The Tray Way: Is There a Downside to Small Business Saturday?

For the 2nd year in a row, the unofficial holiday of Small Business Saturday was celebrated, falling between its more famous siblings of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The day is meant to give attention to small businesses in cities and town across the country and provide them a chance to compete for the billions of dollars spent during this long weekend. In truth, small businesses employ half of all private sector employees in the country and should be recognized for their contribution to the economy and society.

The event received tremendous support - as expected - from business organizations across the country, and even President Obama endorsed the movement. However, some found a problem with this ideas for a simple reason: Small Business Saturday was created by a big business, namely American Express.

The question then became whether this seemingly altruistic movement was truly a scheme to promote the advantages a multi-national organization can offer. As marketing experts that work with businesses small and large, our simple response is, "Yeah, and....."

In our last post on the Tray Way blog, we discussed how NBC saw increased ad sales revenue during GreenWeek, begging the question of whether improving profits and being socially responsible is ok. This situation is similar. American Express, through an intelligent marketing strategy, discovered an opportunity to help themselves by promoting others, and not just others, but a niche that many Americans support. This effort is similar to how many feel about Valentines Day, and how certain industries take advantage of the concept of love and relationships for financial gain (sure, the greeting card and flower industry are benefiting, but who is going to be against love?).

In truth, the marketing strategy that American Express created was so smart and clever that it feels like there should be something wrong with it. But, we would like offer this thought: Be OK with it. Small businesses across the country were helped this past Saturday, and if that meant that American Express saw a benefit also, well maybe they deserve it for leading the charge.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw gigantic numbers this year, and while it is difficult to determine the exact success of Small Business Saturday, the fact that the phrase and hashtag saw tremendous use in the days and weeks beforehand means that "word of mouth" was extremely strong. It is our hopes that this movement continues, and we hope to be an even bigger part of it next year.

---





The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our organization's capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages.

The Tray Way: Navigating the Mobile Renaissance

Sixteen years ago, in 1995, text messaging was still in its infancy. The technology wouldn’t become widespread for almost a decade, and wasn’t picked up by marketers for a few years after that. It seems like SMS and mobile marketing are still buzzwords thrown around by every agency, so how can we consider this the decade of the mobile rebirth?

Smart phone technology, led by the love-it-or-hate-it iPhone, has completely changed the way marketers can interact with consumers. Check-in apps, augmented reality, mobile websites, QR codes, and yes, SMS marketing, are but a handful of the advertising methods that have opened up to mobile marketers in the past few years. In 2010, the mobile market saw jumps in numbers that left many researchers stunned. Three studies, published in March and July of this year, share some of those statistics

The Growth of Mobile Marketing

• Of the world’s 4 billion mobile phones in use, 1.08 billion are smart phones, and a whopping 3.05 billion are SMS enabled.
• By 2014 [if current rates continue,] mobile internet should take over desktop internet usage.
• One half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices
• On average, Americans spend 2.7 hours per day socializing on their mobile device. That’s over twice the amount of time they spend eating…

For marketers looking to reach a large audience, there are few better avenues than smart phones. As an interactive medium, mobile marketing already has a leg up on passive ad strategies such as television and radio. In fact, of those that react to a mobile ad, “42 percent click on the mobile ad; 35 percent visit the advertiser’s site; 32 percent search for more information on their phone; 49 percent make a purchase and 27 percent call the business.”

Where Does Print Come In?

Since 2010, one of the most common buzzwords in print and mobile marketing has been QR codes. For an integrated marketing campaign, QR can be the glue holding everything together. Like Personalized URL (PURL) codes, QR codes allow smart phone owners to snap a quick photo with their mobile device, and in return, be presented with near-limitless information. QR codes can display text or images, or they can link directly to any URL, video, song, or other online resource. There is no need for the consumer to remember a URL, or write down a phone number, everything is done automatically, as soon as they click their camera button.

All of this means that you can easily print a customized QR code (which are completely free to generate) onto postcards, promotional products, posters, or letterhead. Then it is a simple step for the consumer to leap from the print ad to an online offering.

Even better, while marketers may be completely sick of hearing about the things, consumers are still impressed with the instantly gratifying reward that QR codes offer. The only thing better than a coupon is a coupon you don’t have to cut out, print, or download, right?

---





The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our organization's capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages.