To identify current brand loyalty trends, we looked at the latest survey research from Experian Simmons (Spring, 2012 NHCS Adult Survey 12-month) and at loyalty emails sent between January 2011 and March 2012 from 43 brands.

Who are these brand loyalists?

Experian Simmons found that 34% of the adult U.S. population has been a ‘brand loyalist’ as of April of this year. Looking at that 34%, we have identified some key areas in which brand loyalists differ from the overall adult U.S. population.

The response to email campaigns reflects this mindset in a number of ways:

Dollars and sense
Offers are valuable, but purchasing the right product from a preferred brand may be more so. While 80% of brand loyalists said they do not buy unknown brands merely to save money, 69% are always looking out for special offers. Mailings without offers in the subject line had 24% higher transaction rates, but 11% lower revenue per email than loyalty mailings with offers in the subject line.

Consideration: Test whether including an offer will work best for your loyalty program.

The 1:1 – Value your customer

When looking for a ‘favorite store,’ emails with dynamic store locations in the subject line can help ensure that your loyalty members will easily find your brand. Loyalty emails with name, dynamic benefit or status updates, or dynamic store locations enjoyed unique open rates that were 83% higher than loyalty mailings that had no dynamic content in the subject line (loyalty mailings with dynamic content had unique open rates of 43.5% compared to 23.5% for those without dynamic content).

• “Spend $75 and Get a $10 Summer Reward Coupon at %storename%!”
• “Use your $%point_balance% in Instant Rewards on gifts for Dad”
• “Here’s Your Online Reward Dollars %fname%”

Keep it fresh
New ideas, new benefits — equates to more engagement. Campaigns mentioning new, updated benefits had more than double the transaction rates than other loyalty mailings (loyalty mailings with new benefits had transaction rates of 43% compared to 20% for other loyalty mailings).

Mobile Marketing and social media attitudes
Two areas in which brand loyalists expressed opinions that were stronger than the average U.S. adult population in the Experian Simmons survey are mobile marketing and social networks.

Loyalty email campaigns can be effective cross-channel marketing tools that boost your brand’s mobile and social media program engagement

Support mobile programs
Loyalty programs are crucial to the travel industry and travel brands are leading the way with mobile communications and mobile apps. Travel is not alone. Mobile loyalty programs are being started in many different types of brands including supermarkets, pharmacies, consumer electronic stores and office supply companies, just to name a few. Loyalty emails are a great way to increase mobile program enrollment and provide unique benefits to loyalty members.

• “Earn Bonus Points when you enroll in mobile messaging”
• “Introducing Quick Prints – The Fastest Way To Print From Mobile Phone to Store”

Use surveys and ratings and reviews
Sixty-seven percent of brand loyalists said they ask people for advice before buying new things. They are also 23% more likely than the average U.S. adult to say that they trust product information on social networking sites. Email is an effective way to obtain opinions and product reviews that can then be used on your social media site. Survey and review requests to loyalty members had 38% higher open rates and more than double the click rates of other loyalty mailings (surveys/reviews had unique open rates of 28% and click rates of 10.7% compared to non-survey loyalty mailing rates of 20.2% and 3.7% respectively).

• “Earn 1,000 Miles For Your Valued Feedback”
• “Tell us what you think.”

Take full advantage of social media

With 75% of brand loyalists saying they like to share their knowledge with others, it is likely that some of that sharing is happening on social media sites. The keen interest brand loyalists have in social media can be seen in their response to emails asking them to join or follow a site:

• Experian CheetahMail click analyses have shown that emails with invitations to ‘like us’, typically receive 43% of their total clicks on the main link to the social media site
• Social invitation emails sent to loyalty segments, however, received almost 70% of their total clicks on the main link to social media

Above all, the key to building and retaining loyalty is to know your customer, understand their mindset, acknowledge their individuality and tailor your brand’s messaging to meet their needs, wants and interests across channels. The extra efforts will be recognized by your brand’s biggest supporters and you will soon gain new fans along the way.

Brand loyalty was spotlighted in Experian CheetahMail’s Q3 2012 Benchmark Study. View the full Email Marketing Benchmark Study.

Here’s some insight from Valentine’s Day 2012, to help you with your Valentine’s Day campaign planning:

Subject lines

• The NRF study also found that cards, candy, dining out, flowers and jewelry were the most given gifts on Valentine’s Day, and those items were common themes in email subject lines. Other, less typical products that were also promoted were video games, wine, phones and travel getaways.
• Key features of the highest performing subject lines were gift and card ‘ideas,’ personalized greetings, including a heart symbol and using the word ‘sweet.’

Timing

Valentine’s Day is a last minute shopping holiday. Half of all volume and revenue occurs in the week leading up to and including Valentine’s Day.

The National Retail Federation estimates that Americans making Valentine’s Day purchases spend an average of $128. The average order value for email was even higher at $140. While clearly willing to spend, Valentine’s Day buyers were also highly interested in getting something for ‘free.’

• Free shipping generated the highest transaction rates and revenue per mail (0.17% transaction rates and $0.19 revenue per mail)
• Free gifts, such as movies, lip gloss, dresses or lingerie also had higher transaction rates than the Valentine’s Day mailing average

Price conscious Valentine’s Day buyers were also motivated by percent (%) off deals.

• Percent (%) off mailings had both higher than average transaction rates and revenue per email (0.08% transaction rates and $0.10 revenue per mail)

Tips for marketers for Valentine’s Day 2013

• The immediacy of mobile SMS/MMS campaigns would work well for all of the last minute Valentine’s Day purchases. Establish and actively grow and promote your mobile SMS/MMS program to take advantage of the Valentine’s Day buying frenzy.
• Subscribers are searching for ‘ideas’ for Valentine’s Day gifts. Use remarketing campaigns based on abandoned cart and browse behaviors to suggest other products they might also find of interest.
• Promote your brand in ways beyond email by connecting email to your social media sites. Invite subscribers to ‘pin’ their most desired gifts, ‘tweet’ a review of their chosen restaurant or post pictures of the lovely flowers they received.
• Fresh creative for the holiday can help ensure subscriber engagement. Personalize the message, consider cinemagraphs or animation to add some fun, and most of all share your love of your brand with your subscribers to make this holiday a success for everyone.

As a long time resident of Manhattan and now Brooklyn, I have been crushed by the devastation of Superstorm Sandy to my beloved state and outlying areas.

While the storm was still raging, and even afterwards, as we all pick ourselves out of the ruins, marketers continued to work diligently as we move closer to the holidays. While many campaigns seemed to go out as planned, other marketing campaigns sprung up anew. Some campaigns were seemingly opportunistic, while others surprised us with generosity and thoughtfulness.

I recently re-read an interesting quote from John F. Kennedy:

“When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”

While opportunities present themselves, as marketers, it’s how we react to crisis that matters most, and how we take hold of those opportunities.

As we move forward with regaining normalcy in affected areas, I thought I’d share a roundup of the stand out campaigns from our colleagues post-storm; a heartfelt letter from a CEO, news of donations based on purchases, effective usage of social media (Twitter), as well as an email that was perhaps less sensitive to victims of the disaster.

I also wanted to share a few tactics, which can be found at the bottom of this post, for fellow email marketers that might assist you in the coming days or weeks, as follow up to Superstorm Sandy.

1)      Seamless.com

The first standout marketing and operations team I want to highlight is that of local delivery service Seamless.com. For those that are not familiar with Seamless, they are a restaurant delivery service that most New Yorkers live by. Either online or with their various apps, you can view which restaurants all over the boroughs are delivering, including time estimates and reviews. During Superstorm Sandy they really stood out as a business who was both prepared but also quick on their feet. Fast Company also reported on Seamless’ Sandy response here.

Not only did Seamless.com work hard to accommodate their customers by over-communicating with their restaurant partners, they went out of their way to set customer expectations, as well as find alternate channels to contact their customers. Twitter became a huge vehicle for Seamless to communicate and, in turn, earned them props from their customers. Without this technology to communicate, Seamless may not have triumphed as they did with their customers.

2)      United Airlines

The second company I want to call out is United Airlines. Here is the text of an email they sent to customers on November 1:

Subject: Support Superstorm Sandy relief efforts and receive bonus miles

Dear Liz,

We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Our thoughts go out to all those who are coping with the aftereffects of the storm. As the recovery efforts get underway along the East Coast, we are working hard to restore normal travel operations. However, the storm has caused damage at some of our airports, and customers may experience flight delays throughout our network. If you are flying with United, we encourage you to check the status of your flight at united.com/flightstatus before leaving for the airport.

Travel change exception policies issued for the East Coast
As a result of Superstorm Sandy’s impacts, United has issued exception policies for customers flying to, from or through select cities on the East Coast. For details and other travel updates for United flights, please visit united.com/importantnotices.

What you can do to support Superstorm Sandy relief efforts
We can all help support the American Red Cross, AmeriCares and Feeding America in providing aid to those affected by Superstorm Sandy. Join the relief efforts by donating to one of these organizations, and we will reward your generosity by providing you with a one-time award mile bonus. MileagePlus® members who give $50-$99 USD will receive 250 bonus miles, and those who contribute $100 USD or more will be rewarded with 500 bonus award miles. We have committed to awarding up to 5 million miles to members for contributions made before November 30, 2012, to support this initiative.

Donate now

MileagePlus members can also help by donating their miles to a charity through united.com. Visit united.com/charitymiles to provide a mileage donation today.

We appreciate your support of these relief efforts, and our thoughts remain with those affected by the storm.

Not only did United send a timely message to its customers, but they’re also offering donations to charities via a source their customer’s already know: MileagePlus points. This is a great way to allow their customers to feel like they’re giving back while booking or rebooking flights they would have had to make anyway. Kudos to United for being both smart and generous.

3)      Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole, who normally is known for pushing the envelope, sent out an email communicating a few key points post storm, but they also added a benefit for their customer: a 50% donation towards the Red Cross.

4)      Ann Taylor

While not all of brands donated profits, it was still nice to receive notes from CEOs expressing their sympathies, letting customers know the status of their business operations. Below is an example from Ann Taylor (Ann Inc).

5)      American Apparel

Our final example is a timely email, but perhaps not so sensitive, from American Apparel.

Their email was one of the first to be sent out in the wake of Sandy, causing customer outrage across news portals to Twitter.

Subject: ☁ ☂ ϟ Hurricane Sandy Sale! ϟ ☂ ☁ 20% Off Everything!

American Apparel reps tried to justify the send, explaining that “retail stores are the lifeline of a brand like ours so when they are closed, we need to come up with ways to make up for that lost revenue.”

In the meantime customers tweeted that they would be “boycotting” American Apparel stores, and the brand has garnered some negative PR. This email came off as insensitive to those suffering from the tragic event.

While this may have received a lot of press, most marketers would prefer to stay away from this type of negative PR.

What Experian Marketing Services recommends in the coming days and weeks post-storm:

• Geo-target your emails to those affected by the storm. You may want to adjust your messaging. Think about frequency, recency and offers. Remember that folks in New Jersey may not be running out to stores due to issues just getting gas. Perhaps it would be easier for them to shop online? Here is an example from West Elm with a specific discount to their Brooklyn Store in an area that was flooded by the storm:

Subject line: WE ♥ NYC | Take 15% off at our Dumbo store…

And one that went to those in a different zip code in New York:

The above is a great example of personalizing with known geographic information.

• Provide discounts where you can – reduced or waived express shipping fees, friends and family offers (order on behalf of those who can’t).

• Like Kenneth Cole and United, send a campaign or campaigns promoting a donation for each dollar spent.

• Update your customers of any changes or impacts that may be occurring based on the storm. Is shipping delayed? Stores closed? Are phone lines busier than normal?The example below from Coldwater Creek calls out store locations that may have been affected:

• And finally, watch your tone. Are New Yorkers ready to “storm” your sale, as one retailer put it? Probably not. While I’m all for staying on brand, if you think you’re going too far or might offend, you probably are.

With technology making it easier than ever to reach and target customers quickly and simply, the above tactics should be ones you already have in your marketing arsenal.

How you handle your marketing communications to consumers, especially those affected directly or indirectly by the storm, will be looked at with particularly critical eyes in the coming days and weeks. Don’t miss your opportunity to be looked upon positively in the face of a crisis.

How do you think your company performed in the face of the Sandy crisis? Leave a comment below or tweet me: @gouldliz

About Liz Gould:

Liz Gould brings over 13 years of knowledge, passion and experience in digital media to her colleagues and clients at Experian CheetahMail. In her current role as director of strategic accounts, Liz advises CheetahMail’s largest accounts on their email, mobile and social strategies. She began her career at agencies like Euro RSCG, advising clients such as Mastercard, Goldman Sachs, Genentech, and Electronic Arts.

Connect with Liz on Twitter: @gouldliz

What should the marketer tell Hispanic consumers when selling a new Toyota Camry? Or what should the marketer tell Latinos when selling diapers? Should the communication and positioning approaches used be equally crafted to reach the Hispanic that can afford a new relatively expensive car, or a more common product like diapers?

Using data from the Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study that was collected between April 25, 2011 and June 1, 2012, I created cross-tabulations of the TGI Socio Economic Levels in the Simmons database by those “agreeing a lot” with cultural attitudes and behaviors that will be specified below. The TGI Socio Economic Levels are a composite of education, ownership of selected household durables, mobile phone ownership, credit card ownership, usage of Internet and air travel. The scale results in four levels of socioeconomic standing: The top 10% of the population, the next 20% of the population, the next 30% of the population and finally the remaining 40%.

The bar charts below report the percentage of Latinos in each of the Socio Economic Levels that stated they “agree a lot” with each of the cultural statements.

^{Source: Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study}

^{Source: Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study}

^{Source: Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study}

The way to read these results is, for example: Of those Latinos that are in the lowest 40% of the TGI Socio Economic Levels, 30% “agree a lot” with the statement “I often encourage Hispanic children to participate in traditional Hispanic games and activities,” and 25% of those in the next higher 30% level state they “agree a lot” with the statement. Twenty percent in the next higher level and only about 16% in the highest Socio Economic Level similarly “agree a lot.”  Meaning that strong agreement with the statement is heavily concentrated in the lower socioeconomic classes. There is a monotonic trend that indicates that as socioeconomic levels rises, attitudes and behaviors endorsing Latino cultural elements decrease. There are other attitudes and behaviors that do not conform with the above trend, for example:

^{Source: Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study}

The cultural value of being gregarious and enjoying family and extended family appears to be consistent across the Socio Economic Levels, and to an even higher extent at the upper levels of the socioeconomic scale. In general, however, the percentages are very high and they speak more readily about how certain cultural values persist even as people become wealthier and more educated. It appears, then, that some values and behaviors decline as Hispanics climb the social ladder and others persist regardless. This highlights the complexity of the Hispanic market. Further, those higher on the socioeconomic scale are more likely to endorse values of U.S. society as reflected in the chart below regarding the priority of speaking English in the household.

^{Source: Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study}

The findings are consistent and surprising, in my opinion. Those who are less affluent and less formally educated are the largest share of those indicating they engage in culturally related behaviors as well as holding attitudes and beliefs that are culturally-based. Nevertheless, there appear to be values that survive Latino prosperity, like the value for family get-togethers. It may be that those better-off have more family around to get together with and that those less well-off tend to be more geographically separated because of lack of economic resources.

These findings corroborate what our book “Hispanic Marketing: Connecting with the New Latino Consumer” says about how lower socioeconomic classes are more likely to be attached to their culture to a larger extent. It is also likely that having roots, of any kind, is more important to those who have not fared as well in society. Nevertheless, this data shows that there are exceptions and that more affluent Latinos are likely to endorse U.S. values to a larger extent. That may not be too surprising but certainly the trend points to the importance of socioeconomic considerations in marketing to Hispanics.

Another factor to point out is that recency of immigration to the U.S. should be correlated with socioeconomic level. That may also explain to some extent why lower levels endorse cultural attitudes and behaviors to a larger extent.

The consistencies are important and we will report some more of these in future postings. The trends have powerful implications for those who, for example, plan business-to-business campaigns, or plan approaches geared to the more affluent. In a business-to-business setting, if targeting relatively well-to-do Hispanic business owners, a culturally based approach may not be as relevant as when targeting Latino employees of that business.

Three trends were highlighted here:

• Specific cultural attitudes and behaviors that differentiate Latinos of diverse levels tend to be more strongly endorsed by those in the lower 40%
• Other more general cultural attitudes and behaviors seem to be relevant to all Hispanics
• A tendency for better-off Hispanics to endorse U.S. values to a larger extent

Marketers should, in my opinion, pay close attention to these findings. Marketing in culture may render more robust results when campaigns are directed to the lower socioeconomic strata. It appears that cultural heritage loses some prevalence as Latinos become increasingly affluent. Thus, having a campaign in Spanish with Latino themes for better-off Hispanics may not be as productive as once thought.

The data used here is from the Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study and was collected between April 25, 2011 and June 1, 2012. The sample contained 8,252 Latinos.

Learn more about the Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Study.

About the author:

Dr. Korzenny is a Professor of Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communication, and Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University. He independently consults with major U.S. corporations on their Hispanic marketing strategies, and speaks to them about approaches to better connect with Hispanic Consumers. For other articles in this series please visit: http://felipekorzenny.blogspot.com/

Welcome to the first edition of Trending Now, covering the latest trends in email, mobile and social marketing. Twice a month, I’ll be bringing you a hot trend, zeroing in on it and helping you determine if this trend is something that could help build your brand or business.

To give you an example of the types of trends I might highlight, I thought I would start by examining a few past trends.

Earlier this year, Experian Marketing Services polled email marketers on a number of topics and found pockets of new and emerging trends. One was the use of website pop-ups. 22% of marketers polled said they use this type of email acquisition method. 22% might sound small, but think about what that means in terms of how you shop, read articles or surf online. That’s almost 1 in 4 sites utilizing an email acquisition pop-up. If you want to test the statistic, go online and shop or read away. I tried it myself and was surprised to see the number of sites using this method.

Sport Chalet recently published numbers for their site’s pop-up which showed more than an 85% lift in valid email addresses over using a site footer or header link – impressive stats for a simple implementation. So now that you know that a site pop-up worked for Sport Chalet, what else should you know?

1.  For non-retailers, yes, you should test it. While we are only sharing stats for one retailer, our anecdotal data supports that this works across verticals. If B2B, financial or travel industries have the resources we suggest testing this tactic.
2.  Test how the pop-up should function. We suggest using cookies to only show a pop-up to those who visit your site the first time and exclude those who have filled the form out already.
3.  Try testing this pop-up in different parts of your site. For publishers who might have different newsletters to sign up for, this can be especially valuable.
4.  Remember to track your source differently. If they came in through the pop-up, make sure you know that. This will be helpful for reporting if you have deliverability issues stemming from this source, or if you want to speak to these users differently than you might speak to a user coming in through checkout or in-store.
5.  Another useful tip around the holidays is to acknowledge that your emails might go to spam. BHLDN’s campaign is a great example of letting their subscribers know to check their spam folder if a welcome email doesn’t come right away – an easy message to add as you’re updating a pop-up on your site.

As we near the holidays, we anticipate new trends emerging with marketers thinking outside of the box in terms of how to penetrate overcrowded inboxes. Stay tuned for our take on these new trends, what we see working and what might just be a flash in the pan.

About Liz Gould:

Liz Gould brings over 13 years of knowledge, passion and experience in digital media to her colleagues and clients at Experian CheetahMail. In her current role as director of strategic accounts, Liz advises CheetahMail’s largest accounts on their email, mobile and social strategies. She began her career at agencies like Euro RSCG, advising clients such as Mastercard, Goldman Sachs, Genentech, and Electronic Arts.

Connect with Liz on Twitter: @gouldliz

This week the study finds:

• Transaction rates continue to be ahead of those seen in 2011, which will bode well if the trend continues throughout this holiday season.
• The number of campaigns sent on weekends has increased from 17.5% in 2011 to 19% this season.
• Flash sales are not quite as popular as last year. To date, there have been 25% fewer flash sale campaigns.
• Campaigns using personalization in subject lines increased from 5.7% to 7% of all campaigns to date – a 21% increase over 2011.
• Black Friday searches continue to be on the rise, increasing 75% this past week compared to the previous week. The organic rate of traffic generated by Black Friday searches for this past week was 91%.
• Thus far, holiday email volume is increasing YoY for catalogers, consumer products and services, publishers, and travel.

This week’s report also takes a look back at last year’s trends to give marketers better insight into how to reach their customers effectively in the 2012 holiday season.

Personalization:

Creating subject lines that speak directly to subscribers can be accomplished in several ways.  While using first or last names is the most common, other ‘dynamic content’ fields such as business or school names, store, location, products, amount of points or dollars earned or saved, or time remaining in a program are all effective means of connecting with customers.

Personalized triggered mailings have similar lifts with twenty-five percent (25%) higher unique open rates and fifty-one percent (51%) higher unique click rates.

Based on the mailings sent in the first two weeks of this holiday season, personalized promotional mailings have twenty-nine percent (29%) higher unique open rates and forty-one percent (41%) higher unique click rates than non-personalized mailings.  Personalized triggered mailings have similar lifts with twenty-five percent (25%) higher unique open rates and fifty-one percent (51%) higher unique click rates.

For promotional mailings, personalized emails are generating transaction rates and revenue per email that is over six times (6x) higher than non-personalized emails.  Personalized trigger campaigns are also showing more than double the transaction rates of non-personalized trigger mailings.

Identifying online Black Friday shoppers:  Younger, middle income group and less credit-worthy

Within the Experian Hitwise U.S. panel, we identified web-users that performed a Black Friday-related search (e.g. ‘walmart black friday’, ‘black friday sales’) or visited a Black Friday website (e.g., blackfridayads.com, Bfads.com) between October 1, 2011 and January 7, 2012.

Experian Marketing Services found that the group is evenly split by gender, which is similar to the online population. Their age skewed younger, with 18-34 year-olds making up the largest share of visits and the greatest difference versus the online population. This audience also skewed younger when compared to the visitors to the Retail 500 during this time.

In terms of income, the highest concentration of Black Friday shoppers was in the $30-$99k income range

In terms of income, the highest concentration of Black Friday shoppers was in the $30-$99k income range, and they over indexed versus the online population in terms of visits from the $60-99k income bracket. This skews less affluent when compared with the Retail 500, which over indexes on visits from those with household incomes of $100k+.

Black Friday shoppers over-indexed slightly in visits from the least credit worthy groups versus the online population.

With regard to Vantage Score, the concentration is fairly evenly distributed amongst those with scores of B, C, D and F, while the smallest share comes from A, the most credit worthy group. Black Friday shoppers over-indexed slightly in visits from the least credit worthy groups versus the online population. This is also in contrast to Retail 500 shoppers – 44% of them are in the A or B Vantage Score range while just 35% of Black Friday 2011 shoppers fell within those groups.

Checking in on value qualifiers such as “discount,” “coupon” and “deal” we see that the number of search variations has remained constant during the same time period.

The king of value qualifiers, “cheap,” shows moderate increases during 2012, specifically during summer.  This is most likely due to the popularity of “cheap” functioning as a value term in online travel searches.

I decided to check in on the top ten search variations containing “cheap” over the last four weeks (ending 10/13/2012). In fact 50% of the terms are travel related.

The popularity of “cheap” as a value qualifier in travel might be explained by the commoditization of the industry. Loyalty programs excluded, do we really care which airline gets us from point A to point B?

What is surprising regarding our “cheap” searches is that we rarely see this qualifier applied to apparel. Do we really want cheap clothing? Yet appearing in the #9 position is one of the most important apparel searches – “wedding dresses.”

Top 10 searches containing “cheap”

1. Cheap Flights
2. Cheap Tickets
3. Cheap Halloween Costumes
4. Cheap Hotels
5. Cheap Car Rentals
6. Cheap Gas
7. Cheap Airfare
8. Cheap Cruises
9. Cheap Wedding Dresses
10. Cheap Car Insurance

Join us Thursday, October 25^th for our holiday digital marketer webinar where we will discuss search behaviors and other actionable insights for the upcoming holiday season.

The top 20 cities for sweats consumption:

1. Philadelphia, PA
2. Hartford, CT
3. Pittsburgh, PA
4. Lafayette, LA
5. Laredo, TX
6. Boston, MA
7. New York, NY
8. Los Angeles, CA
9. Victoria, TX
10. Scranton, PA
11. Salt Lake City, UT
12. Marquette, MI
13. Milwaukee, WI
14. Washington, DC
15. Austin, TX
16. Watertown, MA
17. Jacksonville, FL
18. Idaho Falls, ID
19. Providence, RI
20. Chicago, IL

Perhaps these purchases are fueled by the desire to travel in comfort. Spirit Airlines passengers are the biggest buyers of sweats, followed by Jet Blue, Continental and US Air. Foreign airlines have really high sweat purchase numbers too ¾ especially — Asian carriers. On the flipside, Southwest Airlines passengers buy the fewest number of sweat apparel items.

Tampa: Chock full of free-wheeling boomers and retirees
Compared to the overall U.S. population, Tampa contains a high incidence of consumers over the age of 60. Headlining the over 60 crowd are a mix of newly retired, elderly couples, and widowed individuals leading busy social lifestyles. They’re physically fit for their age, politically active and earn solid incomes from pensions and investments. They’re Footloose and Family Free. Largely concentrated in Florida, nearly eight of every ten of these households contain a grandparent. But they’re more liberal than other senior segments, often voting democratic. The share of Footloose and Family Free households in Tampa is 8.8 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Call them Booming and Consuming, this is a financially fit collection of Baby Boomer couples and singles concentrated in the 50 to 60 year-old age range who are beginning to enjoy the early stages of an empty nest and retirement. These consumers have moderate incomes but sizeable nest eggs. Philanthropic by nature and interested in the arts, they donate money to a variety of causes. They are conservative in their thinking and active in the Republican Party. Think of them as the party backers who are inclined to take a date to the next GOP fundraiser. The share of Booming and Consuming households in Tampa is 5.7 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Golf Carts and Gourmets exemplify the prototypical upscale retirement lifestyle. These senior sophisticates are frequent travelers. They are twice as likely as average Americans to have taken a cruise in recent years. They also like to visit friends and relatives throughout the country. Golf Carts and Gourmets are more of a conservative bastion on political issues. Despite pockets of Liberals and Independents, a majority belong to the Republican Party. Many have a global awareness and give generously to political, educational and cultural groups. The share of Golf Carts and Gourmet households in Tampa is 2.3 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Charlotte: Home portal for the upwardly mobile professional
In contrast to Tampa, Charlotte sports an above average population of younger to middle-age, child-centered and career-driven couples and professionals. Leading the wave is a segment of upscale, family-centric households called Kids and Cabernet. These prosperous middle-aged couples with children are concentrated in the suburbs and live in homes valued at twice the national average. Their neighborhoods are havens for college-educated, white-collar professionals with well-paying jobs in the sciences, education, business and finance. Primarily harboring conservative viewpoints, Kids and Cabernet identify most closely with the Republican Party. The share of Kids and Cabernet households in Charlotte is 3.2 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Found predominantly in major metropolitan areas, Couples with Clout tend to live in downtown neighborhoods or close-in suburbs with immediate access to the central city. Largely free from childrearing costs, with fewer than ten percent having kids, these wealthy couples have high levels of discretionary income to satisfy their upscale tastes. They are well-educated, employed in white-collar and managerial professions, and are always on the lookout to upgrade their living situation. Somewhat progressive in their views, they describe themselves as political Independents. The share of Couples with Clout households in Charlotte is 2.4 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

The fast-growing, metro-fringe communities surrounding Charlotte are home to a flourishing population of digitally-savvy professionals. Let’s call them Fast Track Couples. With nine out of every ten householders under age 35, many are first-time home buyers who have settled into new residential developments filled with affordable homes. Most Fast Track Couples are either considering the idea of starting a family or already have pre-school kids at home. Pressed for time and career-focused, they’re not very active politically and have only average rates for being registered to vote. The share of Fast Track Couples households in Charlotte is 2.3 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Winning more votes
As marketers, we are always looking for imaginative ways to target and attract specific audiences. Political candidates know this all too well when on the campaign trail stumping for votes. Whether it’s the Baby Boomer and retiree market that is more prevalent in Tampa or the dynamic, youthful, white collar professional that has settled in Charlotte, each segment of the population has varied preferences, purchase behaviors and motivations to buy. In the world of marketing, consumers settle on a favored brand and then vote with their wallets. Consider taking a consumer “roll call” to determine which segments are most vital (loyal supporters) to ensuring your popularity and which segments lack allegiance (swing customers) to your message. The findings can then provide guidance for developing successful marketing campaign strategies.

There was never really any question that the Olympics would attract a rich and demographically diverse audience of consumers. A more pressing question for Olympics sponsors and advertisers is “how good of a match is the audience with respect to the characteristics of my potential brand users?” In other words, “to what extent will I be reaching the type of consumer who is most likely to be interested in my brand?” Tools like the Experian Ad Relevancy Score help to answer these questions. The score, developed from television viewing behaviors and purchase data collected by Experian Simmons, is derived from profiles of actual brand users compared to the corresponding profile of the Summer Olympics television viewing audience. The higher the score the more benefit and overall sales lift that can be hypothetically derived by the advertiser from placing spots that reach this audience. Think of the score as a general measure to quantify the degree to which the ad will be seen by an audience that is most appropriate and relevant for the brand being advertised. Scores are benchmarked against an average of 100.

After applying the Experian Ad Relevancy Score to a subset of key Summer Olympics sponsors and advertisers, we found that the highest scores are attributed to airline brands. The top five include United Airlines (142), American Airlines (133), American Express (129), Delta Airlines (128), and Citibank (126).

United’s investment in the Summer Olympics appears to be a match made in heaven. The brand’s top score of 142 means that the Summer Olympics viewing audience is 42% more likely to be comprised of consumers who are United flyers. United has been the official airline of the U.S. Olympic team since 1984 and clearly has a nice marketing match with this global event. Nike and McDonald’s, also official sponsors of the U.S. Olympic Team, had scores of 109 and 107, respectively.

A more in-depth analysis and profile of Summer Olympics enthusiasts provides further evidence of a strong connection between interest in the London Games and airline travel. Experian’s Mosaic® USA lifestyle segmentation solution shows that consumer segments including Kids and Cabernet, Jet Set Urbanites and Silver Sophisticates, are among those with a 50% or greater likelihood to be avid fans of the Summer Olympics. Consumers from all three of these segments also have a high propensity to be frequent flyers.

Interested in ad relevancy? Take a look at posts comparing advertisers to audience for these events:

NCAA Tournament

Academy Awards

Super Bowl