Loyalty Marketing

Solid comparable sales gains and a strong topline performance in Genesco’s direct businesses were not enough to offset a sales and gross margin shortfall versus plan at the company’s Lids Sports Group, prompting the company to lower its guidance for the full fiscal year.

The company reported earnings from continuing operations for the second quarter ended Aug. 2 of $4.8 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, compared to earnings from continuing operations of $8.5 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, for the second quarter ended August 3, 2013.

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.

While gift cards are still made of plastic, digitally formatted gifts cards are increasing in popularity. (According to research by payments giant First Data, electronic gift card sales grew 71% from 2012 to 2013.) Consumers particularly like the customization options — including video and audio in some instances — that some retailers offer with digital cards.

Cambridge, Mass. – More than three-quarters of digital marketers say loyalty program success depends on how well they do personalization. According to “Refresh Your Approach to 1:1 Marketing,” a new survey of digital marketers from Forrester Consulting on behalf of ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, about half (48%) of digital marketers say they face challenges in personalizing individual consumer interactions.

Sterling, Va. - Social media demonstrated the best cost-efficiency of all major online advertising channels in second quarter 2014, coming in at 70% below the industry average for cost and showing a 32% cost decrease quarter over quarter. According to the Q2 2014 Media Intelligence Report from Neustar Inc., social’s reach-efficiency was 286% better than the next channel, portals, and its ability to reach exclusive users (not seen in other channels) improved by 65% quarter over quarter.

Boston - Nearly 80% of college students describe themselves as “more cost-conscious this year than a year ago.” However, according to a recent back-to-school survey of 1,420 U.S. college students by college marketing agency Fluent, students said they are willing to make an exception to the low-spending rule and anticipate spending “more than they should” in select categories, specifically clothing, technology and dorm room accessories.

Following are key highlights from the survey:

Boston -- A retailer’s website is its most dominant channel for digital marketing, according to study done by A.T. Kearney done in conjunction with the National Association of Drug Stores. The survey findings were released on Monday, during the NACDS Total Store Expo Insight Session "Winning with Digital Marketing."

New York -- Walmart announced in a post on its corporate blog that its store-brand MasterCard holders can expect to receive a new chip-enabled card in the "next few weeks." The discounter said it is among the first retailers to implement chip technology as a more secure payment means for cardholders. It also noted in the post that Sam's CLub introduced a chip-enabled MasterCard in June. Both cards prompt customers not to swipe – but to insert and briefly leave the card in the payment terminal, so the card’s embedded chip can be accessed.