Tag Archives: online coupons

Retailers Pushing Social Media for the Holidays

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Looks like Facebook is about to have its biggest Holiday season ever, with more retailers jumping into Social Media marketing, and existing marketers pushing even harder than before. And Facebook fans are paying attention:

 44% of consumers plan to use social media sites when holiday shopping, according to a recent survey. Of those who plan to use social media, 57% percent will seek discounts, 51% read reviews and 49% research gift ideas. Internet Retailer

So, which retailers are on the bandwagon, and what are they doing online?

  • Soap.com, Diapers.com and Wag.com are having a Battle of the Brands on Facebook. Customers vote on their favorite, and the winner will be discounted 30% on Black Friday weekend.
  •  Sears is doing a similar Battle on Facebook, but with weekly winners that will be discounted every weekend.
  •  Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Walgreen’s are publishing a sneak peek of their Black Friday circular on their Facebook page, 2 weeks in advance so you can plan ahead.

And on and on. How about you? Are you a Facebook fan of a big retailer? What are they doing online, and do you “LIKE” it? Let us know!

Coupon Crazy!

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A shopper snags $4,000 worth of razors and pays zero. Couponers dive into Dumpsters in search of newspaper inserts. They purchase $1,000 worth of groceries and pay a few dollars. One man has a “wall of toothpaste” with 1,000 tubes. Twin sisters brag they have cleaned out a store’s supply of dental floss. Others boast of lifetime supplies of paper towels and toilet paper.             Palm Beach Post

So, did the coupon craze inspire that wacky “Extreme Couponing” show on TLC? Or has the show inspired the couponing craze? Seems like it’s true both ways.

Somehow I managed to catch the premiere back in the spring (in between shows about guns and monster trucks!) Much of it was pretty interesting. First of all it was shot in my hometown of Cincinnati – I recognized the Kroger that lady shopped in, and her neighborhood.

Anyway, there were some really practical aspects to the show, and couponing in general. Who doesn’t like to save money, especially these days? Other aspects gave me a “Hoarders” vibe. Couponing as an obsession, you know. Still other aspects made me angry. I worked in a grocery store once. You get to tie up a register, and a cashier, and ten carts for two hours, AND crash the computer system, just so you can get $1000 worth of groceries for twenty bucks? Grrr.

Anyway, in this economy, I don’t think couponing is going away anytime soon. What do you think? Practical? Obsession? Menace to grocery stores everywhere? Let us know!

The Sound of Savings

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You won’t hear it with the human ear, but the next time you are in a big chain store, Shopkick may be calling out your name!

According to a recent article at Forbes.com, Shopkick is a location-based customer loyalty app like Foursquare or Gowalla, but with an important difference:

…it doesn’t use the phone’s GPS. Instead, Shopkick uses a different technology. It plugs in a small box inside each participating store. The box emits a high frequency sound that humans can’t hear. When the Shopkick app is opened, it recognizes the sound so that it knows that the person is actually in the store.

The bottom line is engagement. Remember a few posts ago we were talking about the difference between TV ads that are just on, shooting dumbly out into the atmosphere, versus web ads that tease you and make you click? If you click the web ad, you are already interested in the product. That’s engagement, and the same principle applies with Shopkick. You physically go into the store, you turn on the app, and you wait for the deals to come to you. And Shopkick claims a success rate of 45% that, if it’s true, is a really high number!

For now, because it requires hardware, Shopkick is mainly in large chains like Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, Disney and so on. Foursquare uses existing satellite tracking, and it is popular with smaller independent stores. But of course, they are looking into copying Shopkick’s success. Hopefully the winner will be YOU.

So have you used Shopkick? What do you think?

New Amazon.com Cashout Option!

Check out the brand new Amazon.com cashout option for MindField Online Panelists!

That’s right, starting now, in addition to our check request and PayPal cashout options, you can also choose to get your dough in the form of an Amazon.com Gift Card*! Whether you just hit your $5 threshold, or you’ve been saving up, you can request an Amazon.com Gift Card* at no extra cost to you. You receive a gift card code via email, you enter the code number at Amazon.com, and you go nuts!

We hope you enjoy this new convenience…let us know!

And now the legal mumbo-jumbo!

*Amazon.com Gift Cards (“GCs”) sold by McMillion Research, an authorized and independent reseller of Amazon.com Gift Cards. Amazon, Amazon.com, the Amazon.com logo, and the Amazon Gift Cards logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. GCs may be used only for purchases of eligible goods on Amazon.com or its affiliated website Endless.com. GCs cannot be redeemed for purchases of gift cards. Except as required by law, GCs cannot be reloaded, resold, transferred for value, redeemed for cash, or applied to any other account. See www.amazon.com/gc-legal

No Escape from Ads?

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Watching TV, it seems like there is a commercial every 5 minutes. On your PC, it’s hard to escape the pop-ups. By comparison, your mobile device is sort of an escape from Ad-madness – but maybe not for long.

According on an advertising exec quoted in a recent article in Adweek, advertisers know that:

There are over three times the number of mobile subscribers as there are TV subscribers, he said. Globally, it’s the most adopted technology and media channel in history. The engagement rates are higher. And inventory, thanks to 24-hour access to users, is unmatched.

Engagement rates means that, unlike the TV that blasts ads at you without your consent, online you choose to Click Here, meaning you are interested in the product on some level.

So, far, mobile ad spending is a drop in the bucket compared to TV, but a lot of advertising geniuses expect that to change. The question is, how will you feel when there’s just as much advertising on your mobile as there is on TV and PC? Let us know!

*  BTW, the art department spent literally minutes on the opening picture!

Marketers Targeting Smartphone Moms

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I see a young mom at the grocery pushing a fully loaded cart with a 2-year-old boy in the seat. Standby for the screaming tantrum, right? Except not. All is at peace…because the kid’s watching cartoons on mom’s iPad.

About a week later, I saw this article on WashingtonPost.com that says that moms with smartphones:

…are becoming a new kind of shopping force online. A decade ago, these women were single and childless 18- to 34-year-olds who captured the hearts of Madison Avenue marketing executives with their voracious consumer appetites. Now, they are older and often in charge of the household wallet.

 Apparently, advertisers have been studying the habits of regular “desktop moms” for years, coming up with new ways to grab their attention. But now, mobile moms are busting out, becoming the fastest growing segment of smartphone users. And they are among the Web’s biggest spenders, either buying directly from mobile apps or researching products that they buy later.

So what’s your favorite way that your mobile device interacts with your shopping habits? Research? Couponing? Purchases? Or simply shutting up your 2 year old? Let us know!

iPad Pulling Away?

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This is not an endorsement of any particular personal tablet computer. But chances are, if you or someone you know has one, it’s an iPad. Lately, you are seeing lots of ads for competitive tablets. But, a recent article in the New York Times, entitled “IPad Rivals Fail to Gain Traction”… says that, um, iPad rivals are failing to gain traction.

According to an analyst’s report issued by JPMorgan Chase:

…companies building products to compete with the iPad have slowed production by as much as 10 percent since this time last March. At that time, the report said, competing tablet companies created 81 million tablets; this year the number has fallen to 73 million.

You don’t have to ask an iPad user if he’s happy – and you might not want to, because he won’t shut up about it 😉 …But are there any non-iPad tablet users out there, like Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy? What do you think? Are you happy with your device?

More Happy Facebook Fans!

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Time again to update our “Panelist Reviews” page on the blog site. Lots of new comments, including this recent gem from Tammy:

I have been a member of MindField since September 2004. I have done in home product tests as well as take some very interesting surveys. This is by far one of the better survey panels there are out there. I have tried other survey companies but no others have come close to being as good as MindField.

So, check it out! And thanks Tammy…and all our enthusiastic fans!

Say Cheese?

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Just spitballin’ here folks. What if you could complete a survey using your web-cam? There might be a couple of reasons for doing this. Maybe the surveyor wants to see the reaction on your face when they ask a question, or when you see a picture on your screen. Or it might be one of those things where you “say the first word that comes to mind” instead of filling in a box for Yes or No. Heck, it might be a way for the surveyor to get a more “true” reaction than making you think about – or overthink – your response.

So, what do you think? We REALLY want to know!

By the way, if you hate getting your picture taken, your humble blogger has offered to go first. You’re bound to look better than THIS guy!

"Yes. Or...No. Wait, it's Yes!"

Banking on the Go?

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We have been talking lately about using mobile devices for various retail purposes: shopping, comparing, coupons, etc. But do you use your mobile device for banking?

Well, it’s catching on!

According to a recent article on MobileMarketer.com:

…adoption of mobile banking among U.S. adults has more than doubled in the past two years to reach 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010… mobile banking will grow by an average of 20 percent per year over the next five years to reach 50 million U.S. adults by 2015.

So, how are we using mobile banking? So far, it seems mostly for informational purposes:

  • 70% use mobile banking to check their account balances
  • 33% use it to view their statements

BUT… using mobile banking for the purpose of actual, you know, BANKING is starting to catch on as well, with 30% using it to transfer money between accounts, and 27% using it to pay bills.

So, how about you? Do you use your phone for banking? What do you like about it? Do you think it’s “safe?” Let us know!