Rain, mobiles and the cloud help Domino's UK grow

Televised sports, bad weather and pizza takeaway have been a wonderful sales combination for Domino's UK.

'Instead of going out to a restaurant, people tend to order in. When the weather turns nasty we always see sales turn upwards', says the CEO.

Between the Euro football championships and two weeks of Olympic sports, Domino's has boosted its revenue and profits this year...and now the pizza delivery firm has an appetite for growth on the continent.

Today, Domino's announced its acquisition of the Swiss franchise as European consumers caught in a difficult economic situation continue to substitute takeaway for dining out.

Domino's UK is ready for expansion, putting its online ordering system into the cloud where network capacity can be adjusted to meet demand. It also offers pizza ordering apps for different mobile operating systems. Anything that makes pizza ordering more convenient is likely to help Domino's build relationships and sales, especially in bad weather.

Olympics + Bradley Wiggins = higher UK cycle sales

High profile sports can have a lot of influence on consumers' attitudes and purchasing decisions. First it was Great Britain's many cycling medals at the 2012 Olympics. Then it was Bradley Wiggins' victory at the Tour de France (see above). The result: UK consumers are more enthusiastic than ever about bicycling, with many buying their first bicycles or upgrading to better cycles. That's good news for marketers coping with a challenging economy.

Cycle Surgery, a brand owned by Snow+Rock, saw sales of road bikes increase during the Olympic Games. Its marketing director observes:

"After the Tour de France and Olympics, the UK is definitely on the world map as a cycling nation and hopefully people will stick with it".

At Evans Cycles, website traffic spiked and sales of road bikes surged by 35% after the Olympics and the Tour de France. A number of bike shops in Colchester are also noticing the difference since this summer's events. The manager of Cycle Revolution says:

"The last two or three weeks we are getting people buying road bikes, saying they are inspired by what they have seen on TV".

Now how many consumers will find the Winter Olympics so exciting that they buy figure skates or skis?

Microsoft targets Yoda and Han Solo

Microsoft's Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) Group recently completed an interesting market segmentation project, designed to delineate specific segments for marketing efforts. The group targets a number of technology audiences for marketing about new products that are in development and will be launched within a year or two. But who, exactly, was in the audience and was Microsoft reaching all the segments it should be targeting?

To find out, DPE worked with a research agency to identify 7 specific segments for marketing purposes. To help Microsoft's technology advocates understand audience needs, wants, attitudes and behaviour, the agency followed a Star Wars analogy to name segment personas.

• Yoda is an info technology director, a senior executive in charge of a tech centre or division
• Jedi Master is a software architect, whose job is to establish the overall design of software products
• Jedi Knight is an IT manager, experienced and proficient
• Han Solo is a software developer
• Wookie is an IT tech support person
• Obi-Wan Kenobi is a technology academic
• Younglings are students

Microsoft reinforced these segment identities with training, cardboard cutouts and visuals to help its platform advocates apply segmentation results when designing communications and engagement activities.

To engage the Han Solo segment, for instance, Microsoft created the Ubelly site, an 'unofficial blog for developers who love the web'.

The entire video describing Microsoft's DPE segmentation research and communications strategy can be found here on the Marketing Week site.

Social gifting is trending higher

'Social gifting makes it easier for customers to give their brand as a gift and is also a good way for retailers to get data on their offline customers that they couldn’t otherwise get'.

That's the way managing director David Van Reyk describes DropGifts, a social gifting firm with an app that lets gift-givers buy and deliver a gift card to a Facebook friend with just a few clicks.

Wrapp is an international social gifting company that has UK deals with House of Fraser, Shuh, eFlorist and other marketers. Wrapp operates in 8 countries and is planning to expand to 9 more nations within months.

One advantage of social gifting is flexibility: recipients can buy whatever they choose with a gift card--and marketers can learn more about buying patterns by monitoring such purchases. Another advantage is convenience for gift-giver and recipient, because the gift card is digital and can be redeemed by mobile or tablet in any participating merchant location (or online). Finally, a social gift is, well, social: Once a social gift appears in the recipient's Facebook Timeline, other friends can choose to contribute toward it as well.

How much interest will social gifting attract during this year's holiday shopping season? That's the question many marketers want to answer as they consider whether to participate and which company will gain the most shopper acceptance.

Rovio and birds and Alex

Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 1 billion times. Parent Rovio has introduced a new Pink Bird character and is adding seasonal variations every few weeks to keep players engaged with the game. There are lots of merchandising deals in the works and Angry Birds is likely to remain popular for some time. It's not easy to know when a product has reached maturity, but Rovio is determined to extend the product life cycle and make Angry Birds a brand as long-lasting as Hello Kitty.

Meanwhile, Rovio is readying another brand franchise. It released its first non-Angry Birds game in June: Amazing Alex, about a boy who thinks up creative ways to do things based on physics principles. And of course players get to help! Rovio bought the basics of this game from two developers who had originally called it Casey's Contraptions. Alex has been received well so far, but will it have the long-lasting appeal of Angry Birds?

What brands do UK marketers most admire?

According to research by Grupo Consultores UK, as reported in MarketingWeek, the top 10 brands that UK marketers admire are:

1. John Lewis (especially its emotional connection with customers)
2. Apple (often cited as the world's most valuable brand)
3. Virgin (powerful brand halo effect on individual businesses)
4. Nike (powerful advertising)
5. Procter & Gamble (excellent branding, movement into digital)
6. Innocent (successful, innovative marketing)
7. Coca-Cola (brand known all over the world)
8. O2 (especially its Priority Moments loyalty scheme)
9. Unilever (not just brand power but also sustainability initiatives)
10. Tesco, Virgin Atlantic, Volkswagen (advertising, branding)

What's happening in the grey market?

Brands that carefully control their distribution still may wind up in the grey market, through which wholesalers or retailers sell products in countries or stores without official approval, often at prices that undercut those charged by authorised outlets.

Reportedly, Abercrombie & Fitch clothing and American Eagle Outfitters apparel are being sold through e-tailers in India without permission. These aren't counterfeit products; they're genuine, but the manufacturers didn't sell to these shops and haven't given permission for the shops to carry their branded clothing.

Digital cameras and other electronics are sometimes found in grey markets, priced at a discount but also without warranties or customer service support. Hot new game consoles like the PlayStation Vita, for instance, are informally available in China through the grey market, even though they're not officially distributed in that country. Even Cadbury chocolates have apparently been sold via the grey market before being officially introduced through authorised distributors in India.

Depending on each country's legal system, brand owners may have a couple of alternatives for dealing with the situation, because the grey market is--pun intended--a grey area.