Marketing

It's back-to-school season, which means class is in session for all the related marketing efforts. More than ever before, brands seem to be leading with social media. Take Famous Footwear, which worked with Buddy Media to build a "Back to School" tab on its official Facebook Page. So far, more than 50,000 people have joined the Famous Footwear Facebook community.  

Terms like social commerce, Facebook commerce and social shopping are making headlines. Nearly every retailer is trying tap into the 750 million potential shoppers on Facebook. The one thing missing is what it really means to make your e-commerce efforts social.

Ikea has pledged to donate $62 million over three years to help people in the Daadab refugee camp in Kenya, whose population has swollen after drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. The money from the Ikea Foundation will be used to expand emergency relief and assistance for up to 120,000 people.

With today's consumers more likely than ever to be involved with some aspect of environmental, health and humanitarian issues, cause marketing has become a win-win for retailers. Getting behind a worthy cause (e.g., donating to relief efforts after Japan's tsunami, supporting cancer awareness or raising money for animal shelters) can help retailers raise a substantial amount of money for charity while at the same time improve their own brand reputation and, ultimately, grow sales

Zales is teaming up with celebrity Jessica Simpson on an exclusive collection of diamond fashion jewelry. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Simpson has become quite successful in the fashion world. Her Jessica Simpson Collection, which sells shoes, clothing, fragrances and other goods, is said to be worth about $1 billion.

Continuing the list of the 10 most common shopping personalities as identified by SteelHouse, here are numbers six through 10 (part 1 of this series contains one through five):

Ikea U.K. is hinting at how cool it would be for it to scrape your social network profile in order to customize products. In a new campaign on YouTube, the furniture maker invites you to link to your Facebook account. Then it asks "Who is in your bedroom?" (you, spouse, child). It then starts building a place where you will "go happy to bed," including an animation that builds walls out of the names in your social graph and phrases from your wall.

Behavioral commerce, the practice of delivering real-time offers to consumers based on their shopping personalities and buying behaviors, is a hot trend in retail. Today's consumers expect a one-on-one experience, therefore retailers must know their audiences and their shopping personalities to tailor the experience for them. 

This year's Toys"R"Us Toy Guide for Differently-Abled Kids will feature actress and philanthropist Eva Longoria on the cover alongside Elijah De La Cerda, a 5-year-old boy with Down syndrome from Fresno, Calif. The retailer has published the guide for nearly 20 years.

Mom.com delivers daily deals on the things moms and their families like to
buy, eat, and do locally. In this case study, we will look at how CafeMom
used sign-up ads to deliver daily deals for mom.com. This whitepaper examines how the company:

• connected with moms via signup ads across digital channels;
• used daily-deal emails to build a core audience of moms;
• extended the conversation with moms to social media sites, specifically Facebook and Twitter; and
• connected with moms on mobile devices.