Campaign corner
Pantalones. Matthew McConaughey and his spouse, Camila, introduced their latest collection of alcoholic beverages, Pantalones Tequila. The inaugural advertisement for Pantalones Tequila showcases the married couple embarking on a pants-free motorcycle ride across a scenic agave plant field. Another visual in the promotional campaign presents the pair in relaxed attire, standing before a Pantalones Tequila-branded crimson backdrop.
Superheroes. Lego, the renowned toy brand, is upholding its superhero-themed global holiday campaign this year to endorse the "Play Is Your Superpower" initiative, advocating for the importance of play in children's lives. The 30-second video marks the culmination of a three-part campaign, as the six youngsters introduced in the first advertisement unite with a community of children and adults to engage in an extraordinary snowball battle.
Technology for retail
AR capabilities. Google Shopping is broadening its augmented reality (AR) capabilities by introducing AR beauty features to mobile web users, along with the inclusion of hair color within its AR try-on tool. Google's AR hair color experimentation tool enables customers to test out shades from L'Oréal's product range, and the company has revealed its intentions to expand this feature by incorporating additional choices from brands like Revlon and Splat in the future.
Online grocery shopping. Although grocery delivery sales have shown signs of slowing down in recent months, after the surge in e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic, food retailers are continuing to forge ahead with initiatives and technological solutions aimed at enabling customers to avoid physical store visits. In the past several weeks, several retailers, such as Cub, Stater Bros. Market, and The Fresh Market, have entered agreements with DoorDash to offer delivery services to their customers.
Expert opinion
Self-checkout. Do the benefits of self-checkout outweigh the drawbacks for both shoppers and retailers? Should the rollout of self-checkout stations be considered a retail failure or a fixable situation, or are they generally working fine? These are the questions that various retail experts answered in one of Retail Wire’s discussions. This is what Mark Ryski mentioned:
Private-label products. What obvious and less obvious factors do you see driving growth in private-label food categories? Is private-label growth generally a win-win for grocers, or are there risks as private-label penetration starts to dominate a food category? Various retail experts and influencers shared their opinions regarding this topic in a Retail Wire discussion. Neil Saunders shared his thoughts:
In other news…
Organic produce. In the third quarter of 2023, organic fresh produce demonstrated a slight year-over-year growth in both sales and volume for the second consecutive quarter, as indicated by the "Q3 2023 Organic Produce Performance Report" published by Organic Produce Network and Category Partners. In this period, the overall dollar sales and volume of organic fresh produce increased by 2% and 1.9%, respectively, compared to the same quarter the previous year. The total sales for the quarter reached $2.44 billion, with a volume of 733 million pounds.
Food insecurity. Following an initial surge in attention at the onset of the pandemic, the issue of food insecurity is once again taking center stage in the grocery industry due to ongoing challenges related to hunger. A recently published study by the USDA reveals that in 2022, 12.8% of U.S. households, equivalent to 17 million households, experienced food insecurity. This is an increase from 10.2% (13.5 million households) in 2021 and 10.5% (13.8 million households) in 2020. Furthermore, in 2022, 5.1% of households faced very low food security, which the USDA categorizes as a "more severe level of food insecurity." This figure rose from 3.8% in 2021 and 3.9% in 2020.
