Marketing

Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon today issued a statement congratulating Sylvia Mathews Burwell on her nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

London – Big Data technology provider ECommera has named Kevin Sterneckert as chief marketing officer. Sterneckert, who most recently served as the lead retail analyst for Gartner, brings with him more than 20 years of experience in retail leadership.

River's End Trading Company, a supplier of apparel and accessories to the promotional products and ad specialty industries as well as the imprinted sportswear and uniform markets, has appointed former Lands’ End executive John Maher as CEO.

The company also announced a capital investment from GCI, a leading private equity firm. Financial terms were not released.

New York – Retail marketers say social media and digital, customer data and brand awareness are their top three marketing challenges. Findings from a retail marketing survey SAP conducted with University of Arizona students also showed that survey participants said 100% of respondents cited digital advertising among the most important marketing tools for their organization.

In recognition of its support of national defense and the uniformed service community Safeway received the Military Officers Association of America’s highest honor.

Safeway was presented with the organization’s Distinguished Service Award at an event in Washington, D.C., in recognition of its outstanding support as an employer of Guard and Reserve members and veterans. The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) ’s highest honor. MOAA was founded in 1929 and has 380,000 members.

Tokyo – Uniqlo opens new stores in Berlin, and in three U.S. locations on Friday, April 11. The 2,700-sq.-ft., three-story Berlin store is located on the Tauentzienstrasse shopping boulevard and is Uniqlo’s first German store.

The Berlin store is also the largest Uniqlo store in Europe and features revolving mannequins wearing origami headdresses and LED ticker-tapes listing all the cities where Uniqlo has stores around the world.

L'Oréal Paris has added celebrity hair colorist Kari Hill to its roster of experts, the beauty brand announced.

With more than 15 years of experience coloring some of the most well-known manes in Hollywood, Hill’s artistic perspective lends to her mastery of varied hair coloring techniques. She will join L'Oréal Paris global consulting colorist Christophe Robin in lending her insights and expertise to trend forecasting, product development, content creation and consumer education for the brand.

New York -- March was a so-so month for retailers, whose performance was impacted by unspring-like, cold temperatures in many parts of the country and a late Easter. (Easter falls on April 20 this year as opposed to March 31 last year.)

The eight retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters posted a 2.2% increase in March same-store sales, better than the expected 1.4% increase.