ANA Marketing Maestros

The FTC Gives Tweens an “Ad-ucation”

By Cara Brooke Schultz

Can a video game be used as an educational tool? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would like to think so. They recently developed a new campaign—an educational video game—to educate kids about marketing and advertising. The FTC launched this campaign for three main reasons: to raise awareness of advertising messages among children ages 8 to 12; teach critical thinking skills that will allow tweens to analyze and interpret advertisements; and demonstrate the benefits of being an informed consumer.  

 

The FTC is hoping that not only will this video game help “ad-ucate” young consumers, but that it will help to enhance critical thinking skills.  The campaign’s website gives teachers educational tools to help raise advertising awareness among students. For example, teachers can download a lesson that invites students to explore what advertising is, what ads do, and who’s responsible for the messages being projected in the ads.  

The video game isn’t the most graphically enhanced, and with all the video-entertainment out there for tweens, I’m not sure how this will effectively hold their attention (although I’m sure they will find this video game more enjoyable then any old lesson plan).  However, I think it’s a great concept, tweens should understand advertising and anything that helps to generate critical thinking skills is a plus! Test out your ad-skills at admongo.

Marketing for Cooking-Toys Might Need a Few New Ingredients

By Cara Brooke Schultz

Advertisers in the toy industry should pay attention to a new demographic: male ages 2-11. Yes you read that correctly, 2-11.

According to a recent Adweek article, data over a five-month period ending in February showed significant numbers for the Food Network, “The overall male audience for Throwdown with Bobby Flay is 36 percent, but jumps to 47 percent in the 2-11 age bracket; overall male audience for Iron Chef America, also 36 percent, jumps to 45 percent in the 2-11 bracket. And on TLC, the audience for Cake Boss, 30 percent male overall, jumps to 36 percent among those boys.”

It seems as if this large audience is going unnoticed—or maybe not? After taking a quick look through a few Web sites, I noticed more cooking-toys being manufactured in primary colors rather than in pastel pink and lavender. Another subtle difference, boys were being integrated into the advertisements alongside girls for the toy packaging. The Adweek article, “Half Baked” explained, “Today, male celebrity chefs are driving the current food craze and more boys than ever are watching those shows.” 

 

Although most of the toys are still advertised for young girls, keep an eye on how advertisers might soon be changing their ingredients for this stale recipe. 

 

Win the Hearts, Minds and Wallets of Shoppers

By: Michael Palmer

Shopper Marketing – what is it?  It’s a way to capture shopper’s minds, hearts and wallets.   With so many of shopper’s decisions being made at the shelf (up to 70% some research reports) and on impulse (up to 68%) it is critical to use the retail market as a channel to connect with consumers.  There is an opportunity to both drive consumption and build brand equity.

But what is Shopper Marketing – all marketing stimuli, developed based on a deep understanding of shopper behavior, designed to build brand equity, engage the shopper (i.e., a consumer in ‘shopping mode’), and lead him/her to make a purchase …this definition is from Deloitte, working in conjunction with the GMA.

But does shopper marketing work?  It sure does.  American Eagle stores in a study conducted by Indiana University’s Kelley Business School found that they could drive sales of men’s clothing up 23% without spending a dime.

Studying men, AE discovered that they were uncomfortable picking up and interacting with merchandise because they were afraid they would not be able to refold it nicely and put it back on the shelf.  So AE started displaying men’s clothing in piles, not neatly folded.  Men now feeling comfortable picking up items did so regularly. 

Men also have trouble deciding what goes well together, so AE place a number of manikins dressed in different clothing combinations next to the merchandise they were trying to move.  And pow, deciding what to buy was no longer a mystery. 

The insight here – understand your customer, learn how they shop, then make that experience more comfortable, enjoyable, easier.  AE did all three and were rewarded with a tremendous same store sales increase without having to spend any marketing dollars.  What can you do to make shopping for your brand more fun, easier, or faster?

Technorati tags: shopper marketing retail marketing American Eagle store