Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

According to recent forecasts by companies such as Carat and eMarketer, online advertising will continue to grow despite a decline in overall advertising expenditure.

Leading media communications agency Carat revised previous forecasts issued in March, which predicted 2008 growth in advertising expenditure to reach 6%. Now the agency is predicting 2008 figures to increase by only 4.9%. Jerry Buhlmann, CEO of Aegis Media, said, “It is clear that the worldwide economic issues affecting businesses are having an impact on where and how advertisers spend their money…Similarly, while TV’s share of spend has stabilized, internet advertising is continuing to drive spending ahead of other sectors in nearly every region. Internet is set to overtake radio this year to become the world’s third most popular medium, behind TV and print.”

“But changes in consumer behavior aren’t the only reason for this,” Buhlmnn continued. “With search now central to the planning and execution of any campaign, online media brings a greater level of accountability not just to itself but to TV, print and other forms of advertising. This is why we are predicting further strong growth for internet, even when advertisers are cautious in many of the other sectors.”

Earlier this summer Advertising Age reported that although Procter & Gamble had cut costs by closing a manufacturing facility and eliminating hundreds of jobs at Gillette’s South Boston headquarters, its advertising budget would remain steady at around 10.4 percent of the company’s annual sales. Instead of spending as much on traditional media, the company would devote more to alternative channels.

A recent LA Times article summed up the current trend in total online spending as significant. In the article, eMarketer analyst David Hallerman said, “Complaining about an online-ad slowdown is like griping about a slugger who is on pace for 40 home runs after hitting 50 last year.” eMarketer expects online ad spending to grow to $25.9 billion this year and $30 billion in 2009, from $21.1 billion last year.

Online advertising’s resistance to the economic woes plaguing other media is a tribute to the medium itself. As Buhlmann stated, interactive marketing is now, more so than ever, the cornerstone of today’s successful media mix. Most campaigns integrate online spending at least at some level. Amid diminishing budgets, advertisers cannot afford to miss out on less costly, targeted opportunities to reach their online audience. So, the growth continues.

Rachel

To see all of Carat’s forecasted figures, click here.
To visit Advertising Age, click here.
To read the Los Angeles Times article, click here.

In a recent publication by Grocery Headquarters Magazine, Rich Tarrant was quoted stating a few tips to stay alive in these tough economic times, read what he has to say,

“‘A good way for supermarkets to do that is by using their websites. Giving consumers the ability to pursue the items that are on sale on your website, and building a shopping list from that is clearly an area that will help people manage their budgets, and can help retailers differentiate themselves within the current environment’. Tarrant suggests retailers offer meal suggestions and recipes on their websites, and set it up so just a click of the mouse adds those ingredients to a shopping list. ‘Anything you can do to make that easier for the time-pressed consumer naturally gives you some assistance in combating other retailers who maybe don’t make it that easy for consumers,’ he says. ‘Retailers promoting online shopping can increase their sales in the high-margin HBA and non-foods categories. Customers who use the online channel consolidate their purchases back to the retailer and are not doing multiple stops. They may pay a service fee, but they’ve saved time by eliminating having to go to more outlets. In a time where a cup of coffee is $3, to save an hour and 20 minutes in a store, particularly if you are a young mother with kids, is a very easy value proposition to justify even in tight times.’”

Want to read the whole article? Check it out
here

Cheers!

-Courtney

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

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

July 31 2008, Colchester VT: MyWebGrocer has increased the number of new customer orders an average of 16% through its partnership with NetElixir for its participating retail grocers. NetElixir is the Pay Per Click partner that powers MyWebGrocer’s unique retail grocery acquisition program where retailers only pay for new customers that place a new order. This CPA based program takes the complexity and risk out of traditional customer acquisition programs for retail grocers.

“Our team has been working closely with NetElixir over the last year and right out of the gate they improved our internal efforts by 60%. This with their ability to build a dedicated team to support our Grocery CPA program 24-7-365 has given MyWebGrocer a significant advantage to our retailers who are competing against Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon’s massive PPC efforts.” Explained Alec Newcomb, Vice President of Business Development at MyWebGrocer.

“Our partnership drives significant efficiency in the search advertising management program for online retailers” explains Udayan Bose Founder & CEO of NetElixir. “The domain expertise of MyWebGrocer and search advertising optimization capabilities and technology of NetElixir would combine to generate disproportionate return on advertising dollars for our customers.”

About MyWebGrocer: MyWebGrocer was one of the first to launch online services for retail grocers in 1999. MyWebGrocer increases basket size, acquires new customers, retains current customers, and drives revenue in-store and online business for their clients. MyWebGrocer has the largest grocery advertising network in the country covering 85% of the US, earning their clients direct ad revenue. Some of their clients include Shoprite, Lowes Food Stores, Big Y, Food Lion and 80 other leading grocery chains. For more information please visit www.mywebgrocer.com or call 1-888-662-2284.

About NetElixir: NetElixir, Inc (www.NetElixir.com) is one-stop-shop for all search advertising management needs. NetElixir offers both technology and full-service 24×7x365 management of pay-per-click search marketing campaigns that help online retail marketers generate profitable and predictable returns from their search marketing dollars. NetElixir has helped more than 50 online retailers including NetGrocer, Vermont Teddy Bear, KSwiss, Luggage Online & Carpet One run consistently profitable SEM campaigns, through a combination of proprietary technology and sophisticated processes. For information regarding NetElixir’s search engine marketing solutions please contact Udayan Bose at udayan@netelixir.com or call at 609-356-5112.