McDonald’s Opens “Town Center”
McDonald’s USA has opened its first “town center” restaurant with features found in no other McDonald’s. Located in suburban Columbus, OH, the family themed restaurant includes a first-of-its-kind interactive, miniature drive-thru for kids, a karaoke booth for customers to record CDs, and a separate area for adults to eat and gather. The town center was created to resemble a town center with an outdoor park and a raised stage. The restaurant makes extensive use of interactive “edu-tainment” activities.
The front counter is designed to resemble the original 1950s McDonald’s. There is a merchandise area where customers can purchase McDonald’s apparel and souvenirs. The McTreat Center will feature another McDonald’s first-Lavazza specialty coffee, imported from Italy in addition to ice cream and desserts.
Kia Partners With ‘Lord Of The Rings’
Kia is partnering with New Line Home Entertainment for the home video and DVD release of “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” The promotion launches Kia’s new Sorento SUV at more than 600 Kia dealers nationwide.
New Line will promote the new Sorento in its extensive advertising and merchandising campaign for the VHS/DVD release, and Kia will promote the release via a test drive promotion communicated in TV, print, Internet and dealership point-of-sale materials.
“This promotion is going to extend our brand awareness and help introduce Kia to a whole new market segment of potential buyers,” said Wally Anderson, Marketing, Kia.
In addition to the ad campaign, New Line is executing a national on-pack/on-line instant win game. The Kia Sorento and a trip for two to New Zealand, the location of “The Lord of the Rings” filming, will be awarded as grand prize.
Liz Claiborne & Carpet One Announce New Flooring Line
Liz Claiborne Inc. has signed an agreement with Carpet One to produce a flooring line under the Liz Claiborne brand name. The new flooring collection will offer an unprecedented number of coordinated flooring choices including carpet, vinyl, wood, laminate, ceramic tiles and area rugs. Covering a broad range of price points, Liz Claiborne Flooring will be in Carpet One stores exclusively.
Barbara Friedman, President, Liz Claiborne Licensing, said, “The Liz Claiborne brand translates well from fashion apparel and accessories to the home. In Carpet One, we have a highly regarded partner who is a leader in the flooring industry.”
“The addition of Liz Claiborne to our branding strategy will allow us to continue to be the leader of innovation and style in the floor covering category and separate us from our competition,” said Howard Brodsky, Co-Chairman of Carpet One.
Liz Claiborne Flooring will feature an exclusive color-matching system that will allow consumers to bring fabric, paint and other color samples to Carpet One and have in-store designers coordinate the flooring.
Fullplay Media And FYE Stores To Deploy New In-Store Multimedia Stations
Fullplay Media Systems, a leading developer of multimedia merchandising systems, and Trans World Entertainment, the nations largest mall-based specialty music retailer, have announced plans to place 16,000 Listening and Viewing Stations throughout Trans World’s FYE stores.
The in store listening and viewing system provides access to all of the songs and videos from the store’s catalog. Using Windows Media technology to store and stream content, songs and videos can be previewed from any device at any time. Shoppers can scan any CD or DVD in the store to access a particular song or video.
“Our pilot program for the LVS system has demonstrated that we can improve the in-store customer experience and favorably affect purchases through a compelling sampling experience,” said Mark Hogan, Trans World, V.P., Marketing. “This initiative moves us closer towards our goal of building long-lasting relationships with our customers through an integrated online and in-store consumer experience and product offering.”
Discovery Channel Stores Launch New Baby Boutique
The new Discovery Channel Store Baby Boutique features products designed to encourage learning and imagination through developmental play.
The Baby Boutique boasts an impressive array of learning toys. The new department features its own distinctive look complete with larger-than-life-sized photographs of infants and families. The launch of this new department is part of a new effort to more closely align Discovery’s network programming themes with its merchandising strategy across all of Discovery’s retail channels: Discovery Channel Stores, discovery.com, and the Discovery Channel Catalog. The Baby Boutique picks up on the popular and highly rated baby-focused programs on Discovery’s networks.
Payless ShoeSource Introduces Shoe Fitting Service For Children
Payless ShoeSource recently launched Growing Smart, a service designed to help maintain regular shoe fittings for every child that comes to one of the 4,900 Payless ShoeSource stores across North America.
Payless is providing the fitting service by a trained sales associate and giving parents a Growing Smart fitting chart that can be used to track a child’s shoe size. Each time a parent returns to a Payless store with the Growing Smart fitting chart for a three-month fitting for their child, Payless will offer a one dollar discount on their next children’s shoe purchase.
At the core of Payless Children’s Footwear program is its SmartFit line of children’s shoes. “We are dedicated to making it easier for parents to care for their children’s feet,” said John Haugh, Chief Marketing Officer, Payless.
First AVANZA Store Serves Growing Hispanic Market
Nash Finch, a national food retailer and distributor based in Minnesota, announced the grand opening of specialized food stores to serve the growing Hispanic marketplace. The first store, in Denver, Colorado, carries an array of products and services long sought by the Hispanic shopper and never before offered on this scale by a national chain.
Nash Finch selected Denver for its first store based on the large concentration of Hispanic area residents. “The word AVANZA provides a short, easy-to-pronounce and memorable name that simply means ‘advance’,” said Ron Marshall, President and CEO of Nash Finch.
Gateway Conducts Gaming Tournament
Gateway, Inc. is conducting The Gateway Challenge gaming tournament to be held at all 274 Gateway stores nationwide with a grand prize of $25,000 awarded to the top finisher.
In cooperation with Intel, NVIDIA, and LucasArts, Gateway is hosting the free coast-to-coast tournament with over $60,000 in prizes going to top finishers in two age groups. The Tournament features the popular Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast game from LucasArts Entertainment.
“We’re eager to welcome thousands of game players into our stores to play this best selling game on our Gateway 700 X, a great gaming machine,” said Bart Brown, Senior Vice President, Gateway Products and Solutions Group. “Gateway is unique in being able to host a nationwide tournament like the Gateway Challenge. Gaming enthusiasts know Gateway provides them with the latest in top quality gaming systems at great value.”
Attack Of The Killer B’s Store Opens In LA
Attack of the Killer B’s located at Hollywood & Highland in CA, is a new retail venture embodying the ultimate 50s scream-fest movie experience. Killer B's environment and merchandise pays tribute to the science fiction, monsters and teenage rebellion flicks of the period.
Los Angeles, CA-based RipBang Architecture was commissioned to bring some excitement into the design of the new store, ensuring that every detail including the product sold on the retail floor would be as outrageous and as fun as the B movies that inspired the store.
Blockbuster Offers Dedicated Area For Sales Of Video Games And Equipment
Blockbuster, Inc. is featuring an area dedicated to the sale of video games, game consoles and other game equipment in 4,300 of its stores. Blockbuster is hoping to take a bigger share of the booming video game market by allowing consumers a chance to buy game consoles and rent or buy the games they play, all in a single location.
To support the initiative, Blockbuster is introducing a program called “Rent It! Like It! Buy It!,” giving consumers a $5 discount on a game if they first rent it at the regular price.
Blockbuster will also start a “Games Freedom Pass,” allowing customers to rent an unlimited number of games for 30 days for $19.95. A one-month pass will also be given out for free to people who buy a console from the store.
Genmar Partners With Wal-Mart To Promote Boat Products
Genmar Holdings has rolled out an exclusive co-marketing partnership with Wal-Mart to promote all Genmar boat products throughout the U.S. and Canada in what is believed to be the largest boat sale promotion in the history of the marine industry.
Boat Sale USA and Boat Sale Canada offered consumers money-saving incentives on 14 of America’s leading brands of boats. Wal-Mart shopping cards, valued between $300 and $1,000 are being issued to qualifying purchasers of Genmar boats.
Genmar is supporting the promotion with point-of-sale advertising displayed at each participating Genmar dealership. Wal-Mart is adding in-store signage and allowing Genmar dealers to use store parking lots for boat sales as part of the collaborative marketing effort.
Bob Connolly, Exec. V.P., Marketing, Wal-Mart, said, “Teaming with Genmar to offer this added value program is a new way of extending the Wal-Mart tradition of providing extraordinary pricing advantages to our approximately 100 million weekly Wal-Mart shoppers.”
AutoZone Launches “Check-Engine Light’ Program Nationwide
AutoZone has launched a “Check-Engine Light” program at all of its 3,037 stores nationwide, offering free diagnosis of what’s causing customers’ engine warning lights to come on in some 20 million vehicles on any given day.
“AutoZone is committed to helping our customers to drive better maintained and safer vehicles, and this free service is another example of how we help our customers to make sure their vehicles are performing properly,” said Steve Odland, AutoZone’s Chairman.
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