Buy.com Sitting Out Amazon’s Bookstore Assault
Autobytel Launches Car Buying Service in Spanish; Wienerschnitzel Goes Digital
Marketing & Media by Sandi Cain
The Business Journal’s Jennifer Bellantonio is enjoying tropical breezes, crystal-clear waters and marital bliss in the South Pacific. She got married on July 13 to Tony Zerrer and is away on her honeymoon. For the next week or so, I’ll be house-sitting the media and marketing column. Here goes
Last month, Aliso Viejo-based Buy.com Inc. fired a price war salvo at rival Amazon.com Inc., promising to beat Amazon’s prices by 10%. Meanwhile, Amazon took aim at mall booksellers through a new test TV campaign in Portland, Ore., and Minneapolis. The campaign, from Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, highlights the inconvenience of mall shopping compared to “1-Click Shopping” at Amazon.
But don’t look for Buy.com to join in.
Stacey Dougherty, account manager for Buy.com at Aliso Viejo-based Thinkbig Public Relations, said Buy’s strategy isn’t about virtual stores vs. bricks-and-mortar. Instead, she said, the price war,and Buy’s elimination of shipping fees,is an effort to create awareness of Buy’s book business and low pricing.
“Buy.com wants to make people aware that they sell books and to illustrate how low their prices are,” Dougherty said.
Buy is banking that its virtual model and lower overhead to carry the day, Dougherty said.
And while Amazon’s TV spots target physical rather than online rivals, Dougherty said the commercials haven’t gone unnoticed.
“We’re definitely going head to head (with Amazon),” she said. “TV would be an option (to compete.).”
Buy founder and owner Scott Blum earlier this month told the Business Journal he is convinced the strategy will lure,and keep,customers.
“These are long-term business decisions,” he said.
Autobytel Starts Hispanic Service
Hispanic marketing is going mainstream in the automotive market.
Irvine-based Auto-bytel Inc.’s vehicle data and content division, Auto Information Center, has launched Auto-Espanol, a Spanish-language vehicle research and shopping Internet service that lets Spanish-speaking shoppers do automotive research on-line.
Melanie Webber, vice president of corporate communications for Autobytel, said the company saw a demand for the product more than a year ago when a survey showed that 70% of Hispanic Internet users planned to use the Web for car shopping purchases.
AutoEspanol already is in use on some automakers’ Web sites and is set to appear on the Autobytel site by fall.
“We believe the Hispanic market is a huge and growing market and an important one,” Webber said.
Kiwi en Espanol
Meanwhile, Aliso Viejo-based Hispanic marketing firm Mendoza Dillon Advertising is hard at work on its first Hispanic ad campaign in Chicago for New Zealand’s Zespri International and its Zespri Gold kiwifruit. The campaign includes radio, billboards, bus shelter ads, store promotions and events.
Mendoza Dillon’s Ingrid Otero-Smart said it was chosen because of its broad representation of different segments of the Hispanic market.
Mendoza Dillon also is promoting Irving, Texas-based Azteca Milling’s corn masa mix to the restaurant and culinary industry.
Hot Digital Dog
Wienerschnitzel, a unit of Newport Beach-based Galardi Group, has teamed with Rancho Santa Margarita-based BasisMedia to develop a virtual training system for making hot dogs. Launched in April as a test program in select stores, the program is designed to cut down on food waste and training-manual production, as well as building language skills for Spanish-speaking workers.
Other fast-food companies such as McDonald’s Corp. and Wendy’s International Inc. also are testing virtual training.
The program cost about $30,000 to develop.
Ducks Tap New PR Hand
The Walt Disney Co.’s Mighty Ducks of Anaheim plucked former Dodgers, Angels and University of California, Irvine, sports PR pro Charles Harris to handle off-ice publicity and community development initiatives for the club. Harris, who spent the past seven years running PR agencies in Israel, returned to the States earlier this year.
Harris got no grace period in his new gig: on his first day at work, the team signed free agent Adam Oates, a five-time NHL All-Star, from the Philadelphia Flyers.
Marketing 101?
Major League Baseball is promoting the sale of Mickey Mouse bobblehead dolls on its MLB.com Web site. The popular rodent can be ordered in a variety of baseball team uniforms that include Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, Braves, Mets, Diamondbacks, Giants and even the Mariners. Conspicuously missing are Disney’s Anaheim Angels.
Richard Alvarado, a marketing executive for the Angels, said the promotion is handled by Major League Baseball, which licenses the rights to vendors. The promotion may be targeted to a national audience, he said, and the Angels aren’t considered to have that kind of fan base.
“(The vendors) can pretty much put anyone’s uniform on them they want to,” he said.
Bits and Pieces:
Bank of America is sponsoring free admission to the Taco Bell Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana for all Santa Ana residents on the first Monday of every month through September. BofA also is the title sponsor of Discovery Science Center’s summer exhibit, Whodunit? The Science of Solving Crime which teaches kids of all ages about forensic science using interactive exhibits and a live theater game dubbed “Get A Clue” Just drink, baby: shoppers at Brea Mall can take part in taste tests and contests for Pepsi Twist as part of a joint promotion for Pepsi and the new “Austin Powers in Goldmember” film. The promotion runs through Aug. 6.
