J&J delved deep into the history of China and brought 5 Terracotta Warriors to their exhibition area, not only highlighting the community in which they were but also drawing in hordes of people to see something they couldn’t see elsewhere. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, had replicas present as part of their marketing event but hardly anyone remembers and no one went out of their way to see them while at the Olympics. After all, they’re not the real thing.

The lesson here is that authenticity is important when you’re designing an in-store marketing event. Elvis impersonators aren’t ever Elvis, no matter how much they try.

Johnson & Johnson was chosen to display the warriors because of their dedication to fighting fungus and the research they did to cure the warrior’s fungus woes. While you may not be involved in a project of this magnitued, showing off something authentic that people want to see can help increase event attendance and be the center of your next in-store marketing event.

We have experience doing these types of events, where an “artifact” travels from area to area to bring people in. Touring with special cars for product releases or bringing celebrities to different stores across the country are all things we’ve done in the past. To bring authenticity to your next event, think about what would bring people out to see something they can’t see anywhere else and you’ll have a successful attendance driver.

A study on the shopping habits of Hispanic men, a sometimes misunderstood and stereotyped portion of the population, describes some key factors that you can use to create a successful in-store event.

• 44% of Hispanic men buy a product after sampling it in stores.
• 42% make a purchase after a referral from a friend.

Apparently, Hispanic men would rather trust their own experiences than the experiences of others. Giving them the opportunity can help your product break into the Hispanic market. The same study indicates that Hispanic men are also more like to be brand loyal and pay more for brands they prefer than men from other ethnic backgrounds. Hispanic men are also more likely to be the decision makers in their households when it comes to purchasing household goods.

Hispanic shoppers also participate in social media more than Americans as a whole: 77% of all Hispanics are active users on social networks. Almost three out of five Hispanics have a smartphone, coming in at 57.3% of all Hispanics with cellphones, second only to Asian/Pacific Islanders among U.S. ethnic groups.

EventMarketer.com investigated successful marketing events and has some recommendations for a successful event targeting Hispanic shoppers:

• Focus on family.
• Understand different Hispanic communities with grassroots events.
• Host events on Sundays.
• Use retailtainment strategies to involve shoppers.
• Use English with Hispanic awareness.
• Show strong Hispanic pride.

Here are some specific techniques that will help meet those goals:

• Create an in-store event where shoppers can try out products.
• Encourage shoppers (and your own staff) to promote the event on social media with their smartphones.
• Generate a strong relationships with leaders in social media networks and community organizations.
• Offer special incentives for in-store event attendance
• Be aware that using Hispanic stereotypes will distance shoppers

As Hispanic Americans become a larger and more influential group, they’ll remember the businesses that were welcoming all along. Be on that list. It’s all a matter of meeting the needs of consumers in ways that are also good for your company.

Showrooming is a nasty word for brick and mortar retailers, but we can’t ignore it. Shoppers name price as the motivation, but really showrooming is about more than just price — it’s about what you offer as a brick-and-mortar store that your customers can’t get from an online store.

POPAI recently published an article about five things you can do to win against showrooming, highlighting what physical stores can offer to compete. They were:

• Offering something unique
• Targeting local shoppers
• Providing services for repairing, customizing, and teaching
• Making shopping an experience
• Not panicking

Okay, “Don’t panic” may be a bit of a joke, but there’s also truth to it. If you panic and pull back on your marketing, you might create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, create events that draw people to your store or to your brand’s display. A shopping event that’s tailored to the audience that comes into your stores offers something shoppers just won’t find on a smartphone.

First, offer something unique in your event. Give your events a special twist that intrigues consumers, include one item in your mix that isn’t available online, or create a special experience. If consumers can meet a celebrity, interact with one another enthusiasts, or have fun with friends and family, they’ll get more from your event than they would get by shopping online.

Store of the Community events always focus on authentic real world experiences. After all, your customers need some real world experiences to post on Facebook, right?

Target local shoppers by including local celebrities, supporting local cause, and getting involved in your local community. Do you carry products from a local supplier? Bring them in to share inside knowledge about how the product is made.

That’s also an example of offering education. You might think that information is so available online that you can’t compete by offering it in your store. In fact, there is so much information available online that many people find it overwhelming. Being able to ask questions and get immediate answers can be very appealing to consumers.

Whatever your products, wherever your stores, Store of the Community can develop a unique shopping experience for you. Call us now for a free consultation.

So there she is, faced with an array of products she has never dealt with before, her mind filled with questions she has never thought of before, filling her shopping cart with things she isn’t sure how to use.

What’s more, her choices may seem hugely important. She may be completely comfortable buying a car or a computer, but the question of which socks are the hardest for babies to pull off can leave her paralyzed in the aisle.

Here’s your chance to be a hero.

According to a survey of first time new moms by Eric Mower and Associates, new moms have these defining traits:

• They feel more busy and stressed
• They spend more time researching purchases
• They want easy access to opinions, reviews and information on their smartphones while shopping

This is a huge opportunity for you to become a resource for new mothers. By providing her with the information and reassurance she needs,  you have a chance to become not just a household staple but a helper in the process of raising a family. It is an unparalleled opportunity to build brand loyalty with a new family, through all of the additions to the family. Being a trustworthy source, you’re generating a learning relationship with your new mom to help her confidently buy your products and know it’s the best choice for her baby.

New moms want you to give them honest and accurate information they can trust in a quick and convenient way. Imagine creating a smartphone app specifically for your brand that collects all of this information together in one place and provides real answers from real moms about some big questions new moms have. Creating a community of experienced moms around your brand that provides honest and insightful advice for moms who are just starting out is a great way to build brand loyalty and get those new moms to pass that loyalty on to friends and family.

Or what about an event for expectant moms featuring an engaging speaker doing show and tell with all those unfamiliar products — from breast pumps to car seats. Give away samples and door prizes and you can expect to see a lot of full shopping carts.

It’s a matter of combining empathy for your customer with a creative approach to retailing — an unbeatable combination. That’s Store of the Community’s specialty.

The types of things that come with a recession mindset are important to note:

• Many are buying private labels
• Popularity of Loyalty Programs
• Couponing for purchases
• Plans for “appropriate spending”

All of these are big clues about one trait of the recession customer: they’re paying attention to what they’re spending on and are looking for deals. It’s all about frugal living, as much now as in past years. So how can you get customers to spend more when they’re all about pinching pennies?

Make shopping a special event. Giving a sense of specialness to your customer’s shopping experience can help increase spending. For instance, take a special event in the life of a shopper, such as a birthday or holiday. These days are when even the most frugal shoppers will reach for a special purchase that they wouldn’t normally buy. Creating an in-store shopper marketing event that allows your shopper to get caught up in a special event can help your customer shed ideas of frugality.

By making a shopping experience into a event, you’ll tap into the idea of a special day and help your shopper separate from ideas of frugality they enter the store with. Help them ignore their list, try out new coupons, or do an activity they would have never tried if it hadn’t been at their regular store. Shaking shoppers out of the recession funk will increase your basket totals and profits.

• Immediate responses — if a customer tweets about a problem with your store, he expects you to notice and get back to him fast. Shoppers in your store also want to be able to get help immediately. Waiting for service is the things retail shoppers hate most now.
• Sharing customer’s burdens — Amazon tells customers if they’ve already bought a book so they don’t accidentally pay for it again, even though it’s reasonable to expect consumers to take responsibility for themselves.
• Autonomous experiences — and this is the one where retailers often fall down.

There’s an irony here.  The same shoppers who want to get immediate help and to have help with things that might be considered outside of the retailer’s realm also want to feel as though they’re independent and in control.

Consumers today are used to navigating the digital world on their own at any time of the day or night, getting help from their digital helpers whenever they need it, and having goods delivered to their front door with the simple click of a button. They expect the same of your physical store.

So how do you create an autonomous experience? Provide ways for the customer to dictate their level of interaction with your store by offering displays that provide information shoppers need. Electronic information kiosks, QR codes, and interpretive signage can all help.

Look at commonly asked questions and poll your store staff to find out the things people ask about the most. Keep track of questions that staff have been unable to answer immediately. These two sets of questions can be the starting point for your own in-store information offerings. A video kiosk, a scanner that shoppers can use to check prices, and informative signage can all help provide that autonomous experience.

Self-checkout is another step toward that sense of independence. Even shoppers who choose not to use automatic checkout options will wait more patiently in line because they know they have the option.

The tension between an expectation of having needs satisfied instantly and a desire for the feeling of independence is a challenge for retailers. How do you satisfy this new kind of consumer in your store?

The history of the Wienermobile goes back a long way, starting in 1936 when the first one hit the road after Carl Mayer, the nephew of Oscar Mayer, developed it. Since then it’s been a hit with shoppers across the globe, not just in the United States. There are few people who don’t smile at the sight of a gigantic hot dog on a bun and a free wiener whistle. The events of today are fun loving, just like the Oscar Mayer brand, with dance music and photo opportunities and a chance to take a peek inside the Wienermobile.

But what’s even more important about these shopper events is that they revolve completely around the brand’s image. The wiener whistle handed out to each visitor is specifically made for playing the Oscar Mayer jingle “Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener” and leaves shoppers singing and humming the tune all day long after the event. You want your shoppers to have a fun and memorable time at your next event, so much so that they walk away with your brand stuck in their head for days.

While jingles make it easy to lodge your brand into the thoughts of your shoppers, what’s most important to learn from these Oscar Mayer events is that shoppers feel a connection with the brand well after the event. Although the jingle fades and they stop playing with the wiener whistle, they still remember and share the memory of the event with friends and family. Shares on the day of the event are high, with lots of social media mentions, but parents will tell their children about the time they saw the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile for years to come.

You can sponsor your local school or community team, make a donation to the local chapter of a charity, or give away tickets to arts events in your city.

At Store of the Community, we’re working on a project that allows companies to make that community connection in an innovative way.

Community Car Shows will take place in Walmart parking lots in eight states this summer. With free admission and a $30.00 entry fee for car owners, these will be affordable family events.

They’ll also be practical ways for car dealers, car clubs, and rental agencies to reach out to the thousands of shoppers who throng to Walmart every Saturday.

Unlike the typical fairgrounds or stadium car show, Community Car Shows will draw new people who might not make the trip to a special-destination car show. Car clubs will reach new potential members. People wanting not just to show off their cars but to sell them will have the opportunity to exchange contact info with prospective buyers, though these will be car shows and not sales.

At the same time, brand sponsors and hosting retailers will bring people into their parking lots — and of course, into the stores. “It’s an out of context shopping experience,” says Matt Fifer, President of Store of the Community. “By disrupting people’s experience in a positive way, this kind of retailtainment lets us surprise and delight shoppers in ways they’ll remember.”

Creating these positive associations with the sponsoring brands can lead to immediate increases in sales, and also to long-lasting brand loyalty.

We’ve pointed out that empowering the customer also benefits the retailer, but Matt went on to point out that we now have to approach customers on their own turf. “As much as we may wrestle against it, the customer is now in charge … period … and so we must take the battle to her, wherever she goes, and whenever she may decide to go there.”

The customer is going to bring her smartphone to the store with her, and she’s going to use it. The days when a retailer could ask a customer to leave because she took a picture with her phone are past — and it’s hard now to believe they ever existed.

The shopping experience no longer takes place only or even primarily in the store. Customers don’t even “go shopping” any more. Shopping is not a place. It’s an multi-channel — even an omni-channel — experience.

Things we need to know about the omni-channel experience:

• Consumers no longer care what screen you’re on. They don’t necessarily even care what screen they’re on. Smartphone, tablet, e-reader, TV, laptop, notebook, computer, or game console, they expect to be able to find what they want on whatever screen is handy. The various screens are increasingly less distinct, as consumers gain more control over the media through which they find our messages. Consumers order pizzas with their game consoles, buy shoes with their phones, and find a spot for lunch by asking their car. You have to be there.
• Shopping is still social. People shop together physically, and they also shop together virtually. Your customer might come to the store with her girlfriends, but she’s just as likely to be texting friends for advice about her shopping decisions, basing her shopping choices on a “haul” video she saw, or checking reviews while she’s in the store. She’s also likely to be telling her coworkers about something great she saw in a store, and being convinced to buy it on her work computer right then. Friends’ recommendations — virtual or physical — are still the most convincing marketing in existence.
• Shoppers want to be able to begin and complete transactions in different places. Your customer expects to be able to research your products online, try them out in the store, and buy them at home. He wants to be able to learn about something on TV, place the order at work, and pick the goods up at the store. Explanations like, “We carry that online but not in the store” are unsatisfying to the modern consumer. Just as distinctions among various kinds of screens are blurring, the distinction between physical and virtual transactions are blurring.

Wherever they are, we need to be there.

According to an Advertising Age article, Nutrisystem hasn’t been faring well lately:  ”Since 2008, sales have sunk by 42%; sales fell to $397 million in 2012 from $401 million in 2011, Packaged Facts reported.” Nutrisystem has no choice but to change tactics if it wants to survive in an increasingly crowded industry. But will people actually pay for a 5 Day Starter Kit? And if they do, will they sign up for the traditional Nutrisystem offerings?

It remains to be seen.

Brick and mortar shopping is still more popular than mail order or even online shopping. Being able to pick up and object and take it home right away is still more enticing to many shoppers than having to order and wait — and 91% of respondents in a recent survey said that they had bought an item because they saw it online, so Nutrisystem’s online presence can work in tandem with their physical presence in stores.

The big question is whether it’ll work the other way around. That is, will the people who spring for a starter kit in the store follow up with Nutrisystem’s traditional delivery options? That may depend not only on the marketing materials in the package but also on the results of the first five days.