Case Study: Jelmar Reaches Younger Demo With Location-Based Promotion

“We know that right now our demographic is an older demographic, based on shopping analysis,” explains Adrienne Gibbons, director of marketing and communications at Jelmar. “But we know that our brands are not going to be able to [be] sustain[ed] in the long haul unless we get that younger demo.”

Last year the cleaning products manufacturer ran a promotion with inMarket‘s CheckPoints mobile app, which rewarded customers for scanning CLR and CLR Bath & Kitchen products with their smartphones. As a result, Jelmar saw an immediate uptick in sales at stores where the mobile promotion ran.

Jelmar has traditionally been very focused on television and radio spots. What prompted your move into mobile marketing last year?
Well, we have to find other outlets. There are definitely lots of groups that we’re missing. Our products are old products, and our brands have been around for a long time, so what better way to try to capture younger audiences than with mobile marketing?

Tell me more about the campaign you ran with inMarket. What was involved?
We did a test with [inMarket’s mobile app] CheckPoints. We pushed messages to check out our brands at various local retailers, and once you went in and scanned the UPC, you got rewarded with points. It’s a matter of collecting all these reward points for various discounts on other things. When you scanned the UPC, you would also get pushed our commercial, which talks about how to use the product and how to clean with it. We’re using the same commercial that’s running on TV, but pushing it to [smartphone users] through a different outlet. That was a test, but it was very successful for the first time around. We were really pleased. Now we’re going back into it in February and doing further testing on various products, UPCs, that we have.

How did customers know to scan the products? Did you send a prompt to every smartphone user within a certain area?
If they have the [CheckPoints] application already downloaded on their phone, then [a message] pops up on their screen and says, “CLR is doing a promotion for 15 extra reward points. Here are the stores that CLR[‘s promotion] is running in. Go to these local stores and scan our UPCs.” It basically told you what to do.

What was involved in getting the promotion set up, from Jelmar’s perspective?
We already had the commercials that were running on TV obviously, so we just had to edit them and make sure they were [in a format] that people could view on smartphones. It was very simple from there. I personally have an iPhone, so I was able to see all the push messages that CheckPoints was running for us. It was so cool, sitting there and all of a sudden seeing our CLR banner.

Were you able to track which stores your customers were in when they interacted with your products?
We got that data at the end of the test, yes. We bumped it against the sales for those weeks, and we noticed there was an uptick in those stores. Obviously as [marketers], we’re thinking that had a lot to do with the program. The ROI when it comes to the sales numbers for the week at the particular retailer [was critical]. That’s why it was so important to get that data at the end of the test to [consider,] Did this translate to sales? Yes, it did. Not only did people go in and scan the UPCs, but they must have picked up the products, also. [We also examined] how many people have viewed [the product], how many people scanned it, and where they’re coming from. That’s all we need.

You mentioned the younger demographic of mobile users earlier. Is that something you’re just assuming, or was inMarket able to provide you with any concrete data?
I don’t have it in front of me, but they do give you demographic information prior to your run. We want to make sure our product stands another 60 years. We know that right now our demographic is an older demographic, based on shopping analysis. But we know that our brands are not going to be able to [be] sustained[ed]in the long haul unless we get that younger demo using it.

How is the test you’re running with inMarket in February different from the promotion you ran last year?
It’s pretty much the same, but we’re working with other products and some other UPCs. So not only are we doing CLR and Bath & Kitchen cleaner, but we’re working in some stainless and stone products that we have. These are some other products that we need to get the message out about, as well.

I’m sure you’re inundated with offers from marketing platforms all the time. What was it about inMarket that made you want to give the platform a try?
Honestly, we are inundated and we normally do more targeted, retailer-specific programs. When this came about, I was already working with MyWebGrocer and Grocery Shopping Network, which are targeted at the retail level. This program came up and I thought, Wow, this is really great. Especially with the metrics that they give you on the retailers afterward. So it happened to be a timing issue with this particular program.

What are the biggest marketing challenges you face at Jelmar?
It’s finding programs like this, finding programs that will work. [We want ones] that will have our consumers going back into the store and buying [our products] next time, so those are the challenges. It’s keeping that constant communication with those audiences. Because once somebody gets turned onto a brand, we have found that it doesn’t matter what the cost is or when it’s on sale, [they’re] going to buy that product. So, we want to make sure that we get everybody trying the product in order to get those loyal customers following us.

Stephanie Miles is an associate editor at Street Fight. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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