Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

Speaking of Olympics, Michael Phelps will be on the box of …Frosted Flakes. And Michael Phelps has a million fans on Facebook. How can you leverage your brand and the power of social networking?

Social networking is all about finding niche areas where people find others who share the same interest. People are already talking about your brand online; engage with them, find out how to improve your brand directly from your customers, find out what’s working and why.

Here are 5 tips to get started:

1. Set up Facebook, MySpace and YouTube accounts for your brand

2. Find fans who love your brand and friend them

3. Send out bulletins & blogs to your online friends about promotions or events they will be interested in

4. To have friends you have to be a friend. Be active, but don’t try to sell – instead inform and let your friends make up their own mind

5. Offer online specials to your social networking friends only – reward them for being your friend

Social networking is wonderful way to communicate with your customers. It is a two way street on communication, once you make the commitment to join a social network site, make the commitment to be active and engage with your customers on their terms.

Here’s to being popular!

~Rebecca

In a recent New York Times article chronicling the success of NBC’s Olympics coverage , author Bill Carter identifies the critical moves the network made pre-Olympics to ensure viewership and cash in on advertising revenue. Certainly, as the article points out, the publicity surrounding the Olympics, the politics, the protests, the athletes and the expectations, all contributed to the event’s success.

But the driving success factor was timing.

With the support of U.S. swimming star and Olympic legend Michael Phelps , Dick Ebersol , chairman of NBC sports, not only convinced China and the International Olympics Committee to propose an August start date, he influenced them to schedule the swimming and gymnastics events in the morning so they would air live on NBC primetime. 200 million viewers and more than $100 million later, NBC concluded coverage of what was one of the most watched and talked about sporting events in recent history.

The main lesson to be learned from NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics is not new. Timing is everything. The early date of the Olympics, which began August 8^th, meant school had not resumed. The weakened economy forced Americans to stay home and not vacation. The primetime coverage pulled in viewers and intrigued advertisers; many ran advertisements congratulating Phelps’ gold medals in the first commercial break following each victory.

When advertising online, especially in an e-commerce setting, advertisers should take advantage of timing to increase relevancy and decrease waste. Advertising where your consumers are most likely to buy is a cost-effective and powerful way to increase sales and promote positive branding. Just as Ebersol took advantage of a time when he knew viewers would be watching television to air Olympics coverage, advertisers should take advantage of online e-commerce applications to influence consumers where they are already going to buy.

Rachel

To read the entire article click here.

Most parents rejoice once the kids are off to school again but this usual occurs after the back to school errands are complete. New clothes, shoes, books, binders, pens, lunches, and snacks are just some of the many items parents purchase to get their kids ready to start the new school year. Who’s products are the buying? Well in an ideal world, yours. Companies make an investment when it comes to back to school advertising, it’s almost up there with the holiday season. So where do you start when building your advertising campaign? You have to go to where your target market is. What’s the point of launching newspaper print ads if your target market doesn’t read the paper? Targeting your message directly to your end users will enable success.

So let’s use Mom’s for our example. They are running around the last few weeks of summer getting their kids ready for school. How do you reach them with the products you want them to buy; the Internet. According to eMarketer, “40% of all women in the US who go online – some 35 million people – are mothers with children under 18 at home”. Moms are online everyday; a perfect way to send your message directly to them. The use of the Internet also increases once a child is born, “47% of women say that they go online more often once they have a child”.

Kids likes/dislikes change everyday and your business puts research, time, and money into new products that you know kids will want. Moms may not know what these are but that is where your advertisement comes to save the day and make these moms into Supermoms! Back to school advertising and the Internet has increased immensely, a Platform-A ADlytics Group study found that, “83% of back-to-school consumers are somewhat likely to seek in-store deals based on online promotions”. So get your message out there and be sure you’ve chosen the right media outlet to do so, remember if you’re targeting hearing impaired people it won’t be beneficial to run a radio advertisement

Cheers!
Courtney

Ok, Ok, so you’ve all heard about Green being Good for the Planet and Other Living Things, but what about YOUR business and YOUR profit? After all, according to “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”, (i.e., human motivation), an individual is ready to act on the next level of needs once the prior, more basic need is met. A brief overview of this follows (and how it relates to your business and green, which is why we’re reading this, right?)
On The Level
Here are the levels that must be satisfied to move to that next level (and then partake of your service or item as a great deal of what we provide or sell isn’t necessary to basic survival):
1) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.; Once that is satisfied, we move to #2.
2) Safety/security: out of danger;
3) Belonginess and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted; and
4) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition.
Stop right here – this is where Green and our business comes in although it also matters in 5 – 8 below.
5) Cognitive: to know, to understand, and explore;
6) Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty;
7) Self-actualization: to find self-fulfillment and realize one’s potential; and
Self-transcendence: to connect to something beyond the ego or to help others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential.
The Business of Green, The Color of Money
Really, saving the Planet, being Green, and other societal pressure (and believe me, it is becoming pressure) could really go down the ladder all the way to #2 – safety. With all the top scientists telling us we need to stop global warming, going green with your business satisfies not only your own person growth/motivation, but reaches out to the motivation of the consumer.
Preemptive Green
So why not make your own Green preemptive proposition? Give away your branded reusable bags. Or certify that even 20% of your stock is from nearby farms. Or your products have reduced packaging by 10% and uses recycled material. Surely you can rise above your competition and do the world (and your consumers and yourself) some good by being Green, as well as satisfying some of the most basic human needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy, first proposed in the 1950’s, is still a basic truth of human needs today and is still taught in colleges. Your business really can be both greenly responsible AND profitable. And that’s good for everyone.

-Rebecca

MyWebGrocer has helped 84 retail grocers find profit online since 1999.
Here is what some of them have to say about MyWebGrocer’s services:

Happy client since 2006: “The service we currently use is the OGS (online grocery shopping) application. It has been extremely beneficial to our company because we’ve able to gain new customers who spend 6 times the amount of what they spend in-store”.
–Phil Cohen, Vice President and Director of Specialty Foods

Happy client since 2006: “Our partnership with MyWebGrocer allows Brookshire Grocery Company to fully integrate all our web services so our consumers have a seamless and intuitive online experience. Outsourcing these functions allows us to get the best possible technology and functionality to our consumers in the quickest timeframe possible.”
-Rebecca Sanders, Vice President of Marketing

Happy client since 2007: “MyWebGrocer moves us from having an informational website to an interactive online channel. With all of their advanced features and state of the art infrastructure, we knew choosing MyWebGrocer was the right choice for our business. We are looking forward to our new online future”.
-Amy McClellan, Marketing and Communications Specialist

Happy client since 2007: “We pride ourselves in providing our customers a unique shopping experience. Heinen’s Fine Foods has always been a leader in the retail grocery market. Establishing an online brand that mirrors what consumers have come to expect in stores is a key goal for Heinen’s. MyWebGrocer not only allow us to drive the look and feel we need for our website but also incorporate key functionality that will continue to differentiate us in the market.”
-Louis Penny, Director of Information Technology

Cheers!
Courtney