Column: Welcome back ShopperMarketingMag.com

In case you’ve missed this little bit of news since its launch on Oct. 2, allow me to re-introduce you to our new and improved website, ShopperMarketingMag.com.Wait a minute: new and improved? Isn’t that an oxymoron, a redundancy and/or a tautology? Or, in other words, just garden-variety, hackneyed marketing hype?OK – we’re going to plead guilty and innocent on all counts. The web address www.shoppermarketingmag.com has been in usage for several years now, but its functionality was extremely limited, to say the least. There were few takeaways for readers, as the site primarily served as a gateway to information about advertising specs and rates alongside a link to a digital version of our print layout. In fact, I always worried that the site may have been working against us because new visitors who weren’t aware that we also maintain a massively complex membership site, P2PI.org, may have gone away thinking that we’d barely scratched the surface of this business. We’re confident that our “improved” site, ShopperMarketingMag.com (or our completely “new” site, depending how you look at things), will create a far more impressive first impression. It’s a very deep dive as all of the magazine’s great content from the past two years is now here, including news briefs, special reports and expert commentary as well as Institute publications such as wall charts, trends surveys and white papers. The site’s entirely new page layout, navigational design and search functionality is straightforward and intuitive, so after just a few minutes of exploration, I trust you’ll get the hang of it. Like the magazine’s print edition, the redesigned website complements the Institute’s members-only site, P2PI.org, which will continue to serve as the deepest dive, being the industry’s most searchable and most-popular resource for exclusive information on retailer marketing strategies, policies and programming; shopper, field and organizational research; and in-store, online, digital and e-commerce tactics, executions and visuals. Joe Ricci’s column is in there (to the delight of most and the horror of a few), as well as Dan Ochwat’s highly influential “So-Lo-Mo” columns. Peter Breen will continue to drop by with his commentary from the world of CPG technology, and you’ll have to put up with me a little while longer as well.Unlike the Institute site, however, ShopperMarketingMag.com does accept advertising, opening up a lot of possibilities not only for vendors, suppliers and consultants but for retailers and brands (think job recruitment) as well.There is a number of interesting advertising, remarketing and specialized content creation offerings available through this site, including EnsembleIQ’s “Database Solutions,” the only multi-dimensional segmentation tool in B2B marketing. It uses demographics, engagement and behavioral data from Opus IQ (an integrated database of over 700,000 people). Along with selecting and refining a target audience in real time, the system’s predictive modeling can also identify audience members who are in a purchase intent cycle.If all of this sounds intriguing, feel free to contact our sales representatives: Rich Zelvin (773-992-4425), Craig Hitchcock (773-992-4422) or Bill Little (828-237-3350).We hope you enjoy the new ShopperMarketingMag.com experience. Feel free to drop me a line with any feedback you may have for us about the new design.P.S. We’re guessing that a certain percentage of our readership will still prefer to digitally “page through” a monthly replica version of our print magazine. You can still access it – for the time being, at least – via a navigational tab at the top called “Digital Edition Archive.”Richard Fellinger (1940-2017)Richard Fellinger, owner and president of Mechtronics Corp., passed away on Sept. 27 near his home in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, after a 10-month battle with cancer. He retired from Mechtronics, Beacon, New York, earlier this year due to his illness.Mechtronics was formed in 1944 and was was “reinvented” several times in the course of its 73-year history, transitioning in the 1960s and ’70s from industry supplier and engineering manufacturer to an engineering-driven display operation, and then becoming a design-driven agency in the early 1990s and a full-service in-store/digital agency in the 2010s. Along the way it earned a reputation as one of the premier technology and engineering companies in the business, numbering Dr. Scholl’s, Coppertone, Air Wick, Keurig, Gillette, Duracell and PepsiCo among brand clients. Mechtronics was a three-time POPAI Display of the Year winner as well a Path to Purchase Institute “Best of the Times” award recipient.Fellinger took over Mechtronics in 1988 after serving as executive vice president of TransWorld Marketing in the 1970s. He served for 13 years on POPAI’s board of directors with terms as treasurer, chair of the finance and research committees, and chairman of the board for 1989-90. He was inducted into the POPAI Hall of Fame in 2011.“We lost a great leader and a giant in our industry,” says Keith Arndt, former VP-creative at Mechtronics, serving there for 25 years. “Richard set a standard of excellence and conduct that earned him the respect and admiration of his suppliers, employees, clients and competitors alike ... all of which may never be duplicated.”Due to Fellinger’s sudden retirement, the company had to cease display operations at its headquarters at the end of April of this year.Fellinger is survived by his wife, Stella, and sons William and Richard Jr. Memorial contributions may be made to Bergen County United Way for Special Needs Housing, 6 Forest Ave #9, Paramus, NJ 07652.

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