Marketing Tactics

By Scollay Petry, OtherLevels

Top of mind for retailers wanting to better engage with shoppers in their brick-and-mortar locations this holiday season are in-location technologies (e.g. beacons) and the personalization tactics they make possible. According to MediaPost, about 20% of retailers already use iBeacons, while 54% plan to implement the technology by 2015. With the promise of immediacy and “in-store engagement,” others undoubtedly will jump on the beacon bandwagon soon.

San Luis Obispo – In what could be a preview of Sunday’s Super Bowl performance, Patriots fans have been outselling Seahawks fans overall in the month of January by 258%. According to data from Shopatron, although in total Patriots fans have spent more, individually their Seahawks counterparts have been more zealous, spending an average of 15% more than Patriots fans on each individual order.

Reebok is pushing the envelope once again with a bold new digital marketing campaign. 

At the heart of the retailer’s digital campaign is the “Be More Human Experience,” an online destination where fitness enthusiasts can challenge and define what it is to be human. 

Toys "R" Us is expanding its partnership with the Special Olympics with a whopping $1.25 million commitment toward sponsoring the 2015 Special Olympics World Games.

The Games, which will welcome 7,000 athletes and 3,000 coaches representing 177 countries, to Los Angeles, Calif., from July 25 to Aug. 2, is the flagship event of the Special Olympics and biggest sporting event of the year. The 2015 World Games marks the first time in 16 years that the Summer World Games have been held in the United States.

Dayton, Ohio – Personalization has become something of a “family value” for marketers. According to the Teradata 2015 Global Data-Driven Marketing Survey, 90 % of marketers say making marketing individualized is a priority.  

They want to move beyond segmentation to true one-to-one personalization in a real-time context. Faster, more accurate decisions are key benefits of using data for nearly two-thirds of respondents.

Other findings include:

Overstock.com rode the wave of e-commerce during the holidays to an 18% increase in profits.

The online retailer said fourth-quarter revenues rose 18.3% to $470.4 million as the e-commerce heavyweight increased its average order size to $159.

The retailer also said its gross margin increased by 0.2% to 18.2% due to improved warehouse efficiency, lower inbound freight costs and reduced credit card fees.

San Francisco -- Incoming Gap Inc. CEO Art Peck is wasting no time reshaping the apparel giant. In its latest management shakeup, the retailer named company veteran Scott Key to the new position of senior VP and general manager of customer experience for its namesake brand. It also announced that Rebekka Bay, creative director for the Gap brand, was departing the company, effective immediately.

The latest changes come on the heels of Gap’s announcement last week that it was shutting down its Piperlime brand.

Walmart shoppers who read Harlequin novels and who also have a fondness for bull riders are in for a treat.