CASACOM’s Favourite Communication News & Stories of the Week

Retail:

Will Canadians be spending less this holiday season and shopping online more?

Analytics company, SAS has released new research that suggests one in five Canadians plan to spend less on their holiday gift shopping this year than last (the poll included 3,458 consumers in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand). Here are some statistics you may be interested in knowing; an infographic is included in the link below as well that highlights more of their findings.

• Despite the growth of online retail, much of Canadians’ holiday shopping is still done in store, with 82% saying they planned to head to bricks-and-mortar locations.
• Discount retailers were cited as the top destination (63%).
• Department stores proved enticing for only 43%, followed by warehouse retailers (34%), drug stores (28%) and local boutiques (27%).

“Infographic: ‘Tis the season to be frugal” (Strategy Magazine)

Social Media:

It was hard to miss the “Starbucks” headlines this week; from newspapers to television shows, like Ellen to thousands of comments on social media about Starbucks changing their past cups that had snowmen and Christmas trees, to a simple red with the company’s green logo. It’s been a very hot topic where some people have expressed utter outrage claiming Starbucks “hates Christmas/Jesus.”

The move was clearly a branding decision to be more inclusive while still maintaining a Christmas look and feel. So far, Starbucks has handled the situation pretty well.  Rather than putting out a formal statement, they published a blog post that explains in an even tone the history of their holiday cup designs, taking special care to remain inclusive.

How do you feel about the change in cup design in colour? Does it really matter? You can read more about this in the link below.

“Starbucks’ holiday cup at the center of red-hot discussion” (PR Daily)

Press Releases:

Earlier this year, Google started putting company press releases in its news search results. Amanda Grinavich, account manager for SHIFT Communications, writes in PR News’ Digital PR & Social Media Guidebook, that Google understands that press releases are still valuable for regulatory requirements and for notifying journalists of legitimately important news. She provides four steps to make sure your press releases rank high in Google searches:

• Step One: Create a compelling release
• Step Two: Make sure everyone on your team is up to speed on Google’s latest changes
• Step Three: Within your release, make sure you are linking to your business or the product name that is the focus of the release
• Step Four: Partner with a reputable wire service that keeps track of and understands the changes to Google’s search algorithm

More details on these four steps can be found below:

“How to Get Your Press Releases Found in Google Searches—and Avoid SEO Penalties” (PR News)