Opinion
Digital Shopping Has Left the Yellow Pages Behind
R
etailers are going to have to
work harder and more cre-
atively for your business
and your loyalty
Remember back in the day when
Yellow Pages encouraged every-
one to: “Let Your Fingers do the
Walking,” to quickly and efficient-
ly thumb through its pages to
locate any business or service
imaginable? Which really came in
handy when we were in the market
for anything from pizza to elec-
tronics to specialty shoes to a
plumber (this catchy phrase, by
the way, is cited by AdAge.com as
an Honorable Mention in the list-
ing of “The Top 10 Slogans of the
20th Century”). We have become
spoiled rotten, since the not-so-
long-ago heyday of the Yellow
Pages – including the very people
who work in the techno-wonder
companies that keep upping the
ante and changing the game, as
well as those who track all of the
subsequent trends in consumer
behavior. Because as consumers,
all of us need or want something –
food, shelter, clothing, electronics,
entertainment, etc. You name it.
But, our fingers still do the
walking, alright – on our phones.
According to new Nielsen mobile
research, in addition to talking and
NNPA
C OLUMNIST
Cheryl
Pearson-
McNeil
texting, American smartphone
owners are whipping out these
handy little devices and trolling
retail apps and websites to shop,
research products and product
reviews, compare prices, find
retail locations and redeem
coupons. “Mobile shopping has
reached scale and is only going to
grow as smartphone penetration
continues to rise,” according to
John Burbank, Nielsen’s president
of strategic initiatives. Here’s
what Nielsen data shows:
During the 2011 holiday season,
the top retail apps and websites
combined – Amazon, Best Buy,
eBay, Target and Walmart –
reached nearly 60 percent of
smartphone owners.
Both men and women prefer
retailers’ mobile websites over
mobile apps; though men are more
likely to opt for the apps over
women.
Female smartphone owners pre-
fer Target and Walmart mobile
websites, while Best Buy skews
male. Amazon and eBay appeal to
both.
While we, as shoppers, still use
traditional forms of marketing like
direct mail and newspaper ads, we
are nearly twice as likely (60 per-
cent) to read a retailers’ email than
those colorful paper circulars in
the stores (30 percent).
More than 30 percent of shop-
pers are actively researching
online while shopping (talk about
Digital shoppers spend 27 per-
cent more per household per trip.
Shoppers cannot be classified
simply as either digital or not.
There are specific shopper seg-
ments, based on our attitudes
toward experimentation. Nielsen
Category Shopping Fundamentals
Research breaks it down: 55 per-
cent of shoppers are defined as
“Occasional Trialists.” These are
middle-class people aged 50-59
who either live with a spouse or a
partner and usually keep up with
what’s going on; although they
We have become spoiled rotten,
since the not-so-long-ago heyday of
the Yellow Pages
advanced multi-tasking).
31 percent of ALL purchase
decisions (both consumer pack-
aged goods, e.g. packaged food,
beauty and personal care, baby
care, household cleaning products;
and Non-CPG categories, e.g.
consumer electronics and technol-
ogy, entertainment items and con-
tent, etc.), involve some online or
mobile activity.
don’t go out of their way to try
every new thing. The second
group is the “Trendsetters” (27
percent). This is a more affluent
group between 25–49. They have
children or teenagers in the house-
hold and love to keep ahead of
what’s happening; love to try the
newest, latest and greatest and
telling others all about it. Lastly,
we have the “Satisfied & Seden-
tary” (18 percent). These folks are
60+, less affluent and live alone.
The S&S crowd knows what they
like and don’t feel the need to keep
up with new things. Any of those
sounds like anyone you know?
Know what all of this means?
Well, yes, shopping can be crazy-
easy: like taking your store right
of your pocket. But, it also means
that retailers from your local gro-
cery store to the biggest chains
must think even more outside the
box in getting your attention and
your business, as the options for
penetration and awareness are
almost endless. It means they are
going to have to hone in with even
sharper, laser focus on you as an
individual consumer – your likes,
dislikes, preferences. Retailers are
going to have to work harder and
more creatively for your business
and your loyalty. They have to
woo you. Because you have infi-
nite choices; more than ever
before – no matter what kind of
shopper you are.
Ah, power. Use it wisely.
Cheryl Pearson-McNeil is sen-
ior vice president of public affairs
and government relations for
Nielsen.
The Murder of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla.
While some people may be sur-
prised by the murder of a 17 year
old African American male by a
white vigilante under the label of
“Neighborhood Watch,” too many
of us, as people of color, are not.
This tragic event serves as a
painful reminder that things have
not changed as much as we think.
One need but ask a few simple
questions, like when is the last
time you heard of a person with a
gun, killing a person without a
weapon and there is no arrest
made and no charges filed? When
a drunk driver kills another person
because of his or her carelessness
T HE F LORIDA T RIBUNE
charge, if the killer was Black.
Dr. John E. Warren is the editor
of The Florida Tribune
Dr. John E. Warren
can males with the law enforce-
ment agencies giving silent con-
sent. That is not acceptable. While
murder in and of itself is not a fed-
eral crime, the violation of the
Civil Rights of the victim — guar-
anteed by the United States Con-
stitution — is a crime. It is both
appropriate and necessary that
U.S. Attorney General Eric Hold-
er has ordered the Civil Rights
Division of the Depart-
ment of Justice to inves-
tigate this matter.
While the Justice
Department does the job
that the Florida Attorney
General seemed unable
to do, we must not allow
the “White” Press to
demonize Trayvon Mar-
tin as some have already
started to do. For exam-
ple, the fact that he had
been suspended from
school, for whatever rea-
son, had nothing to do
with him being killed because he
was walking slowly through a
neighborhood with a soda and
candy and minding his own busi-
ness. In spite of George Zimmer-
man’s mind, we are not living in
World War II Germany, nor have
we embraced the “thought police”
as an addendum to the United
States Constitution.
We the public, the people of
Florida and the family of Trayvon
Martin, should accept nothing less
than the arrest and charging of
George Zimmerman with murder
for the reckless and needless
killing of Trayvon Martin. It must
be said in fairness that white wit-
Now we have moved
to having white
civilians kill African
American males with
the law enforcement
agencies giving silent
consent
at the very least they are arrested
and charged with negligent
manslaughter. George Zimmer-
man, the killer of Trayvon Martin,
was neither arrested nor charged,
in spite of the fact that he was told
not to leave his car by the 911
operator until officers arrived.
We have had murders before and
unfortunately, far too many are
Black on Black crimes; we have
had more murders of African
American males by white police
officers across this country than
we can name on one hand, but
now we have moved to having
white civilians kill African Ameri-
nesses have come forth and called
this incident murder. In any other
case that would be sufficient for a
Week on the Web
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The Seattle Skanner March 21, 2012 Page 5