Global Retail Executive Council

Bags, healthcare and policy shifts

With yesterday's news that the City of Seattle had rejected a proposed 20-cent fee on plastic bags at retailers, we once again saw a triumph of mixed-bag (pardon the pun) corporate interests over anything resembling sound policy. Chemical companies and bag manufacturers spent a whopping 15 times the amount raised to support the measure to defeat it, raising not only relevant issues actually related to plastic bags but questioning how the city would spend the money... and this comes after lawsuits being filed to stop other cities in the US from banning bags.

The reality is that surcharges on bags reduce their use and encourage consumers to shift to reusable alternatives, and this has been proven over and over in countries as diverse as Ireland and China, with demonstrable and measurable results. It's good policy and it helps the triple bottom line of people, planet AND profits as consumers benefit from retailers subsidizing the purchase of branded reusable bags (which they carry in competitors stores, it should be noted), reduced resource consumption and a cleaner planet... and retailers get a new revenue source from branded merchandise.

The defeat of good policy at the expense of reason is nothing new to retail. After all, we've seen some pretty divergent and contradictory positions on the healthcare reform debate coming from the industry:

• Wal-Mart urges an employer mandate to cover the uninsured...
• ... to which the National Retail Federation responds "um... over our dead body"...
• And Whole Foods CEO John Mackey (already under a bit of fire over faking blog posts regarding the company's acquisition of rival Wild Oats) went so far to the right in his arguments against "ObamaCare" that he sparked a boycott - not by a political group, but by Whole Foods shoppers.

Retailers looking to profit and grow in the coming decade need a new look at what it means to be "sustainable." The NRF needs to remember that every dollar the average shopper - or retail employee - has to spend on health care or insurance is a dollar less to spend in stores. Rather than blindly fighting tooth and nail against anything that MIGHT add a small cost to their bottom line, retailers need to find ways to make their strategies win for the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. It's not an either/or... and it is imperative.

And for any Seattleites thinking their image as a bastion of environmentalism might be tarnished by their love of the plastic bag (or love of the plastic bag maker's political donations...), fear not... Though Mexico City leads the way on banning plastic bags, you still have better traffic... at least in the HOV lanes.

The Retail Experience: MY MOBILE PHONE - 1960's Madison Avenue in Portland?

OK, I have to admit, what drew me into the Banana Republic store next to where I live had NOTHING to do with shopping for clothes (SHOCKING!) Instead, it was the huge window display with "Mad Men" promotional signage all over it. Now it should be said, I am one of what is known now within the circle of people who watch this show religiously as a "Maddict."  I wear that title proudly; the show’s appeal is part interest in the 1960's genre and part the glory days of Madison Avenue advertising agencies.  Oh yeah, and then there's Don Draper... :)

But I digress… (Isn't that the point of blogging anyway?) The most engaging part of this campaign was their promotion of clothing in the Mad Men-inspired style and the upcoming Season 3 debut.  Upon entering the store to find out what the contest and the "look" was all about, I was greeted by the clerk who handed me a booklet showing different character looks and explained that I could post my own "Mad Men" look online in a contest where I could win a walk-on part! (For the record, I have NO interest in becoming a movie star, but then again... meeting dreamy Don Draper... well, that's worth it...)  The booklet contained a 20% off coupon good for use later and a code to enter for the online contest. My initial reaction was that this was BRILLIANT!  But then I thought again of missed opportunities here... First, I was ALREADY IN the store, so why reward me for leaving and coming back another time instead of buying the clothes then? And second, I wanted to share this with my friends - NOW, not when I got back to my laptop at home.

Why wasn't this otherwise very creative campaign somehow linked to my phone? I have email, Web and a camera... and it's realtime and always with me. And why didn't they make it easy - or even more profitable - for me to share the promotion with my friends on Facebook or Twitter? "They had me at hello" as the saying goes, but they lost the opportunity to have me try on some cool Banana Republic/Mad Men clothes in the dressing room, snap a pic of myself wearing them, and both enter the contest and share the experience with all my friends. Instead, I had to go back home to my computer, log in, upload my image, and then hope that my friends would “vote me up”.  That’s a lot of work! Needless to say, the remote chance of being a Betty Draper neighbor motivated me to enter the contest, but it did nothing at all toward promoting the Banana Republic fall line.
 
The truth is that the strongest possible point of engagement is when a shopper is IN the store - where 70% of purchase decisions are made (and, I might add, where virtually 100% of pre-purchase "how do I look in this dress?" conversations happen). Wouldn't it be far more effective if I were to, for example, try on one of the Mad Men inspired outfits and have one of the friendly clerks snap a picture of me with my phone, upload my entry to their website VIA MY MOBILE PHONE and then turn around and share with my friends on Facebook or Twitter pics? That would increase both the ease of engagement - and hence participation - and the chance of "going viral" that every promotion seems to crave. Or take it a step further: respond to my contest entry with an immediate 10% discount on the exact outfit I was wearing delivered straight to my phone for immediate redemption...  or how about giving me an extra 10% off if I shared the promotion with 5 friends, along with a 10% off coupon for each of them. I mean, if thousands of people are willing to “defriend” their Facebook friends for  a Whopper, wouldn't we be even more likely to share something with our friends if we BOTH benefited? A focus on how my mobile phone could help close the loop in the store and in real time is what the promotion was lacking, and had it been there I would have likely left the store with a new dress.
 
"Mobile Marketing" and "Mobile Promotions" have been the buzzwords lately, but they need to truly transition to "Mobile Retailing" to become more than just a marketing fad.  For the time being there are very limited number of successful examples of retailers turning mobile marketing into mobile shopping, which strikes me as both odd and a bit sad. It's an exciting new model for retailers to consider and I believe that the in-store experience NEEDS to engage the consumer more... plus it's not simply moving a tired old promotion strategy onto a new platform.  

For retailers wanting to figure out how to make mobile a part of their shopping experience, the good news is that on October 7, 2009 the very first GREC Mobile Retail Experience Conference and Pavilion will be held at the International CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment event. This inaugural event will explore how retailers can take advantage of the billions of mobile phones their shoppers carry around to create a better shopping experience. You can read more about it at http://www.mobileretailexperience.com.
 
Oh, and for all of you wondering if you'll be able to see me in an episode of Mad Men this fall... I'm afraid it’s not going to happen. I never received a call and - as luck would have it - so many people voted online that the system crashed! Oh well, I guess Don Draper will just have to wait for his chance to meet me...