Watch as ERA CEO Julie Coons delivers a sneak peak of what attendees can expect from ERA’s upcoming 2009 D2C Convention in Las Vegas September 13-15. Register now! Early bird ends July 1!
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Archive for the ‘Europe’ Category
GA Fly-In Pics!
Thursday, April 30th, 2009The following are a few highlights from ERA’s 2009 Government Affairs Fly-In.
To view more pictures, click here.
Don’t miss out on upcoming ERA networking, education and fun!
ERA Webinar: How to Fight Online Knock-Offs and Counterfeits- May 14
ERA NYC Networking Reception- June 18
The 2009 Electronic HomeShopping Conference- June 28-30
The ERA European Conference and Trade Show
ERA L.A. Networking Reception- July 21
Burger King Ad Upsets Mexico
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009MEXICO CITY—Mexico is protesting what it says is a whopper of an insult, according to the Associated Press. An advertisement for Burger King’s Texican Whopper burger that has run in Europe shows a small wrestler dressed in a cape resembling a Mexican flag. The wrestler teams up with a lanky American cowboy almost twice his height to illustrate the cross-border blend of flavors. “The taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican,” a narrator’s voice says. The taller cowboy boosts the wrestler up to reach high shelves and helps clean tall windows, while the Mexican helps the cowboy open a jar. Mexico’s ambassador to Spain said Monday he has written a letter to Burger King’s offices in that nation, objecting to the ad and asking that it be removed. Jorge Zermeno told Radio Formula that the ads “improperly use the stereotyped image of a Mexican.”
Click here to read the complete article.
Loading ...’Tis the Season for Online Retailers to Optimize Resources
Monday, November 24th, 2008
It is clear that for online retailers to remain competitive during this holiday season, their sites must offer personalized recommendation engines, product reviews, live chat and a host of other features supported by social behavioral platforms. Consumers are driving this demand, and to ensure they continue to return to a site, they must have access to the technologies they have come to rely on.
Marketing professionals need to know the benefits they can expect from deploying social behavioral platforms, as well as why it is critical they integrate this type of system before the 2008 holiday shopping season ends. Following is a list of benefits online merchants can anticipate in terms of ROI, as well as short- and long-term effects.
• Immediate and measureable results are the “brass ring” every business is looking for. Satisfied customers may not contact retailers directly to share their thoughts regarding positive experiences, but increased average order sales and repeat visits exemplify their contentment.
• Online marketing systems decrease the need to manage on-site merchandizing and in turn reduce the need for seasonal retail staff. Using a multichannel approach empowers retailers with the ability to reach consumers of every demographic. Additionally, a ubiquitous presence engenders a perception of strength and longevity.
• Low cost of ownership is paramount to internal teams, and can be easily achieved through the deployment of fully automated software. A system that collects data, like click patterns, searches conducted and products purchased—all provided through the simple act of shopping—creates a self-sustaining system that essentially runs on its own, requiring no maintenance.
Once the IT department and business team deem the site ready to include e-commerce optimization software, key functionalities the project manager should look for are:
• Intelligent mining of large data sets – This offers real-time, automated, intelligent predictive suggestions.
• Performance-based models – Empower retailers to invest in the future by developing their online presence now, while keeping costs low and building their brand.
• Landing page optimization – Directs consumers to the specific page of the product being searched, presenting the merchandise most likely to appeal to shoppers.
It is crucial in today’s economic climate that online retailers employ strategies expressly designed to mitigate costs and optimize resources at hand. Instituting a social behavioral system that can be deployed in days rather than weeks ensures shoppers are greeted with personalized treatment and individualized care in time for the holiday shopping season, which will also begin laying the foundation for future retailing success.
Dr. Rolf Elmér is CEO of Avail Intelligence.
5 Easy-to-Implement Affiliate Marketing Tips for DRTV Marketers
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Tired of the same old tips and tricks about web affiliate marketing programs? “Communicate with them, treat them with respect” yada-yada. What about what really works? I pulled together a group of my most experienced, thought-leading colleagues to find out what’s moving the needle in affiliate marketing today. The below innovations are what I discovered. I’m happy to share these best practices. Yes, they can be quickly and easily applied—helping you manage your affiliates and extract maximum sales efficiency. Stay tuned to Electronic Retailer’s blog for candid interviews with these experts where they’ll “go deep” to reveal their secrets to success.
1. Allow affiliates to access a knowledge-driven feedback loop to improve their ROI and, as a result, increase yours.
a. Let affiliates “connect the ROI dots” between their investments (media spending) and your ultimate success (sales or new customers).
b. Provide select, trusted affiliates with limited, yet unfettered, access to your internal metrics and customer behavior data.
2. Strengthen relationships with superstar affiliates and open doors for potential superstars by actively, yet cautiously, investing hard and soft dollars in them.
a. Invest in affiliates: Underwrite affordable, educational opportunities and conferences for them. Sponsoring affiliates is very popular in the European realm.
b. Sponsor low-cost, virtual innovation forums and webinars that offer training opportunities for top affiliates.
c. Provide limited access to web metrics (i.e., Google Analytics, Omniture) and optimization tools that are already at your disposal, yet possess a high perceived (and applied!) value among affiliates.
d. Invest in affiliates: Subsidize the media buying of select, high-value affiliates by providing matching contributions to their expenditures or allowing access to your media buying prowess.
3. Develop and communicate a clear, well-reasoned search marketing policy to affiliates.
a. Audit your affiliate program for confluence with paid (PPC) search advertising efforts.
b. Understand value driven by affiliates across various categories based on audit results that demonstrate “triggers” of sales transactions.
c. Create business rules that negate and approve affiliate commissions based on logical rules that are shared openly and pro-actively with affiliates.
d. Understand where your search engine optimization “sweet spot” is by identifying where you want to spend time, energy (money). Assign “long tail” search terms/keywords (those able to generate less referral volume) to affiliates for their monetization efforts.
4. Experiment with social media affiliates.
a. Scale your most precious resource, time: Use new tools, such as Syntryx, to rapidly prospect for qualified affiliates.
b. Provide affiliates with access to helpful, innovative Web 2.0 linking technologies like Linkshare’s FlexLinks or Amazon’s various tools ranging from “SiteStripe” to widgets.
c. Give affiliates access to product data, coupons and other content via flexible, RSS-enabled technologies.
5. Consider creative, new approaches to paying and bonusing affiliates based on performance.
a. Throttle up payouts among performers who drive volume at a reasonable cost, considering channel confluence issues, etc.
b. Throttle down payouts among under-performers who’ve been given a fair chance, but are not performing on a quarterly basis.
Stay tuned for more actionable tips and interviews with experts in a variety of performance-focused web marketing strategies.
Jeff Molander is a leading Web marketing expert, author and speaker. He is CEO of Molander & Associates Inc.
ERA Names Julie J. Coons President & CEO
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
The Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) has named Julie J. Coons as its new president and CEO. Ms. Coons will lead the not-for-profit trade association, which represents the $400 billion direct-to-consumer electronic retailing industry. ERA represents more than 400 companies in more than 40 countries around the world.
“The Electronic Retailing Association plays a pivotal role in the emerging retail landscape,” says Coons. “Emerging technologies present new touch points for retailers to connect directly with consumers. Through its educational offerings, award-winning magazines and other publications and robust government affairs programs, ERA offers a path to profitability in the marketplace of the future for its members, while ensuring that the retailers are operating on an open and level playing field. ERA’s conventions—both in the U.S. and Europe—its government affairs conference, its e-learning offerings and networking events create a community of entrepreneurs on the leading edge of e-commerce with a unique vision of the future of retail.”
Edwin Garrubbo, immediate past chairman of the board of ERA and president and CEO of Creative Commerce, was head of the search committee for the position. “We are very pleased that ERA will be led by an executive who combines an understanding of the potential of our dynamic and fast-growing industry with a proven track record in association management and growth,” says Garrubbo. “Ms. Coons’ government affairs background and convention experience make her the perfect candidate to head ERA. We are confident that her leadership will significantly strengthen ERA’s ability to be a critical force in advocating for its members and expanding ERA’s excellent slate of benefits to further serve its members’ needs.”
Prior to joining ERA, Ms. Coons served as CEO of the Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association with more than 500 members in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. During her four-year tenure at TCM, Ms. Coons improved the financial health of the association, streamlined governance processes and oversaw the re-branding of the organization. (more…)
How Far is Too Far?
Monday, October 27th, 2008
People always say that sex sells. Perhaps that’s why these two foreign ad campaigns for Burger King and the Fiat Panda heavily incorporate sex/sex appeal. Both were eventually banned in their respective countries. However, they obviously still enjoy viral life on YouTube and through e-mail.
What’s your take on the ads?
Loading ...Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia editor.
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.
French Court Erects New Barriers to E-commerce
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
As advocates for choice, competition and innovation on the Net, we’re troubled to read about a ludicrous court ruling against online commerce. The French Tribunal de Commerce in Paris ordered eBay to pay 39 million Euros to French luxury goods maker LVMH. Mike Masnick of Techdirt shares our outrage here.
Judging by media coverage of this ruling, one would think it’s all about preventing sales of counterfeit goods. But it’s actually much farther-reaching than that, in a way that’s incredibly damaging to the growth of e-commerce, small business and consumer choice in Europe. The French Court ruled that eBay must halt the sale of legitimate, genuine LVMH perfumes on the eBay site. Essentially, the Court held that a big business like LVMH could stop customers and owners of its products from re-selling them to someone else. This is blatant discrimination by French authorities against the e-commerce channel. eBay is appealing the ruling (read their take on the ruling on their company blog, eBay Ink). The outcome of this appeal could impact the future of e-commerce around the world.
Imagine if efficient online marketplaces like eBay, Overstock, Amazon and others had to pull the plug on entire categories of items, preventing perfectly legal sales of authentic items. Millions of shoppers use these sites to find great deals on things they want or need. During tough economic times, many people look to the web to help stretch a household budget. And millions of people around the world use the web as a tool for running their small businesses. And if you think that this is just another example of “France being France,” think again. This backward, anti-competitive perspective may be coming to a court near you. Any day now, the Federal District Court in New York will rule on Tiffany’s lawsuit against eBay. Again, Tiffany is crying counterfeits, and trotting out dubious data on online sales. But we believe Tiffany’s real interest here is to shut down any distribution of Tiffany products that isn’t completely controlled by Tiffany. Got a gift of earrings that just aren’t your style? If the New York court rules the wrong way, you may no longer have the option of selling them online.
Of course, counterfeits are a scourge to any marketplace. They undermine brand integrity and cheat buyers. And counterfeits have been a problem long before the Internet existed. eBay and others have worked hard to stem the sale of fake items. But go to any urban sidewalk, bazaar or back alley, and you’ll likely find the counterfeit trade still thriving. So when manufacturers and retailers cry “counterfeit” and point fingers at the e-commerce channel, their true motives are exposed. They’re calling for competition prevention—not consumer protection. And when courts agree with them, we all lose.
Steve DelBianco is executive director of NetChoice.
Did Heinz Go Too Far?
Friday, June 27th, 2008
There’s a big fuss across the pond about two men kissing. A recent Heinz ad was taken off the airwaves after the UK Advertising Standard Authority received over 200 complaints.
And I always thought they were supposed to be so much more open-minded than us Yanks! A Boston news outlet’s editorial claims, “As far as images of same-sex families go, it’s positively delicious.” I think that author missed the boat completely. What’s funny is that I don’t think the commercial has anything to do with being gay. We’ve discussed marketing to gays on this blog before, but this is an entirely different scenario. The idea behind the ad is that the deli mayo is so authentic tasting that the “mother figure” is replaced as a New York deli worker. Either that, or it’s normal for children of gay couples in London to call their one father “mum” and for that person to be dressed in the morning like they’re working at a diner.
Heinz used creativity in making a provocative, compelling and memorable ad. What more could a brand want?
What’s your take on the ad? Was Heinz wrong to make it? Were they wrong to pull it?
Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia Editor
Would This Scandinavian IKEA Ad Fly in America?
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
Home furnishings giant IKEA clearly has a grip on its segment of retail. IKEA, originating in Sweden, has grown into an international fixture over the years. However, cultures around the world are very different, and therefore, the marketing and advertising that makes sense to consumers in different countries can vary greatly. Knowing that most Europeans are typically harder to offend than most Americans when it comes to sexuality, would this kind of advertising work in United States? Would this be harmful to the IKEA brand? Electronic Retailer reached out to Dan Akalou, IKEA’s general manager, to get his input on this thought-provoking issue.
“This commercial, which aired in Scandinavia, reflects both the impact of divorce on home life (the tag-line reads ‘A better divorce for everyone’), as well as the versatility of the IKEA range of home furnishings solutions. It’s unlikely that we would run advertising like this in the United States. That said, the sentiment of versatile products that allow adults to have an adult home even when they are parents, is consistent across national borders. IKEA is known for doing edgy commercials in many of its markets. Breakthrough communication creates awareness quicker and at a lower cost than the usual informative approach to advertising.” —Dan Akalou, IKEA general manager.
Do you think this ad would work in the U.S.?
