Marketing

La-Z-Boy has named Doug Collier as SVP of La-Z-Boy Incorporated, chief marketing officer and president, international, and has named Darrell Edwards as SVP of La-Z-Boy Incorporated and chief supply chain officer.  

Collier rejoined La-Z-Boy in June 2007 after two years with Select Comfort as chief marketing officer and SVP of marketing. Prior to Select Comfort, Collier held various leadership positions at La-Z-Boy from 2002 through 2005, including VP of marketing and furniture galleries development.

The National Retail Federation has hired Mary Heitman as VP of retail programs.

Heitman previously served as director of events and deputy director of development for the Trust for the National Mall, where managed corporate sponsorships and events designed to increase donor engagement, identified and cultivated prospects and leveraged relationships in the government affairs and corporate community. Prior to the Trust for the National Mall, she owned and operated a private marketing and fundraising firm and served as finance director for the Republican National Committee.

Williams-Sonoma’s second quarter results may have met Wall Street expectations, but shares dropped nearly 12% as a result of the company’s weak guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2014 — which will include earnings from most of the back-to-school season.

For the quarter, the company posted net revenues of $1.04 billion, an almost 6% increase from $982 million a year ago. Total same-store sales increased 5.7%. Direct-to-customer revenues climbed 9.4%.

Los Angeles -- Guess on Wednesday reported second-quarter net earnings of $22 million, a 50.5% decrease compared to adjusted net earnings of $44.3 million for the year ago period. The retailer, which also cuts its fiscal year outlet, noted that soft traffic and promotional activity have continued to put its North American stores under pressure.

Washington, D.C. - The National Retail Federation has hired Mary Heitman as VP of retail programs. Heitman comes to NRF from the Trust for the National Mall, where she served as director of events and deputy director of development.

New York -- Fashion powerhouse Zara, owned by Spain’s Inditex, used social media to apologize after complaints poured in via Twitter that the retailer was selling a piece of clothing that closely resembled a uniform worn in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The item in question, called the “Sheriff,” was a children’s blue-and-white striped top with a prominent six-pointed yellow star.

New York - Nook Media, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble Inc., together with video game manufacturer Rovio, will make the upcoming “Angry Birds Stella” game available for preview exclusively at Barnes & Noble stores from Aug. 29 to Sept. 3. During that time, customers can come to any Barnes & Noble store nationwide and visit the Nook Counter to play the game, before anyone else, on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook in-store demo devices.

When Blanklabel.com launched in 2009, it set out to redefine notions of custom-tailored menswear, long the purview of the luxury market, by offering bespoke garments at affordable department store prices.

The startup took things a step further by updating the custom concept with a very 21st century, crowdsourcing twist: It offered shoppers a hand in the design of the merchandise by allowing them to pick their own details — from the cut of a shirt to the lining of a collar.

Blank Label is now bringing the disciplines it h

Electrolux has joined the AllSeen Alliance, a nonprofit open source consortium, as a premier member. The company joins Haier, LG, Microsoft, Panasonic, Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Sharp, Silicon Image, Technicolor and TP-Link as premier members of the alliance.

Amazon has unveiled a new scholarship for college students in the U.S. Called the Amazon Student Scholarship, the merit-based scholarship will reward 50 full-time undergraduate students with $5,000 toward tuition and $500 to spend on textbooks on Amazon.

Applications are being accepted now, with the scholarship money distributed in time for fall semester 2015. Interested students can learn more at www.amazon.com/studentscholarship.