Ocean State Job Lot Tests Online Video Offers
Online video is helping Ocean State Job Lot connect with customers and showcase the humorous side of closeout shopping deals.
The retailer’s core customer base is anyone who loves a bargain—but that doesn’t necessarily mean their audience has a lower income across the board.
“It’s the person who is willing to cause damage to life and limb to come to a complete stop at a garage sale,” says David Sarlitto, director of marketing of the North Kingston, RI based chain of 117 stores in New England, New York and New Jersey. “In the parking lot, you’ll see a late model Mercedes next to a beat up Hyundai.”
Overall, the customer base skews over the age of 40 (“A 19 year old probably isn’t as interested in deals on bird seed and pool chemicals,” Sarlitto reasons), and the split is pretty much 50/50 male/female.
Print is still a mainstay for the brand, with radio a close second. The flyers OSJL typically distributes behave much like a grocery store circular, with lots of products in every square inch to entice shoppers.
The brand has had an on-again/off-again relationship with TV, Sarlitto says. While the quirky value oriented story of OSJL’s close out deals can play well in “moving pictures,” it’s hard to come up with a solid ROI because the product mix in the stores can be so transient. Great deals come in every day, and are often gone quickly, so you can’t build a TV campaign around them. And, brands often don’t want their availability at discount retailers advertised, because they don’t want to undercut the big box stores that also carry their wares.
Inexpensive video is a huge part of the chain’s future plans. Online videos can be produced quickly and inexpensively, and capture the fun side of the store’s eclectic product mix and character.
One spot, which also doubles as a TV spot, shows a man coming home with “just a few things” he purchased at Job Lot. The flood of items pouring out of the bag as it breaks overtakes the entire house, spilling out of the chimney.
In another, a cute hamster is shown snacking on nuts. The on-screen text asks if the little guy knows what brands are available at the store, and wonders whether he knows what great deals are to be had on his favorite treat. The ending kicker echos a certain Honey Badger. “Hamster don’t care. Hamster just likes nuts.”
“With online video, we don’t have to worry as much about the production values as we do with TV,” says Sarlitto. “We can be more spontaneous and react faster than you can with TV.”
Ocean State Job Lot worked with a west coast-based freelancer to come up with concepts in different categories and tested them this spring to see what would have an impact in the stores.
Offers were incorporated, and videos closed with an offer for a coded coupon viewers could print or download to their mobile phone. “We left them out in the market for a set period of time, to see if we might attract a different demographic,” he says. “Are these people the same folks who read print or listen to traditional radio? Of course, personally, I don’t care how old or young people are as long as they make their way to an Ocean State Job Lot store.”
Fifteen different promotions were created in March and April, and ran through July. The features were promoted via email and online, and were made easy to find by Ocean State Job Lot fans. The email boasts over 300,000 loyal followers, who eagerly open the weekly emails to find coupons and offers. The company doesn’t sell anything online, so the emails serve primarily as retail traffic drivers.
“We’ve made the commitment to do another round of videos,” he says, noting the chain will continue to test offers and creative to see what pulls the best. “Some offers worked better than others—we could marry a wonderful video with a horrible offer. If that was the case, I don’t want to blame the video.”
Going forward, Ocean State Job Lot will work with its ESP and other vendors to learn more about its customer base for better targeting. For the first round of videos, no tracking codes were attached to the offers, so incremental store traffic was the best indicator. “It’s hard to quantify,” he notes.
Ocean State Job Lot is testing a mobile program to get people to share information with the stores, for targeting and tracking, Sarlitto says. “We want to know who we are talking to, and make the right offer, to the right person, at the right time.”
Social is also increasingly becoming part of the mix, and serve as a great way to get a handle on what customers are thinking about. Transparency is key, Sarlitto notes, and all comments (unless they are vulgar or attack someone personally) are left up, regardless of whether they are negative about a store experience or a product. “We want to be genuine in our digital dialogue.”
