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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Apple Hits the NRF Show Floor, Sort of
Apple, the maker of the iPhone and the Macintosh, wasn’t an exhibitor at the National Retail Federation’s 99th Annual Convention in New York this week, but you wouldn’t have thought…
Managing Through Tough Times
At the last presentation at the NRF convention, Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN, and Jon Luther, executive chairman of Dunkin’ Brands, discussed the importance of building morale and maintaining a…
Braintrust Query: ‘Do you hear what I hear?’ – Listening to Best Customers
A post on MediaPost Blogs provides 10 key strategies for building relationships with best customers. The second one is “Listen to what your best customers are telling you….” What are…
L.L.Bean Named as Customer Service Champ Again
The fifth annual NRF Foundation/American Express Customers’ Choice survey, conducted by BIGresearch, put L.L.Bean at the top of a list filled with merchants that have built their reputations and business…
Tesco’s CEO Identifies Growth Drivers
With global economies appearing to be on the mend, Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive, Tesco PLC, on Tuesday identified six drivers for growth coming out of the recession. What do…
Retail Customer Experience: Four ways to get online shoppers to contribute reviews
Online reviews, which once gave brand managers and marketing executives stomachaches, is now pervasive, and becoming more important with each passing day. How critical are customer reviews becoming a part…
Tops Likely Winner to Acquire Penn Traffic
Tops Friendly Markets appears set to acquire the majority of Penn Traffic’s assets as creditors and the union that represents workers at the bankrupt grocery company have thrown their support…
Wal-Mart: Sustainability Starts with Small Steps
At a session Monday at the NRF convention, Matt Kistler, senior vice president of sustainability for Wal-Mart, talked about the importance for companies to just “get started” in looking for…
Target Buys Smith & Hawken
Smith & Hawken may have failed as a division of The Scotts Company, but Target saw enough to decide it wanted to keep the brand alive. Did the liquidation of…
Customer-Centric Technologies in Demand
A new report from U.K.-based Ovum finds that while retailers will still be looking at technologies to further cut costs, a major focus will be on finding new ways to…
RSR Research: 2010 – The Year of Transparent Retailing
It’s very tempting to try to declare that 2010 will be the year of the mobile consumer. However, 2010 may see the real beginning of something bigger, and that is…
Resurgence in Home Sales an Increasing Competitor for Retailers
Anne Gill, executive director of Avon UK, leads her team by example. Ms. Gill’s twenty years at Avon UK included considerable time walking the walk, selling door-to-door as her colleagues…
The North Face Vs. The South Butt
The North Face has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against The South Butt, a parody company started by a 19-year old allegedly to help him pay for college. What’s your…
Dieters Beware, Calorie Counts Are Off
If you’ve made a resolution to lose some weight and haven’t, even though you’ve been diligently counting calories, there could be a good reason for that. Do most consumers understand…
American Consumers to Be Issued 3-D Goggles
Consumers have flocked to movie theaters to see James Cameron’s 3-D animated epic, Avatar. But are consumers ready to go out and buy special sets and don goggles to watch…
Taco Bell’s Christine is No Jared in Eyes of Bloggers
The story of Jared and the weight loss he achieved eating a steady diet of Subway turned the sandwich chain into a seemingly overnight success. Now, Taco Bell is looking…
BrainTrust Query: Six marketing research wake-up calls in 2009
According to BrainTrust panelist Joel Rubinson, the marketing research profession got six big wakeup calls in 2009. What wake-up calls do you think the market research community heard? Of the…
Tesco Refers Shoppers to Smaller Shops
Recently, Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy expressed regret over his company’s role in the demise of small book shops in the U.K. What do you think of Tesco’s friendly competitive…
The Negatives of Positive Thinking and Vice Versa
In Bright-Sided, author Barbara Ehrenreich rails against what she considers the often harmful side-effects that come from positive thinking messages being pushed throughout society and corporate America. What are the…
Those Emails Keep Coming and Coming
While it’s no surprise that more companies are sending out emails — especially with larger numbers of consumers opting-in to receive them — there is clearly a challenge in this…
Retailers Still Working on CRM
Retailers ‘get’ the need for customer relationship management (CRM) but many, if not most, have not quite gotten the hang of making it work to its fullest potential, according to…
