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Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Study: Event Marketing Drives Purchases
A new survey by the Advertising Research Foundation shows in-person events can boost purchase intent as high as 52 percent. The study found that “purchase intent” – a customer’s…
Marsh Offers Pregnant Women Free Prenatal Vitamins
Pharmacy operators have gone to plans including $4 pricing for 30-day supplies of certain generic prescriptions medicines while others have chosen to offer popular antibiotics for free. Now, Marsh Supermarkets…
Home Depot Withdraws Bank Bid
Home Depot has decided that it’s not ready to get into the banking business. The DIY chain, which had applied to buy EnerBank USA, a Utah industrial loan bank in…
eBay Gets a New CEO and Game Plan
Meg Whitman last week announced plans to step down as CEO of eBay Inc., the online auction that went from wobbly startup to multibillion-dollar household name in her 10-year tenure…
Super Bowl Marketers Get in Touch with Feminine Side
The Super Bowl has always been thought of as a guy’s thing. And despite 45 percent of the audience being women, almost all the ads run on the big game…
Sustainability in Overdrive in the Retail and CPG Industry
The first thing to note about the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s Environmental Sustainability Summit held in Washington last week is that it was sold out. The Thursday night reception was packed…
BrainTrust Query: Is the news media terrorizing the U.S.A. about the economy?
The media is having a field day with news of the U.S. economy and should, BrainTrust Panelist Bob Phibbs thinks, be called out as terrorizing the citizens of this country…
Retailers Earn Spots on ‘Best Companies’ List
The 2008 version of Fortune’s ranking of the 100 Best Companies to Work For turns up a lot of familiar names from the retailing world. Leading the way was Wegmans…
Women Wear Their Wealth on Their Arms
High tickets apparently indicate high fashion, at least where bags are concerned among the mega-rich on both sides of the Atlantic. Whether or not the fad has reached its peak,…
CPGmatters: Survey Shows CPGs to Focus More On Brand Building in Stores
Nearly seven of ten (68 percent) respondents to an Instant Poll on the home page of CPGmatters in December 2007 listed In-Store Marketing as their top area of focus in…
Tesco’s New Concept to Put Pressure on Department Stores
According to a report by the Financial Times, Tesco is looking for large, multi-level locations in town centers to open a new format that will sell apparel, consumer electronics, jewelry…
Lessons from TJX Security Breach
Just a little over a year ago, The TJX Cos. disclosed what became the largest information security breach involving credit and debit card data. The incident left many wondering about…
NRF Afterthoughts: Is it time for the electronic shelf label?
W5 Networks is a startup company that actually debuted their Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) in the fall of 2006. They claim their proprietary and patent pending communications technology addresses past…
The Fine Art of Haggling
While common in many foreign countries, haggling for most Americans is reserved for major purchases such as cars and houses. However some are finding better deals by haggling over credit…
Mobility Retailing Hits NRF Show Floor
One of the highlights of the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & EXPO is always the technological innovation introduced on the show floor. At this year’s event, with new solutions…
Marketing to the Upper Crust
According to panelists at a recent NRF workshop entitled “Retail Marketing to the Mass Affluent,” these consumers aren’t really so different than the rest of us, as they have high…
American Apparel Rallies for Immigration Reform
American Apparel has been running ads over the last month charging that the U.S. government’s immigration policy “amounts to an apartheid system” and should be overhauled to create a legal…
NRF Afterthoughts: Will the Desire to Implement SOA Finally Bring Everyone to the Standards Table?
For too long, companies have ignored standards because they thought there was something unique about their own requirements that eliminated the benefit of implementing the standard. SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)…
Sears to Reorganize and Then What?
Edward Lampert has failed to turn Sears and Kmart around and perhaps he’s begun to recognize that. That would be one explanation for why he’s about to undertake a reorganization…
Claiborne Looking to Mizrahi and Bartlett for Quick Fix
Bill McComb, CEO at Liz Claiborne, told The Wall Street Journal that Isaac Mizrahi is the “pied piper of women of 35.” He better be, seeing that Mr. McComb hired…
RSR Research: Cooperation vs. Coercion
What stands in the way of retailers and manufacturers truly integrating their inter-corporate processes? According to Andre Martin, co-author of Flowcasting the Retail Supply Chain and founder and CEO of…
