»
Better nowA Starbucks’ head-scratcher last month that involved very well-publicized nationwide store-closings may have been lost on consumers.
Starbucks did a truly wonderful job letting people know it would be closed on February 25 - but most consumers were not clear on the rationale. And while an investment in employee training is truly laudable, it seemed a little odd for a retailer to go so out its way to tell customers it would be closed for a few hours of barista training. One wondered if customers might have some confusion about the closing and retain only the message that the their favorite latte haunt was shuttered - perhaps a poor leave-behind message.
The closings were so well advertised and reported that an Aegis Group survey found that 75 percent of 1000 consumers surveyed knew the java giant was closed, but fewer than half knew why.
Dunkin’ Donuts was smart enough to offer a 99-cent latte promotion for the day, a move that resulted in a significant increase in traffic and sales, according to AdAge.
The D.D. move is reminiscent of one made by Caribou Coffee in the fall of 2006. At that time, Starbucks had voided a promotion that it had sent to employees and invited them to share with friends. The promotion went viral, reaching far beyond the company’s intent, and Starbucks stopped accepting the coupon. Rival Caribou Coffee took advantage by honoring the Starbucks coupon and, at the same time, providing a free drink offer to email subscribers.
Hyper-conservative Rush Limbaugh - heard weekly by nearly 20 million listeners on about 600 radio stations nationwide - renewed his contract with Premiere Radio Networks and Clear Channel Radio, continuing syndication of The Rush Limbaugh Show.
The deal also includes…
WSJ.com’s traffic soared an impressive 94 percent in June compared to the same month last year, according to the company’s internal traffic numbers.
Total page views ballooned 45 percent, to 150 million, compared to the same month last year, writes Mediaweek.…
Kozy Shack, maker of rice and chocolate pudding, is sponsoring the New York Mets, with tubs of the pudding being sold individually at Shea Stadium as well as being included in children’s meals. And the snacks are selling so well…
Though U.K. advertiser investment committed for 2008 is staying put, discretionary spending is becoming shorter-term, at or slightly short of budget; still, WPP’s GroupM forecasts 4 percent growth in 2008 and 3 percent in 2009 for the U.K., thanks to internet…
Email is the most popular form of direct response marketing, with 35 percent of companies using it - compared to 25 percent that use traditional direct mail - according to a new survey conducted by Direct Partners (via Adweek).
The survey…
Without spam protection, the average web user can expect to get 70 spam messages each day, according to a survey by McAfee, the BBC reports (via MarketingVOX).
For the McAfee spam test, 50 people worldwide were asked to web-surf without a spam…
