By Joel Albrizio
Recently "Target Marketing Maine" Announced June 2020 Closing While Valassis Can't Find Enough Reasons For Shared Mail Price Increases!
Last week Target Marketing Maine announced June of 2020, this month would be their last month in business. So beginning in July any retailer, supermarket or otherwise must find an alternative means of distribution in Maine & some neighboring states.
Is this unique? No, every day we find the cost of print and its associated distribution costs with companies like Valassis are simply too high. The United States Postal Service wants increases, paper mills are always looking for more per ton, trucking costs and availability have never been higher or more difficult to schedule. Not to mention black out delivery days on many of our most important retail holidays.
Add to all of these obstacles the printed supermarket circular is the least "Green" marketing vehicle on the planet...Our planet!
I have always found it interesting a market in many states can not allow its customers the use of plastic bags while mailing out printed paper circulars covered with ink by the thousands?
Scheduling a printed ad averages 14 days or more lead time while digital agencies accept price changes and deploys directly to your potential customer that day. Short on supply during a Pandemic, with digital you need not deploy an ad until the product is sitting on the loading dock in front of you.
Shared mail, the backbone of the printed circular as a marketing vehicle is becoming less available by the day. Explore your options with digital and dig in. Digital like any medium takes time to develop deep traction. However, the immediate surprise to most retailers will be that digital at a 60% cost savings will hit higher penetration numbers from day one.
Good luck as you explore digital. Don't forget to take some of the cost savings for much needed markdowns when building an attractive retail food ad as your call to action today.
Many have asked why I choose to write about what I see in the supermarket industry today and my ideas. At Bad-Adz Digital, PreparedFoodPhotos.com & Adlife we believe great ideas and the resulting branding will give new life and direction to any company. So for that reason we chose to open the discussion.
Yes, I understand I probably misspelled something or butchered the English language in a few places, the goal however was to open your minds to new ideas.
Joel Albrizio - Bad-Adz Digital, Bad-AdzVideos.com, PreparedFoodPhotos.com