MARKET WATCH
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Norvartis Consumer Health’s Loyalty Program Awarded
IC Group, a promotions and loyalty agency, won Gold in the Chief Marketer Pro Awards “Best Incentive Campaign” category for development of the Prevacid 24HR Perks loyalty program for Novartis Consumer Health.
This is the second award for Prevacid 24HR Perks. The first was a Silver Award in the Loyalty Campaigns category in March from the Brand Activation Association’s 2014 REGGIE Awards. The program, the first of its kind in its product category, rewards consumers with free rewards for engagement with the brand and purchases of Prevacid 24HR, an over-the-counter treatment for frequent heartburn.
In April, IC Group re-launched the Prevacid 24HR Perks program that had been in market for several years. The program has evolved into a promotional loyalty model which includes engagement, chances to win prizing like $2,500 cash or $250 Gift Cards, as well as rewards like $5 gift cards, magazine subscriptions, or coupons. Overall, the program has helped the brand decrease acquisition costs, drive positive brand sentiment and build a loyal membership base. It’s also helped the brand maintain market share in an increasingly competitive category with new products being released as over-the-counter.
Prestige Brands Inks Promotion Optimization Deal
Prestige Brands will measure, plan and optimize their promotional spending with the help of the TABS Promo Advantage suite of services from the TABS Group.
“Prestige just announced record sales and profits in large part due to our increased investments in marketing and promotion,” said Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Tim Connors. “In order to partner and grow our core OTC brands with our customers, we need to provide promotional recommendations that deliver against our agreed upon goals. TABS Promo Advantage is the service that provides us the best capability to do that.”
TABS Promo Advantage is an Excel-based solution that includes TABS PromoMaster software for instant sales and profit analysis of trade promotion events and full account P&L’s. It will also include the TABS Promotion Planner that provides top-down, corporate goal setting and bottom-up, account-level promotional planning. Finally a trade promotion optimizer uses the modeling expertise of TABS CEO and Founder Dr. Kurt Jetta to provide specific recommendations for promotional timing and tactics by account and brand.
Inmar to Present 2014 Mid-Year Coupon Trends on Webcast
Inmar, an operator of intelligent commerce networks, will host a webinar on July 31 examining coupon activity for the first half of 2014. In addition to providing analysis of the 174 billion coupons distributed and 1.4 billion coupons redeemed during the first six months of 2014, the hour-long program will also spotlight shopper and retail trends gaining traction in the marketplace. The webinar begins at 2:00p.m. EDT. An encore presentation will take place on August 5, also at 2:00p.m. EDT. For more information, visit www.inmar.com.
As shoppers continue to ramp up their use of technology to speed and enhance their shopping experience, promotions remain at the center of shoppers’ efforts to economize their physical efforts and stretch budgets. This use of promotions is being significantly facilitated by shoppers' willingness to leverage multiple sources to find relevant offers. According to the 2014 Inmar Shopper Behavior Study, shoppers overall are regularly using, on average, 5.8 methods to discover and acquire coupons, combining both traditional and digital methods.
The webinar, presented by Devora Rogers, Senior Director, Retail Marketing Insights, and Andrew Coleman, Senior Consultant, will look at how manufacturers are addressing this shopper behavior and how, in turn, shoppers are responding to promotion-related marketing tactics.
“The marketplace is taking some interesting turns relative to promotions,” said Inmar Chairman and CEO David Mounts. “With shoppers demanding more relevant offers and expecting to find those offers quickly and easily, marketers are being challenged to develop distribution and engagement strategies that will both speed acquisition and help drive conversion.”
New GS1 Grocery Initiative to Address Supply Chain Challenges
A new Retail Grocery Initiative facilitated by GS1 US aims to address industry challenges with broad adoption and implementation of GS1 Standards, the most widely used supply chain standards in the world. Uniting suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, solution providers and industry associations, the initiative gathered industry stakeholders for its inaugural meeting on June 10 during the trade group’s annual conference.
The GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative serves to facilitate collaboration across industry to address high-priority supply chain and regulatory challenges impacting the entire industry. During the initial meeting, more than 150 industry stakeholders gathered and identified high priority topics impacting their businesses that could be addressed by the Initiative, including alignment on product information for business and consumer use, standardized usage of images and adherence to regulations from the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), among others. Industry stakeholders will continue to finalize Initiative goals and objectives in the coming months.
“The GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative helps industry address the issues impacting their businesses now and for many years ahead,” said Angela Fernandez, vice president of retail grocery and foodservice, GS1 US. “Through a formal Initiative, members have the opportunity to provide their thought leadership and expertise to shape the future of the industry and to address a few critical industry issues to drive solutions faster, better and more efficiently, enabling broad industry adoption.”
To learn more about the GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative and to join, visit www.gs1us.org/retailgrocery.
AFS Technologies Expands Mobile Offerings
A Direct Store Delivery (DSD) mobile solution from AFS Technologies is now available on Android and Windows. The solutions are fully compatible with handheld devices from Motorola Solutions as well as Android-based mobile phones to better serve the growing mobile marketplace.
Concurrent with the release of AFS DSD Mobile on Android and Windows, AFS Technologies is also releasing a multi-lingual capability that enables the SaaS and server-based solution to be deployed globally.
With its server-based mobile manager control, the new solution aims to provide the right data, at the right time, to the right mobile representative in order to automate daily operations in the field. In-office staff also have the ability to maintain, control, support and research all aspects of the DSD application on an Android and Windows solution to speed up the payment cycle and further automate the sales process. Additionally, the AFS DSD Mobile solution on Android and Windows is designed to enhance inventory control in terms of quantity and price.
Emil Martinez Joins VideoMining Team as Chief Business Development Officer
VideoMining Corp., the leading provider of in-store behavior analytics, has announced that Emil, is joining the company as its Chief Business Development Officer.
Martinez has held senior positions in several of the world’s largest information services firms, including Nielsen, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), and The NPD Group. His recently served as an Executive Vice President and General Manager - Retail Client Solutions at IRI, where he led the firm's retail practice and was an integral part of their shopper collaboration strategy. Martinez has also worked with several start-up companies including a recent stint with Intelligent Clearing Network as their EVP of Sales and Business Development.
“We are thrilled to have Emil on our leadership team,” said Rajeev Sharma, VideoMining’s Founder and CEO. “There are few people who can match Emil’s experience in leadership positions with large syndicated information companies and start-ups, or his knowledge of the dynamics between retailers and CPGs.”
For more information on Martinez, or VideoMining’s other team members, visit VideoMining’s Team Page on the VideoMining.com website or call 800-898-9950.
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