Marketing Tactics

By Bryon Morrison, president/Wireless Practice, The Marketing Arm

Can you hear that noise? It is the melodious sound of sleigh bells, phones, and cash registers ringing. The holiday shopping season is almost here and strategies incorporating mobile marketing can expand your database, reaffirm customer loyalty, and usher in new multichannel techniques to make the most of this holiday season — but only if you get your plan into action right now.

Holiday marketing strategy and the current environment

Target reported a 3.3% same-store sales increase for October and a similar figure could be in order for November as the company again provided guidance calling for a low-to-mid single-digit increase.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. is adding a new benefit to its REDcard Rewards loyalty program: free shipping on Target.com purchases when guests use their REDcards. In addition, for the first time Target Debit Cards can be used on Target.com.

Target’s REDcard Rewards loyalty program applies to the Target REDcards, including the Target Credit Card, Target Visa Credit Card and Target Debit Card. The program offers guests an extra 5% off Target’s already prices on nearly all items purchased in stores and online when they use a REDcard.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target shoppers have a new incentive for joining the retailer's REDcard Rewards loyalty program: free shipping on Target.com. In addition, for the first time Target Debit Cards can be used on Target.com, the company said.

Mandeville, La. -- Covington, La.-based Stirling Properties said that Coldwater Creek and Buckle have opened at Premier Centre, a 295,000-sq.-ft. grocery-anchored center in Mandeville, La.

Buckle’s 5,000-sq.-ft. store is its 11th location in Louisiana. Coldwater Creek’s 4,833-sq.-ft. store is its fifth in the state.

Target is out with a beast of a holiday toy catalog that weigha in at 52 glossy pages that employs a variety of incentives to promote sales in advance of Thanksgiving weekend. Nothing unusual about that or the fact that the publication features all sorts of cool products and high quality photography that is sure to have kids drooling if parents make the mistake of leaving the thing lying around.

Atlanta -- Mobile commerce enabler Firethorn Mobile Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc., and Brookstone announced Brookstone as its latest retail partner for its Swagg mobile application, which provides shoppers with mobile access to purchase digital gift cards. Mobile shoppers also can receive special offers and manage customer loyalty programs through the app. 

NEW YORK — The ways in which the largest U.S. retail brands address the needs of their customers on Facebook and Twitter were unveiled last week in a white paper — Safeway and Sears topped charts; Costco, Kmart, Kroger and Walmart were found wanting, according to Conversocial, a software company that develops social media tools.