Macy's Tweets Customers to Valentine's Sentiment Solution
Retailers may not get all the love they expect from consumers this Valentine's Day, but Macy's (M) is doing something about it in 140 characters or less.
Market research firm IBISWorld has predicted a shift from retail to restaurants on a Valentine's Day that falls on a long President's Day weekend. What's worse, retail's own association has turned pessimistic on the holiday, although it should be noted that the organization, the National Retail Federation, turned out to be more dire about the recently completed holiday season than was warranted. NRF is predicting that traditional Valentine's Day sales giving will be down. The organization expects that, on average, the coupled will spend $63.34 on gifts for significant others versus $67.22 last year. Yet, the average person will increase spending slightly to $103 on Valentine's Day merchandise this year, NRF anticipates, versus $102.50 in 2008, with the additional spending dedicated to friends, classmates, teachers and co-workers.
Macy's is looking to get an edge on the competition by taking advantage of Twitter's popularity. In a promotion it calls Sweetest Tweets that launched this week and continues in a preliminary form through Feb. 13, the retailer is daily offering a diamond pendent set as a reward for the most romantic Twitter missive that includes the term #SweetTweets in the message. While it would be nice if the 12-character label didn't spoil the 140-character sentiment, diamonds can make up for most relatively short asides. On Feb. 14, the sweetest tweet will earn the grand prize of a three-stone diamond ring.
In a way, Macy's promotion makes the most of human psychology to turn what looks to be a marginal sales opportunity into something more significant. The 2010 occasion may not offer retailers the greatest chance for sales gains given the determination of the consumer to remain frugal. However, Macy's seems to have considered that men do the bulk of Valentine's Day spending â€" NRF expects men to devote $135.35 to the holiday versus the women's total of $72.28 â€" in developing the contest. Sweetest Tweets offers men the chance to make a romantic demonstration, but one set with parameters that many will welcome. When it comes to romantic sentiments, 128 characters is about all that the many guys are comfortable arranging. After its all over, large numbers of men may be grateful enough to Macy's to place it high on their list of potential Valentine's Day gift shopping venues, particularly that inevitable proportion that forgets to make dinner reservations.
The promotion also demonstrates that the Internet will permit retailers to tailor promotions to occasions in a manner not previously available. After all, and kidding aside, asking people to write romantic essays or poems as emails, for example, might be intimidating to a lot of consumers. The short-form nature of Twitter really does reflect the advantages of brevity, personal and commercial.