April 16, 2012

Fuel to Burn: Now What?

By JAD MOUAWAD

Published: April 10, 2012

THE reversal of fortune in America’s energy supplies in recent years holds the promise of abundant and cheaper fuel, and it could have profound effects on what people drive, domestic manufacturing and America’s foreign policy.

The Eagle Ford basin in Texas produced 30.5 million barrels of oil in 2011.

Cheaper fuel produced domestically could reduce the cost of shipping and manufacturing, trim heating and cooling bills, improve the auto market and provide tens of thousands of new jobs.

It might also pose new environmental challenges, both predictable and unforeseen, by damping enthusiasm for clean forms of energy and derailing efforts to wean the nation from its wasteful energy habits.

But for Americans battered by rising gasoline prices, frustrated by the dependence on foreign oil, skeptical of the benefits or practicality of renewable fuels and afraid of nuclear power, the appeal of plentiful domestic oil and gas could far outweigh the costs.

Just a few years ago, the dominant theme in discussions about energy was of declining production and the fear of running out of oil. Even today, political tensions in the Middle East, particularly in the Persian Gulf, have fanned fears of supply disruptions that are keeping prices high.

But a new boom in energy production in recent years has upended these expectations in record time. High energy prices led to a wave of successful oil and gas exploration in North America, including in fields that were deemed uneconomical only a few years ago. Using techniques like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, oil companies are tapping into deeply buried reserves in shale rocks and in the ocean’s depths.

The surge in energy prices, along with a recession and new government rules that tightened fuel-economy standards, led to a sharp cutback in gasoline consumption. This decline in demand in the last five years reversed decades of almost uninterrupted growth that made the United States the world’s top energy consumer, accounting for one in every four barrels of oil burned around the globe.

The North American energy revival is primarily the result of so-called unconventional sources of energy — like shale oil and shale gas across the United States, oil sands in Canada and deepwater production in the Gulf of Mexico. In the last five years, the United States and Canada combined have become the fastest-growing sources of new oil supplies around the world, overtaking producers like Russia and Saudi Arabia.

“The transformation unfolding in North America represents a potentially decisive shift in the history of energy,” Rex W. Tillerson, the chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, who is not usually given to hyperbole, said in a speech in Houston last month.

Ed Morse, head of global commodity research at Citigroup and a longtime energy analyst, says North America has the potential to become a “new Middle East.”

“The reduced vulnerability of North America — and the world market — to oil price spikes also has deep consequences geopolitically, including the reduced strategic importance to the U.S. of changes in oil- and natural gas-producing countries worldwide,” Mr. Morse said in a recent 92-page report called Energy 2020. ”Pressures towards isolationism in the U.S. will likely grow, with consequences for global stability that can only just begin to become understood.”

“The only thing that could stop this is politics — environmentalists getting the upper hand over supply in the U.S., for instance,” the report said.

The new supplies ensure that the United States will remain well entrenched in oil, but the continuing reliance on fossil fuels also carries significant environmental concerns — whether from the risk of offshore drilling, or the hazards, many still unknown, of hydraulic fracturing. It also means that greenhouse gas emissions will most likely increase, at least until carbon emissions are capped or new technology to store carbon dioxide underground is developed.

The glut of natural gas supplies cuts two ways on emissions. It has effectively put an end in the United States to any new investment in coal plants, which produce much more emissions. But it also makes the economics of alternative, noncarbon energy sources like wind power or solar power difficult to justify without public support and subsidies.

Regardless of the environmental impact, there is no guarantee that new supplies will inevitably lead to lower gasoline prices, as proponents of unfettered domestic drilling argue. Oil is a global commodity with a price set on the global market. With rising demand around the world, particularly in emerging economies, and instability in many oil-producing countries, many analysts predict global oil prices will remain volatile — and high — for many years to come.

And with gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, the nation’s energy resources remain a polarizing topic, pitting Republicans against Democrats, environmentalists against oil companies, and conservationists against advocates of unfettered drilling. 

My Comments:  With the current recession that is occurring gasoline is becoming a very difficult product to "deal with". People need gasoline to fuel their houses and their cars. It has also become extremely difficult to find a replacement for this product because most other known fuel sources require gasoline in some form. For example, electric cars need to be charged. Plugging in your car though to "charge" also requires gasoline as well as ethanol, the corn needs to be produced with some form of a gasoline run tractor and delivered in some form of delivery truck. Especially with the upcoming election, it will be interesting to see what the candidates propose to do about the gas supply and demand.

April 13, 2012

Best Buy's CEO Brian Dunn resigns

Ryan Joe

April 10, 2012

More in Direct Line Blog:

My, f-commerce, what big teeth you have

Read More >>

Best Buy's announcement that CEO and director Brian Dunn had resigned, amid “no disagreements” related to “operations, financial controls, policies or procedures” underscores just how much the big-box electronics giant is groping blindly around in an age of changing consumer shopping and spending habits.
Dunn's resignation arrives a little under two weeks after Best Buy laid out its “Actions to Improve Business Performance,” which included the closure of 50 big box stores in the U.S., the launch of 100 Best Buy Mobile “small format stand-alone” stores and a $250 million cost reduction in 2013. The company also said it would eliminate 400 corporate and support staff jobs. These reductions, while unpleasant, make sense.
Best Buy says it plans to grow by opening stores in China, selling more mobile handsets and growing its e-commerce. Unfortunately, these measures aren't enough, and Dunn's resignation isn't going to change that. Perhaps Dunn was part of the issue, but the fundamental problem with Best Buy is that it has no idea how to compete against online vendors offering better prices and greater convenience. It's the easiest thing to walk into Best Buy, examine a product, and then search for a better price online. The company has essentially become “a showroom for Amazon.”
In its 2011 financial statement, Best Buy acknowledges its “strong competition from traditional store-based retailers, internet-based businesses, our vendors and other forms of retail commerce.” I would argue that since Circuit City shuttered, Best Buy faces no competition from brick-and-mortars and nearly all its competition comes from online retailers from Amazon to the iTunes Store.
Best Buy has tried to squeeze blood from a stone by “offering [their] customers packaged value propositions that take the complexity out of managing devices, content and connectivity.” Usually this entails selling services customers don't need, understand or really want. While small brick-and-mortar outlets, like B&H in New York, can differentiate with in-store expertise, that's logistically impossible for a national chain like Best Buy.
While Best Buy has certainly invested heavily in e-commerce—it has one of the best Spanish-language retail sites to tap into multicultural consumers—Best Buy needs to figure out what, exactly, its points of competitive differentiation are. Right now, it's certainly not price, it's not convenience and it's not expertise.
Personally, I think one step Best Buy definitely needs to take is better integration of mobility with the in-store experience. Right now, the mobile channel is actively taking away business rather than bolstering it. Imagine customers entering the store, scanning their mobile devices over relevant products, and having immediate access not only to product specs, but user reviews and even price comparisons. While the company maintains a price-matching program, it needs to become a point of emphasis for mobile users instead of a giant point of confusion.
Obviously, Dunn was not thought of as the right man to push the company in the proper direction. Perhaps the next CEO will have a more focused vision.

 My Comments:  I thought the way this article was written was very interesting. When I first read the title I thought it seemed like the CEO was jumping ship, getting away from a failing business but this article spins it a different way. It seemed like while Best Buy is failing they are still optimistic that they will succeed with a new CEO. They hope to expand their business to China and by selling more mobile handsets and e-commerce. What I thought was very interesting was that the article called Best Buy a showroom for Amazon. This seems incredibly true. Why pay retail price when you can pay much less and even have other options delivered straight to your door. It will be interesting to see where Best Buy goes in the next few years.

April 11, 2012

Macy's transformation

Alex Palmer

April 01, 2012

 

 

Martine Reardon, CMO of Macy's

This spring, Macy's will begin a $400 million renovation of its flagship Herald Square store in New York City. Touted as the largest store renovation in U.S. history, the transformation reflects where Macy's marketing is headed as a whole, with the company eagerly embracing the possibilities of new technology, while carefully preserving the elements that made it an icon in the first place.
In just the past three years, Macy's has made major changes in how it approaches its marketing, reorganizing its marketing department, putting a greater emphasis on local targeting, while aggressively incorporating mobile, social and e-commerce into its  channel mix.
“There's a famous quote from Mayor Michael Bloomberg that, ‘If you have not been to Macy's, you have not been to New York,'” says Martine Reardon, CMO of Macy's. “There is a halo effect on this building that permeates out to all of our other locations.”
The retailer has also recently made a number of executive moves, with Reardon taking over as CMO at the beginning of February. She assumes the role from Peter Sachse, who moved into the position of chief stores officer after Ron Klein retired from that position. Prior to her new role, Reardon had served as EVP of marketing and advertising, having risen through the ranks at Federated Department Stores and Macy's Inc.
Macy's many bold choices seem to have paid off. The company's revenue has increased for four straight quarters, with a 5.5% increase in its most recent earnings report, and with consistently strong monthly same-store sales numbers.
The Herald Square makeover is the latest in the company's ambitious plans and the most tangible demonstration of how the brand will balance fast-changing technology, while showcasing its 154-year history.
Among the innovations underway are interactive store directories that allow visitors to find what it is they are seeking, an enhanced signage system and digital product information. Live video feeds of Macy's events throughout the country will be broadcast in-store. Customers will be able to download a mobile app, which they can use to guide them through the landmark.
“Technology is a big focus for us,” Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren said during a press preview of the renovation plans last November. These updates are partly a play to get younger shoppers into the store, with Lundgren adding that, “We're focusing on millennials because they're huge.”
Indeed, a new Impulse apparel and accessories department, targeted toward 13- to 30-year-old shoppers, will also be part of the transformation. The upgrades, which will continue in phases through the fall of 2015, will also include a 100,000-square-foot expansion of the store's selling space, a new hall of luxury brands and the creation of the world's largest women's shoe department, which will feature as many as 300,000 pairs of shoes on any given day. The new shoe department will be accompanied by a special shoe locator system.
While the renovation marks an ambitious effort to bring mobile and location-based marketing into the Macy's experience, the company has already been innovative in its use of the new technology in recent years. Macy's was one of the first stores to partner with the Shopkick app, offering rewards and offers to its customers for walking into the store. Last September it became an early adopter of the Google Wallet payment system.
Last spring, the retailer introduced Backstage Pass, which integrated Quick Response (QR) codes into in-store promotions as well as print and online. A store guest can snap a code and get a 30-second video of Tommy Hilfiger talking about spring fashion trends, or Carlos Santana playing guitar (while also promoting his new line of shoes and handbags). Sean “Diddy” Combs, Martha Stewart, Kenneth Cole and Rachel Roy are other style mavens that visitors can access.

My Comments:  After reading about JCPennys decline in sales and their new strategy of eliminating timely sales, it is funny and almost sad to read how well Macy's is doing. It seems like it's starting to be the way, though, that if you can't keep up with technology, it kicks you out. Some stores (and perhaps even some people) seem to be trying to pretend as if technology doesn't exist, not Macy's though. This is very smart considering almost everyone is connected these days. New advances such as ShopKick, QR codes, and other apps/websites are changing the way people shop for everything from clothes to food. Pretending like it doesn't exist will just cause companies to un-exist, and from this article, it seems like Macy's will be around for a while.

April 4, 2012

Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isn’t Just a White Coat

Michael Temchine for The New York Times

PERCEPTION Wearing a coat thought to be a doctor’s may improve attention.

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

Published: April 2, 2012

If you wear a white coat that you believe belongs to a doctor, your ability to pay attention increases sharply. But if you wear the same white coat believing it belongs to a painter, you will show no such improvement.

So scientists report after studying a phenomenon they call enclothed cognition: the effects of clothing on cognitive processes.

It is not enough to see a doctor’s coat hanging in your doorway, said Adam D. Galinsky, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, who led the study. The effect occurs only if you actually wear the coat and know its symbolic meaning — that physicians tend to be careful, rigorous and good at paying attention.

The findings, on the Web site of The Journal of Experimental Social Cognition, are a twist on a growing scientific field called embodied cognition. We think not just with our brains but with our bodies, Dr. Galinsky said, and our thought processes are based on physical experiences that set off associated abstract concepts. Now it appears that those experiences include the clothes we wear.

“I love the idea of trying to figure out why, when we put on certain clothes, we might more readily take on a role and how that might affect our basic abilities,” said Joshua I. Davis, an assistant professor of psychology at Barnard College and expert on embodied cognition who was not involved with the study. This study does not fully explain how this comes about, he said, but it does suggest that it will be worth exploring various ideas.

There is a huge body of work on embodied cognition, Dr. Galinsky said. The experience of washing your hands is associated with moral purity and ethical judgments. People are rated personally warmer if they hold a hot drink in their hand, and colder if they hold an iced drink. If you carry a heavy clipboard, you will feel more important.

It has long been known that “clothing affects how other people perceive us as well as how we think about ourselves,” Dr. Galinsky said. Other experiments have shown that women who dress in a masculine fashion during a job interview are more likely to be hired, and a teaching assistant who wears formal clothes is perceived as more intelligent than one who dresses more casually.

But the deeper question, the researchers said, is whether the clothing you wear affects your psychological processes. Does your outfit alter how you approach and interact with the world? So Dr. Galinsky and his colleague Hajo Adam conducted three experiments in which the clothes did not vary but their symbolic meaning was manipulated.

In the first, 58 undergraduates were randomly assigned to wear a white lab coat or street clothes. Then they were given a test for selective attention based on their ability to notice incongruities, as when the word “red” appears in the color green. Those who wore the white lab coats made about half as many errors on incongruent trials as those who wore regular clothes.

In the second experiment, 74 students were randomly assigned to one of three options: wearing a doctor’s coat, wearing a painter’s coat or seeing a doctor’s coat. Then they were given a test for sustained attention. They had to look at two very similar pictures side by side on a screen and spot four minor differences, writing them down as quickly as possible.

Those who wore the doctor’s coat, which was identical to the painter’s coat, found more differences. They had acquired heightened attention. Those who wore the painter’s coat or were primed with merely seeing the doctor’s coat found fewer differences between the images.

The third experiment explored this priming effect more thoroughly. Does simply seeing a physical item, like the coat, affect behavior? Students either wore a doctor’s coat or a painter’s coat, or were told to notice a doctor’s lab coat displayed on the desk in front of them for a long period of time. All three groups wrote essays about their thoughts on the coats. Then they were tested for sustained attention.

Again, the group that wore the doctor’s coat showed the greatest improvement in attention. You have to wear the coat, see it on your body and feel it on your skin for it to influence your psychological processes, Dr. Galinsky said.

Clothes invade the body and brain, putting the wearer into a different psychological state, he said. He described his own experience from last Halloween (or maybe it should be called National Enclothed Cognition Day).

He had decided to dress as a pimp, with a fedora, long coat and cane. “When I entered the room, I glided in,” he said. “I felt a very different presence.”

But what happens, he mused, if you wear pimp clothes every day? Or a priest’s robes? Or a police officer’s uniform? Do you become habituated so that cognitive changes do not occur? Do the effects wear off?

More studies are needed, he said.

My Comments: This article examines what effect certain clothes have on our cognitive abilities. It was found that students who wore a "doctor's coat" had increased performance whereas those who wore a "painter's coat" (same as the doctor's) had lower performance scores, along with those who also simply saw a doctor's coat. This made me think of uniforms and why certain schools and institutions require certain dress codes. It also speaks to cultural norms where certain people must dress a certain way for certain situations. It speaks to Chapter 14 of our textbook about person to person selling. If a salesperson isn't dressed in the attire that seems to be the social norm for the situation the potential buyer may be turned away from the sale.

April 2, 2012

Kotex's awesome Pinterest campaign

Erin Dostal

March 30, 2012

 

:Kotex — yes, the tampon company — launched a super innovative campaign on Pinterest that was anything but awkward or hush-hush. Actually, it was really awesome. 

Here's how it worked: The company targeted 50 influential women and analyzed them based on their Pinterest boards — shoes, bikes, photos, wedding dresses, crafts and all. Kotex made them a gift box based on their interests. To get the box, all the lucky ladies had to do was re-pin their gift. Kotex then mailed them the box, completing the buzz-worthy cycle.
And all of it was meant to celebrate Women's Inspiration Day. How's that for knowing your audience?
The campaign was a success. The audience was targeted, and Kotex clearly knew not only how to reach them, but how to speak to them. The company's marketers collected the right information from these women to make them happy — not creep them out for snooping their sites — and surprised and delighted them. Besides, it created inherent buzz through its sheer innovation and it claims to be the first-ever Pinterest marketing campaign. There's even a YouTube video where customers can learn more, complete with sappy music, lots of hot pink and snappy graphics.
In total, the campaign launched 2,284 interactions and 694,853 impressions online. Not bad at all considering that the company only reached out to 50 women directly.
For a company who's slogan on their website is “your period is as unique as you are,” this seems all-too fitting. Brand consistency. Boom.
So, Kotex, I will no longer think of you as just a tampon company. And that seems pretty amazing on its own.

My Comments:  My first reaction upon reading this article was Finally! Pinterest took off with such a boom that even I, as a young person in Generation Y, could barely keep up! Facebook and Twitter have become so main stream that obviously ads are going to be all over them. Finally a company has decided to take advantage of the amount of people on Pinterest and advertise to them. It's no surprise that the first product is a feminine product considering most of the people on Pitnerest are women.

March 30, 2012

Should marketers spend more on social and mobile than email in 2012?

February 06, 2012

 

:

Mobile and social vs. email: Where should marketers spend their limited dollars this year? It's a question that's top-of-mind for many marketers out there — and that's why we asked you.
We polled our readers on what they thought and we've tabulated the responses. Thanks to everyone who wrote in.
YES
David Chapman, founder and CEO, 919 Marketing Company, more than 30 years experience in the marketing industry
My initial reaction to this question is that marketers and businesses should spend more money on the marketing programs that are working best for them in 2012. If it's not broken, why try to fix it?
But I believe marketers would be better suited to spend more money in social and mobile than email in 2012, particularly if those programs are being used to supplement traditional marketing activities, such as media buys, public relations and direct mail. In the past few years, many of the companies we work with have been pleasantly surprised about the amount of customer engagement they've generated when they have executed targeted social and/or mobile marketing campaigns in tandem with traditional marketing tools. Far fewer have reported similar experiences and success stories surrounding email campaigns.
Personally, I believe this is because people are more mobile and social than ever before. In this day and age, brands can no longer rely solely on “push” marketing to drive brand awareness and preference because customers have the power. Blogs, comment streams, social media profiles and other online tools give customers a voice. Each customer can have a powerful impact on brands he or she uses so it's important for brands to get involved in the conversation. Therefore, in addition to “pushing” customers toward their products and services via traditional marketing tools, it's also important for brands to “pull” them toward their brand by contributing to online conversations and offering up valuable discounts through texts and social media posts.
Also, this isn't just a trend that impacts large corporations and multi-unit franchise systems. In fact, it may be even more important for local businesses to manage the conversation online than it is for large businesses because just one negative review could destroy the company's reputation and loyal customer base.
Email is a great tool and can certainly be a difference maker for many companies, but it's typically used as nother “push” tool. I anticipate a continued rise in mobile and social marketing efforts because they allow marketers to influence the conversation online while both “pushing” and “pulling” customers to their brand.
NO

Adam Shlachter, managing director for digital, MEC, 13 years of experience in the marketing industry
Every chart and stat and report I've seen over the last few quarters and years point to exponential growth in the social and mobile spaces. So it makes sense that many of these reports indicate that there will be a stronger focus on mobile and social when it comes to digital ad spending or the channels in which marketers are planning to invest in next. Both mobile and social — in fact, the whole digital space — is ever-changing and evolving, and is becoming a more serious communications vehicle, as well as an excellent platform for marketers and commerce. With such dramatic growth, some would say that social and mobile have become almost as significant as email, but while email is a more mature channel, it is still one of the most effective drivers of positive return on investment and customer engagement for many brands, particularly retail brands.
Billions of emails are sent every day to users who have chosen to receive the brand messages and offers contained within, and we need to understand how these consumers' preferences for brand communication may have changed, or if they have changed at all. Maybe they have a brand's mobile app to keep up with their account, or they subscribe to the brand's social feeds and updates — or maybe it's a combination of all of the above, but for different reasons and in different mixes. Clearly, there is an opportunity to look at customers' behavior and optimize how, when and how often they're pinged, texted, emailed or pushed any sort of message, including direct mail, print and even TV if there is enough valid data available.
Every brand should invest, or continue investing, in its social and mobile platforms to keep up with the trends and remain relevant to customers who are engaging in these channels, but not at the expense of what may already be working well and efficiently. Finding the right balance between all of these touchpoints is key, and email remains an important and viable channel for communication and engagement.
Direct Marketing News Decision
Although mobile and social marketing are exploding as consumer channels, they're still new and largely unproven in terms of results as marketers explore their value. Email is a proven channel of engagement with results marketers can rely on while exploring new communications vehicles. The key to making the best use of advertising dollars is remembering that channels are not mutually exclusive, and this is a good time for marketers to explore all those available to understand their true viability. Many are likely to find that different segments of their consumer base may prefer to be contacted in different ways.

 

From the March 01, 2012 Issue of Direct Marketing News

 

My Comments:  My first thought upon reading the title of the article was, yes. Companies should definitely be focusing more on Social Media rather than email. From personal experience, I hate receiving emails telling me about products or events I should buy or take part in. When they are on the side of my facebook page, though, or in my twitter time line I am way more interested in checking these things out. I definitely agree though with the "Direct Marketing News Decision" that the "key to making the best use of advertising dollars is remembering that channels are not mutually exclusive" Both forms of advertising need to be used, and used well.

March 28, 2012

n Europe, Starbucks Adjusts to a Cafe Culture

Agnes Dherbeys for The International Herald Tribune

The Starbucks on the high-rent Boulevard des Capucines is a sumptuous hall adorned with velvet chairs, chandeliers and a gilt-leaf ceiling depicting cherubs aloft in a blue sky.

By LIZ ALDERMAN

Published: March 30, 2012

PARIS — On a recent sunny morning in this city’s chic Marais district, Marion Bayod squeezed behind a tiny table at Le Cactus, a neighborhood cafe she has frequented for years. She cast a sidelong glance at a Starbucks across the street.

“I never go into Starbucks; it’s impersonal, the coffee is mediocre, and it’s expensive,” Ms. Bayod, a 35-year-old masseuse, said as a waiter greeted her by name and quickly brought her usual espresso. “For us, it’s like another planet.”
Nearly a decade after venturing into Europe, Starbucks is still laboring to lure people like her. Despite engineering a strong turnaround in the United States and growing steadily in Asia, where Starbucks is still a novelty, the company has struggled here on the Continent that gave birth to cafe and coffeehouse culture.
Now, Starbucks is embarking on a multimillion-dollar campaign to win over more of Europe’s coffee aficionados — with an upscale makeover of hundreds of stores to cater to an ingrained cafe culture, and adjusting beverages and blends to suit fickle regional palates.
France may prove a particular challenge. Promenade on a Parisian boulevard with a paper coffee cup? Ça ne se fait pas! It just isn’t done.
After eight years spent setting up 63 French Starbucks stores, the company has never turned a profit in France. And even in the parts of Europe where the company does make money, sales and profit growth lag far behind results in the Americas and Asia.
Europe’s debt crisis and sluggish economy are a factor. So are high European rents and labor costs, which impinge on profits more than in any other region in which Starbucks operates. But the biggest challenge may lie in tailoring the Starbucks experience to appeal to a variety of European tastes.
“Europe is critically important for our future,” said Troy Alstead, the company’s chief financial officer. “We have not always put our best foot forward,” he added, but “we know we can have a bigger impact.”
To be sure, Starbucks has plenty of European fans. Whether in Amsterdam, Berlin or London, or even among subsets of Parisians, Starbucks stores are often packed with urbanites, tourists and laptop-wielding young people who embrace the coffee chain as an avatar of American popular culture.
“We see stars like Kim Kardashian in all the magazines walking around with a Starbucks,” Daphka Monteiro, a 19-year-old Parisian and aspiring fashion designer, as she licked the cream off a 5-euro ($6.50) Frappuccino, across from Ms. Bayod’s preferred cafe. “My friends and I come because it’s hip.”
That may be. But Starbucks struggles to make money from people like her.
While a New Yorker might grab a coffee to go — carry-out orders are one of the company’s biggest money makers — French friends tend to sit when they sip. So Starbucks is having to invest huge amounts to give its stores in France additional seating space, along with other renovations.
Michelle Gass, who last fall became the chief of Starbucks operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, recently took an anthropological tour to try to better understand the varying wants and needs of coffee lovers at the company’s European locales.
“In markets where there is an entrenched coffeehouse culture, like Paris or Vienna, I was expecting to hear more requests to be like them,” Ms. Gass said. “But I heard the opposite — people want the true Starbucks experience.”
Because that can mean different things to different Europeans, though, the company has devoted hundreds of hours to studying the variations. The British, for example, are quite happy to drink takeaway coffee, so Starbucks is planning hundreds of drive-through locations in Britain.
And Britons like lattes, although many consider the Starbucks version too watery. So baristas in Britain recently began adding a free extra shot of espresso.
Across the channel, however, 60 percent of French people prefer espresso, while only 20 percent can stomach an “Americano.” And yet, many find that Starbucks espresso tastes too charred, even by French cafe standards. So just two weeks ago in Paris, the company introduced a lighter “blonde” espresso roast.
And then there is the issue of service. To humanize its chain-store reputation, earlier this month Starbucks had its baristas throughout Europe start wearing nametags.
In London, an experiment is under way to take customers’ names with their orders and then address them by name when filling it. Participating patrons get a free coffee, but many others have lit up Twitter with complaints about bogus, American-style chumminess.

Other changes in the way baristas operate — they now keep milk within arms’ reach of the steamer, for instance — are meant to overcome the Continental curse of slow service.
The most visible innovations, though, involve “concept” stores designed to make a Starbucks feel more like a trendy neighborhood shop. Last month in Amsterdam, the company’s chief executive, Howard Schultz, cut the ribbon on a striking space with local woods and avant-garde architecture, including a stage for poetry readings.
In Paris, the company recently gave a rustic facelift to the Starbucks near the Paris Opera. A vast store near the Louvre got a modern makeover, featuring a sleek, wood coffee bar. And the Starbucks on the high-rent Boulevard des Capucines is a sumptuous hall adorned with velvet chairs, chandeliers and a gilt-leaf ceiling depicting cherubs aloft in a blue sky.
As it adjusts, Starbucks can consult the history of two other big American food chains. Burger King was forced to shutter its 39 stores in France in 1997 after its strategy of directly transplanting its American model, without local adaption, failed.
McDonald’s, by contrast, has grown rapidly in France and in Europe over the years by fine-tuning as needed, like using French cheeses, mustards and meats; preserving local architecture in some of its showcase stores; and more recently, creating a cafe area in some locations to accommodate coffee-sipping patrons.
It is too soon to know how well Starbucks’s new strategy might buoy its European financial results.
The company posted record earnings of $3.4 billion worldwide in its most recent quarter, and its stock has rocketed to $53, up from $8 in 2008. But in Europe, the weak economy continues to stunt sales.
In the quarter that ended in December, sales in European Starbucks that had been open at least 13 months rose by only 2 percent. That was well below the 9 percent growth in the Americas and 20 percent in Asia.
Starbucks’s profit margins are also much thinner in Europe, as a result of high real estate costs and labor laws that require relatively high employee wages and benefits.
But executives are so confident in their strategy that they are planning hundreds of new stores in Europe, from Paris to Moscow, beyond the 1,700 already in place. To corral “captive audiences,” Ms. Gass said, Starbucks plans to put many of the new sites in airports and railway stations on the Continent.
Some analysts see a danger of overexpansion, noting that the global recession in 2008 and 2009 forced Mr. Schultz to close more than 900 locations worldwide and cut $580 million in costs.
In Europe, “it’s possible the business could become more profitable and focused through the closure of stores,” or by leaving some markets altogether, said John Ivankoe, an equity research analyst at J. P. Morgan in New York.
Ms. Gass rebuts the doubters.
“In Europe, there’s no concern about us being oversaturated — quite the opposite,” she said. “It sounds like a lot. But when you’re walking the streets of Paris, compared with Manhattan, you have to go find them. It’s not like you can turn a corner and a Starbucks will be two blocks away.”

My Comments: I thought this article was interesting. I never realized how different European coffee culture was and how difficult this is for Starbucks to combat. Starbucks definitely has a foot in the door with American coffee but Europe has different views on coffee and how people socialize with it. It was interesting that in most European countries people usually will sit down with friends to enjoy their cup of coffee every time whereas in America it is seen as "cool" to be carrying around your paper or plastic coffee cup, showing you are "on the go"

March 26, 2012

6 Things to Know About Using QR Codes in Content Marketing

By Nate Riggs | Published: July 27, 2011

In 2010, we started to talk about QR codes … a little.
This year, QR codes are on the rise, popping up at every interactive conference, in magazines and books and anywhere you can print the fancy little squares. You’ll find some interesting statistics on consumer adoption of QR codes in this fascinating presentation by Austin & Williams.
A recent recent report published by ScanLife, estimates that 30-40% of all smart phone users have, at one time, downloaded a bar code scanning application. The report also revealed:

• 61% of all scanned bar codes are from Android operating systems, compared to Apple’s 20% ownership of market share.
• The top five US cities that have adopted QR codes are New York, Houston, Chicago, San Antonio and Las Vegas.
• The largest demographic that has adopted the use of QR Codes are 25-34-year-olds, with 35-44-year- olds close behind.
• 26% of QR code users earn an annual income of less than $50,000, and 35% make between $50,000 — $100,000 per year.
• There was a 1,600% increase in mobile bar code scanning in 2010.

Adoption momentum

From an adoption standpoint, it’s probably going to be some time before QR codes make it out of the hands of Internet geeks and into the mainstream. But the trend is beginning to gain momentum.  My gut tells me that widespread adoption will occur faster than we think largely because of the marketing and consolidation of the QR code reader market and deeper integration with smart phone operating systems.
As consumers become more used to technology adoption in general, the habit becomes much less scary for us. Couple that with the rate that new startups are pumping out shiny objects and the widespread success of platforms like Facebook, Groupon as well as Andriod, and suddenly, the barriers are much less intimidating.
Beware the gimmick syndrome

My trip to SXSW this year was a virtual QR code frenzy.
A dense crowd of tech-savvy humans who knew what to do with these fancy little squares descended upon Austin as they do each year. This audience created the perfect environment to experiment with applications of QR code technology.
Some of the applications were very effective. Some were not. Some were simply annoying.
For instance, we saw a ton of shirts displaying QR’s. Good idea, right?  Not so much. Notice the slight fold in the individual’s T-shirt?  Good luck getting an application like QuickMark to actually process that image and bring up the link.

Then there were the cupcakes. While tasty, this was a completely failed use of the technology in my opinion.

If you think the shirt was difficult to scan, you should have tried these little snack items.

But don’t worry. My frustration was quickly calmed by the yummy icing.  I never made it to the landing page as the company would have liked me to. In fact, I couldn’t even tell you one thing about the company. Can you see the problem with this gimmicky approach?

Doing it right

44Doors is doing QR codes right in all directions.  While this is a paid platform, they are light years beyond the free QR Code generators you can find online.
One of the case studies that caught my attention immediately centers on 44Doors’ work with Kendall Jackson Wines.
By placing a QR code on the label or as a tag around the neck of the bottle, Kendall Jackson can offer its customers all kinds of different information at the point of purchase. It’s relevant, timely and unique, which can influence the ultimate purchase decision.

6 things to know about using QR codes in content marketing

When you are thinking about using a QR code as part of your interactive strategy, make sure you consider these important points:
1) Know where your audience is and what they need when they encounter your QR code.
Many users are not tech savvy and do not know what a QR code is. Provide some instructions to educate them on what QR codes are, what they do, and how to use them.
2) Suggest a QR code reader for your audience to use.
For less savvy audiences, you may want to suggest one or more QR code readers they could download. Make sure to recommend what you know works, and make sure readers are compatible with both Andriod and iPhone OS. Here are some readers I recommend:

• UpCode
• QuickMark
• ScanLife
• Barcode Scanner
• QR Droid 4 Beta

3) Use an appropriate call to action.
Where do you want to take your audience so that they can take the next step? Once they land, what will you ask them to do?
4) Create the right landing page.
Once the QR code is scanned, make sure the information you deliver is relevant to where the end user is at that place and time. Location is a critical factor.
5) Display QR codes on a flat surface.
If you’re QR code is wrinkled or folded, your audience will have trouble scanning it, get frustrated and move on.
6) Always keep it simple.
Essentially, a QR code is a conversion point in real life. Don’t get too fancy or clutter up the code with noisy and distracting images and graphics.
There’s plenty more to consider.  What else would you add? How would you use a QR code in your marketing?

My Comments:  Nate Riggs has very interesting ideas on marketing and is very intelligent in his field of marketing. I have heard him speak and he has some great ideas and insight into where marketing is headed with technology. This article talks about the proper ways to use QR codes. QR codes are used similar to bar codes in stores, each has a personal meaning that brings users to a particular website. Companies use them to make it easier for consumers to visit the companys website by eliminating the need to remember and type out a long URL and instead simply scan the code. Nate looks at different ways QR's can be abused and ways they can be utilized well. I think QR codes are very effective, people are eager to take part in this new technology and it prevents people from forgetting to write down URL's they might be interested in.











































 

March 23, 2012

Pizza heavyweights build brand affinity and vie for customer loyalty

Allison Schiff

March 01, 2012

 

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Domino's Pizza
Annual revenue of $1.6 billion
4,927 U.S. locations
Pizza Hut
Annual revenue of $855 million
7,566 U.S. locations
No matter how you slice it, the experience of ordering and consuming a pizza should be fun, fast, easy and, of course, tasty — concepts Domino's Pizza has hungrily embraced with its “Oh Yes We Did” campaign. Direct competitor Pizza Hut, owned by Yum Brands, however, lags behind without a clear purpose to bolster its marketing positioning, says Bernie Pitzel, creative-in-residence at the Jacobs Agency.
“Domino's is the more fun brand now because it's more honest, it's more off-the-cuff and it's more approachable,” Pitzel says. “Pizza Hut seems kind of dated.”
Though both pizza brands endeavor to use social media and mobile to create engagement and engender brand affinity and ultimately push consumers to order on their respective e-commerce sites, Domino's is doing so in a more personal way. Pitzel says the Domino's experience gives pizza eaters a real reason to rethink the brand, which, until it launched the “Oh Yes We Did” turnaround campaign in 2009, was in a tailspin. The wide-scale multichannel campaign was designed to revitalize Domino's' reputation by shining a light on its shortcomings. Domino's changed its ingredients, began using chefs instead of cooks, included honest testimonials from customers and employees in its advertising, posted unedited user reviews on its website and encouraged its Facebook fans to post real photos of their pizzas for the chance to win cash in the recent “Show Us Your Pizza” contest.
Pizza Hut, on the other hand, announced at the beginning of 2012 that it was bringing back the “$10 any pizza” deal for a limited time, something it also did back in 2010.
“Five years ago, I would have laughed if I'd heard Domino's was doing artisanal pizzas, but the whole transparency thing is intriguing in a big way and their approach is integrated throughout all their media,” Pitzel says.
“I could get a better $10 pizza anywhere,” he adds. “So why should I want one from Pizza Hut?”
Representatives for both pizza brands did not return repeated requests for comment.
Troy Scarlott, VP and group creative director at advertising agency Ignited, gives Pizza Hut a bit more credit, calling the brand's $10 push a “bold move” and a promotional branding campaign that's more than “just branding for branding's sake,” he says.
“Pizza Hut has done some great work using branding, like the slogan ‘America's Favorite Pizza,' which means they're basically saying: We're the best and that's it,” says Scarlott, who worked on the Pizza Hut account at BBDO in the 90s and on Domino's at JWT in the early 2000s. “That slogan isn't so different from 10 years ago when their slogan was ‘The Best Pizza Under One Roof,' so Pizza Hut hasn't moved away from its core brand values.”
One small strike against Domino's e-commerce site is a gate that requires visitors to enter a physical address before being able to view anything other than a basic menu, a fact that Scarlott says could impact cart abandonment rates. However, once inside the gate, the Domino's site is more dynamic than Pizza Hut's, including giving visitors the ability to literally build an animated pizza and access the Pizza Tracker, a tool that allows customers to follow the progress of their order from when it's popped into the oven until it's delivered to the front door.
“Once you're inside the Domino's site, it's fun and way more engaging than the Pizza Hut site, which is very standard and kind of looks like they took some direct mail and put it on the Web,” Pitzel says. “As far as I can tell, Pizza Hut doesn't stand for anything — they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out who they are and what they stand for, and it can't just be $10 pizza.”
Despite this, both sites maintain similar traffic. According to Web audience measurement firm Quantcast, the Domino's site receives 2.3 million monthly visitors, while Pizza Hut has 2.5 million. Domino's receives 1.2 million unique visitors per month and Pizza Hut has almost 1.6 million.
When it comes to social, both Scarlott and Pitzel agree that Domino's comes out on top. Scarlott says he especially admires Domino's decision to “walk the walk” by including reviews on its website, of which there are thousands, both positive and negative.
“Domino's is doing better with social because they're combining it with their branding campaign,” Scarlott says. “They're not just putting out a branding campaign, they're living it.”
Pitzel says he is unimpressed by the Pizza Hut Facebook experience, joking that the page has little to differentiate it from the brand's actual website.
“When I clicked on the link for Pizza Hut's Facebook, I had to make sure I wasn't on their homepage. It looks like it's out of business or something,” says Pitzel. “But the Domino's Facebook page feels like real people are talking on it, which you can see in the personal way they respond to posts,” he says.
Though Scarlott says he gives Pizza Hut props for being the first of the two pizza brands to enter the mobile space — its iPhone app was named the top branded mobile app of the year by Forbes in 2009 with more than 2.5 million downloads — he feels its forays into social engagement leave something to be desired.
“I'm giving the nod to Domino's because it's reestablished itself as a player and completely embraced what social media is all about, which is one-on-one consumer dialogue and listening to the people who love their brand and then, more important than just listening, actually hearing what those people are saying,” Scarlott says.
As far as Twitter is concerned, both brands use it, seemingly successfully, as a customer service platform.
Pitzel says he finds the mobile experience provided by both pizza brands to be similar — not bad, simply unnecessary, calling them in his view simply “apps for apps' sake,” he says.
While Domino's appears to be the brand leader when it comes to using social and e-commerce, it failed miserably in the email arena, mostly because it took more than a week for Scarlott and a Direct Marketing News staffer to receive an email confirmation after signing up to receive communications from Domino's, a major faux pas in an automated age when digital-savvy consumers have come to expect almost instantaneous electronic acknowledgments. Pizza Hut's email arrived right away, with coupons for garlic bread or cinnamon sticks with the next online order.
As Scarlott dryly notes: “Really, the [Domino's] email should have come in 30 minutes or less.”


Brand Champion
Domino's is the clear engagement and social media leader. Its innovative “Oh Yes We Did” campaign personalizes the pizza experience. However, Pizza Hut deserves credit for being the first pizza brand in the mobile sphere. Domino's fails on email, neglecting to send an immediate acknowledgement or coupon in response to registrations, which is inexcusable in the digital age. It will be interesting to see what Pizza Hut does next to compete with Domino's.

My Comments:  This article really opened my eyes to something I hadn't noticed before consciously. When Pizza Hut and Domino's are such stiff competition, it's crazy to think that both wouldn't try extremely hard to stay on top, as you see with fast-food burger places. I had always thought I felt the same about both the places but now when I think about it, Pizza Hut's marketing lately has somewhat lagged behind Domino's, they are repeating their deals and not adding anything special. It feels very much like, as Pitzel mentioned also that Pizza Hut is out of business.

March 21, 2012

Pinkberry to accept Google Wallet at 69 retail locations

Erin Dostal

March 19, 2012

Google Wallet, which the company rolled out May 2011, is designed to store credit card and coupon data directly on a mobile device. Customers with Google Wallet can tap their phone on a point of sale (POS) kiosk to transfer payments or redeem discounts.
As part of the promotion, Pinkberry will give consumers who use Google Wallet in 69 locations throughout New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles a 10 percent discount on frozen yogurt through April 30, the blog said.
"Pinkberry customers can now pay and redeem coupons with one simple tap of their phone at the register,” said a Google spokesperson. “We're excited to have Pinkberry join a fast-growing ecosystem by demonstrating how easy it is to implement the Google Wallet SingleTap experience."
Other brands listed by Google that use SingleTap, which allows companies to accept payment and process coupons and discounts, include Banana Republic, Bloomingdales, and Jamba Juice. Brands that use Google Wallet for “tap and pay”, which can only be used for purchasing, include Jack in the Box, Duane Reade, and Radio Shack.
As part of the promotion, Google and Pinkberry will be hosting free tasting events at two of the stores locations in the Los Angeles area, where consumers can also try out the app.
The frozen yogurt company, which could not be reached immediately for comment, did not specify if this would lead to a roll-out to all of Pinkberry's stores.

My Comments:  The way technology has been advancing amazes me. When you walk into an apple store you see many employees walking around with Iphones, at first glance you believe it's just as if they're modeling them. Then when you ask to check out and purchase whatever you want to buy, or if you have a question about your account, they don't go anywhere, not to a cash register, or a back room. They turn on their Iphone ask you a few basic questions while they type away as if they are texting and next thing you know they are swiping you credit card on a device attached to the top of their phones. This is the same thing that Pinkberry is looking to do. They will be using Google Wallet as a way to store the customer information that they need. Along with apple, I feel like Google is becoming so popular. Any computer program that you might need, Google has. There is a social network, documents, email, even this blog is Google!

March 19, 2012

A Groupon Alternative Aims to Offer Small Businesses a Better Deal

Constant Contact has been one of the big success stories when it comes to online companies that specialize in serving small businesses. Some half a million of them count on the company’s Web-based help in building, managing and creating marketing campaigns around customer e-mail lists.

You're the Boss

Started 14 years ago, the company, which is based in Waltham, Mass., went public in 2007 and has expanded into other areas, including managing social-network marketing campaigns. In February, it introduced yet another service: coupon-based deal marketing. That brings Constant Contact into a crowded field of competition along with Groupon and LivingSocial. In a recent interview, condensed below, Gail F. Goodman, Constant Contact’s chief executive, explained why she thinks small businesses will prefer her company’s service.

Q. A lot of consumers are already burned out on deals. Are you too late?

A. We think of SaveLocal as building on the consumer experience that the daily deal companies have demonstrated. Their model has been about large-scale consumer lists, but we saw a while ago that it wasn’t perfectly serving our customer base of small businesses, 70 percent of which have fewer than 10 employees. We started talking to our customers about what did and didn’t work for them with Groupon and LivingSocial. We knew there had to be a better way, but it took us until the beginning of last summer to come up with what we thought would be a twist on the model that would make coupons work.

Then we spent six months developing and testing it to make sure we had it right. We think the timing is actually pretty good, because the merchant community has had a chance to become aware of the issues and problems with the daily deal market, and they’ve become very open-minded to the idea of structuring deals in a different way.

Q. What’s different about your model?

A. If Groupon provides quantity, we want to provide quality. We think the way to find your next great customer is through your existing customers, rather than through a big list of consumers who don’t know much about you. SaveLocal is about sending coupons to your current customer base, and providing them with an incentive to share the coupons with their social network in order to bring in new customers. We also turn the economics of the deal on its head, by letting the merchant control the amount of the discount so they’re not losing money on it.

Q. What’s the incentive for a small business’s customers to share a deal with their social network?

A. The small business chooses the incentive. The reward might be an extra $5 discount on the coupon, or 20 percent off on a second visit, or a free item, or whatever the business wants to offer. But the biggest difference with SaveLocal is that the customer gets the reward just for sharing, whether or not the friends buy anything.

Q. By offering smaller discounts, your merchants may protect per-customer profits, but won’t the deals be less compelling to consumers?

A. We’re seeing success with discounts of less than half off. We haven’t tested it enough to know exactly at what point you get diminishing returns from decreasing the discount, but we’ve seen a customer be wildly successful with a 33 percent discount. A smaller discount might not attract as many customers, but it’s the rabid deal-seekers who are going to find it less appealing, and that’s not necessarily who small businesses want to attract.

We’re changing the whole economics of the deal. The daily deal companies not only make merchants offer about half off, they keep about half of what the merchant takes in on the deal. We only charge $1 to $3 for each coupon. And we help our customers think through the best way to structure the deal. Restaurants can offer a coupon for less than the average ticket and make more when the customer buys up, so that if customers spend $40 on a dinner, the merchant can offer a $20 coupon for $10, and keep all of the extra $20 that the customer spends.

Q. If your customers e-mail their offerings only to existing customers, are they giving up the opportunity to attract lots of new customers?

A. About a fifth of the people responding to our deals are new customers for the merchant. But more important, because they’re getting the offer through an existing customer, they’re much more likely to be local than the people who respond to daily deals, and they’re much more likely to turn into loyal customers. They’re learning about the deal from an existing customer who’s endorsing the merchant. And we give merchants the means for following up, by helping the merchant get the new customer’s e-mail address and opt-in permission during the purchase process. Groupon and LivingSocial don’t share contact information with merchants. 

My Comments:  It seems like this new deal company might be going in a good direction. Many small businesses can't pair with Groupon because Groupon takes too much money that these businesses can not afford to give up. Save Local offers the same benefits as Groupon but on a smaller scale and with demands targeted more towards small local businesses. Save Local's model is based on networking which is typically a small businesses main form of advertisement anyway. Customers are rewarded by spreading the discount by word of mouth this is basically free advertisement for these companies. 

March 16, 2012

U.S. Stores Learn How to Ship to Foreign Shoppers

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Published: March 20, 2012

Macy’s has long marketed itself as a shopping destination for visitors to the United States. It offers a savings card with a 10 percent discount for foreign shoppers, custom programs for tour groups and travel agents, and a tourism Web site that lists shopping events and recommended hotels near Macy’s flagship stores.

Enlarge This Image

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A FedEx facility in Oakland, Calif. American retailers use shipping companies like FedEx to send merchandise around the world.

Enlarge This Image

Macy's

Macy’s, Williams-Sonoma, Aéropostale and Lane Bryant have added international shipping to their Web sites.

But only last year did Macys.com — which shoppers worldwide can look at — offer overseas shipping.

“We were getting international traffic,” said Kent Anderson, president of Macys.com. “It was coming whether we were offering them, frankly, any realistic way to interact with the site or not.”

Macy’s is one of several retailers trying to extend its international presence to its Web operations by shipping overseas. In the last year, Williams-Sonoma, J. Crew, Aéropostale, Crate and Barrel and Lane Bryant have added international shipping to their Web sites, while Ann Taylor and Neiman Marcus are working on it.

Some of the retailers are meeting existing or anticipated overseas demand, while others are testing the waters before opening stores in other countries. Either way, they are discovering that shipping beyond the United States is not a simple undertaking.

“Typically the guys we’re talking to start off thinking they can toss it in a box and give it to U.P.S. or FedEx and hope it gets there,” said Michael DeSimone, chief executive of FiftyOne, a technology company that helps retailers add international shipping capabilities.

But there are problems with ordering systems, customs and postal fees, he said.

For example, many retailers do not have software in their warehouse management systems that recognizes foreign postal codes, which — unlike those in the United States — do not always have five digits.

“It sounds like a really stupid reason not to sell internationally,” Mr. DeSimone said, “but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this was the biggest roadblock.”

The appeal to reaching customers in other countries is based largely on the popularity of mobile phone sales overseas. Forrester Research expects online retail sales in the Western Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America regions to increase 67 percent from 2011 to 2015, compared with 42 percent for the United States.

And traffic to American Web sites from international visitors is already high. In December, 14 percent of visitors to jcrew.com were from outside the United States, as were 36 percent of visitors to abercrombie.com, according to the research firm comScore.

“The retailers have been looking for new avenues of growth beyond the U.S.,” said John D. Morris, a retail analyst with BMO Capital Markets. A handful of retailers have sold internationally for some time. Abercrombie & Fitch, for instance, has shipped to overseas consumers for about a decade, while Nordstrom began doing so in 2009.

International visitors are coming to American sites because of lower prices and the availability of products they cannot get in their own countries, according to Forrester. Macy’s has found that Australian shoppers are particularly interested in its trendy clothes, while Canadians want basics like coats, shoes and underwear.

Some smaller retailers are handing over global shipping to third-party vendors like International Checkout. On those sites, shoppers click to transfer their shopping carts from merchants like Jockey and Bebe to International Checkout, which handles shipping, labeling and customs.

The customs piece of it can be substantial. Each item shipped overseas has to be labeled with information like country of origin and materials used. And certain products cannot go to certain nations — Spain, for instance, forbids imported playing cards, according to FiftyOne, while to send an alligator purse to someone outside the United States, retailers need a Fish and Wildlife Service permit.

Delivery, meanwhile, could cost as much as the product itself. Macy’s said that it could cost $200 to send $100 worth of merchandise to Australia after adding shipping costs and the value-added tax.

The Macy’s Web site will soon detect the location of international visitors, and show them a welcome screen in the local language that explains how international shopping and shipping works. After the welcome screen, the shoppers browse the English-language site used by shoppers in the United States, but at checkout they get a final price, plus shipping costs, in their local currency.

Macy’s said it was still learning how best to reach its overseas customers. The retailer’s standard one-day sales, a popular promotion in the United States, “seem to be understood across the English-speaking world, at least,” according to Mr. Anderson. But, he said, Macy’s was looking into how to capitalize on country-specific promotions.

“We need to pay more attention to Boxing Day,” he said. 

My Comments:  When I read this I was so surprised that Macy's didn't already have international shipping. It seemed like with this economy, retail stores, especially one as big as Macy's would want to take advantage of every opportunity possible. I understand that there would be some difficulties with it, as the article mentioned, with the postal codes that the computer software may not be able to recognize but with some remodeling it could be very successful. Also, it seems like a great idea because they can take advantage of all international holidays that we may not have in America!