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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Retail TouchPoints: New Mobile Device Apps Impact Marketing & In-Store Experience
As penetration of mobile devices tops the 250 million in the U.S. alone, retailers are not only looking at the mobile device as a new marketing vehicle, but also as…
PLBuyer: Nutritional Scoring Tool Introduced – and Challenged
Topco Associates has come out with a new nutritional new scoring system, the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI), that uses a numeric score to rate any food item or recipe…
Burt’s Bees Takes On Unnatural Ingredients
It’s not unusual for one brand to claim superiority over another using comparative advertising. In the case of the new ad campaign from Burt’s Bees, however, there is a twist…
CPGmatters: Cadbury Schweppes Plans to Collaborate with Retailers on Pricing and Promotions
Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages is planning to start collaborating with retailers on pricing and promotions. Its first trading partner in this new effort will be Food Lion, the operator of…
Top Marketers Increasing Ad Budgets
The economic news of late hasn’t been great and many companies are expecting a tough row to hoe ahead, but top consumer product marketers are increasing or maintaining ad budgets…
How Far Will Grocers Go with Store Brands?
Limited assortment grocers emphasize store brands in store merchandising. More traditional supermarkets, which still rely heavily on national and regional brands, are putting more of a focus on store brands…
R&FF Retailer: The Shelf-Life Time Bomb
There is no regulation whatever of manufacturer statements concerning the shelf life of their refrigerated products. None. A manufacturer can tell you — through guile or simple ignorance — that…
Instant Access to Information on Ingredients and Processes
To label or not to label, that is the question. And if you label, what goes on it, where does the information come from and, most importantly, how do you…
GHQ: Making the connection
The recent surge of product recalls highlights the importance of fast and efficient communication between headquarters and the stores. However, the swift execution of product recalls is not the only…
Ads Anything But Super This Year
Talk about stinkers. Okay, it’s one person’s opinion, but the vast majority of commercials (not counting those for upcoming movies) run during the Super Bowl yesterday ranged from just awful…
Banter Can Be Good as Long as It’s Limited
Surfing and social networking during work hours have become bugbears of late but one dilemma that has always existed is the amount of casual chat that is acceptable. MSNBC recently…
NRF Afterthoughts: Now I am Starting to Hear Something
BrainTrust Panelist Bill Bittner has always been a skeptic of voice directed pick operations so when the press relations representative for Vocollect contacted him regarding an interview, he felt obligated…
Everybody’s Doing It: Cutting Jobs, Closing Stores, etc.
Retailers are in pull back mode. Ann Taylor, Eddie Bauer, Home Depot, J.C. Penney, Sears, Starbucks and Wal-Mart are among the companies that have recently announced that they’d be taking…
Dell Focuses on Retail Stores, Closes Mall Kiosks
Dell Computer has decided to get out of displaying its products in kiosks located at malls in favor of promoting its business in retail chain stores. What is your reaction…
Engaging in Digital Consumer Conversations
With countless digital consumer conversations increasingly swaying opinions across the world, the most successful companies will be those that “merge traditional and digital consumer data and integrate them into their…
BrainTrust Query: Why are we missing when it comes to Hispanic marketing?
When it comes to understanding Hispanics, we Americans display an uncanny sense of ignorance. That was the essential point of two completely dissimilar articles BrainTrust Panelist David Morse read this…
Report Questions the True Cost of Ethanol
The nation’s demand for ethanol and producers’ reliance on using corn as a fuel source has increased food prices and raised the real possibility of food shortages in the future,…
Economic Downturn? Wal-Mart to the Rescue
While much of the retail industry is hoping that Congress will pass a stimulus package that will get consumers shopping again, Wal-Mart is looking to jumpstart spending with a price…
Uproar in UK Over Approval Of McDonald’s Qualifications
British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced on Monday that the fast food chain’s training program would be accredited and skills qualifications considered acceptable on a par with certain academic…
Urban Outfitters Buys a Garden Center
Urban Outfitters Inc. last week announced plans to buy J. Franklin Styer Nurseries Inc., a well-known operator of garden centers in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The acquisition will drive the…
CSD: Identifying More Effective Profit-Building Strategies
In a business like cigars, where unit volume is growing 10 percent plus year-over-year, emerging strategic thinking in convenience retail suggests that retailers can grow even faster by employing a…
