Marketing Tactics

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in July 2013 versus July 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. The start of the back-to-school season saw large decreases in these metrics for both Staples and Walmart across the board. Walmart continued its trend of smaller, less dense, highly-targeted and themed circulars. It barely touched on BTS on the front pages of its July 2013 circulars, with only a small laptop ad and some apparel promotions. 2014 saw a more concentrated effort as early as 7/13, prominently featuring notebooks, glue sticks, and crayons.

Indianapolis -- Mall owner Simon and payment solution-provider Blackhawk Network have teamed up to offer an enhanced Visa Simon Giftcard at select Simon malls, Premium Outlets and Mills, and online at Simongiftcard.com.

For the first time, the Simon Giftcard will also be made available outside Simon centers through Blackhawk's participating network of grocery stores and other third-party locations.

As Little League Baseball and Softball turns 75, the Heinz has been named the league’s official condiment and will play a role in upcoming events.

A new initiative at Books-A-Million called “The Write Stuff” will reveal whether book buyers value the opinions of the retailer’s merchants.

In the coming weeks, Books-A-Million will roll out its “The Write Stuff” program online and in stores. The program revolves around use of a Write Stuff logo next to different titles which signifies they were hand selected by the retailer’s buying staff.

Boston -- Walmart continues to maintain its basket price advantage over Target, according to Kantar Retail’s semi-annual pricing study. But while Walmart maintained its lower-priced basket – with a leap even further ahead in non-edible grocery – the retailer’s basket was still only 1% less expensive than Target’s, the smallest price gap since the June 2012 study.  
 

It’s time for customers who shop at Macy’s to feel extra good as the retailer gears up for its ninth annual national “Shop For A Cause” charity event Saturday, Aug. 23.

The one-day-only shopping event was created to support local charities’ fundraising efforts. Since 2006, the program has helped raise more than $44 million for thousands of charities across the country.

Social media is slowly but surely moving from a promotional channel to a channel for direct transactions, as evidenced by the recent news that Facebook is testing a “buy” button of its own. Twitter has become a favored means of running time- and location-sensitive retail promotions, such as Twitter-based food truck promotions run by Ben & Jerry’s and Taco Bell, but so far has not presented itself as an effective means of exchanging goods for currency.

Nordstrom’s Sarah Jessica Parker line of handbags and shoes will be sold in five more stores this fall, bringing the total number of stores carrying the collection to 30.

The company announced Monday that locations in Troy, Michigan; Bellevue, Washington; Skokie, Illinois; Austin, Texas; and Newport Beach, California would start carrying the film and TV star’s products. To accompany the expansion, Parker will tour three malls from Aug. 21-23 to promote her line.