The latest news in the world of customer experience and customer loyalty.
Bill Nye is Nike’s Guy in New Ad Campaign
Who’s the latest super-celebrity to don a pair of Nike’s and make a commercial for the footwear giant? None other than the brain in a bowtie, Bill Nye the Science Guy. The brand tapped Nye and a half-dozen other athletes/celebrities for a commercial in which the earth has stopped rotating and the only way to get it restarted is if everyone gets out and runs in the same direction—in a pair of Nikes, of course. True to form, Ney is runs in a suitcoat, bowtie, pocket square, lapel pin—and shorts. Others in the two-minute clip include comedian Kevin Hart, basketball players Kobe Bryant and Giannis Antetokounmpo, gymnast Simone Biles, football player Odell Beckham Jr. and others. AdWeek spoke with the creative people behind the ad and included a clip of the ad.
Kohl’s Selling Groceries? Why Not?
Hey, if Walmart, Target, and, most recently, Amazon, can sell groceries, why not Kohl’s? According to an article in The Washington Post, Kohl’s has partnered with discount grocer Aldi to test the sale of groceries in as many as 10 of its department stores. Last week, Kohl’s reported the largest increase in quarterly sales since 2001. Kohl’s officials are experimenting with groceries to see if it can impact store traffic. Amazon has been in the news quite a bit in the past year since it acquired Whole Foods and now is integrating its wildly successful and popular Amazon Prime loyalty program into Whole Foods. We wrote an article in October about how the Amazon-Whole Foods partnership would impact loyalty marketers.
J.C. Penney Cuts Hundreds of Jobs
Venerable retailer J.C. Penney, which has been trying to restore its once-proud brand tradition and loyalty, last week announced that it cut hundreds of jobs on the heels of a restructuring process, according to an article in MarketWatch. The article says about 130 jobs were cut at the home office across a variety of positions while about 230 positions were eliminated after a restructuring of the regional, district, and store support groups. J.C. Penney expects annual cost savings of $20 million to $25 million after the reorganization. We wrote an article last July when J.C. Penney launched a new loyalty program called JCPenney Rewards. The new loyalty program included a new website at jcp.com/rewards.