Think Retail 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.
Posted Fri Mar 6, 2009
Microsoft Stores 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.
Posted Fri Feb 13, 2009
Heart of Starbucks 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.
Posted Mon Jan 26, 2009
Saturn v. Uranus General Motors should re-badge Saturn as "Uranus," with the slogan, "You Bet Uranus." The marketing possibilities are as endless as GM's stupidity.
Posted Thu Dec 4, 2008
What Nestle Knows
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 of the "man bites dog" variety.
Posted Sat Oct 25, 2008
Procter & Taylor 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 and Ann Taylor.
Posted Mon Oct 13, 2008
Fig Newmans
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 offices in Westport, Conn., and interview its president, Tom Indoe (interview here). After the interview, Tom gave me a tour of the place, including Paul's office. He wasn't there at the time, so my fondest memory is simply a small sign tacked to the wall that read:
Posted Wed Oct 1, 2008
Wal-Mart Moms
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 states finds Sen. Obama leading in three (Virginia, Nevada, Colorado) and Sen. McCain in the other two (Ohio and Florida), albeit by slim margins all around.
Posted Sat Sep 27, 2008
FAO Schwarz 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, and it was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Seems like yesterday but that was five years ago. FAO had made the fatal mistake of attempting to compete with Wal-Mart and Toys R US on price and, worse, its merchandise mix had turned pedestrian.
Posted Fri Sep 19, 2008
Relevant Responses 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 to my newsletter: "Cool News of the Day").
Posted Fri Sep 12, 2008
Sigrid Olsen 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 sales and distribution, and more a strategic medium for marketing a lifestyle.
Posted Sat Sep 6, 2008
Economy Candy 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 shot.
Posted Mon Aug 18, 2008
Retail Strategy For all intents and purposes, retail strategy is an oxymoron. Most marketers view retail as a tactic, not a strategy. They see it as a function of sales, not marketing. But those who understand the potential of a "retail strategy" to make or break a brand have a real edge over those who don't.
Posted Sat Aug 9, 2008
What about Me?
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 me.com address, but if I reply using the me.com service I must use my me.com email identity.
At best, it's not obvious how to use my own email address if I want to.
Posted Sat Jul 19, 2008
Seven Words
No, not those seven words.
Posted Tue Jul 1, 2008
Mind Space The next big thing in retail merchandising is here and it is ... nothing.
At least that's the thinking at the new Jil Sander Store in Soho, which, according to a story in Sunday's New York Times magazine section, is stone, cold empty save for "a system of louvers that rotate at regular intervals to enclose the entire space in whiteness or open it up to reflected glimpses of the outside."
Posted Mon Jun 23, 2008
Shopper Marketing 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 Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Coca-Cola and Kraft, as well as the agencies that serve them.
What is Shopper Marketing? It's been defined in a number of ways, often in "mission statement" fashion, meaning a single sentence of 75 words or more that attempts include every detail. I won't subject you to that form of punishment!
Posted Sat Jun 14, 2008
Star-Spangled Retail As merchants go, it's hard not to admire ... Lord & Taylor.
Lord & Taylor? The old-fashioned department store? The place for frumpy ladies who lunch and tea? The retailer that was basically sold for parts to financier Richard A. Baker back in 2006?
Posted Sat May 31, 2008
A Little Help, Please Earlier this week I was on the phone with a reporter from a local newspaper who was interviewing me about a piece of research I had conducted on "shopper marketing." The survey was done as a joint venture between my magazine, The Hub, and a consulting firm called Hoyt & Company, and in association with the Promotion Marketing Association.
The methodology was simple -- we asked agencies and brand marketers to rate each other in ten areas critical to success in "shopper marketing."
Posted Wed May 28, 2008
