Warc, 28 August 2013
NEW YORK: Brands are using the back-to-school shopping
period to target teachers and schools in an attempt to win a greater share of a
$26bn retail bonanza.
With this level of spending expected by the National Retail
Federation, the back-to-school season ranks as the largest shopping spike in
the US after the year-end holiday.
Relevant brands have been using a variety of methods to
increase sales to both schools and parents, ranging from the sponsorship of
websites to generation of project ideas using their own products.
Kleenex, for example, is one of the brands sponsoring
TeacherLists.com, a website that posts more than 300,000 back-to-school lists
from around the country. When teachers using the site put together their school
supplies lists for parents, they are encouraged to specify Kleenex tissues
rather than generic tissues.
TeacherLists founder Tim Sullivan told the Wall Street
Journal that tissues were the most commonly requested item from schools this
year.
Procter & Gamble, which makes Puffs facial tissues and
Bounty paper towels, has sponsored TeachersLists in the past but, arguing that
most parents get their lists directly from teachers and schools, they are
instead focusing on coupons, online sweepstakes and back-to-school packaging to
get parents to buy their products.
Brands with a particular purpose also look at developing
relationships with teachers. Elmer's glue, for example, has created an online
teachers club that offers project ideas and lesson plans as well as the chance
to win supplies. And Crayola, the crayon maker, attends education conferences
to showcase its products to the teaching community.
With up to 40% of annual sales of products such as writing
implements taking place in this period, it is important for marketers to
establish brand preference and loyalty. with a presence on teachers' lists seen
as vital.
In the case of products such as disinfecting wipes and hand
sanitizers, brands also have one eye on a knock-on effect for the winter
cold-and-flu season when parents are more likely to buy the same items for the
home.
Data sourced from Wall Street Journal; additional content by
Warc staff
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