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Hotel a go go
Branding a moment of calm
Salty dogs get royal treatment
Beef jerky moves up in the world
E-shoppers find discounts till dawn
E-commerce has always been hailed as 24/7. But how many consumers actually click “buy” at 3 a.m? Apparently enough to get a handful of merchants to test the midnight madness waters with e-specials from midnight till dawn. Sears, Kohl’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods all offer the early-morning specials to bleary-eyed insomniacs and busy consumers like Mom who prefer browsing and buying at the bewitching hour. The specials are also designed to lure those who don’t normally shop online. The Email Experience Council says Sears sends a night-owl promo about every other month. Kohl’s offers early-morning specials during what the retailer calls the power hours, while Dick’s christened its effort the after-hours sale. Not all e-retailers aim for the 3 a.m. crowd. Spiegel, for instance, targets office workers with lunchtime e-sales. From ISM’s perspective, using time-sensitive discounts to lure customers into buying adds thrift to an already convenient buying channel (and makes staying up worth the effort). And for others, the moonlight sales add a buy-it-before-it’s-gone excitement to e-shopping.
A true Roman holiday
Back up the tunic and sandals with some fancy gladius wielding. The Rome Cavalieri Hilton is offering guests two-hour gladiator lessons, in conjunction with Gruppo Storico Romano, an organization dedicated to all things gladiator. The session starts out with a history lesson and then moves outside for hands-on instruction in the use of the sword, or gladius. Participants wear a period tunic, belt, Roman sandals and protective leather gloves. Upon completion of the lesson, they receive a gladiator certificate just like warriors of yore. The lesson costs €500 ($690), in addition to the rack rate at the Cavalieri Hilton. I came, I saw, I conquered. Today’s travelers are all about doing rather than seeing. And the take-home souvenir has to be one-of-a-kind. ISM understands that vacationers are looking to indulge their inner edgy side and explore beyond the traditional. Just as importantly, they are building it into their vacation planning process and budget. Our guess is that if you look around your area, you can identify other unique and unusual experiences that can be packaged with your product to tap into this growing trend.
Hotel a go go
If you travel with a large group, it might be easier—and more fun—to bring along the lodging rather than look for lodging. A company in Andalusia, Spain is rolling out Hotel Móvil, a mobile hotel that can be transported via 18-wheel truck. On site, a handheld remote sets the transformer-like structure unfolding into action. Thirty minutes later: 11 guest rooms with private baths and a sun deck with space for 50 guests (see it for yourself at www.hotelmovil.com). Hotel Móvil usually utilizes existing electricity, water and drainage, but can be retrofit for off-grid, self-sustaining use. The unit can be purchased for $500,000 or rented for the weekend for $8,000. The manufacturer suggests other uses for the mobile structure—at festivals, as a hospital unit, extra classroom or office space, as a film studio, at sporting events and as a remote nature station. Its mission: to go where no hotel has gone before—along for the ride. ISM sees high-tech, mobile structures like the red-hot prefab housing trend grabbing consumers by the imagination and ringing all kinds of bells from sustainability to plain old fun.
Branding a moment of calm
Imagine grouping these words together: parent, toddler, airport, sanctuary, gratis. Too good to be true? Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam teamed up with baby food maker Nutricia to create Babycare Lounge by Nutricia, an airport haven for parents and children age 0 to 3 years. The stylish lounge features curtained family “cabins,” with cribs, changing tables, baths, comfortable seating and a microwave for heating food, all free of charge. Nutricia does not supply baby food, but it does offer health and safety tips for traveling with babies. Flying can be an ordeal, especially for families with very young children. Parents are looking for an oasis of comfort and calm in the chaos of the airport. ISM encourages more companies to anticipate potential headaches and provide a solution for customers in their hour (or two) of need. By not requiring a purchase of any kind, they not only warm a frazzled parent’s heart, but they build an incredibly positive and powerful affinity with that brand that you can’t buy or create through traditional advertising.
Salty dogs get royal treatment
All paws on deck. Cruisers wishing to take to the seas with their pets have exactly one line to choose from—Cunard (News.com.au 8.07). Pets on select transatlantic crossings of the QE2 and the QM2 travel first class, with air-conditioned kennels and exercise areas, fresh-baked biscuits at turn-down, a choice of beds and blankets and even a QM2-logoed coat. Participants in the Pets On Deck program also receive a complimentary gift pack which includes a frisbee, name tag, food dish and scoop and a complimentary portrait with pet owners. Kennel fees range from $360 to $600. For animal lovers, leaving their pets behind makes about as much sense as traveling without their humans. As hotels accommodating four-legged guests mainstreams, pet-loving travelers are coming to expect their furry friends will be welcome in all facets of leisure travel, high seas included. If a company is going to back up their luxury reputation, they’d best brush up on their VIP (Very Important Pet) services.
Beef jerky moves up in the world
Once beef jerky couldn’t get no respect. Now the gas station staple has gone gourmet, selling for $25 a pound at artisanal charcuteries and showing up on the menus of fancy restaurants. San Francisco’s Fatted Calf sells cherry-and-mesquite-smoked jerky cut from organic grass-fed beef. Berkeley’s Café Rouge serves cayenne-cured Niman Ranch jerky, and the Westbank Grill at Four Seasons Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, wraps seared foie gras in buffalo jerky. Jerky’s stock started to rise at Texas A&M University, where researchers developed a slow curing process that marinates the meat in brine for a week before it’s smoked and dried. Fat-free, low in cholesterol and high in protein, jerky is a near-perfect health food for meat eaters, save for its salt content. Beef jerky may have started at the bottom of the food chain. But once foodies started clamoring for organic meats and “private reserve” steaks, artisanal jerky was the next logical step. The Atkins Diet fad may have faded, but ISM says demand for flavorful high-protein snacks that consumers can eat on the run has no place to go but up.
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Now in fashion with upper-class families, the magic number of children is four. Apparently, baby No. 4 is the new must-have accessory. U.S. Census data shows that the number of upper-income families with three or more children has jumped 30% in the last decade.
-- FrederickNewsPost.com 8.14.07
U.S. workers are slightly better at cutting the electronic cords while on vacation than they were a year ago. Despite the ease of staying in touch with the office, 49% feel no pressure to stay connected while on vacation, versus 44% in 2006, according to an Orbitz survey.
-- HR News 7.13.07
According to consulting firm Control Risks, 8 in 10 employees believe their companies have a legal obligation to ensure their safety during business trips, 52% would consider legal action should harm befall them during a business trip, while 36% doubt their firm’s ability to provide advice during an emergency.
-- Workforce Management 7.31.07
As recently as the 1990s, most package designs were retained for seven or more years. Now marketing executives say they are constantly planning package overhauls. The average life of a package before its next makeover is down to two years, they add.
-- New York Times 8.10.07
According to a new Deloitte study, every generation enjoys reading magazines and nearly three-quarters of all consumers choose to read them even though they can find the same information online. There is also a greater receptivity overall to print ads compared with Internet ads, the study found.
-- Ad Age 7.26.07
According to the 2006 Adams Wine Handbook, women now purchase more than 57% of the wine sold in the U.S. When doing so, they tend to be less impressed by wine ratings than men, instead judging the product by label design, bottle shape and the philosophy of the winery.
-- Ventura County Star 8.12.07
Young affluents tend to spend more on luxuries, spending 39% more than those over 40, according to a Unity Marketing survey.
-- Business Wire 7.27.07
According to an Intranet Dashboard survey of executives, 31% said document safety is their main concern regarding telecommuting, followed by lowered productivity (27%) and trust issues (25%). But 66% said their organizations support telecommuting and 72% see its popularity increasing at their companies over the next five years.
-- HR News 8.2.07
Color Marketing Group says this year’s hot colors are the red/pink family, driven by its use in promoting health issues like breast cancer and AIDS awareness. This strong pink, warm with just a hint of yellow, along with its companion red, is being seen in products from sneakers to blenders.
-- Bend Weekly 7.27.07
A recent Harris Interactive study found 69% of all gay and lesbian consumers said they’re more likely to buy directly from marketers that have a nondiscrimination policy.
-- Advertising Age 8.6.07
Americans spend 48% of their food dollars on restaurants, up from 25% 50 years ago, according to the National Restaurant Association. The average American ate 208 meals prepared outside the home in 2006, NPD Group estimates; of those, 127 were to-go meals, while 81 were eaten inside a restaurant.
-- Sacramento Bee 8.3.07
Two recent studies have found that baby boomers will work past age 65 because of the high cost of living, the failure of 401(k) retirement plans to yield enough income and new federal laws that require Medicare recipients to pay higher co-pays and fees for prescription drugs.
-- Foster’s Online (Dover, NH) 8.5.07
Only twice before over the last century has 5% of the national income gone to families in the upper one-one-hundredth of a percent of the income distribution—currently, the almost 15,000 families with incomes of $9.5 million or more a year, according to an analysis of tax returns by the economists Emmanuel Saez at the U of California, Berkeley and Thomas Piketty at the Paris School of Economics.
-- New York Times 7.15.07
A recent Pew Survey report states that only 41% of those surveyed indicated that children were important to a good marriage, down 24% from 1990.
-- Lake Country Echo 7.18.07
According to the Easy Meal Preparation Association in Ohio, 82 million assembled entrees were made nationally in 2006, generating about $270 million in revenue for preparers. That’s expected to double by the end of 2007.
-- Minneapolis Star Tribune 8.10.07
Prepaid has been the traditional offering for the credit-challenged consumer and the prepaid wireless market will grow by over 600% in the next three years to 31 million subscribers by the end of 2008.
-- PR Newswire 7.9.07
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