
Marketing

Critically, it's time to admit that attributing the full value of the marketing investment to the last or "converting" click is fundamentally flawed. By ignoring all previous activities which have contributed to the eventual sale, this approach is inaccurate, untrustworthy and often results in investment in key activities being reduced or cut.
Foot Locker announced the launch of a new marketing campaign involving the social media phenomenon Instagram. The campaign encourages Instagram users to tag pictures of themselves wearing their favorite kicks using #kickstagram and @footlocker. Uploaded photos will have the chance to be showcased on Footlocker.com, Foot Locker's Facebook page as well as in-store windows nationwide this summer.
The Container Store is introducing themed, interactive digital catalogs to highlight different subsets of its eclectic mix of storage and organization products. A new web-based catalog will be published every six weeks, allowing the retailer to more effectively target specific audiences or shopping seasons. The Container Store also plans to expand into mobile and social channels and integrate features such as audio and video. The newest catalog, Go Organized! Travel Sale, features luggage and travel accessories, with a design that's both online- and tablet-friendly.
J.C. Penney appears to be relenting a bit on the strict nonpromotional strategy launched by CEO Ron Johnson. In a report on CNBC.com, Deutsche Bank Analyst Charles Grom said the chain has added five "Best Price Friday" events to its calendar. The first took place the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, and another is scheduled for Black Friday in November. Others may occur at peak sales times, according to Grom.
Earlier this month, the anti-gay group One Million Moms (which has substantially less than 1 million members) called for a boycott of J.C. Penney after it featured a lesbian couple in its catalog. The retailer didn't apologize and isn't backing down. In fact, it's almost trolling the anti-gay groups with jubilant, uncorporate-like defiance in a Father's Day ad featuring not one but two dads. The two men pictured are real-life dads Todd Koch and Cooper Smith, seen with their kids, Claire and Mason.
It’s been months since Zappos.com experienced a massive data breach and the retail industry received a lesson in the speed of information. Within minutes of the breach notification to 24 million customers, the industry was scrutinizing Zappos’ response to the incident. Within days, a class-action lawsuit was filed. The "lesson learned" for retailers couldn't have been articulated more clearly: You may be next. Have a plan. Data breaches will happen, and major retailers have a target on their backs. However, a level of desensitization is occurring in IT as it relates to information and network security.
Sears is encouraging customer feedback for the products it sells by offering shoppers the chance to vote for their favorite participating charity every time they post a product review. Through its "Love/Hate: Share Your Thoughts, Send Some Love" project, Sears is offering customers the chance to share their opinion — good or bad — on products and in return vote for one of four charities to receive a grand prize of $100,000. The participating charities competing for the grand prize include the American Cancer Society, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, World Vision and World Wildlife Fund.
Giving potential customers the information they actually want is one of the most effective ways to grab their attention in today's fragmented media landscape. With the right tools in place, once you have a visitor's interest, it becomes easier to guide individual website experiences, with conversion as the ultimate goal.
What you will learn:
- The importance of making a great first impression through relevant website content
- How PODS employed a relevancy strategy to double its percentage of business that is booked online
- How to use customer segmentation strategies to drive more relevant content
- How triggered marketing campaigns can help improve the online retail experience
Marketers have developed quite a bag of promotion and coupon tricks to get consumers to spend more at the checkout counter or when mailing in the order form. The good news for online retailers is that modern e-commerce software lets them easily adapt these proven promotional techniques to an online environment to lift average order sizes, revenues and profits.
You Will Learn About:
- Free Shipping
- Premiums
- Discounts
- Coupons
- and more!
Earlier this week we profiled digital marketing execs from General Mills and GE on how they're running their organizations like publishers. For our third and final installment in this series on content marketing, we sat down with Julia Fitzgerald, chief digital officer, fitness, sporting goods and toys at Sears Holdings.