Marketing Tactics

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Social media will influence how people plan to shop this holiday season nearly as much as word-of-mouth and store advertisements, according to a survey conducted by ConsumerSearch.com, part of the About Group.

Whiting, Ind. -- Survey results released Wednesday by CouponCabin found that nearly a third (31%) of U.S. consumers feel that holiday shopping is starting too soon, with many stores opening their doors to shoppers Thursday, and in some cases, even Wednesday, night.

Stress is a factor, as many respondents reported that a variety of factors make Black Friday a nerve-wracking holiday. When asked which of the following stressed them out about Black Friday, U.S. adults said the following:

Vince Bove was named SVP and chief marketing officer at Reflect, a Dallas-based provider of software for digital signage networks at some of the nation’s leading retailers.

In his role as SVP, Bove will be responsible for business development and sales in the central and western United States.　In his capacity as chief marketing officer, he will assist Reflect clients with insightful shopper engagement strategies for their brand at the point-of-sale, and help them utilize the capabilities of the Reflect product line.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation’s 2012 holiday consumer spending survey conducted by BIGinsight showed that 81.1% of shoppers will purchase at least one gift card and will spend an average of $156.86 on gift cards, the highest amount in the survey’s 10-year history. Total spending on gift cards will reach $28.79 billion.

According to NRF’s first holiday survey, released in October, six in 10 (59.8%) of those polled said they’d like to receive gift cards this year, up from 57.7% last year.

The overall trend has been similar to what we saw last month with a marginal decrease in the number of circulars, while increases were seen in page counts per market. Average pages per market saw 10% increase this year October when compared with the same month last year.

New York -- A report released Wednesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs found that consumers are more willing to spend this holiday season.

According to the 2012 Holiday Spending Intentions Survey, 19% of consumers plan to spend more (and 5% plan to spend substantially more) on holiday gifts this year versus last year.  This is the highest percentage of consumers reporting they intend to increase spending over the previous holiday season since ICSC began asking the question in 2004.

Los Angeles -- Survey results released Tuesday by PriceGrabber found that 71% of consumers believe that retailers offer better deals during Thanksgiving weekend than they do during the rest of the winter holiday shopping season, up from 58% in 2011.

When consumers who indicated that the best deals can be found over the Thanksgiving weekend were asked which days retailers offer the best prices, 71% said Black Friday (Nov. 23), down from 80% in 2011 and 86% in 2010, and 41% said Cyber Monday (Nov. 26), up from 37% last year and 33% in 2010.

Atlanta -- Jones Lang LaSalle released a forecast suggesting that shopping centers will be pulling out all the digital stops this holiday season to engage and interact with consumers to influence purchasing decisions.