail stalking my habits and statistics could be seen in some circles as abusing their rights to my personal information, and I don’t think I can get on board with it. I suggest a course of action be taken towards more privacy before many decide it may be time to defriend Facebook and put Gmail in the trash.
Leah Mitter is an intern with the Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program.
Uncle Rick and Bill Want You!
Sunday, September 14th, 2008For more information about ERA’s PAC Leadership Dinner, click here.
The Scoop on NewEgg – Streamlined Sales Tax
Monday, September 8th, 2008
As you may have heard, NewEgg has stopped collecting sales tax from New York customers. Unlike Amazon, which has initiated litigation challenging New York’s tax policies, or Overstock.com, which has cut New York affiliate programs in order to avoid the tax, NewEgg has taken a new path. Some insiders suggest it may also be “restructuring†its affiliate programs as well, but it seems likely the company also expects enforcement to be too costly for the New York state government. Because NewEgg is a California company that does not have a physical location in New York, any kind of enforcement will likely involve extensive legal challenges before the courts can even determine where the case should be tried. Then, there is an extremely strong Constitutional argument that the New York law cannot extend to businesses that do not have a physical nexus in the state. NewEgg will probably also argue that its affiliates are structured in a way that has never subjected the company to the law.
All of this litigation would be extremely costly. The New York state government only expected to collect $50 million a year in total, and now companies are ditching their New York affiliates to avoid the tax, so the revenue generating potential of this tax is pretty low. The amount the state could collect from NewEgg if it wins the challenge would, of course, only be a fraction of that amount. Plus, there is evidence politicians are feeling pressure from constituents, including customers and advertising agencies, to suspend this tax. The New York State Senate has already passed a bill to repeal it. All this said, NewEgg might be taking a risk, but with extremely high consumer ratings and a steady stream of cash, it can probably afford it.
Tomi Turner works in ERA’s government affairs department.
ERA Minute: What to do with customers in the queue!
Monday, September 8th, 2008The ERA Minute is a new feature where ERA members can film marketing tips that will be distributed throughout all of ERA’s channels and social networking outlets. If you’re interested in making the next ERA Minute, contact Peter Howson at phowson@retailing.org. In this ERA Minute, MicahTek’s Marvin Jones shares thoughts on custom queue messaging: how to sell to your customers in your call center queue.
What do you think call center reps should discuss with customers in the queue?
Tap The Rockies?
Friday, September 5th, 2008
Attend any marketing conference or read any industry trade publication and you’ll receive the same message: The consumer is in control. We’re told that we need to engage consumers on their turf, make brands interactive, and gasp—perhaps even include user-generated content into the marketing mix. What happens, however, if a brand tries to follow these new rules, but the results aren’t engaging, funny or propel a consumer to share the brand’s content with their family and friends?
Take the recent Coors Light commercials, which seem to have all the right moves. The commercials consist of YouTube-esque videos of stand up comics cracking unknowingly, lame jokes about Coors Light before cutting to a standard quick marketing message. I distinctly remember sitting on my friend Val’s couch as one of these commercials played. We all looked at each other with a gaze of slight embarrassment for Coors Light. It was at that point that the room decided the commercial actually made us want to go out and buy Miller Light, to which Val gleefully chanted, “It’s Miller Time!â€
(Ed. Note: Only one I could find; most were even worse)
But for every Coors Light stinker, there’s usually another campaign that does get it right. A recent example that comes to mind is JC Penney’s back-to-school campaign that cleverly touches on the iconic ’80s film, “The Breakfast Club.†Considering my job involves marketing and advertising, I sometimes get a strange pleasure from watching my friends, family or even strangers watch, react to and discuss various forms of marketing without them knowing that I’m observing. This was the case with the JC Penney ads. During a recent trip to South Carolina, I watched my older cousin view the ad. I noticed that he paid particular attention to it. I mentioned that it seems to have lifted heavily from “The Breakfast Club.†His eyes lit up, “I knew that seemed familiar,†he said with a bit of excitement. When his wife entered the room, he told her that she’d like the JC Penney commercial next time it came on, which he was sure would be soon since we were watching MTV, the king of repetition.
A few days later, I was watching the Olympics with my little brother when the same JC Penney commercial aired. “I like this commercial a lot,†my brother said without any prompting from me. As the Olympics began to play again, my brother continued to sing the song from the commercial. Just for sh*ts and giggles, I decided to test him. “Do you remember what brand that song and commercial were for?†I asked. “Yeah, JC Penney. Why?†“No reason,†I said, thinking to myself that his answer would be exactly what executives at JC Penney would want to hear coming from a kid who was literally about to do his back-to-school shopping after vacation for his upcoming sophomore year of high school. JC Penney’s “Get That Look†campaign rounds off with an enticing, interactive micro-site. It’s almost like “The Breakfast Club†theme song that also plays in the commercial has an underlying message about JC Penney for consumers: Don’t you, forget about me…don’t don’t don’t dooon’t you, forget about me.
Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia editor.
Big Box Blame Game
Friday, September 5th, 2008
After crushing most independent, ‘main street’ stores, Wal-Mart and other big retail chains are turning their guns on smaller online competitors. They’re asking their allies in Congress for new laws designed to cripple competition from online entrepreneurs.
In the name of preventing “retail theft,†the Wal-Marts of the world are telling Congress that e-commerce is causing dishonest employees and suppliers to steal from their store shelves and loading docks. That’s like blaming the back seat of cars for causing teenage sex.
Even the lobbying arm of the big-box retailers, the National Retail Federation, knows this is a bogus claim. Its own 2005 study showed that most retail theft comes from a store’s own employees. Nevertheless, retailing giants and their lobbyists want new laws to hold e-commerce responsible for their own unwillingness to screen employees and spend more on security.
* HR 6491, the Organized Retail Crime Act, would make it a crime if a marketplace doesn’t pull listings when a competing retailer claims it has evidence of theft. This is just asking for abuse: A high-markup retailer can claim that a particular item just HAS to be stolen “because it’s selling for less than my cost!†and marketplaces like eBay and Overstock would have to pull the listing.
* HR 6713, the E-Fencing Enforcement Act, would require marketplaces to conduct investigations if a retailer provides a police report—dated anytime in the last year— claiming theft of goods similar to an online listing. A big-box chain could file a police report for theft of baby formula, then use this report to force online marketplaces to investigate every listing of baby formula—even by mothers whose newborns just can’t stomach the formula samples they brought home from the hospital!
These bills would impose extraordinary and discriminatory restrictions on Internet marketplaces that help millions of people to legitimately buy and sell products every day—at big discounts. Amazingly, only Internet sites are targeted by these bills, while newspaper classifieds and other “off-line†flea markets are not even mentioned. The proponents of these bills say they’re about loss prevention, but they’re really about competition prevention—preventing online marketplaces from competing with big retailers.
Steve DelBianco is executive director of NetChoice.
Using Personalization to Re-Engage Customers
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
Acquiring new customers is a challenging and costly endeavor in the best of times, let alone during an economic downturn. This is why converting first-time customers into repeat shoppers is incredibly important to e-retailers. To that end, online marketers must effectively re-engage new customers by combining individually targeted promotions and offers with one-to-one product merchandizing. Personalization-based marketing and merchandizing services, when deployed wisely and cohesively across all sales channels, can greatly improve an e-retailer’s bottom line while positively impacting the consumer’s overall shopping experience.
Too often, e-retailers rely on traditional techniques to encourage buyers to return. These tactics range from promotional discounts to free shipping. While useful in obtaining new customers, these techniques are not as effective for re-engaging one-time customers and don’t leverage the capabilities unique to online retailers. What’s more, these techniques often eat into profits and typically result in training shoppers to wait for such discounts at the retailer’s expense.
Personalized direct marketing, however, is a cost-effective alternative proven to help e-retailers build customer loyalty without giving margin away unnecessarily. By enticing customers with relevant product promotions after they leave the store—for example, recommendations made in a confirmation e-mail or personalized offers in e-mail marketing campaigns—e-retailers can increase the frequency of repeat visits and average purchase size. Once a customer has responded to an offer, it’s important to continue presenting the most personally relevant products to that shopper based on his or her previous and in-session behavior throughout the online shopping experience.
Online shoppers have grown accustomed to searching through an overabundant inventory, spending time browsing for items on a site that does not quickly (if ever) recognize who they are, remember what their interests are, or predict what they are most likely to purchase. The amount of time spent searching and browsing can cause the consumer to abandon a shopping cart, purchase fewer items or shop at another store. Personalized product recommendations give consumers a more relevant experience, similar to the personal interaction they expect at their favorite brick-and-mortar store, providing customers with recommendations tailored to their particular tastes and needs. So, what are the best practices for implementing personalized product recommendations as part of direct marketing campaigns? (more…)
Influencing Customer Opinions Online
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
A fact of selling products online is that your target customer is savvy about the Internet. As such, your customers are well informed about discussion forums and ratings sites, and they are posting their opinions about your company to those sites. Prospective customers are also using the Internet to research your company’s reputation. Therein lies the big question: How can you put your best foot forward, and ensure that prospective customers are reading positive opinions, reviews and ratings when making purchase decisions?
Many venues exist for customers to post their opinions online: sites like dpreview.com, notebookreview.com, avsforum.com, photo.net, ratings sites like ResellerRatings.com, Epinions,
Bizrate, and of course, the BBB. You don’t have to be passive about the process though. Here’s how to control the process and maximize your ratings:
1) First choose a resource where you want your customers to write reviews. Discussion forums are not recommended because they offer the least control. You could choose a shopping engine, like Bizrate, if you advertise your products there and want to display high ratings there as well. Or, you could select a site like ResellerRatings, which maximizes your control over customer feedback, as compared to all other sites. ResellerRatings offers features that are not found on any other resource: the ability to identity reviewers by their invoice number, the ability to contact reviewers to resolve disputes (reviewers can edit their review at any time), post a public rebuttal comment in reply to a review, and flag reviews for evaluation under terms-of-use policies for possible removal.
2) Steer customers toward your preferred ratings/reviews resource and encourage them to write reviews. ResellerRatings offers an exit survey popup window to solicit reviews at the point of sale (on the invoice/thank you page), as does Bizrate. You can also include a link to the review survey form in your order confirmation e-mails. It’s better to direct your customers to write reviews at a place that you have some control over, and give them that outlet that they need. Otherwise, you run the risk of them starting a damaging discussion thread about your company at a random discussion forum that you can’t control.
3) Take an active role to monitor customer feedback. Contact customers to resolve any complaints. Post public rebuttal comments with your side of the story in reply to reviews, but always be open, friendly and helpful in your replies. Be clear that your end goal is resolution, and that you value this and all other customers.
By following these guidelines, you are well on your way to successfully influencing customers’ opinions online, and to best managing your customer-relations process.
Scott Wainner is founder & CEO of All Enthusiast.
