Marketing Tactics

London -- Disney U.K. is teaming up with Harrods to open a Cinderella-inspired "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique" at the world famous department store, marking the first time that a Disney Parks and Resorts concept has been recreated in the United Kingdom. The boutique will be the centerpiece of partnership between Disney and Harrods that also includes a dedicated Disney Store, which opened on Nov. 1. .

North Plainfield, N.J. -- Forty-three percent of respondents to Levin Management’s annual pre-holiday retail sentiment survey believe that their holiday sales will peak prior to and during the Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend sales period. In other notable results, 43.6% of respondents’ companies plan to open new stores in 2014 – a significant jump from 23% in last year’s pre-holiday poll and 35.9% the previous year.

Swansea, Ill. -- CrowdSource, a leading provider of managed crowdsourcing solutions, announced it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire San Francisco-based Servio, a competitor in the enterprise crowdsourcing industry. The acquisition will strengthen CrowdSource’s client portfolio, expand its workforce and augment its current service offerings.

New York -- Starbucks Coffee Company and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) on Thursday unveiled the first-ever Starbucks store on a train. The train’s maiden voyage will take place on the train line running from Geneva Airport to St. Gallen in Switzerland on Nov. 21 at 6:36 a.m.

Framingham, Mass. – In addition to opening stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Staples is extending Black Friday sales the entire week of Nov. 24 through Cyber Monday on Dec. 2.  

The retailer’s Black Friday promotions include online daily deals changed on a daily basis, trade-in/trade-up technology recycling programs that give holiday shoppers cash toward to the purchase of a new product, and free shipping for members of the Staples Rewards loyalty program and on all purchases of more than $45.

Toronto -- To help increase profitability, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) launched a promotion optimization initiative in Canada to improve the ROI of its flyers, or newspaper ads. HBC worked with Saferock to develop the solution, which uses sophisticated analytics to analyze millions of records each week.

Walnut Creek, Calif. -- Retailers appear to be putting in the foundational elements to create a coordinated focus on the customer experience. The percentage of respondents to a new survey from RSR Research reporting that Marketing is the primary owner of customer data internally nearly doubled from 2012 to 2013, from 33% to 61%, and those reporting no explicit owner fell from 33% to 17%.

New York – HSN is launching an integrated marketing partnership with Spanish-language media company Univision Communications that will offer a fully integrated experience for U.S. Hispanic consumers.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Kohl’s Corp. missed Wall Street forecasts with a generally poor showing in the third quarter of fiscal 2013 that saw the retailer’s net income fell 18% to $177 million from $215 million a year ago. The chain lowered its full-year earnings forecast.

In addition, net sales dropped 1% to $4.44 billion, from $4.49 billion. Same-store sales fell 1.6%.

Cincinnati — Saks Fifth Avenue has signed a letter of intent to relocate its downtown Cincinnati store to The Kenwood Collection, which Phillips Edison & Co. is transforming from a regional destination to a super-regional destination that will draw shoppers from three states.

According to the letter of intent, Saks will lease 80,000 sq. ft. of retail space over two levels of a building that fronts I-71. Plans call for the store to open in the spring of 2016.