How this year's Black Friday is different

We made it November, and now holiday marketing is in full swing already. In fact, many marketers didn’t even wait until after Halloween to get the season started. 

The attempt to push holiday marketing early happens every year, and so Black Friday has evolved and stretched to pretty much all of November over the past several years. Yet there were always some holdouts who would for the super deals on doorbuster specials available in stores only on the day itself. 

Recollecting Past Black Fridays

That phenomenon is what prompted my father-in-law to get up before dawn to  bring home two play kitchens for his grandchildren. I don’t recall what price he paid, only that he believed the savings to be worth the trouble. 

It goes beyond saving $20. He enjoyed the thrill of the frenzied excitement surrounding Black Friday sale events.

As the National Retail Foundation (NRF) reported last year, “Thanksgiving weekend draws nearly 190 million shoppers, spending up 16 percent.”  That year online shopping outstripped in store shopping: 142.2 million vs. 124 million. 

There were always some traditionalists who like to see what they buy in real life and who expect better deals in stores. That’s particularly true of those of older generations who are loath to order online ever. 

New for 2020

This year, though, likely the figures will shift to more online shopping and more shoppers making completing their purchases before the big weekend still referred to as Black Friday.  The challenge for retailers will be not to lose out on the sales that shoppers would come into stores for at a time when people are still skittish about crowds.

However, adapting to the reality of life under a pandemic when many stores were closed for months forced even a lot of the old-school shoppers to embrace the ease, convenience, and safety of online shopping.

That shift is going to reshape Black Friday 2020. Even if stores wanted to revert to the old model, the concerns about rising cases this season and the general advice not to pack a lot of people together means there is no concentrated shopping frenzy at most retailers.

Read more in This is Not Your Father’s Black Friday

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Now you can revisit your childhood on Instagram

 

That's where mattel is hosting its virtual museum.

To celebrate 90 years  of toys, Mattel just announced the grand opening of the Fisher-Price Toy Museum to be hosted on Instagram. While toy museums are not new, this represents a “first-of-its-kind digital experience.”

“The Fisher-Price Toy Museum was inspired by the idea that, whether you were born in the 1950s, 1980s or 2000s, everyone has a memory of their favorite childhood toy, and many of those are from Fisher-Price,” said Chuck Scothon, SVP and Global Head of Infant and Preschool, Mattel. “The intent of this museum is to take visitors back to their unique childhood experiences, and give them the opportunity to relive their youth, even if just for a few moments.”

It makes sense to curate the toys virtually rather than in a physical location now. It increases accessibility at a time when even reopened museums have to limit crowds and offers a  welcome respite from the stress of the present by reminding us of the carefree time of our childhood.

It also makes sense to set the opening for October 15 when consumers are starting to think about holiday shopping. Amazon Prime Day just ended, and shoppers have already been oriented toward thinking about their gifts.Like all museums, this one also includes  a gift shop.

Read more here 

Pick a Pumpkin for Perfectly Personalized October Marketing

  Pick a Pumpkin for Perfectly Personalized October Marketing

by Ariella Brown

We in the 2020s, and it's time for marketers to take a more inclusive approach for their messaging this season. Not everyone celebrates Halloween, and even those who do are likely to be scaling it back  this year.

Halloween is a major occasion for sales in a normal year as close to 70% of Americans, according to Statista,  celebrate. Ever think about the 30% that don’t? 

This is a good year to take them into consideration.

A combination of outright restrictions and individual choices are  taking parades, traditional trick-or-treating and big bashes  off the table for October 31. Consequently, even people who normally do shell out the NRF’s estimated average of  $86 and change  for the day are expected to spend less this year, reports Market Watch.

But that doesn’t mean that October is a bust for marketing. On the contrary, there are opportunities to effectively target customers by understanding what this point in the calendar means to them. 

That means identifying what kind of pumpkin resonates with your customer: Is it  a jack-o’-lantern, an ordinary gourd, or pumpkin spice flavor? 

Jack-o’-lantern marketing

https://p0.pikrepo.com/preview/471/304/jack-o-lantern-on-brown-surface-thumbnail.jpg

These customers are the prime target for straight-up, over-the-top Halloween marketing. Even among them, though, there are still distinct segments, and marketing should be targeted accordingly. 

You have your customers who think of it as a celebration centered around children and who want the products and imagery to reflect that. Think cartoon-style ghosts and witches to go with your classic or plastic jack-o’-lantern.

For those at a different stage of life, Halloween may be about adult parties where alcohol is served and where the spookiness rating goes from G to R. Imagery for that is more realistic and possibly more risque. 

How to know which witch to go with for your messaging? Segment your communication.

Plain pumpkin marketing

The picture above is from the Bed Bath & Beyond site. The classic harvest setup is the one that was chosen for the cover of the catalogue it sent me with the “let’s get this fall rolling” emblazoned on it.

The decor is about celebrating Fall rather than Halloween, though even that can come with different vibes, according to one’s particular taste. It makes sense for Bed Bath & Beyond to target the plain pumpkin type of customers because they make up the general Fall market.

That market is far-reaching, extending from food to fashion, cosmetics to decor, even blankets needed for cooler nights. Bed Bath & Beyond carries items from all of those categories.

For those who want a particular date to which to tie their purchases, this year there is 10/10. As Bloomberg reported, the designated shopping day is inspired by China’s Singles’ Day, which sparks record levels of shopping every year on 11/11.

This new October shopping event is the brainchild of Deborah Weinswig, a retail consultant. She told Bloomberg that she has been pressing for it for years, though this year retailers finally embraced it in the hopes of starting December shopping earlier to make sure inventory and delivery can keep up with demand.

Pumpkin spice marketing mystique

For some, ordinary pumpkins just don’t cut it. But pumpkin spice is another matter, particularly the latte associated with the flavor that owns the acronym, PSL.

The pumpkin spice mystique is not just about the flavor; it’s about building a connection with customers based on anticipation and engagement. Starbucks does it brilliantly.

Beginning in August, Starbucks kicks up the buzz as speculation about when the first one of the new season will be poured builds. Starbucks deliberately switches the date of release each year to maintain the mystery and increase anticipation.

Even brands that don’t sell anything associated with pumpkin spice directly can apply this marketing approach. When you want to build up to the launch of a new product, a special event, or even a return of a seasonal item, you can let your customers know to look out for it and build their excitement.

A similar approach can work for just about any retailer who can deliver the right message to connect with customers. It’s all about finding what they will find relevant to them and segmenting accordingly.

This season, the marketers that show they really know their customers are the ones who will deliver the inclusive and on target communication. They know that one pumpkin does not fit all.

 

For a literary connection for pumpkin spice marketing, see 

From Shakespeare to Starbucks: Pumpkin spice marketing mystique  

What Edison can teach us about SEO

en.wikipedia.org

 

No, Edison didn’t invent search engine optimization. But he did make a habit of tinkering around until he found what worked. You have to do the same to optimize your SEO.

Are we really going to talk about Edison? Yes. The first lesson of SEO is that the title

must match the content because it is the promise you make that the content has to deliver. 

You want to build an audience by giving them content that they find so good, they share it.
Clickbait always disappoints and so would only be shared by those who don’t really read

the content. 

Why SEO is important

People put a lot of trust in what comes up as a result in organic search precisely because it
comes across as information they seek rather than ads people paid to have shown to them.
While it’s easier to get fast results when you pay for ads, a solid content strategy that

incorporates SEO will offer a greater ROI over time.

What people get wrong about SEO

The biggest mistake people make when deciding to implement SEO is thinking of it as a

formula that can easily be applied to any site to boost rankings instantly. SEO doesn’t

work like that.

You don’t just read up on some SEO tips, apply them, and expect surges of traffic overnight.
As is always the case of seeing results from content marketing, you  have to allow six months to see measurable results from working through necessary tweaks

to titles, keywords, tags, etc. 

Improving it involves understanding what brings people to your content, what they’re

looking for, and how they’re phrasing their searches. That can inform your strategy

for creating content that is is is both relevant to your brand and to your audience’s

concerns, so the context within your work is important. 

Understanding SEO in context of your content

As someone who has blogged for fun since 2005, I’ve written about a variety of topics that

interest me without any though of popularity or monetization. Google Search Console

reports give me valuable insights into SEO by showing me not just which posts gets clicks

but which queries bring them to people's attention.

My post on Edison is far and above the most popular post on that blog, as you can

see from the top five shown below. The other four have something in common with

the Edison blog; they reference famous people. Those names are key component

of some of the queries that bring people to my blog. That was one insight derived

from studying Search Console.

Lightbulb* interest persists

Google doesn’t just provide me with the statistics here; it shows me what brings people to a post with emails that offer updates on performance, as well as the queries people type in that drives them to my site.

The latest one offered this insight:

How do people find you?

Top growing queries

Compared to previous month

how many times did edison fail before inventing the lightbulb

+18 clicks (web)

how many tries did it take to invent the lightbulb

+9 clicks (web)

how many tries to invent the lightbulb

+9 clicks (web)

Top performing queries

Query

Clicks (web)

how many times did edison fail before inventing the lightbulb

35

how many times did it take to invent the lightbulb

13

how many tries to invent the lightbulb

11

I wrote the blog on Edison back in 2015 when my curiosity was piqued about the myth of a thousand attempts to get it right after visiting his lab and home in New Jersey. Clearly many
others share that curiosity, and it is their query that drives traffic to the blog, delivering SEO
results that far exceed what I could get on social media.

Keep your content updated

Another thing to remember is this: the lightbulb’s development certainly didn’t
end when Edison filed for a patent on the bamboo filament version. It continued
to evolve over time, and your content has to as well, to stay relevant and rank well.

Accordingly, in 2020 I added several updates to the blog. They ranged from warnings about the Edison sites having closed to visitors and offering only virtual tours to more details about the evolution of the lightbulb until Edison’s patent, including the work of Lewis Howard Latimer, who was obliquely referenced by Joe Biden in the summer.

In 2022, I added a reference to the HBO series, The Gilded Age because the seventh episode
makes a point of bringing up Latimer in connection with Edison. The problem with that is
that show is set in 1882 when Latimer was still working for Edison's competitor. Though
he did come to work for Edison, that was in 1884. He also was working in the New York
office, primarily on patent issues -- not in the Menlo Park lab where the tinkering took
place.

Google is constantly adjusting its algorithms, so you have to constantly adjust your own
content to keep it optimized. SEO is not an ultimate destination but constantly evolving
journey of discovery.


*Note on "lightbulb" as one word. I opted for that here because it is AP style; however, writing it as two words is also correct.

Related:

Make Your Content as Accessible as Possible
7 Ways to Grab Customer Attention in Subject Lines
CRO is Like Basketball
Think Marathon Rather Than Sprint When Planning Content Marketing
Most Memorable Brand Slogans

Visit WriteWayPro.weebly.com  Like and follow on Facebook and on LinkedIn

Do you think this level of content is beyond your budget? Think again. Poor quality content not only fails to deliver the ROI you get from high quality content; it can actually harm your brand by demoting the the site ranking you've invested so much in building up.

What you really can't afford is poor quality content. Hire a seasoned pro to craft the right message for your organization and your demographics. Learn more here and book a free consultation call.

Think marathon rather than sprint when planning content marketing

Photo by Steven Lelham on Unsplash


Done right, content marketing will deliver an ROI measured in terms of the LTV of a customer.

But it’s a marathon -- not a sprint.


What makes content marketing distinct from other forms of marketing is that its primary goal is to engage your target audience’s interest rather than lead immediately to a call-to-action to buy.. The content can take many forms, and part of planning an effective strategy is selecting the medium that is most likely to capture your audience’s attention.


For example, a kitchenware seller may send out recipes or blogs that offer advice on healthy substitutions to make guilt-free desserts. But it can also use video content effectively to demonstrate techniques in cooking or offer a downloadable app that converts cooking measurements from ounces to grams or milliliters.


Even infographics can be tailored for such a seller. For example, it can show the shift in demand and supply chain issues to explain why you may find shortages of certain key ingredients and suggest possible substitutions for recipes.


What all the approaches described above have in common is that they position the brand as a credible source of information within its own defined niche. Over time that leads to a deepened relationship with your audience.


Content marketing goals

Some B2C marketers have trouble defining their content marketing goals, though it generally falls into one of the top six for identified a Content Marketing Institute survey:

• Creating brand awareness (84%)
  Educating audiences (75%)
• Building credibility/trust (65%)
• Nurturing subscribers/audiences (49%)
• Generating sales/revenue (48%)
• Building a subscribed audience (38%)

Seeing you consistently address their interests rather than just promoting yourself makes them feel more connected to your brand. As a result, they will be more inclined to buy from you than from brands that have not invested in earring their trust.




Seeing you consistently address their interests rather than just promoting yourself makes them feel more connected to your brand. As a result, they will be more inclined to buy from you than from brands that have not invested in earring their trust.


Like SEO strategy, content marketing is a long-term strategy that can take six months or even longer to demonstrate significant lifts for your targets. However, truly solid content marketing that your audience really appreciates can sometimes even deliver more immediate ROI.

The right way and wrong way to approach content marketing

How do you know if you’re doing it right? You look at others who are putting out great content and those who can’t break out of the self-promotion mold even when they claim to want to do content marketing.




The point comes across clearly in my own experience in managing the content and advertising for a bridal magazine in which the hairstylist got it right and the photographer got it wrong. She gave readers tips that they could use, while he wrote about himself and his approach to photography.




The results were clear. The photographer was disappointed that the article didn’t generate sales instantly, though he admitted that many people told him they saw it. In other words, he achieved branding, though not immediate leads.  In contrast, the hairstylist was thrilled that the article brought her more customers than any advertising had ever done.

Granted, women get their hair done more frequently than they hire photographers, but that is all the more reason for the photographer to recognize that he cannot expect immediate sales. His real error was in squandering the opportunity to do content marketing right.


The photographer failed to offer the audience anything of value to them because he was so intent on self-promotion that he refused to put himself in the shoes of his audience and consider what they would want to learn. The hairstylist, on the other hand, instinctively understood what content would appeal to her audience and was rewarded for giving it to them.


In the case of the hairstylists, the business leads came in right away, which is somewhat unusual. Typically, though, such a strong response only develops after a series of articles or videos build up a following.

Related:

7 Habits of Highly Effective Marketers

Make Your Content as Accessible as Possible

What Edison Can Teach Us About SEO

7 Ways to Grab Customer Attention in Subject Lines

CRO is Like Basketball

Do you think this level of content is beyond your budget? Think again. Poor quality content not only fails to deliver the ROI you get from high quality content; it can actually harm your brand by demoting the the site ranking you've invested so much in building up.

What you really can't afford is poor quality content. Hire a seasoned pro to craft the right message for your organization and your demographics. Learn more here and book a free consultation call.

The essence of luxury marketing: exclusivity

When it comes to celebrating 50 years,  gray flannel just doesn’t cut it.

The Range Rover’s golden anniversary called for a celebration and a new suit. Accordingly, the brand collaborated with Henry Poole & Co,  located on on London’s Savile Row,  to create a unique fabric pattern that  incorporates the colors of the original 1970 Range Rover:  Tuscan Blue, Bahama Gold, and Davos White.  

The fabric itself would be woven out of lambswool in Somerset by cloth manufacturer Fox Brothers & Co Ltd,  The limited supply of 120 m. would be just enough to make  50  bespoke men’s and women’s jackets.

Luxury marketing and exclusivity in common 

It may seem odd to connect a car to a jacket, but the branding approach does make sense in the context of the target market. Referring to the sense of heritage and luxury that the car brand and tailors have in common,Land Rover’s Chief Creative Officer Prof Gerry McGovern OBE touches on the essence of luxury marketing:

  “Rarity does play a role, exclusivity in the appeal of the products from these brands. We’ve deliberately limited the amount that we will produce both on the jacket and on the vehicle itself, and I think that rarity is something that appeals to both our customers and Henry Poole’s.” 

Read more in The Man in the Range Rover Suit

To the sleeper the spoils

A good night’s sleep is not just desirable but essential for top performance. That’s the lesson of the IKEA ad that envisions a prequel to Aesop’s famous fable about the tortoise and the hare.

See “The Hare” commercial on YouTube Note the name of the place where the hare hangs out with friends before playing video games and posting pictures all night rather than getting the solid night’s sleep enjoyed by the tortoise.

Perhaps they can play off the whimsy in this adaption with creatives that offer backstories to other famous stories about sleep. I can just picture it working for Sleeping Beauty, or better yet,  The Princess and the Pea. 

Read more in IKEA Presents the Night Before the Fabled Race

Schoolcation post makes the LinkedIn List

One of the great things about writing for Optimove is that I get to review hundreds of interesting marketing stories to select the very best ones to be featured on the PostFunnel site. My most recent one just got this LinkedIn mark of distinction:
"Congratulations! Your post was featured by the LinkedIn News team in "Home-schooling...at Disney World?"

To read the post, click on Hotels Now Offer “Schoolcations”

From Shakespeare to Starbucks: Pumpkin spice marketing mystique

Popular wisdom used to say "It's the sizzle that sells the steak." Well, today it's the PSL buzz that sells the drink. But if you know your Shakespeare, you know that it's not a wholly new idea.



Retailers don't wait until October to push pumpkin in the form of special scents and flavors. Even those who don’t sell drinks or food have hopped on the pumpkin spice bandwagon with scented candles, body lotions, soaps, and even deodorant.

In fact, the most highly-anticipated pumpkin spice of all made its grand arrival in August. I refer, of course, to pumpkin spice latte (PSL) that fans look for every year at their favorite coffee shop.

The pumpkin spice mystique is not just about the flavor; it’s about building a connection with customers that heightens anticipation and engagement. Starbucks does it brilliantly.

During August, Starbucks rides the buzz on the return of the PSL. It lets it build up with much speculation about when the first one will be poured, as the date changes each year to maintain a feeling of mystery and maximize anticipation.

That's the essence of the PR strategy that Shakespeare's Prince Henry adopts, as he tells the audience  in Henry IV Part I:

I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behavior I throw off
And pay the debt I never promised,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time when men think least I will.

What works for heroic kings in plays also works for brands that know that even pleasurable things lose their sparkle when they are around all the time, just as we take the sun for granted when it is never hidden by clouds. The perception of rarity grants the object in question a particular status that it would not have if it were always available.

For more marketing posts, see a collection of links to blogs posted on various publications here and
Marketing in Uncommon Times

For more references to Shakespeare, see The Marriage Plot: Expectations for Novel Ending Must Be Met, The Marriage of Opposites, and Happy (Early) Birthday, Shakespeare.

Have your shoe and eat it too

Anyone on TikTok or Twitter has likely seen at least one #EverythingIsCake meme. These very short videos make anything from what looks like a can of Coke, glass of water, roll of toilet paper, or even a human hand to be an actual cake that is revealed when it is cut. Yummy.

A Croc was one of the items, and perhaps that is what inspired the collaboration between Deliveroo and Adidas UK. Deliveroo delivered the news in a tweet featuring the edible version of the new  ZX 2K Boost Adidas sneaker (in England called trainer) design that would accompany the real thing for the winner of its promotional offer.

 

Does the shoe fit?

For a chance to win the twin pairs of shoes - one to wear and one to eat - those who live within a 1.5 mile of the Deliveroo Whitechapel Editions kitchen have to visit its app after noon on August 26. While cake is among the usual items Deliveroo delivers, the wearables would be a first.

So why should a food delivery service promote itself with sneakers? It’s all about capturing attention and publicity.

Read more in Have Your Cake and Eat It Too.

A nickel-and-dime trick for thousands of dollars of free publicity

One of the things that has been noticeably absent this summer due to COVID-19 is the usual run of summer blockbusters. It’s been a long road to safe reopening.

At the end of August, finally, there is good news for movie lovers. AMC Theatres announced it will open over 100 theaters as of August 20th, rolling out to open more than half of their locations by September 3.

To mark the reopening and 100 years of movies, AMC is offering 1920 prices at the theater for one day only.

Limited time bargain

This offer is only available to those fortunate enough to be in the vicinity of one of the theaters opening on the 20th. They get to snag the bargain of a lifetime: just 15 cents plus tax for any movie showing that Thursday.

This is a great opportunity to be able to echo your own grandparents in boasting “I remember when movie tickets cost just 15 cents!”

Read more in: A nickel-and-dime reopening offer from AMC

Why is offering 15 cent tickets such a win? In the first place, the people who do snag those tickets on Thursday will likely feel they saved enough to justify a splurge at the concession stand. In the second place, the offer brought AMC so much attention that just about every single news outlet in the country covered the story, giving it tens of thousands of dollars worth of free publicity.