In a recent SistersTalk poll, 47 per cent of respondents revealed they will spend less money on Christmas gifts and decorations this year,
while only 3 per cent said they would spend more than they spent last year. Nineteen per cent said their spending will remain
about the same as it was last year, while 31 per cent said they won't spend anything this holiday season.
With Americans spending less on Christmas gifts due to the current economic crisis, retailers are bringin' their A game and implementing aggressive integrated marketing
campaigns that include compensating Twitter users to subtly promote their products. Wal-Mart and Ford are using mommy bloggers and tweeters while
other companies are using company employees to chat it up online all day. This tactic would be quite effective,
if tweeters didn't make their intentions so
obvious. No one talks favorably about Wal-Mart and
Ford all day (partly because of this and this)
unless they're getting compensated in some way.
Professionally, I applaud Wal-Mart and Ford's online marketing efforts.
Americans have less disposable income this year and retailers are competing to be
our shopping destination. So far, those two retailers are ahead in the game because most of their social media marketing uses women bloggers and tweeters.
Research shows that
70 per cent of all women in the U.S. (over 106 million) are online. Currently there are more women online than men overall, with women accounting for about
51 per cent of the total online adult population.
