CosmoGirl's concierge service almost works

In a partnership with NearbyNow, a service that allows consumers to search local store inventory and place items on hold for same-day pick up, CosmoGirl's new concierge service allows readers to shop products they see online or in the magazine and either "find local" or "buy online." It's a great feature (one that is certainly not limited to the teen audience) and appeals to the "gotta have it now" impulses common to some of us shoppers. I mean, when you see a pair of Converse All Star Light sneakers, you don't want them tomorrow, you want them now! Which is why I was slightly disappointed to click on the "find local" button and discover that my only two options were about 40 miles away in either Lakewood, WA or Puyallup, WA. Excuse me, but I live in the city of Seattle, and I should not have to 40 miles to the closest Famous Footwear retailer to get a very popular brand of shoes. Ditto for the shop online option, which took me to just one online retailer, also Famous Footwear.

So, the partnerships have a ways to go, but the functionality is great and I can see how this type of shopping might very well become the wave of the future. Which brings me to my next point: Hearst, the publisher of CosmoGirl, is smart to start with a teen publication in testing out this new technology. They can build a business case, test out new features and build long-term brand awareness relatively risk free-- and that's the beauty of being in the kids business.

On the way to Kindergarten: Office Depot

I just got back from vacation and one of the pieces of mail I was particularly excited to open was the Kindergarten welcome letter from my daughter’s elementary school. I hadn’t done much shopping for her yet and wanted to do it together so she felt proud and part of the process. We skimmed through the letter quickly so we could get to the important stuff: KINDERGARTEN SUPPLIES, listed on page 2. Listed on page 2 is an understatement. The list honestly took up the entire page. Here it is:

“[Name of school] will supply each student with scissors and paper. In addition, your child should bring:

• Roomy backpack big enough to hold a folder, projects, papers, lunch and a jacket.
• A dozen pencils, regular size #2
• A dozen (or more!) glue sticks, any brand, to be shared by all
• One bottle of white glue
• One box of washable markers to be shared
• One box of 16 crayons to be shared
• One package of 3 x 5 note cards
• One ream of white copy paper (8 ½ x 11)
• One box of Kleenex (or more!)
• One box of antibacterial or baby wipes (or more!)
• Liquid hand soap dispensers or refills (one or more)
• One box of band aids

Office Depot offers our school a generous rebate on year-round purchases so please remember to mention [name of school] to the cashier.

Now… it’s been a long time since I’ve attended Kindergarten and my daughter is my oldest child, so at the risk of sounding completely out of it, I still have to remark that this list came as somewhat of a shock. I do like the part about “the school will supply each student with scissors and paper” though. That’s a nice, generous touch.

Still, eager to do some shopping (remember, I was already in a shopping mood), we grabbed the little one and headed down to Office Depot to take care of the list. On the drive down I kept thinking that I never would considered Office Depot for my incoming Kindergartner had I not been so easily lured by the “generous rebate” copy on the school’s welcome letter. Apparently everyone else in the school district was too, because the parking lot was packed on a rainy Monday afternoon.

The store was somewhat prepared for us. The front entry had a display listing all of the area schools’ supply lists (in case you left yours at home – a very nice touch) and, although it took us a bit of time to locate the “back to school” section (in the back of the store) we did find almost everything on the list. Including hand soap, tissues, and baby wipes! Who knew you could get baby wipes at Office Depot. (I’m still not sure what’s going to happen with those wipes but I guess I’ll find out at parents’ night.)

The downside: the back to school section was crowded with parents and kids of various ages (including my one year-old who always makes shopping trips more difficult) and the rows were too narrow for a shopping cart. The visual merchandising could have been a lot better too, organized by grade level or with fun signs pointing out cool stuff. I was hoping for more of a traditional back to school shopping spree a la Target or other superstore where Back to School is made to feel like a special event and recognized as the important rite of passage that it is. Office Depot has also missed out on a lot of obvious licensed merchandise opportunities. Most of the school supplies we saw were really generic and “too boring” according to my daughter. Still, I was able to buy some Cars branded glue sticks (the last one in stock) and my daughter whined for a particularly ugly Hannah Montana backpack, but that was really it. (By the way, I am adamantly opposed to any licensed merchandise that doesn’t further the brand’s core values but that’s a topic for another blog post).

All in all, I give Office Depot huge points for partnering with local schools and offering non-traditional merchandise so we could satisfy our supply lists in one trip. We filled the cart and spent $40. The salespeople were exceedingly helpful too. I’ll definitely be back next time we need to stock up, but I won’t expect the trip to satisfy any rite of passage urges for me or my daughter.

Still feeling the “urge” to do something special for my daughter, I eagerly opened a marketing e-mail from Hanna Andersson about their back-to-school specials, and promptly drove down there and spent $70 on an adorable striped backpack, matching wallet and pencil case. And I got her a new outfit. We were both hugely satisfied. How’s that for retail therapy?

Gross-out books get boys reading

Not into "Charlotte's Web, "Little House on the Prairie" or any of the other popular titles part of middle school curriculum? Instead, try "The Day My Butt Went Psycho" or "Getting to Know Your Toilet: The Disgusting Story Behind Your Home's Strangest Feature." Or my favorite: "Help! What's Eating My Flesh: Runaway Staph and Strep Infections!" While some of these are obviously science books with shockingly clever titles, others are just juvenile with a capital J. In last week's Wall Street Journal article Problem: Boys Don't Like to Read. Solution: Books That Are Really Gross, John Hechinger reports that "Scholastic and other publishers are heeding the research of such academics as Jeffrey Wilhelm, an education professor at Boise State University. Prof. Wilhelm tracked boys' reading habits for five years ending in 2005 and found that schools failed to meet their "motivational needs." Teachers assigned novels about relationships, such as marriage, that appealed to girls but bored boys. His survey of academic research found boys more likely to read nonfiction, especially about sports and other activities they enjoy, as well as funny, edgy fiction."

Now, as unappealing as some of these titles may seem (or not!), I believe that the power of these brands to tap into the "motivational needs of boys" that Wilhelm outlined is absolutely critical for success. Just look at the amazing success of the Captain Underpants brand. First published in 1997, the "Butt" line has now sold over 1.2 copies. It just goes to show that with kids, just as with adults, "one size fits all" branding and marketing doesn't work. It's all about understanding the nuances (and in this case the capacities for nasties) of your audience.

Retailers txt teens

When I received my Ypulse post alerting me to yesterday's Tampa Bay article Retailers know texting is the totally best way to reach teens, I saw that Anastasia had commented "this seems like a no duh one to me...as long as it's opt in and not sneaky at all." Ah, but I disagree. You'd think that major retailers and other large companies who have some sort of teen initiative would rally behind mobile marketing efforts. Because, of course, that's where the teens are, right? If only it were that simple. Yes, teens are glued to their phones. Yes, they text incessently. But does this mean that they want to receive mobile marketing messages from their favorite retailers? The article reports that Beall's department stores gained 5,000 opt-in subscribers since March. Let me repeat that. 5,000 subscribers. Since March. Just about any print, e-mail or online advertising campaign would far exceed those results. Couldn't those marketing dollars be put to better use?

The article does point out that while text messaging is not a great way to attract new customers, it can serve as a new channel to communicate to existing shoppers. Still, though: "Stores walk a fine line between relevant content and being labeled lame by picky teens." Isn't that the truth.

My advice to retailers or anyone else jumping on the mobile marketing bandwagon: Outline your goals and intiatives. What do you hope to gain from your mobile marketing efforts? Craft your messages around some sort of campaign that's relevant to teens. Know your audience. Or hire someone who does.

The "learning gap" opportunity

I'm obsessed with today's AP article, U.S.-British "learning gap" a real education for mom. A reporter plans a move to London only to discover that her 5 year-old daughter is nowhere close to being "school ready."An e-mail from the school they hoped to send their daughter to "politely spelled out exactly what the kids in that school were expected to master: telling time; fractions — whole, half, quarter and thirds; counting in 5's up to 50; reading books and starting to write "news" independently."

Wow. Those British kids sure are smart. Now, the article goes on to explain that "It's not an open-and-shut case as to whether one country's approach is better than another. On a recent international reading test, U.S. fourth-graders and their peers from England had the same results. They weren't all that impressive. Students from the two countries posted lower average scores than students in Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, Hungary, Italy and Sweden, along with several Canadian provinces."

Still, does anybody besides me see a huge opportunity here for products and services aimed at the U.S. preschool market? For most kids in the United States, going to preschool is more about fun and games than focused academic learning. Reading, writing and telling time are not prerequisites for entering Kindergarten. And I'm not saying they should be-- but as a mom and a marketer I think, why not? Take a look at the success of LeapFrog and Baby Einstein and Bob Books and any number of other educational products directed to preschoolers. The market is still ripe.

Disney targets dudes

The LA Times reports today Disney to target boys with rebranded cable channel. Brilliant idea. My only question is: what took them so long? Disney bought out my alma matter Fox Family Worldwide in 2002, the former home of the hugely successful Fox Kids Network, home to the Power Rangers and Digimon franchises. Jetix was launched in 2004 on Toon Disney in hopes of capturing the minds of younger boys, but with limited success, especially compared to the likes of Hannah Montana and High School Musical. The Times reports
"Toon Disney pulls only 10% to 15% of the viewers of Disney Channel, despite the cable network's reach into nearly 70 million U.S. households. The Nielsen ratings reflect its hodgepodge lineup of geriatric kids shows, such as as "Power Rangers Jungle Fury" and recycled animated offerings such as "Batman: The Animated Series," and "Jackie Chan Adventures," and movies."

The new cable channel will be called "Disney XD," which I suppose sounds a lot more male than "Toon Disney" or "ABC Family." I think it's a great strategy actually. Disney has built up such a strong brand with girls of all ages. Any attempts to piggyback on those efforts to attract more boys would just dilute the brands they already have.

"You're fighting the brand perception, the very, very strong brand equity that's been in the marketplace for many, many years," says Greg Kahn, senior vice president of strategic insights for media buying firm Optimedia International USA Inc. "It would almost require a completely separate effort to reach tween boys, with a completely different name somehow associated with the Disney property, to reach these tween males."

Nick Jr jumps the shark

I'm sorry to report that Nick Jr has officially jumped the shark. Dora and Diego are about to embark on a new adventure: Media Life reports that Nick Jr cartoons are being adapted for the big screen. Feature length films? More action? More in-depth story lines? Sorry... it appears that the films will be "reformatted TV cartoons, " including “Dora,” “Diego, ” “The Backyardigans” and “The Wonder Pets,” as large-screen projection movies along with sing-along videos and other little extras. " The 10am shows in 12 states will include roughly 50 minutes of entertainment and the cost will be a bit more than a matinee. Now, I realize that not everyone has cable and that Nickelodeon might be trying to make a bit of money back after they decided to stop licensing their characters to junk food companies last year, but this strategy seems like it misses the mark. Mothers who already have cable will not want to pay to watch more TV in a movie theater. And those that don't have cable generally do so for a good reason (either cost or out of principle). Nick Jr has some really great properties so it's surprising to see them go this route. Perhaps they should um, explore some other opportunities.