We went to a wedding yesterday. Apparently it's something a lot of people will be doing today, as well. Brides magazine estimates that 31,050 couples will be married today -- almost 10 times as many as marry on a typical Sunday -- to take advantage of the perceived benefits of writing one's wedding date as 10/10/10. To capitalize on the ardor of the numerologists, Brides is operating a "pop-up" store in the SoHo …
Powell’s Books: A Textbook Retailer Since 1971
Portland agency ID Branding has come up with a winning idea for the city's most famous retailer, Powell's Books. According to Doug Lowell of IDB: The idea is fairly simple on paper (execution was not quite so simple): we create a photobooth-type experience inside the store that lets customers have their picture taken in front of a green screen, and then we fill the background with a shot of the Powells City of Books …
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Nordstrom.com Clicking Video, Mobile And Social Boxes
Seattle-based retailer, Nordstrom, which operates 193 stores in 28 states, is investing in its online store. Seattle Times reports that Nordstrom's new site--three years in the making--promises easier navigation, bigger photos and a prominent place where people can express their thoughts about the latest trends. Executive Vice President Jamie Nordstrom, who oversees the company's direct division, believes the …
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J. Peterman, A Classic Brand Storyteller, Lives On — Online
If all you know about J. Peterman was the character on "Seinfeld," you missed out on some great catalog copywriting in the 80's and 90's. As a result of the show's publicity , the company expanded into retail outlets then fizzled out. But J. Peterman still sells online, using the same mystique to sell clothes and accessories, although the stories these days are a little more truncated than they used to be. But in …
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Shopping For Pointy Shoes? Cool, Buy A Car.
Ford Fiesta is chillin' with the hipsters in Portland this month. According to The Oregonian, Ford will share space with a clothing retailer Local35 by day. At night, the so-called "pop-up" shop will host parties and a concert series put on by Spin Magazine. The pop-up shop aims to introduce the car to those young consumers in a more authentic way, said Jeff Guettler, president of Taow, the Portland-based marketing …
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Sam’s Club Wants To Give Its Small Business-Owning Customers Some Credit
Persistent unemployment nationwide is threatening to inhibit consumer spending. Against this backdrop of uncertainty, retailers are taking bold steps. Sam's Club, for one, is introducing a program in which it facilitates loans for shoppers of up to $25,000, backed by the Small Business Administration. According to The New York Times, a little under half of Sam's members are small-business customers, and they account …
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Want To Win At The Shelf? Hire Bad Ass Designers.
According to Ad Age, in-store marketing is growing in importance, and design is at the center of the battle for consumer attention. A study last year by Nielsen Co.'s Bases unit found in-store marketing clearly beats TV as the leading medium creating awareness of new package goods in the U.S. and five other key developed markets. The article uses P&G as case study. P&G's Global Brand-Building Officer, Marc …
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This Is One Way To Do Memorable Advertising
Tim Nudd of Adfreak says, you'd have to put Staples' "Wow, that's a low price!" guy near the top of the annoying ad characters pile. Then, before I can even consider his claim, the sage journo points to this People magazine piece on Jennifer Love Hewitt's desire for organization. Weird. …
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Friends Don’t Let Friends Pay Retail
SocialBuy is a new "social buying" site offering vouchers for discounts on luxury products and services often from retailers that have never before discounted -- but now must in order to stay afloat in this economy. Naturally, the company wants to use social media to spread its social buying message. That was interesting... This is how it all works. SocialBuy negotiates "unbelievable local deals," (currently only in …
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Sears Plugs In And Keeps Plugging Away
Frankly, I haven't thought about Sears in a while, and can't remember the last time I went into one of their stores. So this article on Yahoo! Finance is an eye-opener, focusing on everything the company is doing to stay relevant: On a recent morning at the flagship Sears in downtown Chicago, the youthful, caffeine-fueled team of e-commerce designers and engineers was abuzz. Among their latest projects: mobile …
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