Marketing Tactics

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 – 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.

Teen retailer Hot Topic is using the appeal of the pre-order and a Disney film tailor made for its core customers to encourage full margin sales and drive traffic to HotTopic.com.

The retailer is featuring a limited edition collection of apparel inspired by Disney’s dark anti-hero “Maleficent,” on its Web site for pre-order beginning April 15. Merchandise will be available in stores and online in May with prices ranging from $29.50 to $54.50.

To view the 2014 Retail Store of the Year design competition slideshow, please log in to your account or take a moment to complete the free registration.

Congratulations to all of the winners!

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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.

Southfield, Mich. -- Kris Abrahamson has been named as VP retail consultancy of shopper marketing agency The Mars Agency. Abrahamson has more than 20 years experience in the consumer packaged goods industry and was most recently the senior director of innovation with PepsiCo's Global Nutrition Group.

As part of the retail consultancy group, she will drive strategic growth initiatives against The Mars Agency's clients' key retailers and lead innovation initiatives that will address evolving shopping behaviors affecting retailers today and in the future.

Whole Foods Market might as well declare bankruptcy now judging from widespread media coverage of Walmart’s decision to sell roughly 100 organic dry grocery items under the Wild Oats brand.

Family Dollar plans to close 370 underperforming stores, cut jobs and lower prices on 1,000 basic items following a disappointing second quarter, which was adversely affected by the extra week in last year's quarter, severe weather, holiday promotions and a challenging consumer environment.

The company is also slowing its new store growth beginning in fiscal 2015 to bolster its return on investment. It now anticipates opening 350 to 400 new stores as opposed to approximately 525 stores in 2014.