Shoppers love Promotions and Bonuses

Why do shoppers love promotions and bonuses so much? Maybe it’s the thought of getting something for free or just the simple thrill of receiving something they wouldn’t usually own. Whatever the appeal one thing is certain; shoppers love a promotion.

In general, bonuses reign above discounts in the retail world. Often, “Buy 1 get 1 Free” offers are much more popular than percentage discounts. This is usually due to that special buzz word – “Free”! When shoppers feel like they are getting something for free, they feel like they have got better value for their money, and although many consumers may have bought the product anyway and the “BOGOF” offer was simply a bonus offer, the promotion can appeal to newer customers too that love receiving extra value as opposed to a percentage discount.

Offering bonuses and promotions is generally an ineffective way of boosting revenue unless you advertise them as well. In order to reach the right consumer, brands need to advertise these bonuses to make sure they can not only reach out to existing customers, but also reach out to new, potential customers too.

Gourmet Ads network of sites provides advertisers with the ideal platform to reach the right grocery buyers. The Gourmet Ads network reaches out to consumers across the world and we use a variety of advertising techniques and analytics to ensure that your advertising is both efficient and good value for your money.

Reach Targeted audiences through Gourmet Ads with Advertising Promotions

Gourmet Ads is a well trusted ad network, and promotional or sale advertisements placed with us containing these bonuses and promotions can target the right audience to help you increase sales. We use geotargeting as one of our methods of reaching out to specific customers. We believe that your advertising budget should be able to stretch as far as possible, and by using geotargeting (where ads are tailored towards people in specific locales) we can make this a possibility and increase the chances of generating more sales.

So, what makes bonus offers so appealing to customers? It is usually the efficient, fast shoppers that don’t want to spend time working out what 30% off their bottle of cola is – they would rather get an extra big bottle free – it seems like the easier, better deal when consumers are shopping in a hurry!

Research has shown that even if you make the discount even better value than a bonus offer, shoppers will still go for the bonus offer which seems more appealing. With this in mind, you can still offer great deals to your customers but save your brand money by offering what appears to be a better value offer. By advertising bonuses like Buy One Get One Frees, you can entice new shoppers to your brand, keep the loyalty of old shoppers and also boost your brand awareness for the consumer.

Advertising Promotions & Bonuses is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Most Grocery Buyers Research Online then Purchase Offline

When did you last buy beef stock, noodles, milk or meat online? Last week? Last month? Never?

Often you will find that consumers don’t really buy their groceries online but instead use the internet to research different products and prices and then go to their local supermarket to buy. It’s a bit of a mystery as to why this is – people quite happily buy electronics or beauty products online but when it comes to food, consumers are reluctant to click the ‘buy’ button.

The concept of online shopping is most popular in Asia where over 77% of consumers were happy to buy their week’s food online, whereas America a much smaller 20% said they would be willing to do so. A safe assumption is that people like to see the product that they are buying. The whole shopping ‘experience’ can also be enjoyable for many people as they feel like they won’t be missing out on special offers if they go directly to the store.

Now, although you may not be able to convince all consumers that grocery shopping online is the best thing for them, you can appeal to the ROPO phenomenon. This basically stands for ‘Research Online / Purchase Offline’ and it is all about appealing to those who prefer to do their shopping themselves, with a little help from the internet for research.

Online Advertising is important to the Research Online then Purchase Offline style of Grocery Shopping

This is where online advertising is highly important. The Research Online then Purchase Offline style of shopping is a method many grocery buyers use, and by advertising your products online, you are not only creating brand awareness, you are also contributing to the ‘research online’ side of their shopping. By the time they’ve got the store they will already have your product or brand in mind.

Advertisers can take advantage of the Research Online then Purchase Offline phenomenon to increase their offline sales. By constantly generating more brand awareness for the consumer, you are instantly generating a connection between you and the shopper. With online advertising to promote offline grocery shopping, it is no longer about click through rates and conversions; the focus is now on the physical sales in store.

The Gourmet Ads network of sites offers an ideal platform to reach grocery buyers online, prior to them heading to the grocery store. By using analytics to monitor consumer buying habits, or geo targeting to ensure you are showing relevant ads to relevant consumers, you can generate more sales.

With the use of appropriately placed, relevant ads, you will be able to see an increase in offline revenue via the use of online advertising.

Research Online then Purchase Offline is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Price is the Key Driver with Store brands and Private Label Brands

When it comes to store brands and private label brands, pricing is an extremely important factor in driving sales in order to compete with name brand grocery items.

But why is this? Well, consumers are more likely to pick up a branded product because they trust it. Not necessarily because they have tried it before, but usually because there is a certain unspoken promise of quality if something is branded.

However, popular branded products tend to be expensive, and for anyone who is on a budget, or just finds it unnecessary to spend twice the amount on a packet of spaghetti just to pay for brand, pricing is a very important factor when making a purchase.

Lower pricing for the store brands and private labels is what drive their sales – instead of reaching for a higher priced bottle of orange juice simply because it has ‘Tropicana’ plastered over the label, more and more people are now buying store brands to save money.

Statistically, more people prefer store brands because of pricing, but also many feel that the quality is also comparable. In fact, 50.2% of people believe that store brand products are just as good as named brands whereas only 7.8% will fill their shopping basket with only store brand items.

Gourmet Ads helps Supermarkets reach the right audience for Private Label Brands

For store brands, the Gourmet Ads network of sites is an ideal platform to advertise to the right audience since most of the Gourmet Ads audience are primary grocery buyers. Appealing to the right audience is an important part of advertising and using your budget well. More traditional forms of advertising are suitable for big brands with large ad budgets but for a smaller company that wants a more reliable and better value for money ad campaign, advertising with Gourmet Ads is a better solution.

It is important to remember that a cheap price if generally more appealing to a consumer than a popular brand name.  They are better value for money and 9 out of 10 consumers recognise this as a fact. In terms of trust, consumers have said that they find store brands to be just as reliable if not more, than their brand name counterparts.

By using online advertising, store brands can increase sales with advertising campaigns featuring on Gourmet Ads network of sites. With the majority of Gourmet Ads users being the primary grocery shopper/grocery decision maker, it is important to influence the way they think about store brands in order to make them loyal customers.

Overall, price is the main deciding factor when it comes to making a final pudchase and if you can convince your buyers through online ads the good value of your store brands and private labels then you will increase sales and boost customer loyalty.

Price Is Key with Private Label Brands is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Reviving Dishwashing Liquid Ad Campaigns

Dishwashing liquid is a mature product in a mature market, so new brands as well as established ones need a robust system of ad campaigns to continuously draw in new customers whilst still keeping old ones, establish their brand name and increase brand credibility for the audience.

With such a huge development in many peoples’ lives and with many people “going green”, advertising green dishwashing liquid choices are becoming popular. There has been a huge growth in general awareness around the subject of “going green” and leading a more eco friendly lifestyle and this gives dishwashing liquid brands the chance to advertise greener options to their audience.

The idea of “going green” basically means reusing, recycling and not wasting natural resources available to us. This also includes not using products which carry harmful chemicals that can both damage ourselves and the environment. There are many home remedies which some consumers swear by, but there is a gap in the market for dishwashing liquid brands which can contribute to the green lifestyle.

Advertising the ‘green’ dishwashing liquid brands

By advertising products which use less or no chemicals than the average product, your brand can be viewed by the consumer as the “brand that cares”. Brands such as Ecover and Dawn have both shown initiative with their ad campaigns; Dawn in particular has taken a different angle with their ad campaign. Instead of promoting their dishwashing liquid as a great dish cleaning product, they are using their product to raise awareness of oil spills and how useful their product can be in cleaning grease off bird’s feathers. A genuine and heartfelt ad campaign, it is also a very clever method of reaching out to animal lovers, environmentalists and anyone who wants to look after the planet.

By advertising dishwashing liquid on Gourmet Ads network of sites, you can begin to create a stronger identity for your brand which should ultimately lead to increased sales of your products. By using geo targeting, Gourmet Ads can target the dishwashing liquid advertising campaigns in respective geographical areas to yield more results for your advertising campaigns. This will help increase branding for your product and help present you as a more established brand, and the more established a brand is, the more likely consumers are going to trust your products.

Dawn used TV commercials and the use of website advertising in their bid to promote their product, by using Gourmet Ads network to promote your ad campaign; you can reach out to new audiences and a large amount of dedicated Gourmet Ads followers in locations all over the world. Geo targeting your ad campaigns also ensures that your campaign reaches relevant consumers, thus eventually leading to an increase in sales for dishwashing liquid.

Advertising Dishwashing Liquid is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Lack of consumer interest in laundry powder

In terms of priorities in advertising, laundry powder is one of the lowest on the list. This is mainly due to a lack of audience interest in the products themselves and therefore a disinterest to actually view the ads.

As consumer marketing usually revolves around the consumer’s ‘needs’ and ‘wants’, it makes sense that not a lot of money is invested in laundry powder ad campaigns – after all, who wants to be wasting money on dead end products? But they are not as dead end as you may think. In recent years, laundry powder ads have become fashionable, controversial and fun which has raised awareness, not only of specific brands but also of the product in general.

When it comes to picking out a laundry powder, most consumers will generally opt for a product that they have heard of i.e. a well established brand. However, this level of consistency couldn’t be achieved without ad campaigns there to continuously remind consumers of the existence of the brands and the products.

In the environmentally conscious world that we live in, greener choices of laundry powder are becoming more appealing to consumers. Audiences are becoming more and more aware of the harmful effects of chemical-filled products to the environment and to their health. This is why greener choices of products can help establish new brands coming up in this category, as newer “greener” products can be more appealing to the modern audience.

Popular, eye-catching campaigns such as those introduced by Method – an American laundry powder detergent – uses catchy slogans such as “Say no to jugs” to draw in contemporary audiences. Online banner ads along the same theme have proved effective in digital advertising, and it is this type of advertising that Gourmet Ads can help you with.

Geo targeting laundry powder ad campaigns

Advertising is all about targeting the right customer, and to do so, Gourmet Ads uses geo targeting. Geo targeted laundry powder campaigns which reach specific locations across the world or just across one district means that you will get more results, increase your customer base and boost sales. Geo targeting for laundry powder campaigns can especially create stronger branding for new products and even new brands. Ad campaigns can help raise awareness of brands and therefore create a connection between both brand and consumer, leading to (hopefully) more sales.

Depending on the angle your ad campaign takes, you could find that if you are a small brand that is just starting out, you could find your products lost amongst shelves and hidden by bigger brands. By using Gourmet Ads, your ad campaign can be spread across Gourmet Ads network of sites to reach new consumers which could lead to quality brand establishment for laundry powder.

Advertising Laundry Powder is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

What affects Grocery Buyers to make their choices?

Grocery Buyers aren’t passive shoppers – in other words, the grocery buyers out there always think about their purchases before they buy them. So what affects their choices when it comes to grocery shopping?

Every year, CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) brands invest millions in their websites to ensure that their brand increases in popularity, becomes more established, and ultimately increases revenue. To tap into the grocery buyer’s psyche, CPG brands make an effort to boost their advertising in digital media and overall, it has been found that using digital advertising can directly impact sales offline.

In fact, a recent ComScore study showed that users of CPG brand websites buy 37% more products in stores than those who don’t use the websites. As times change, people are becoming more and more likely to surf the web at different times of day and for different lengths of time. During these internet sessions, they can be reached by brand advertisers so easily that it is no wonder visitor figures are having an effect on sales.

ComScore’s study results also showed that visitors to a brand’s website are also more likely to spend more money on the products and are 41% more likely to complete a purchase than someone who hasn’t visited the site prior to going to the shop.

Gourmet Ads can create effective engagement campaigns for grocery buyers

When engaging grocery buyers, digital media clearly plays a big role in reaching out to new customers. Gourmet Ads can help you create effective ad campaigns for brand promotions and can also help you establish your brand online to ensure a good return.

Site visitors are more likely to feel a connection to a brand if they have visited their site before doing their grocery shopping. This is why it is crucial to have a well established online presence so that engaging grocery buyers can lead to more sales and a better relationship with consumers. The longer a consumer spends on a site, the more likely they are to buy the product too which is another aspect to take into account when reaching out to new audiences.

By taking a more personal approach to your ad campaigns, you can talk to your customers and make them feel valued. Rather than just talking to the masses, brands that have started using social networking pages to advertise their products are able to communicate directly with individuals. This means that specific consumers can have a personalised link with both a product and brand.

Often, advertisers will find that brand websites and their products are promoted through advertising campaigns as well as recipes. Recipe sites which use your product as one of the ingredients is a great way to promote its uses, but ad campaigns are also great for getting noticed too.

Engaging grocery buyers is about reaching out to them whenever you can – Gourmet Ads uses digital media advertising to ensure that you can create a genuinely effective ad campaign which can target your ideal demographic and make them want to buy your brand when they are in store.

Engaging Grocery Buyers is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Reaching out to your audience through weekly specials

Weekly specials are a great way of reaching out to your audience. Thanks to digital media, advertising weekly specials is becoming even easier and means that you can be even more visible to your desired demographic.

Weekly specials are usually in weekend circulars, but not everyone buys a newspaper every weekend.  To expose your special offers, your advertising of your weekly specials needs to be online. Weekly circulated ads online increases your chances of reaching out to a wider audience. Not only this, but an ad online is easy to alter – an ad that goes to print with a typo or other error is stuck that way until the next issue!

Many families nowadays use money-saving and calorie-monitoring to help them choose their product when they do their grocery shopping. Pre-planning weekly meals is a great way for people to save money and advertising weekly specials on sites like Gourmet Ads (which people use to plan their meals) ensures an increase in purchase intentions and actual sales.

The key to advertising weekly specials is targeting. Gourmet Ads’ network of sites has a dedicated audience and by advertising specials using these sites, you can reach your right consumer at the right time.

Geo targeting is also a key element in reaching your target consumer – often their geographical location can be a contributing factor as to the type of product they are searching for or the type of special offer that is relevant to them. By using geo targeting, your ads will only reach relevant customers that are likely to buy your product and use your special offers. This means that you are only advertising to an applicable demographic and focussing your attentions on them. This means you are not spending your advertising budget on people who are unlikely to use your weekly specials or buy your products.

Weekly specials create quick movement of inventory

The main purpose for advertising weekly specials online is the quick movement it can create. Weekly specials that are displayed on Gourmet Ads can be reached instantly by your target audience, which means that sales are quicker and there is a quicker movement in inventory as well. Your audience will love the convenience of being able to access all kinds of specials in just a few clicks.

Gourmet Ads’ strong and effective advertising campaigns create a great sense of identity for your brand that your consumers will recognise and relate to. Advertising weekly specials when you use digital media such as Gourmet Ads can create a great advertising campaign for your brand.

Advertising Weekly Specials is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

How are you Advertising Consumer Packaged Goods ?

Unlike other stores, the products sold by supermarkets and grocers are considered Consumer Packaged Goods, or CPGs.  Also known ac FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods outside of North America), these products are purchased frequently by customers, are inexpensive, and don’t require much purchase planning. For retailers, these are products that they sell in high volume; buy from large distribution networks, and for which there is a high stock turnover rate. Groceries are a perfect example of these goods, and the marketing rules that apply to these products are different from those of other, longer lasting goods.

Consumer Packaged Goods include everything from perishable goods (produce, meat, dairy) to staple items (dry cereal, noodles, canned food) and household products (paper towels, laundry detergent, etc). Manufacturers of these products understand the short shelf life of such products, and they are constantly aware of the need to get new products on the shelf. Manufacturers also understand that they are facing a high level of competition and that they need to support their products through advertising and promotion in order to influence consumer buying decisions. Consumer Packaged Goods generally have a relatively low profit margin per item, and so manufacturers rely on high volume sales in order to make a profit. Every sale counts, and the more loyal customers that a brand can generate, the more likely they are to see large profits.

Consumer Packaged Goods Advertising to Reach Consumers On Target

For these reasons, the key to successful sales of CPGs is creating a powerful brand identity that will ensure customers keep coming back to your product.  Creating a strong brand identity means that you have a loyal following of shoppers who turn to your brand again and again, even when it is not the least expensive or easiest to find. The changes in the economy have sent many customers on a search for cheaper food items, which is why creating a strong brand is more important than ever.  It also means that the traditional methods of reaching customers are no longer enough to build and maintain the loyal shopper following that keeps a brand profitable in the long run.

The most important tool for creating a strong brand in today’s market is the internet. Online advertising has become more valuable than any other type of advertising- market research consistently shows that today’s shoppers are turning to the internet for coupons, recipe ideas, and for information about products they are considering buying.  Whether you are a small brand that operates in a specific region or a large brand that is found in most supermarkets, Gourmet Ads can increase the number of consumers who see your product before they ever enter a store. Gourmet Ads offers CPG manufacturers the opportunity to market their products directly to the people who buy CPGs.  Our audience is made up of the primary household shoppers and food preparers, the very same people who regularly purchase CPGs  Gourmet Ads can help you manage your online advertising campaign to help put your ads in front of the right people.  Changes in the shopping habits of consumers have created an opportunity for manufacturers to build brand loyalty for Consumer Packaged Goods by developing a strong online presence that appeals to the needs of today’s shoppers.

Advertising Consumer Packaged Goods is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Statistics show that coupons drive supermarket sales

Coupons have traditionally been a way for manufacturers and retailers to bring in customers looking for a great deal. Recent economic difficulties and the increase in the number of consumers who choose to cook meals at home rather than going out has contributed to a growing interest by shoppers in finding good deals. In February, the New York Times reported that 3.5 billion coupons were redeemed in 2009, which was in increase of more than 700 million from just a year earlier. Using coupons gives time and budget strapped shoppers a feeling of being able to control spending and of being “good shoppers”, an experience that can make a big difference in supermarket profits.

Customers are less loyal to specific brands today than in the past, as evidenced by the growing popularity of less expensive store brand goods, but coupons remain one way for manufacturers to bring in new customers and keep loyal shoppers. In essence, offering customers a coupon is a way to bring the price down on a product when the customer can most use the savings, a factor which may prevent them from choosing a less expensive brand simply for the cost savings. Consumers are also more willing to try new products, and a coupon can encourage a customer who may not have purchased an item to buy that product for the first time.

Shows like TLC’s “Extreme Couponing” have helped fuel the trend of shoppers hoping to rein in big bargains. The show features three people who have taken the use of couponing and made it into a way of life.  There are a number of websites that feature coupon gurus who give advice to readers and even speak to large crowds about how using coupons can cut food bills.  While the average customer doesn’t dedicate the time to collecting coupons that these people do, shoppers are more aware of the fact that using coupons can save them money on their grocery bills. For manufacturers and retailers, this means that offering coupons has become even more important than ever before, with customers expecting to receive savings on products.

Newer delivery methods are emerging for offering coupons

Coupons offered through newspapers are still the most common, but the demand for coupons has lead to new delivery methods. Many brands offer coupons that are either integrated into product packaging (such as peel off coupons that offer a discount on a purchase of multiple items) or through coupon displays located on the product shelves.  Online coupon use is growing, with customers printing coupons from websites that they can then redeem in the store. Some companies have also created mobile applications that send coupons right to a customer’s phone.  Some companies send coupons directly to customers by mail, either through targeted marketing programs or through weekly distribution to certain neighborhoods. No matter how a coupon is sent to customers, the redemption rates continue to climb.

Providing coupons to customers has other benefits as well.  Many consumers who do not redeem coupons still see them, giving your brand additional exposure. Both customers who use coupons and those who do not report that seeing coupons for a certain product or brand gives them the impression that the brand is more competitively priced, and that perceived increase in value can give customers a more positive impression of a product. Customers who use coupons are also more likely to buy a product “now”, rather than waiting for a sale.

The bottom line is that coupons not only help you attract customers, they also help you retain them. The competition from look-alike brands and store brand goods is more intense than ever before, but coupons remain one of the best ways to attract and retain shoppers,and surely enough coupons drive supermarket sales to these loyal customers.

Coupons Drive Supermarket Sales is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

ComScore releases results to demonstrate that online ads drive CPG sales

According to recent research, (see here) it has been proven that online advertising can improve sales on Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) products, or rather online ads drive CPG sales. The marketing research company comScore have just released the results of the impact of online advertising on the sales of CPG products.

ComScore have conducted their research on the effectiveness of advertising using 1 million internet users. Certain internet users in particular regions are obviously affected by different types of online advertising, so the research was conducted mainly to see what effect it may have on people’s choices when it comes to buying CPGs.

Dunnhumby USA, a data analysis company also provided information for the study. The purchase data was compared to comScore’s digital measurements which showed that online advertising was more likely to have an effect on households that were exposed to online advertising than those that were not.

Interestingly, the research into the impact of online advertising has created a great view into what consumers need and want to buy. Although so much research has been done before to do with the effectiveness of advertising, it is this research in particular that is the most fascinating.

CPG Ad campaign trackings asserts that online ads drive CPG sales

The reason it is so fascinating is that we now have substantial proof that online advertising indeed increases CPG sales. The CPG campaigns show a median offline sales lift of 21 percent, and it is with this in mind that we can predict the buying behaviours of certain consumer groups. Five out of six households that were exposed to online advertising produced a positive sales lift.

During their studies, comScore and Dunnhumby anonymously targeted adverts at in-store brand buyers to see what the impact would be. The results showed that there was a 42 percent increase in sales from households that had been exposed to purchase based targeting online ads and a 21 percent increase to those who were exposed to non-purchase based targeting.

To put it in its simplest terms; online advertising can drive sales of your Consumer Packaged Products. It is studies such as these conducted by comScore and Dunnhumby that shows where we can focus our advertising. Instead of placing adverts that no one is going to see, online advertising is a great way of increasing revenues, and asserts the fact that online ads drive CPG sales.

Online Ads Drive CPG Sales is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.