Tag Archives: consumer research

TARGET-ed!

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target-credit-card-breach-stolenBeen keeping up with that credit card breach at Target? Here’s the skinny….

Target says 40 million credit and debit cards may have been compromised. If you shopped at a U.S. Target store between November 27 and December 15, you should assume you’re at risk and keep a close watch on your account statements. It’s not clear whether every Target store was affected, but at least one card issuer says it’s seeing signs of fraud all over the United States, according to Krebs on Security. You’re not in any danger if you shopped at Target’s website, or one of the company’s Canada stores. Time Magazine

At my house, we got our notices from Target via email. It answers a lot of questions, offers advice, as well as the opportunity to access free credit reporting from the big agencies.

Some, of course, are saying it’s too little too late. The public relations nightmare – and the lawsuits – have already begun. In my opinion – very much a “seems to me” without any hard evidence – Target was a little late in admitting there had been a breach. When they did, they talked about it happening on Black Friday weekend (let’s say 11/27 to 12/1.) By the time I got my email, that weekend period had stretched to December 15!

On the other hand, let’s not place ALL the blame on (seemingly) inadequate security. Let’s be sure to thank the jerks who stole the credit cards. They KNOW you and I won’t be held accountable for the fraudulent purchases, and they see it as a victimless crime. In my opinion, it’s ECONOMIC TERRORISM pure and simple.

Anyway, here are some (FRESH) links if you need to catch up:

Did you get your notice? Is this an outrage, or more of the same in today’s super-connected, ever-more-vulnerable world? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and Merry Christmas Eve!

The Smell of the Sell

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sens-MMCWhat does a Hugo Boss store smell like? I couldn’t tell you. But I know it smells like something. And the scent was scientifically chosen, and it’s the same in every store. Why? To sell stuff!

Such sensory branding is becoming a bigger part of stores’ consumer marketing. Retailers often rely on music and colors to create a mood, but now they’re targeting the other sense, smell, to get customers to make a more sophisticated connection to the brand through their shopping experience — they even have a name for it: olfactive branding. Time.com

What have the eggheads learned with these sorts of sensory branding?

Sight: displays consisting of warm colors (red/yellow/orange) are good at attracting impulse buyers, while cooler blues and greens attract the more analytical shopper.

Sound: you may be tired of the holiday music in stores now but, like it or not, it put you in a Christmas mindset, which fuels gift buying.

Taste: there’s a reason Starbucks (and everybody else) whips out the pumpkin spice in the fall and peppermint in the winter!

Smell: has really captured the retailers’ imaginations in the past few years. Baby powder smell in the kids. Section, coconut in the swimwear section, and so on. There are even professional smell consultants who design official scents for retailers. By the way, I said I didn’t know what a Hugo Boss smells like. Actually it’s “musk with a hint of citrus.” I don’t know what that MEANS, of course. So, technically, I wasn’t lying!

So, what do YOU think? Trickery or smart business? What smells have you noticed? Do you notice them at all? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!

Holiday Spending 2013

christmas_spending-258x300Ah, statistics. How much are we spending this holiday season? You can ask 5 different experts and get 5 different interpretations of the numbers. What seems to be universal is that we still aren’t back to where we were in 2007, before everything went wacky, but slowly (painfully slowly) we are clawing our way back. Of course, that’s relative too. Is spending $800 per family at holiday time something we SHOULD be striving toward? I’m not so sure.

Anyway, here’s the latest look at Holiday Spending by the Numbers, 2013 edition, courtesy of Mint.com.

  • 2007: The year holiday spending peaked, before the crash
  • 39%: How much spending went down in 2008
  • 2009: The year holiday spending bottomed out
  • $682: The low point, per family, in 2009
  • $750: what we worked our way up to, per family, in 2012. Expected to rise again in 2013
  • $400: How much we spent on family gifts, 2012
  • $75: Gifts for friends, 2012
  • $25: Gift for co-workers, 2012
  • 60%: The number of us that bought gifts for ourselves, 2012
  • $224: The amount moms spend on each child and spouse
  • #1: The most requested gift on wish lists: Gift cards!

The article is full of stats from different survey firms. Sometimes the numbers differ, but the trends seem stop hold up across the board. It also offers for tips to cut costs (I’m going to guess “buying gifts for yourself” is the first to go!) So check it out!

How about you? Are you spending the same? Less? More? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great (shopping) weekend!

Holiday Shopping Season Begins!

Seriously? For real?
Seriously? For real?

Holiday shopping season is upon us, so let the madness begin! It used to be so simple – around about 5am on Black Friday the doors would fly open and the trampling would commence. Now, the times are all over the place. Kmart is particularly tricky: Open at 6am Thursday, closes at 4pm, opens again at 8pm, closes at 11pm Friday! You get all that? If not, the folks at About.com have compiled a pretty thorough set of lists for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday store hours, so check ’em out!

Thanksgiving Day Opening Times

(Click the header for a complete listing)

6:00 AM – Kmart (closes at 4pm, reopens at 8pm)
7:00 AM – Big Lots
8:00 AM – Bass Pro Shops
8:00 AM – Family Dollar
9:00 AM – Old Navy
10:00 AM – Gap
8:00 PM – hh gregg
8:00 PM – Kmart
8:00 PM – Sears (stays open until 10pm Friday)
8:00 PM – Toys ‘R Us
8:00 PM – Wal-Mart (stays open until 10pm Friday)

Black Friday Opening Times

(Click the header for a complete listing)

12:00 Midnight – jcpenney (open from 8 PM Thurs thru 9 PM Friday)
12:00 Midnight – Kohl’s (open from 8 PM Thurs thru 9 PM Friday)
12:00 Midnight – Kmart (open from 8 PM Thurs thru 11 PM Friday)
12:00 Midnight – Old Navy (open from 7:00 PM Thurs)
12:00 Midnight – Sears (open from 8 PM Thurs thru 9 PM Friday)
12:00 Midnight – Target (continuous hours from 8:00 PM Thurs)
12:00 Midnight – Walmart (continuous hours from 8:00 PM Thurs)
5:00 AM – Bass Pro Shops
5:00 AM – Lowe’s
8:00 AM – Radio Shack

So, what’s YOUR battle plan? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page! And don’t forget, we did an online Holiday shopping guide a couple of weeks ago. You can check that out HERE.

November is Financial Literacy Month

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Finančna-pismenostWell, in Canada anyway. But good advice knows no borders!!

November is Financial Literacy Month, and that means a deluge of tips from banks, consumer groups and financial industry professional groups and regulators. The Globe and Mail

True enough, but what about regular folks? The Globe and Mail financial editor received some fan mail from an ordinary dude, a retiree who has written a letter of financial advice to his grown kids. You really have to read the whole thing, but here are the bullets…

  • Spread the pain of saving and pleasure of spending over your whole life.
  • Get out of debt and stay out of debt.
  • Come up with a realistic cost of retirement.
  • Leave your home out of your retirement income plan.
  • Hire an investment planner who does not sell any investment products of any kind.
  • Don’t plan for inheritance, lottery winnings or other windfalls to fund your retirement.
  • Diversify.
  • Plan to be in your investments for 50 years or more.
  • Don’t try to time investment ups and downs when buying and selling.
  • Don’t assume everything will work out on its own.
  • Don’t gamble with individual stocks. Buy whole stock markets.
  • Don’t worry if markets crash.

Like I said, MUCH more detail at the original piece, so check it out. So what do you think? Some good advice? Anything you’d like to add? Head over to the MindField Online Facebook page and let us know!

November Deals!

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SavingsThe madness begins. In a few short weeks you will be strapping on your armor and heading into the mouth of madness known as black Friday. And, as we noted yesterday, Black Friday is six days later this year, meaning that the holiday shopping season is cut short by nearly a week. So, if you want to get a jump on things, here is a list of links to tell you where the deals are this November. Enjoy!

End-of-year car deals

A lot of Halloween-expiring deals, but also several that last through the weekend and beyond

November travel deals

November deals on “Weddings, Tools and More” from the Wall Street Journal

Deals & Bargains in November from CBS News

The Best and Worst Things to Buy in November from DealNews

Online tech retailer Newegg announces “Black November”

Insider article on the types of deals to look for in November

So, are you ready to rock? Do you know of other good deals? Let us know at the MindField Online Facebook page! And have a great weekend!

Online Shopping Habits

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She found a great deal, and her hair looks fabulous!
She found a great deal, and her hair looks fabulous!

I knew online purchasing was a big deal, but I didn’t know it was THIS big:

Online customers are becoming important to most businesses. For example, in a recent Nielson Global Survey more than 85 percent of the world’s online population has already used the Internet to make purchases.  SmallBizTrends.com

Since the hardest part of getting people to accept a trend is getting them to try it for the first time, I’d say online shopping has conquered 85% of the world!

This article I point to is a little inside baseball – online marketers talking to other online marketers – telling each other about OUR online buying habits. Who says we can’t peek inside?

Guys and Girls:

  • Both tend to purchase from desktops (M 87%, W 82%)
  • Both tend to purchase from home (M 81, W 84)

Distractions, distractions!

  • Marketers study the number of “abandoned” shopping carts on retail sites. You were shopping and wandered off somehow. They blame cookies. If you have never understood what exactly cookies do, it’s this. They follow you, create a distraction, and try to lure you back to their site.

A Multi-screen experience:

  • “65 percent of purchases begin on a smartphone, while 25 percent begin on a laptop and 11 percent start on a tablet.” Ending, as we said, at home and on your desktop about 90% of the time. For me this is true because I will only give out my credit card on wired cable, never wi-fi.

Anyway, those are the highlights. You can read more at the original piece.

How about you? Do these traits sound familiar? What kind of online shopping do you enjoy? What BUGS you about it? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!

Secrets of the Rich

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Shhh...don't tell!
Shhh…don’t tell!

Just read a piece, a slideshow really, in the latest Reader’s Digest. Entitled “How Rich People Think: 25+ Things They Won’t Tell You,” it gives us a glimpse into the wealthy person’s mind. Some of it is kind of dumb, like “I bet you think I own a lot of suits, but I don’t!” But thoughts on how they make, spend, save and think about money are more interesting. Here are some highlights:

  • Be persistent: don’t quit until you get what you came for, such as a job, a client or a good deal at car dealership.
  • Cut out the middle man whenever possible.
  • Look for savings, and don’t be embarrassed to use coupons!
  • Don’t waste anything!
  • Be bold in the workplace. You won’t get anything if you don’t ask. And aim high!
  • Make connections, form relationships and hold on to them. You never know who will send you that next great opportunity!

Pretty interesting stuff. There are a couple of humorous ones, as well. One guy says that giving gifts is always a no-win situation. If you give something normal, you’re being cheap. Give something awesome, and you’re just showing off. Boo-hoo, rich dude!

So, what’s the best advice you’ve ever heard about making, saving or spending money? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page!

Healthcare Reform and YOU

bigstockphoto_health_care_reform_green_road__5632944Hey gang… that whole healthcare magilla is right around the corner – October 1, to be precise. If you’re like me, you have a lot of questions. And you might not know where to turn for answers. So I did some digging for all of the FAQ pages I could find…

Government Resources:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMMS)

Department of Labor

Medicaid and CHIP

Veterans Administration

 

Private Resources:

Kaiser Family Foundation

eHealthInsurance.com

H&R Block

American Public Health Association

Christian Science Monitor

Delta Dental

 

As it relates to various conditions:

Parkinson’s Disease

Mental Illness

Clinical Cancer Trials

Disabilities

Pre-existing Conditions

 

By State:

Alaska…Alabama…Arizona…Arkansas…California… Colorado…Connecticut… Delaware… Florida… Georgia… Hawaii… Idaho… Illinois… Indiana… Iowa…Kansas… Kentucky… Louisiana… Maine… Maryland… Massachusetts… Michigan… Minnesota… Mississippi… Montana… Nebraska… Nevada… New Hampshire… New Jersey… New Mexico… New York… North Carolina…North Dakota…Ohio… Oklahoma…Oregon… Pennsylvania…Rhode Island… South Carolina… South Dakota…Tennessee…Texas…Utah…Vermont … Virginia…Washington… West Virginia…Wisconsin … Wyoming

Have YOU found any good resources of information? Please share at the MindField Online Facebook page! And have a great weekend!

Christmas Comes Earlier, and Earlier, and…

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Kipper Williams 30 August 2012We were in Kmart over the weekend – that would be September 14th – a time when it is 92 degrees in Charleston, and the streets are still lined with garage sales. And what do we see? The Christmas displays are already out.

It’s a terrible, terrible cliché that “Christmas comes earlier every year!” But, dang! Doesn’t it seem like it?  It’ still regular season baseball. It’s week 2 of the NFL (when the Bengals still have a shot!) I haven’t even raked my first leaf!

So it’s no surprise that the Today show has already done a feature on the topic, appropriately enough, on Kmart.

Kmart is receiving a lot of attention for airing a Christmas ad a full 106 days before the holiday. Many customers feel the retailer is jumping the gun, but business analysts think the ad is necessary for the chain’s layaway program. Today.com

Meanwhile, in Walmart yesterday, I heard the announcement reminding shoppers that “our Christmas layaway is in full effect!”

Watch the video, and tell me…is 106 days too early? Does it bug you, or are you already taking advantage of the savin’s? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page!