10/12/2009
Posted by Tina Manikas, Global Retail and Promotions Officer
There was plenty to celebrate at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago last Thursday night as our work for the U.S. Postal Service was awarded a PRO Award in the Best Use of P-O-P category for the USPS Innovation Center. The Innovation Center is a fully operating Post Office that uses state-of-the-art retail technology and best retail practices. Since opening in June 2008, it has served as a learning lab for testing new ideas that can be rolled out nationally, and it hs had tremendous results.
The work can be seen by clicking here. Congratulations to everyone involved! 4/9/2009Posted by Tina Manikas, Global Retail and Promotions Officer, Draftfcb
We had a very rich two days at the In-Store Marketing Summit held at McDonald’s Hamburger U.
Draftfcb served as a sponsor of this year’s summit, and it proved to be an insightful experience among the 200-250 participants made up of marketers, manufactures, retailers and industry partners. With the increase in staying home and eating in, shoppers are frequenting the store more often and are being more “planful” as well. The focus for marketers is now to “get on the list” as well as “get in the cart.”
Jim Lucas, our director of shopper marketing, did a brilliant job hosting the insights seminar track which included key leaders/presenters from Walmart, P&G, Pepsi, and top PhD’s in the retail space. Presentations on virtual retail research, and shoppers behavior in the current economy sparked many ideas. I attended a get together with shopper marketing retail leaders from Pepsi, Nestle Dryers, P&G as well as Kraft (inducted into hall of Fame). Great conversation was shared on retail challenges and opportunities.
For those of you who haven’t attended the summit in the past, I definitely recommend it. It’s a great opportunity to share insights with some of the leaders in the industry.
3/12/2009
Posted by Tina Manikas, Global Retail and Promotions Officer
The recession (and in turn the economy) was a core theme during the two-day PMA integrated conference this year with a lot of interest in agency innovation from conference attendees. Looking at the attendance, the topic was fitting as this year’s crowd was smaller than years past. Many unlikely suspects have made great advances in integrated marketing as well as shopper marketing within the mix. Kimberly Clark was one noteworthy manufacturer that’s done a great job of making and keeping brand promises and changing their mix on several brands – this includes moving away from the FSI drug addiction.
My involvement this year included participation on The Great Agency Panel Tuesday afternoon with executives from Digitas, Catapult and Enfatico, and moderated by PMA President Bonnie Carlson. We touched on a number of other subjects during our hour-long discussion andit was well attended. I think everyone took away quite a bit—even the panelists. A few of the issues we discussed were:
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the idea of framing value and continuing migration of traditional advertising to shopper and digital marketing
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the debate of whether consumer/shopper behavior changes will last or revert back to previous ways
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what does it take to have a winning, integrated marketing process
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how a holistic all in one agency handles integration
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the increase in short term strategies
And for fun, we were asked what we would advise the President on how to market to reestablish some consumer confidence. Advice included marketing small wins/shows of action, leveraging America and its greatness, focusing the message and speaking to benefits/not process. The conversation stopped just short of getting political.
The day wrapped up at REGGIES Gala, where Draftfcb Chicago and New York were honored throughout the evening. Howard Draft, our executive chairman, served a REGGIE All-Star presenter, based on our past performance at the show, and we took home a handful of awards—2 Gold, 2 Bronze and the Super REGGIE for Oreo DSRL. In my mind, the Super REGGIE was a huge win for the agency as the initiative was a cross-office collaboration effort between our Chicago and New York offices in addition to five other agency partners.
The work along with all the winners will be featured in April 7 Brandweek, and the Gold winners go on to the MAA's international "Globe" awards. 2/24/2009
Posted by Jim Lucas, Director of Shopper Marketing, Draftfcb Chicago
The recession isn’t doing anybody much good, but there are some opportunities out there for retailers and marketers. Take a look at today’s Marketing Daily, which saw fit to include some of my thoughts on the subject.
Consumers and shoppers are changing daily and marketers and retailers both need to know just how—and how they need to respond. 12/15/2008
Posted by Tina Manikas, Global Retail and Promotions Officer
Consumers are not just tightening their belts these days, they're actually going to a smaller belt size. We know a lot of the facts. Discretionary spending down 40%. Home values down. The credit crunch, rising unemployment. The cost of energy. But this is really giving birth to new consumer behavior. Both consumers as consumers and how they behave as shoppers. There's a lot less dining out. They're canceling vacations or postponing them. They're replacing their out-of-home entertainment with in-home entertainment. They're cutting back on groceries.
So how do we promote brand value in these tough economic times?
1) Messaging is really critical. First of all, we need to reframe brand value in a relevant way to shoppers to show a brand's relevance in these times? Is it the smart choice? Is it the affordable treat? Or is it a trust mark where for instance with milk, one of the things we're doing is focusing on the fact that it's nutrient rich. So why pay for empty calories? So while the cost of milk may be going up, it's a way to reinforce our value but reframe it without really discounting the product.
2) Think about added value and how it can be leveraged to drive shoppers to your brand. It's interesting to note some tricks that shoppers use are actually not walking down aisles they've already de-listed in their minds before they even get to the store. So they can forego for instance going down the cleaning aisle, they make their cleaning products last a little longer. So drive them into the aisle with coupons and trials. Drive attention to the fact that you have a portfolio of different sizes within your brand that might meet their needs. So they don't have to choose not to go with your brand, but they may choose to go with a smaller size.
3) Don't forget there's power in a strong brand. Remind consumers there's a risk if they go to something else, even if your brand is more expensive. Be very active in really asserting the value of the brand by reframing that value in a relevant way in the shopper's mind. And not only in the store, where she's making a lot of her choices, but also before the store. Brands and retailers have to work together so together they can win through these tough times.
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