Marketing Tactics

New York -- Embattled Southern celebrity chef Paula Deen is opening a headquarters and store in Clarence, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo, this February. The shop, Paula Deen Foods, will include a showroom designed to resemble Deen's home kitchen and offer products from her branded line of goods.

Chicago -- Retailers anticipate a 3.1% increase in sales on Black Friday this year, mirroring their projections from last year. However, a new a survey of top retail chief marketing officers by BDO USA shows that retailers have moderated their expectations for growth in Cyber Monday sales, predicting that sales will grow by 3.7% this year, down slightly from last year’s sunnier 4.3% growth projection.

San Francisco -- Gap's new global marketing campaign, "Make Love,” includes print, outdoor, direct mail, social and cinema, as well as new digital content daily.

New York – More than half of Americans (53%) prefer general purpose gift cards as opposed to branded gift cards. In addition, new survey data from Bankrate.com shows that almost two in three Americans have given a gift card, and more than three in four have received one.

The most common value of gift cards, both given and received, is between $25 and $50. People older than 65 and those between 18 and 29 years old are the least likely to give a gift card. As income level increases, Americans are more likely to give and receive gift cards.

New York -- Half of Americans (50%) say they will be purchasing toys as gifts this holiday season. This is slightly down from the 52% of U.S. adults who said they were purchasing toys last year, according to results of a new Harris Poll.

Workforce management data, such as time and attendance and payroll, is generally seen as information pertaining to the back end of retail operations. Managing employees is an activity that generally does not involve front-end customer interaction and data generated from this activity is usually siloed from the data retailers use to help guide their customer-facing activities.

Acosta Mosaic Group, the marketing division of Acosta Sales and Marketing, has launched Shopper Solutions, a newly formed agency which combines AMG’s retailer-facing marketing services in the U.S. and Canada and is designed to deliver a streamlined offering to clients across North America.

Touted by the firm as North America’s only purchase design agency for retailers, Shopper Solutions will allow North American retailers to engage their shoppers online and in-store through “captivating shopper experiences.”

Meijer is relying on a familiar tactic to drum up foot traffic into its stores ahead of Thanksgiving Day by once again offering aggressive pricing on turkeys.

"A Thanksgiving meal isn't complete without the turkey, and with these great prices, Meijer wants to ensure that our customers can provide their families with the best holiday experience," said Jerry Suter, VP of fresh merchandise.

This year, it seems that you can’t turn on the TV or read the news without seeing that another store is opening on Thanksgiving. Some believe Black Friday is fading away as more retailers choose to open early to compete with other shopping options such as online sales. I don’t think that Black Friday is going away, but I do think that it is evolving to best serve the needs of the consumer. Any retailer that is going to be successful long-term has to evolve, too.

Retailers anticipate a 3.1% increase in sales on Black Friday this year, mirroring their projections from last year. However, a new a survey of top retail chief marketing officers by BDO USA shows that retailers have moderated their expectations for growth in Cyber Monday sales, predicting that sales will grow by 3.7% this year, down slightly from last year’s sunnier 4.3% growth projection.