Internet Retailer (IRCE) Presentation Tidbits

Here's a few things you might find interesting from my presentation today. The session was about the web's growing importance and impact on catalogers (and retail stores). The audience was heavily skewed to catalogers. Lou Weiss of The Vitamin Shoppe did a very nice job of discussing the topic from the standpoint of a CMO in the trenches!


Question #2: You are triple-booked for a meeting at 10:00am. Which of the following three meetings would you attend?

1. Meeting to determine if October catalog is 116, 120, or 124 pages.
2. Meeting with paid search vendor to go over Spring 2009 performance.
3. Meeting with e-mail marketing team to go over versioning for upcoming campaign.

Audience overwhelming responded for #2.


Question #8: You are working on your CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) succession plan. Which individual is most likely to be considered.

1. Catalog Marketing Director with 24 years of experience.
2. Online Marketing Director with 8 years of experience.
3. Social Media Manager with 2 years of experience.

Audience overwhelming responded for #2.


Question #9: You are required to downsize one position. Which position will you eliminate?

1. Catalog Marketing Director with 24 years of experience.
2. Online Marketing Director with 8 years of experience.
3. Social Media Manager with 2 years of experience.

By a narrow margin, the audience voted for #1, then #3.


Question #13: If you stopped mailing catalogs, what would happen:

1. Your business would close.
2. Your business would be damaged.
3. Your business would be more profitable.
4. Your business could grow.

Almost nobody in the audience voted for #1, maybe 1 or 2 people raised their hand out of 250 folks.

Hologram Marketing and Multichannel Marketing in 2015

A loyal reader sent us this article about Target using Hologram Marketing.

Fast forward to 2015, when we'll read an article that goes something like this:


NEW RESEARCH INDICATES THAT E-COMMERCE AND HOLOGRAM MARKETING WORK TOGETHER TO FACILITATE THE OPTIMAL CUSTOMER MULTICHANNEL EXPERIENCE

October 29, 2015: A new study, commissioned by Google, Yahoo!, Shop.org, Marketing Sherpa, Forrester Research, E-Tailer and Internet Retailer indicates that "multichannel customers", customers who shop via e-mail marketing, paid search marketing, website research, social media, e-commerce and hologram marketing, are five times more valuable than customers shopping via just the hologram marketing channel.

"These results validate what we've been preaching to clients since the early days of hologram marketing ... you simply cannot dive headfirst into hologram marketing without realizing that the customer demands a multichannel experience." stated Leonard Thigginsworth, President of Shop.org, the venerable e-commerce advocacy firm. "Firms that fail to tightly integrate the world of e-commerce with the benefits of hologram marketing are unlikely to thrive in this hyper competitive marketplace. Furthermore, the suggestion that today's experienced online marketers will soon be standing in soup lines is simply premature. Online marketing skills are essential in this highly complicated age of hologram marketing." concluded Thigginsworth.

The study indicated that 61% of customers were "very likely", "likely", or "somewhat likely" to use old fashioned tools like Google and Yahoo! to search for products and services. These customers indicated that they spent 5.3 times as much money on hologram marketing as did customers who abandoned e-commerce in favor of hologram marketing technology from "Holo", the San Jose based brand that utterly disrupted e-commerce in 2013 with innovative "personal holograms" that manage everyday consumer tasks via simple voice commands.

39% of survey respondents said that they were "very likely", "likely", or "somewhat likely" to use promotional e-mail campaigns to facilitate searches on Google or Yahoo!, searches that resulted in customers researching products and services on old-fashioned e-commerce websites, before ultimately giving purchase instructions to their personal hologram.

Darren Manning, President of Internet Retailer, believes these results validate the need for a holistic multichannel customer shopping experience. "We all know that late at night, shoppers wearing pajamas, sitting in front of the fireplace, love to hold their notebook computers on their lap, reading promotional e-mail campaigns and researching products and services in the friendly, safe and encrypted blanket known as e-commerce. This behavior simply isn't going to change because a startup company creates a personal hologram who does menial tasks and chores for you." stated Mr. Manning.

"In addition, do you trust handing over your credit card number or thumbprint to a hologram? I don't! I trust the encrypted environment offered by e-commerce." added Mr. Manning.

The study is good news for Google, a beleaguered old-school brand who lost a third of their search market share to Holo during the past thirty six months, resulting in an 80% drop in share price.

The study is also good news for online advocacy organization Shop.org, which is struggling to stay in business in this ultra-competitive marketplace. "We strongly believe that multichannel marketing is best experienced when customers use a combination of e-mail marketing, paid search, and e-commerce websites to research products and services. Traditional e-commerce-based research drives purchases via tools such as Holo. Research indicates that up to 80% of purchases via Holo are driven by e-mail marketing, paid search marketing, and e-commerce websites. Multichannel marketing, e-mail marketing, and paid search are here to stay. Take away e-commerce, and you take away the e-commerce potential of Holo" stated Ben Morrison, President of Shop.org.

Still, there are fundamental changes in customer behavior being exhibited by "Generation Z", 13-25 year olds who are children of the non-descript "Generation X" cohort of consumers. A recent study commissioned by Holo indicated that only 7% of these consumers subscribe to e-mail marketing programs, or use paid search.

"We believe that when Generation Z become full-fledged members of the "participation economy", (a phrase jointly coined by President Jeb Bush and Speaker of the House Michael Moore), they will appreciate and fully utilize the myriad of benefits offered by a multichannel marketing experience that tightly integrates e-mail marketing, paid search, social media, e-commerce and hologram marketing." stated recently appointed Marketing Sherpa President Sarah Rogers.

Internet Retailer Security Breach Impacts Yours Truly

I received a letter today from the folks at Internet Retailer, stating that their customer information had been breached (which would be my information), including potentially my credit card number and e-mail address.

This report has been confirmed on The Breach Blog.

Internet Retailer chose to not report their own breach on their homepage, as of 9/18/2007, 3:12pm PDT.

Interestingly, Internet Retailer has a long history of talking about security shortcomings, telling others what they must do to improve security.

The letter I received does offer an apology, which is appreciated. The letter gives me steps to take to protect my credit information. Internet Retailer does not offer me anything, as a loyal customer, in exchange for a very serious mistake that may significantly impact my life, no discount on a future publication, no free reports, nothing.

Obviously, businesses face tremendous challenges protecting customer information. No business is perfect. Evil seeks to disrupt.

This is a great example for bloggers, vendors and pundits who constantly poke fun at everybody else, those who constantly criticize companies and individuals for their shortcomings. Today, you are the judge and jury. Tomorrow, it may be you that is being judged.