Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

Retailers are as mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore. For years, consumers have been going into bricks and mortar stores to size up the look and feel of a product and then head home to buy it online. Retailers call this trend ‘showrooming’ and they’re rapidly developing new strategies to better compete with online marketers.

Ad-ology Research recently updated their Industry Marketing Insights report for Optical Stores. The following are the predicted Top 3 Opportunities/Challenges from the report for this industry for the upcoming 12 months:

According to a new survey by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, 173 million people will watch the game Sunday, February 5, the most in the survey’s eight-year history and up from an estimated 171 million in 2011. Consumer spending for the Super Bowl will reach an all-time high, too, with the average game-watcher expected to shell out $63.87 on related merchandise, apparel and snacks, up from $59.33 last year. Total Super Bowl spending is expected to reach $11.0 billion.

Few industries are experiencing the kind of negative pushback that consumers reserve for banks. If they’re not looking over their shoulder in fear of a general economic collapse, consumers are concerned that their own personal financial situation is threatened. Executives at banks of all sizes understand they need to improve their image and communicate a message of stability and optimism this year.

While consumers continue to rely on traditional money-saving methods – like clipping coupons – many are using digital tactics to help save money. For example, 39% of MarketPulse survey respondents downloaded coupons from manufacturer websites in Q4, while 37% downloaded coupons from retailer websites. Retailers need to communicate with both traditional and digital media to reach these ‘downturn shoppers.’

According to a new report from Jefferies & Company Inc., the coffeehouse segment is poised for a banner year due to rising same-store sales, more stable coffee prices and a boom in consumer packaged goods revenue led by price increases and “K-Cup” individual-brewing sales. As supermarket sales of ground coffee continue to grow, analysts also predict a sales growth of between 8% and 10% for the coffeehouse segment in 2012.