While the marketing team has traditionally managed the brand and promotional communications within a company, it’s now time for a more coordinated effort across the various functions within the business.

We live in a culture of participation and the opportunity for using Social Media to the benefit of the whole organization is huge. How does the HR team use this medium to attract, train and retain talent? How does the Operational Team use the medium to stay in touch with employees and maintain engagement?

How does the R&D team tap into new ideas and test responses to new products? How does the Merchandising team use the medium to test or seed new sample product?

With so many potential opportunities to interact with the necessary stakeholders, it’s important that an overall Social Media strategy be developed across the business. And who better to lead this, than the Chief Executive.

The next question is whether the CEO is up to date with the seismic shift in the way consumers and staff now interact with media?

Now here come the international bricks and mortar retailers with their online stores.  JC Penney have recently launched an online store with an Australian website URL and owned by a locally established licensee. This foray into Australia begs the question as to whether other big name retailers are about to do the same. 

Australians are the third biggest online consumers in the world pro-rata to population and while this is happening, some of our local retail giants like David Jones, Myer and Target have been slow to embrace online shopping. I’m sure this is about to all change. 

While our local market is being eroded by international online players, what are our retailers doing to break in to international markets. While there are some novel Australian online retail entrepreneurs selling their products overseas, are traditional retailers tapping into this great emerging opportunity?

Let’s not wait for the big global players to encroach into our space. Local retailers should improve their online stores and look to grow their customer base in international markets. It’s all happening out there!

Mobile commerce is the next frontier for retailers and marketers. Consumers overseas are not only getting more comfortable browsing and shopping on mobile, but handsets are increasingly more capable of delivering those experiences. 

So, mobile shopping and buying will become acceptable behavior, particularly with impulse purchases. Just as consumers expect the same experiences online as they do in-store – inventory, branding, pricing, product availability, customer service – so will they soon expect the same from mobile. 

This opportunity creates a number of interesting challenges. Which industry sectors lend themselves to mobile commerce? Will simply repurposing the traditional ecommerce site do? How do we integrate mobile into the sales process and what is the role of SMS in driving store traffic?

So, some exciting challenges lie ahead for all marketers. I’d love to hear your views on this one.

Members and guests came to hear me speak about “Integrating an Engaging Customer Experience in Multi-Channel Retailing”.

A shopper’s “Customer Journey” for any retail brand should be one and the same – regardless of a bricks ‘n mortar or online experience!

Focussing on how to maintain brand image when moving from one channel to another (for example from Visual Merchandising to Virtual Merchandising), I also covered:

• What’s happening in retail today…
• A new and unexpected threat to the retail category…
• Retail in the next 5 years…
• What’s missing online, an
• Who’s doing it right!

It was a great opportunity to provoke some interesting conversation around current retail trends in Australia – with an engaged audience of marketing services providers to the retail industry.

Many felt concerned by the fact that consumers are making purchases over the web and that these web customers are becoming more comfortable with the process. Others questioned whether Australians were actually comfortable with buying online?

With a strong belief that the physical retail environment is essential to sales, and that people like beautiful spaces to shop, the consensus was that it often depends on what exactly it is that you’re buying.

Where many people go to physical retail spaces to look, touch and feel a product, they often return to find the best price on the internet and finalise their purchase online.

If you’d like to receive a copy of the presentation, feel free to contact me direct and I’d be happy to send you the PDF.

Lastly, I’d like to say a special thanks to Terri Wilson (President of the “Retail Design Institute”) for inviting me to present, and to Peter & Fred of “Flash Photobition” for being fantastic hosts!

Several years after being discontinued and following a massive consumer
campaign to bring back the favourite chocolate bar of the 80’s, Cadbury
have finally relented and the Wispa bar is back!

This is largely thanks to the hoards of fans who tirelessly lobbied
Cadbury over the last few years to start making its famous chocolate
once again.

Loyal fans have been campaigning hard for its return, setting up
hundreds of user-generated ‘Bring Back Wispa’ campaigns and online
petitions, making banner appearances at festivals, creating blog sites
and fuelling online group discussions across Facebook, Bebo, YouTube
and MySpace.

Wispa was, and still remains, a unique chocolate sensation!

The bar fuses a secret blend of quality dark and Cadbury Dairy Milk
chocolate interlaced with the finest bubbles developed by an expert
‘Aeration Guru’.

This deliciously aerated milk chocolate bar still tastes as good as it
always did, and BEST OF ALL we have a non-stop supply of Wispa bars
right here at our own Wispa HQ!

Why not come on in and have yourself the ultimate ‘textual experience’?

Once bitten, never forgotten – That’s our promise!

Remember the internet is not just a sales channel Down Under.

Like their American counterparts, more and more internet users in Australia are going online to research their purchases before buying in-store. The Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS) has reported that up to one-half of consumers in Australia, did some online research before shopping in-store. That’s huge!

So I ask the following questions:

• How well are your products or services merchandised online? Do you have lots of product information available?
• How easy is it to navigate through the site while viewing products?
• How well are your products grouped and displayed online?
• Without the ability to touch and feel, do your photography and the use of online tools enable a multi dimensional display?
• Overall, do they look attractive and inspirational?

In essence, the online product display needs to mirror all the tried and tested offline merchandising techniques.
This is what we call Virtual Merchandising.

These presentation standards will certainly strengthen brand equity and maximize sales.

And so we had to practice what we preach! After a lot of discussion and planning, we’re up and running with our brand new site – and we’ve sure had a lot of fun putting it together!

We hope you spend some time with us, explore our content and learn a little more about what Wispa has to offer. When you have done that, why not let us know what you think?  

Feel free to leave us some comments below…

Companies can and do prosper during times of economic turmoil. Take a lesson from brands whose Depression-era advertising strategies were key to their survival.

With the recent meltdown on Wall Street and talk of a possible depression, I thought it would be instructive to do a bit of research on what happened with regard to advertising during the Great Depression. I have heard anecdotes over the years of great companies founded during recessions. What do GE, Disney, HP and Microsoft have in common? They were all startups during steep declines in the U.S. economy. GE started during the panic of 1873, Disney started during the recession of 1923-24, HP began during the Great Depression, and Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft during the recession of 1975.

To begin, not all was doom and gloom during the Great Depression. It was a time when those who knew what they were doing made great economic strides, and the very nature of the Depression was an economic boon for them. It was a time when several companies benefited from aggressive marketing while their rivals cut back. A good example of that would be Kellogg besting C.W. Post during that time. Consumers didn't stop spending during the Depression; most just looked for better deals, and the companies providing those better deals came out stronger after the Depression ended. When spending picked up, consumer loyalty to those companies remained.

Generally speaking, those companies that not only survived but also thrived during the Great Depression were those that continued to act as though there were nothing wrong and that the public had money to spend. In other words, they advertised. These are industries that didn't wait for public demand for their products to rise. They created that demand even during the most difficult of times.

Because so many companies cut spending during the Great Depression era, advertising budgets were largely eliminated in many industries. Not only did spending decline, but some companies actually dropped out of public sight because of short-sighted decisions made about spending money to keep a high profile. Advertising cutbacks caused many customers to feel abandoned. They associated the brands that cut back on advertising with a lack of staying power. This not only drove customers to more aggressive competitors, but it also caused financial mistrust when it came to making additional investments in the no-longer-visible companies.

Both anecdotal and empirical evidence support the case that advertising was the main factor in the growth or downfall of companies during the Great Depression. To put it bluntly, the companies that demonstrated the most growth and that rang up the most sales were those that advertised heavily.

As consumer behaviour matures online, and the preferred inbox of consumers continues to evolve, there are some seriously powerful and affordable ways to reach new customers and build relationships with existing ones. Targeted messaging via the web, search, email, mobile and social networks can be highly successful tools in your marketing arsenal.

Let us know if you want further information or examples on how to market online or reach your existing database effectively and affordably?

Consumers, being more in control of their purchasing choices, are looking for convenience and simplicity. They are demanding value for money, making their pennies stretch further and attempting to lighten up and enjoy themselves.

These changes point to the growing importance for a brand’s online presence to match and deliver against all these demands. Your website’s look and feel, content, functionality and navigation will have to be authentic and engaging. It doesn’t matter what type of business or service you’re involved in!

Consumers will want to know so much more about your company and its products. They will seek out all of the available product or service options online, compare prices and be able to influence others through review and feedback.

And with people “cocooning” in their homes to save money, they will be browsing and shopping more online. They will look for simplicity and convenience. Those brands that communicate how they can make life a little easier will earn consumers trust and loyalty.

People will also want to enjoy themselves and be entertained, and those websites offering a really engaging interactive experience will become more popular.

A companies’ site has become the core relationship building tool within the marketing and communication mix.

How does your website measure up?