Jill Lajdziak thinks this recession is her best-ever moment to innovate. Not coincidentally she also thinks retail is a critical point-of-difference for her born-again brand, Saturn.READ»
Imagine if you opened a store where selling stuff wasn't the main idea. What would be the point of that? That's the challenge -- and opportunity -- facing David Porter, the former Wal-Mart executive just hired by Microsoft to figure out what a Microsoft "store" should be.READ»
Despite the many mistakes that have led to its current troubles, Starbucks still has the capacity to create a sense of community and a purpose larger than just selling coffee.READ»
General Motors should re-badge Saturn as "Uranus," with the slogan, "You Bet Uranus." The marketing possibilities are as endless as GM's stupidity.READ»
Friday's Wall Street Journal included a remarkable story about Nestle. In part it was remarkable because Nestle isn't necessarily a company that gets a lot of press, much less the kind of press that could fairly be classified as ...READ»
Last week, we saw a glimmer of hope that the promise of "retail strategy" may at long last rising above the level of a cruel contradiction in terms. I'm talking about the new strategic alliance between Procter & Gamble ...READ»
Paul Newman will be remembered for many things -- acting, philanthropy, race-car driving. I will always think of him as an incredibly astute marketing guy.
About ten years ago, I was lucky enough to visit the Newman's Own ...READ»
Wal-Mart is out with a fascinating presidential election poll of its female shoppers (a.k.a. Wal-Mart Moms) that reveals as much about Wal-Mart's fortunes as it does about Obama's and McCain's.
The poll of five battleground ...READ»
A tour of the FAO Schwarz flagship store in NYC should be mandatory for everyone who wants to understand the relevance of really good retail.
When last we left FAO, we left it for dead. Every single one of its stores was closed, ...READ»
Earlier this week, I asked members of the Relevance Group on Facebook (see link at the bottom of the page) as well as subscribers of my newsletter to pick a brand that they feel is most relevant to them and explain why. (Here's a link ...READ»
The news that Liz Claiborne has closed all 54 Sigrid Olsen stores is sad indeed for Sigrid and the boomer women for whom her fashions were designed. But it was also a setback for those who see retail as less of a tactical tool of ...READ»
Economy Candy, on New York's Lower East Side, is not a huge store, but it creates a huge impression. It is actually rather narrow, although it is long and the ceiling is high. It feels like a warehouse and a small shop all in one ...READ»
The most frustrating thing about Apple's newly introduced "mobileme" service is that it seems I can’t create an alias return address with my own domain name. Yes, I can forward all of my other email addresses to my ...READ»
If you have no idea what Shopper Marketing is, you're not alone. But you should know that Shopper Marketing is one of the hottest trends in marketing today, at least in the eyes of major consumer packaged goods companies such as ...READ»
