Marketing Rules!

When you are a writer of advertising or marketing material, it’s always worthwhile to see research into how people actually “read” your copy.

Some of the best research into “eye tracking” has been done by Siegfried Vogele, Dean of the Institute for Direct Marketing in Munich, West Germany. His groundbreaking study on how the eye actually reads advertising material was first presented in 1986 at the Montreux International Direct Marketing Symposium.

His conclusions, shown in this visual, are quite interesting and show that people want to know who the letter is from and what the PS contains before they read the body of the letter.

More recently, one of the world’s best usability experts, Jakob Nielsen, showed how the eye takes in copy and visuals on the Internet. This article presents Nielsen’s interesting research, and some of the comments that accompany the article are quite amusing.

In early February, Kroger, one of the nation’s leading supermarket companies, began offering personal finance offerings. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, “customers can now sign up for a mortgage on a home equity loan, sign up for identity theft protection, purchase pet insurance or get a credit card.”

The chain has recently offered gasoline, DVD rentals, and health clinics. Merchandise offers include toys, furniture, and lawn and garden products.I have a couple of reactions to Kroger’s latest forays.

The Good: Using customer information gathered from frequent buyer cards is an excellent way for a supermarket to expand its offerings from grocery items. Tesco in Great Britain and Costco in the United States are great examples of using consumer information in novel ways.

Also, because of Wal-Mart’s incursion into the grocery industry, supermarkets have to learn how to fight back. One way: to use customer information to sell items (such as financial services) that Wal-Mart might have a tough time imitating. Wal-Mart just recently failed in their efforts to offer more banking services. Also, by selling items such as toys and furniture, supermarkets have less dependence on grocery items as their sole source of bottom line income.

The Bad:

1. Privacy: Supermarkets have to be careful about not using frequent buyer card information without customer permission. Supermarkets must recognize that consumers are starting to take privacy scares to heart. Supermarkets must not give information to third parties without their cardholders’ permission. I don’t know if Kroger will be giving financial information to third parties, but they should only give information with customer approval.

2. Loss of focus: Supermarkets are food experts. They can compete in other areas, but they have to make sure that their food quality or focus does not suffer. If customers lose faith in a supermarket’s food selection or pricing, then they will stop going to that supermarket. All the variety in the world will not save a supermarket with poor food quality or selection.

What are your thoughts?