The Beauty of In-Store Targeting

This weekend I went to Safeway, and among the random things on my list was Drano (to fix a slow draining shower issue). While my slow draining shower isn't that interesting, what was interesting was the Catalina coupon delivered to me upon check out. Now, in addition to you folks, Roto Rooter also knows that I had a drainage issue and are offering me $25 off there services. Is this wildly innovative? no just smart.

In the online world, there is constant banter around behavioural targeting and contextual targeting. Both these methods of "finding consumers" are very smart. However, thinking about an offline application of these same principles, the store provides interesting possibilities as well. Like everything else in marketing, this will only work for a finite number of products or services, but the consideration should always be there. Should a salon chain put something on shelf in front of the hair color if they can make a competitive offer? Why not, again messaging and offer will be important, but the fact that Roto Rooter thought to target people in the store buying Drano means that folks are already thinking this way. Very encouraging.

Stouffer's Dinner Club

I read about the Stouffer’s Dinner Club promo in Promo Magazine this weekend. In a nutshell, Stouffer’s is doing a nice twist on the traditional points system promotion by adding an auction aspect to it. Basically get 100 points for registering, 20 points for each code entered off a pack and some additional points for filling out surveys (great way to entice more consumer info out of folks and make them feel good about it).

So I went online, registered and then found myself at the store a day later. And what do you know; Stouffer's were on special, “buy 6 for $12 dollars”. What a deal!!! Plus, that’s another 120 points in the Stouffer’s Dinner Club. So I bought six and upon check out received this!

Not only did the lovely Catalina coupon drive back to the site to enter points, it further rewarded me with an additional $2.00 off next time. Now, whether I will leave it on my desk or actually remember to bring it to the store, I don’t know. But I certainly am feeling pretty good about my friends at Stouffers right now.

Retail to Web Made Easy?

Per my last 2 posts, we can see there is obviously a growing amount of retail to web communication going on in-store. And now, as released last week, Catalina and ePrize are taking it to the next level. Through a strategic partnership, they are coming to market with all-in-one solutions for these programs. Catalina has vast data (which I love) on who buys what, how often and where, a treasure trove of shopper nuggets. ePrize has 101 templatized ways to create and online promotion quick and easy. Together they bring rich targeting capabilities at retail on the front end with strong engagement tools and data capture potential on the backend. And while it may not all be done in one phone call, it’ll be pretty turnkey. Check out the current Dole Salad/Yahoo Music/Elliot Yamin (former American Idoler) promo. (and yes, the song sucks, but that's not the point) Another solution this provides is for the constant problem of unique codes on package which take months of planning to execute due to production timelines. Now you can simply have Catalina trigger an ad when a shopper buys your product and they can be given a unique code which can tell what SKU was purchased and at what retailer. Great info to have as soon as they go online and enter it. The executional fixes and promotional opportunities are all still to be fully explored, but its exciting/scary.