Producers of our favorite every-day brands in shampoos, packaged foods and detergents are increasingly struggling to reach us (their consumers). The audiences are divided between different types of media and advertising can be avoided by using Tivo or watching content on the internet. One outcome of this trend is that in-store advertising, the traditional art of displaying and promoting a product, has gained importance over other forms of media (see e.g. http://adage.com/article?article_id=143643). This channel as well as any direct customer contact is controlled by retailers rather than manufacturers.
A recently founded website seeks to tackle this problem. Alice.com provides consumer goods companies the opportunity to sell directly to consumers via its online market place. Unlike most websites Alice.com does not generate revenues by advertising to clients. It charges manufacturers for in-store-advertising (in the form of coupons) and for providing them with consumer data. The data is a real goldmine: which products are bought together, how often products are bought, when consumers defect from a product, consumer reviews of products etc. This could be the start of an interesting trend connecting shampoo giants with their audience again. (Interview with Alice co-founder can be found here: http://www2.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007607)
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