»  Birdsong Gregory

Chipotle grabbed the attention of viewers during the 54th Grammy Awards this year with their thought-provoking animated commercial. The 2 minute long spot was Chipotle’s first National TV Commercial and perpetuated the company’s “Food with Integrity” position.

The commercial told the story of a farmer who turns to factory and processed farming, but eventually returns to more natural and humane farming methods after envisioning the frightening future of industrialized farming. The Coldplay song “The Scientist,” sung by Willie Nelson, played in the background and ironically enough, most people are commenting that the song even overshadowed Coldplay’s performance at the Grammy’s that same night.

The New York Times reports that the ad was the result of trying to get more consumers emotionally involved with the brand after extensive research showed that most patrons hardly differentiate Chipotle from any other fast food restaurants. The chain’s natural food approach has become their top selling point, and they saw a big need to push their message to the masses, even though the company tends to stay away from traditional advertising methods.

Overall, the commercial comes off upbeat and even tugs on the heart strings a bit all while telling a pretty dark truth of the industry. Do you think Chipotle got their message across? Telling from the current outpour of praise and attention, I would say they certainly did. 

 

This month after a year long planning process, our client Resolute Forest Products (formerly Abitibi Bowater) launched their environmentally responsible paper line, Align. birdsong gregory was there every step of the way to market this line of paper, from brand identity, logo & tagline, product kit & packaging design, website, digital ads, e-blasts, newsletters, to videos and print ads among other things, all in English & French. We are even up for an Addy award for the Align video (above). We really enjoyed the process from concepting to launch with Resolute, and think not only the paper, but this campaign will make an impact today, tomorrow and hopefully for years to come!

So, if you are looking for a paper that is environmentally responsible and saves you money, check out Align paper: www.alignpaper.com

In all the efforts to create stronger, better, bigger Shopper Marketing campaigns, let's not forget the brand building blocks that start at the shelf.

Heaven forbid, if a shopper knows nothing about your product when they arrive at the shelf, what are the cues they will use to determine what kind of product it is? Without any exposure to your brand position, your campaign idea or your marketing executions, what are they left with?

Before you layer on any other shopper engagement tactics, make sure your two P's are building your brand.

The first P is Packaging. 

As retailers continue their efforts to own and control their own space, this is one of the few billboards manufacturers have left in the store. If a shoppers is shopping your category, they will more than likely see your package. So what does your packaging say about your product? How premium is it? What does it do? How is it different than the other packaging staring at them? Why should they spend their money on your product? Are you delivering the information they are looking for?

While we don't believe packaging should or can answer all of these, it can start to inform shoppers about your brand. And since shoppers who read your package at the shelf have the ability to purchase, this is critical.

The second P is Pricing.

Pricing is more than a negotiating tactic with retailers. It is a very visible cue at the shelf as to what your product does and how important your product is. Pricing informs shoppers of how they should view your product in comparison to other products at the shelf. And while packaging can pay off that differentiation, pricing starts it. 

Retailers want to deliver the best price to their shoppers. In fact, most retailers build their brand with shoppers based on price. A fundamental aspect of marketing is what is happening at the point of sale and pricing is a huge part of this. What is your pricing really telling shoppers about your product?

We at bg love being part of improving the shopping experience across a wide variety of retailer outlets. We love leveraging new digital shopper marketing tactics to enhance engagement and connection with shoppers. And yet, at the end of the day, a great shopper marketing campaign cannot overcome what these two P's are telling shoppers at the shelf. While basic, they are critical brand building blocks.

 

 

For all of you who don't know, AIGA Charlotte put together a fabulous event this week (particularly fabulous for me, being the letterpress geek I am), Letterpress Fest! We've welcomed some of the biggest names in letterpress to Charlotte, including Jim Sherraden of Hatch Show Print in Nashville, TN, Kyle Durrie of Movable Type, and two of the founders of Ladies of Letterpress. Impressive, right (no pun intended)? Jim Sherraden kick started the week with a wonderful lecture Monday night, while Tuesday we got to sit in on a panel discussion with all of these modern pioneers of the craft. Tonight we'll see the film, Proceed and Be Bold starring Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., and tomorrow we'll wrap things up with a letterpress Pop-Up Gallery (all at the Chop Shop in NODA). I still haven't told you the coolest part; birdsong gregory was asked to participate by designing all of the event's promotional materials! Look for the official Letterpress Fest poster (printed by Crayton Heritage Letterpress) as well as a letterpressed collector cards for each night's event. We are so excited to be a part of this fantastic experience!

The goodness just keeps coming...I'll give you the inside scoop on the coveted letterpress workshops given by Kyle Durrie of Movable Type. Two of our birdsong gregory team members (our awesome studio manager, Rhonda, and myself) were able to score the coveted tickets. Kyle is on a journey across our great country spreading the letterpress love. She's been on the road for 8 months now, and landed in Charlotte specifically for Letterpress Fest. She gave a crash course in the basics of letterpress set up and type setting. Then we got to design and print our own little piece (see me up there with mine :)). Such a great experience. If you're interested, check out the video on how to lock up your hand set type for printing. It's pretty cool.

Stay tuned for more awesomeness that comes out of these walls, and I'll post photos of birdsong gregory's Letterpress Fest event materials soon! Until then, tell us what you think about this old world craft being reborn as part of modern design. We love your comments :)

In it's sixth year, the DC Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show asked Bloom to be one their elite sponsors.  Having found this sponsorship as a unique opportunity to speak to their target demo in a market with a sea of competing messages from greater DC grocers, Bloom decided to continue this venture to get in front of their potential and already loyal customers. This year, however, Bloom decided to go bigger and bolder and for this they came to Birdsong Gregory to manage, execute and creatively develop every detail.  Having worked on all the in store decor and messaging for 2011, we were well versed in the Bloom strategy and shopper experience.

Our strategy for showcasing Bloom at the Metro Show was two-fold: bring the inside of the beautiful stores out- showcasing actual store fixtures and wallpaper while sampling some of the unique Bloom offerings (such as Gluten-Free and Private Brand products) and make this event engaging and memorable for DC Metro Cooking patrons.  We did this in two different spaces within the Convention Center, one that was set up as 3-round foodie competition that attendees of the show could compete in to win tickets or gift cards.  The other space was set up to mimic the inside of the Bloom stores (unapparent to patrons who have never shopped Bloom or only driven by) and sample their specialized & local products.  Additionally the sponsorship included TV coverage, print in TIME Magazine, social media plugs, and flyers that included store locations and coupons to drive sales back to the store, just to name a few.  

All in all, about 20,000 people attended the event, redemption of the flyers came in at a record high and Bloom's positive exposure in the DC market was endless.  To top off the successful event, Birdsong Gregory even won a Charlotte Addy Award!  Stay tuned to see if we win Bronze, Silver or GOLD on March 7th.

Take a peek at the 2011 DC Metro Cooking & Entertaining Show

Pew just released analysis of how shoppers shopped during the holidays. While it should come as no surprise to regular blog readers that technology continues to shift shopper behavior, this study in particular illuminates just how shopping experiences are changing.


The highlights:

• 50% of US adults used their phones while they were in the store
• 52% used their phone for one of these three reasons charted above
• 33% used their phone to look up product reviews or compare prices
• 20% decided to make their purchase at an online retailer vs. in-store

The implications are pretty far reaching. The path to purchase continues to be fluid - it is no longer about activities that happen in physical locations (ie research at home) but more about what information is accessed and how it influences the purchase. Shoppers continue to evolve their approaches to purchase, allowing information (reviews, pricing, etc) to influence their purchase decisions like never before.

Have you changed the way you approach retail activation? As shopper engagement continues to migrate into a customized blend of physical and digital, it is essential that marketers also blend their approaches. After all, with studies like these it is becoming impossible to ignore the fact that the phone is the shopper's best friend. It should also be a marketer's best friend.

Last week we saw the federal government (temporarily) abandon its pursuit of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) House anti-piracy bill and its Senate sibling, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). While this bill would have allowed lawmakers in Washington to block areas of the internet, similar to how China and North Korea currently do, it was obvious from the get-go that this sort of legislation was going to require far more research and public approval before it was implimented. And while companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft all publicly opposed the bill mainly due to the financial havoc it could possibly reak on the fragile system, at the heart of the conversation is the battle over copyright infringement by foreign entities. The push from the movie, entertainment and music industries to combat the bootlegging of it's content for profit is justified. While money is at the heart of this conversation, even those of us in advertising / marketing disciplines can sympathise with the need to safeguard your work. The ownership of intellectual capital, be it a song, or a script, or even a well thought-out marketing campaign, often represents countless hours of hard work and personal investments. To allow such artifacts to be traded and given away by third parties who had little or nothing to do with their creation is a travesty. Hopefully those in power can come up with a more targeted / level handed approach to squashing such activities without placing such broad restrictions on the public and those with legitimate e-commerce goals. One thing is for certain, our new digital way of life has only begun to challenge the way our democracy is govern on and off the grid.

                 

Iconic brands, such as Hostess and Little Debbie bring back memories of happier childhood days when things were easy and care-free. The advertising campaigns and packaging design were targeted at children and boded well with their target audience. As these kids grew older and the Twinkie (& Hostess brand all together) remainded unchanged buyer behavior adjusted. Those kids became parents and food trends evolved. Parents became more concerned with eating and feeding their family healthy, quality options, rather than fast, cheap ones. 

In the Wall Street Journal, Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst for a consumer markerting research firm confirms that "Consumption of healthy snacks is growing, too. About 32% of Americans ate yogurt at least once in two weeks in 2011, for instance, up from 18 % in 2000. "We're less likely to be snacking on items that we shouldn't be snacking on." Instead of adjusting to the trends of more healthy snacking, Twinkie stood by their old memorable brand model, so it's no surprise that this company is now filing for bankruptcy for the second time. In order to maintain sales with your target audience, companies need to adjust to developing trends. 

However among rumors of the company going bankrupt, customers are coming to the rescue. Even though most Americans have changed their shopper behavior to fit a more healthy lifestyle, they still cannot stand the thought of losing the Hostess brand and all the childhood memories and emotions that came with eating those delicious and mal-nutritious Twinkies. Will this quick attempt to save the company work? My guess is no, since people may not be willing to change their healthy lifestyle to make up for Hostess' loses.

Today's Wall Street Journal tells us that Target "... is tired of being used." In an article discussing a concept called "showrooming," where shoppers come into a store to see a product in person only to buy it from an online rival - typically at a lower price, Target is asking its vendor partners to create special products for the banner that shield it from price comparisons.

Online sites like Amazon.com pose a significant risk to retailers like Best Buy to Barnes & Noble. The article reports that this years holiday season saw an average 4.1% jump for brick and mortar stores while on line sales jumped 15%. Target's sales were particularly disappointing in electronics, books and movies – all categories that have made a significant shift to online sales.

It appears that Target's vendors may have little choice but to play along because of the second largest discount chain's clout. For a shopper marketing agency like birdsong gregory, this just highlights more opportunities to mine the path to purchase for consumer insights that may benefit our online and B&M clients.

So, Design*Sponge, the interior/home design blog, reached out to bg a few months ago asking if anyone from the office would like to be profiled in their "Sneek Peeks" section, and I jumped at the chance. I have been a fan of the blog since they started in 2004. Founder, Grace Booney, has really made a name for herself and the blog. She even has a newly published home decor book that's flying off shelves.

Design*Sponge has 75,000 unique daily visitors, making it the most popular design site on the web. The site receives 250,000 pageviews every day and has 150,000 RSS subscribers and 280,000 followers on Twitter. Now that's some good exposue.

Most designers like to dabble in different design fields, and I am no exception. Interior design is a fun hobby for me, and a nice outlet for creative expression. At home, I have the freedom to change my wall colors as often as I like (and my husband will endure). Whereas, if I took that same approach to client's brands…we might have a problem. Check out the post here.

Happy New Year! After a restful Christmas and a little time off, birdsong gregory is raring to go in 2012! The New Year brings plenty of new opportunities and exciting work with our awesome clients. In case you missed the unveiling of our holiday card at the end of the year, here's a look back. For those of you who've followed my blog closely, you know that my love of letterpress (and craft in design in general) led me to purchase my 6.5 x 10 Pilot press in February of last year. It needed a little cleaning up and a few new parts, but it was up and running in time for me to experiment before taking on the challenge of our holiday card. I'll say, it was certainly a learning experience. But I'm so happy with what came out of the project. Here's to birdsong gregory for the dedication to craft and attention to detail in design, and to the New Year! 

Are QR (Quick Response) codes / 2D bar codes a mandatory for print in today's digitized society? Some feel that it's made trade publications relevant again while other think "how relevant can the technology be if such a small percentage of shoppers actually use it?" Perhaps they're just the crude precursor to augmented reality. Any way you slice it, these bar codes created in 1994 for the automotive industry for their ability to be scanned at high speeds have changed the way people interact with all sorts of printed media. If used strategically, and with viable content or compensation at the end of the line, it can extend the user experience and provide marketers with data. If you simply want to "take them to your home page" you're probably better off spelling it out for the audience. We've helped a number of clients"link" their traditional advertising with not so traditional means. If interested in hearing more call birdsong gregory at (704) 332-2299 and ask to speak to Jared. He loves to talk. No really.

What's this video got to do with shopper marketing or advertising? Absolutely nothing. But man what a skilled job this guy does at parallel parking his car.

Lowe's unveiled a few new holiday gift card designs this season. Two the the three pictured above were created by the team at birdsong gregory. We've long enjoyed a great working relationship with the good folks at Lowe's and had fun concepting for this project. Go out and grab one for the handyman/woman in your life and have a productive holiday season.

birdsong gregory is going all out for the holidays this year! We're currently in the process of wrapping up our Christmas card project, and I CAN'T WAIT for you all to see them. Obviously I can't give away the awesomeness of the surprise, but here's a sneak peak at what I've been up to all these nights in the studio.Stay tuned for the reveal of the final product, but until then check out more of our creative genius at birdsong gregory.com!

Recently there has been a lot of buzz around location-based marketing initiatives, such as Foursquare. These consumer-popular applications allows users to "check-in" at venues or retailers and share their current location with their social networks. In return, these apps give retailers insight into who is visiting their location and when. Marketers also gain access to communicate directly to consumers at their point of purchase.

An article in the October edition of Shopper Marketing Magazine highlights this recent shopper technology trend and its evolution into a new service called geo-fencing. According to the article, "a geo-fence is a virtual perimeter around a real-world area. When people enter that area, their mobile device alerts an app or a service that triggers the delivery of a message" to those who have opted-in. 
 
The outdoor outfitter company, The North Face, has been one of the first companies to test out the budding technology. The North Face used geo-fencing to send tailored messages to consumers when they enter into targeted areas such as hiking trails, sporting events and local retailers. The North Face is using the technology to alert subscribers to local offers, closest retail locations and suggestions for useful gear when they are in the ideal shopper mindset.

Geo-fencing is still a developing technology with a great deal of potential for future customizations that can fit the needs of any brand. Geo-fencing seems to be a great new addition to the ever-growing list of ways marketers are able to influence the shopping experience by reaching their target audiences with the right message, at the right time and in the right place.

We are officially in the middle of shopping season. Terms like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not only part of our vocabulary, but are increasingly how we search for deals. According to a recent MediaPost article, the search term "Cyber Monday" led all google.com search terms, jumping 120% from last year. "Black Friday" rose 60%. 

While it is not news that consumers shop more and spend more during this time of the year than any other, what is news is how we are shopping. This year, more than any other in history, consumers shopped differently.

Consider these statistics from this week:

• PayPal saw a 511% increase in mobile payment volume on Cyber Monday vs. last year.
• 17% used a mobile device to visit a retailer's site.
• 10% used a mobile device to make a purchase.
• 5% of mobile traffic came from the iPad. 

Year to date, online retail purchases are up 16%. All of this points to a healthy start to the holiday buying season and more, illuminates the continued adoption of mobile as a critical shopping tool. 

Shoppers are multi-channel creatures of purchase and smart phones are their multi-functional swiss army tool of choice. Shopper behavior has forced retailers to stretch their offerings across channels in order to enhance shopper engagement. Retailers have started to focus on creating a seamless and similar shopping experience regardless of which channel shoppers are engaged.   

What does all this mean?

• Shopper technology, that is, technology that enhances the shopping experience, has to be a focus for marketers. 
• Digital Shopper Marketing strategies and insights are increasingly critical for retailers and manufacturers.
• Organizational silos that separate online and in-store need to be unified under a renewed focus on shopper experience.
• Mobile executions need to consider context. Reapplying traditional or web programs is cutting your effectiveness short.

The brave new world of the integrated, informed consumers is here. How have you adjusted your engagement with them? 

Need to find the food court at the mall or the closest airport bathroom? You may be in luck. Google has announced plans to bring its mapping technology to the great indoors. With the launch of Google Maps 6.0, users of mobile devices running Android now have the ability to use Google Maps not just to get directions to an IKEA, Macy's or one of several airports, but to use the mapping functionality to figure out how to find housewares, ATMs, and your flight gate once you are inside.

Acording to the LA Times, Google's inside mapping will work similarly to its outside mapping. A little blue dot will move along with you to show you where you are, and the technology is even able to know what floor you are on -- what Steve Lee, director of product management for Google, called "the third dimension of mapping."

Just note that the release is pretty limited. Although Google's launch partners include 18 U.S. airports -- notably some of the biggies, such as Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and San Francisco International Airport (obviously) -- LAX and JFK are still not available.

Some of the big-box stores such as IKEA, Macy's, Bloomingdales and Home Depot have already been mapped, but not Target. Not Wal-Mart. And not nearly as many malls as you'd like to see, especially in this holiday season. Just another example of the shopping experienced being enhanced through technology.

As brands go global, translating the name of, say, Coca-Cola or Marriot, into another language can be a confusing minefield. Without a high degree of cultural literacy, you can unwittingly adopt an inappropriate connotation, especially in a marketplace like China, where names hold deep significance and the phonetic Chinese alphabet makes literal translations of western names very, very complicated.

For example, the phonetic Chinese character for Bing, Microsoft's new search engine, means, "disease," "defect," and "virus." Probably not exactly what the boys and girls in Redmond had in mind. Or Peugeot, the French auto manufacturer, which means "prostitute."

Increasingly, big consumer brands are faced with two options when entering the Chinese consumer goods market (which is growing 13% annually): literally translate your brand's name or come up with a Chinese brand name.

Coca-Cola, in Chinese, still sounds a bit like what you hear in the West (kekoukele), but other big consumer brands have opted to find a genuine Chinese name that can say more about their product than a few homonyms ever could. 

After a hard day's work, do you like to slip on a pair of Enduring and Persevering, start up your Precious Horse, and head down to the bar at the 10,000 Wealthy Elites for a tall, frosty glass of Happiness Power?

(after all, who doesn't like to wear Nikes, drive a BMW, and drink Heinekens at the Marriot bar)

 

 One of America's iconic consumer brands, Ivory Soap, is getting a new packaging design and a supporting ad campaign, thanks to the sharp minds out at Wieden and the decision by the shot-callers at Proctor & Gamble to spend a few marketing bucks on one of the oldest brands in their stable.

The new Ivory packaging, which features bright colors chosen to contrast with the soap’s pure white, replaces the old, more subdued packaging.

The overall campaign is intended to promote the Ivory brand’s “value and simplicity,” Procter & Gamble said in a statement, while “focusing on giving busy moms and families a product that delivers what they are looking for.” Along with Olay, Gillette, Old Spice, Safeguard and Camay, Ivory is one of six soap brands sold by P.& G.

Obviously, competition in the soap category has changed radically since Ivory was introduced in 1879, with the biggest trend in recent years being the genderization of the category from a shopper marketing perspective, which has seen soaps specifically for men or women. Ivory, on the other hand, bridges this genital divide by appealing to both men and women, with half the brand’s users male and half female.

Directed at mothers ages 25 to 49, the ads, which run through December, include humorous 15- and 30-second TV spots that show how complicated soap use has become. One depicts a group of unusually shaped soaps, including a soap that resembles waffles with syrup and powdered sugar, and asks, “At what point does soap stop being soap?”