Marketing

Secaucus, N.J. -- The Children’s Place announced that it has signed a 10-year franchise agreement with Apparel Group to open stores in the Arab Gulf States of United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. The first stores are scheduled to open in the UAE in September in Dubai and Sharjah.

New York -- PVH Corp. will open 600 Izod shops inside J.C. Penney department stores in September, Women’s Wear Daily reported.

The new in-store-shops will range from 600 sq. ft. to 1,000 sq. ft. in size.
 

Santa Fe, N.M. -- Fort Worth, Texas-based Trademark Property Co. said that Sports Authority will open a new store at Santa Fe Place mall in Santa Fe, N.M.

The 40,000-sq.-ft. store will open in a vacated Mervyn’s anchor space at the center. Construction is slated to launch in October with opening planned for spring 2013. It will be the second Sports Authority in New Mexico; the other store is located in Albuquerque.

Austin, Texas -- Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services announced that Michael Buckner has rejoined the firm as a senior associate in the Austin office.

Buckner originally joined Marcus & Millichap in October 2003 as an agent specializing in retail property sales. In December 2004, he was promoted to associate and in 2006 he received a Sales Recognition Award from the firm.

Ridgefield, Conn. -- Victoria’s Secret has selected Schimenti Construction to build its store located in the Quaker Bridge Mall, Lawrenceville, N.J.
 
Construction of the 13,500-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to begin mid-June and is scheduled for completion in October. The architect for the project is Fitch, Scottsdale, Ariz.
 

Best Buy has been in the news a lot lately, with the scandal involving former CEO Brian Dunn and subsequent resignation of founder and chairman Richard Shulze on top of a fiscal year that saw the company’s GAAP loss widen to $3.36 cents per share and comparable-store sales slip 1.7%.

Understanding that an image overhaul was needed, Best Buy’s leadership went on the offensive at its annual shareholders’ meeting Thursday, ensuring attendees that the company would once again become the leader in consumer electronics and services.

CINCINNATI — Marketing solutions provide Dunnhumby has hired Nishat Mehta, formerly of MicroStrategy, to lead the company’s growing global partner business. As EVP global partners, Mehta will be responsible for driving the global expansion and commercialization of Dunnhumby solutions, such as digital advertising, targeting and measurement, through strategic partnerships with data companies that deliver a comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior across channels. He will be based in New York City.

Duracell is bringing peace of mind to the battery category thanks to a new innovation that extends battery life to 10 years when left in storage.

Duracell manufacturer Procter & Gamble called the brand’s new Duralock technology the greatest innovation since the Coppertop was introduced and vowed a level of marketing support that is unprecedented in the brand’s 40-year history.

While the European Union continued to meltdown and Moody’s was downgrading major U.S. financial institutions, 800 representatives from leading retailer and CPG companies were gathered in Instanbul for the Consumer Goods Forum annual Global Summit.

Walmart will have to trust that their @WalmartLabs team is ready to take on the growing challenges of the company's online business now that Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman have stepped down as co-heads.

Harinarayan and Rajaraman became the heads of @WalmartLabs last year when Walmart bought their company Kosmix as a means of enhancing its e-commerce platform through social media.

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