Marketing Tactics

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in July 2013 versus July 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. The start of the back-to-school season saw large decreases in these metrics for both Staples and Walmart across the board. Walmart continued its trend of smaller, less dense, highly-targeted and themed circulars. It barely touched on BTS on the front pages of its July 2013 circulars, with only a small laptop ad and some apparel promotions. 2014 saw a more concentrated effort as early as 7/13, prominently featuring notebooks, glue sticks, and crayons.

As Little League Baseball and Softball turns 75, the Heinz has been named the league’s official condiment and will play a role in upcoming events.

A new initiative at Books-A-Million called “The Write Stuff” will reveal whether book buyers value the opinions of the retailer’s merchants.

In the coming weeks, Books-A-Million will roll out its “The Write Stuff” program online and in stores. The program revolves around use of a Write Stuff logo next to different titles which signifies they were hand selected by the retailer’s buying staff.

San Francisco -- Piperlime, a division of Gap Inc., has enhanced its website to include streams of images filtered directly from Instagram providing customers with fashion. Shoppers will be able to click the images and shop the items to make these looks their own. Product pages will also feature styling ideas from bloggers and influencers, showing unique ways to style the same must-have pieces for each season.

BJ's Wholesale Club plans to partner with 215 schools through the organization's Adopt-A-School program. At the beginning of each school year, every BJ's Wholesale Club and Distribution Center partners with a local school to help enhance existing curriculum.

McLean, Va. --  Rappaport has signed three new 7-Eleven deals in the Washington, D.C., area totaling 9,471 sq. ft. of retail space. 7-Eleven will open new locations inside The Shops of Avondale in Washington D.C., 2001 Clarendon Boulevard in Arlington, Virginia, and 6138 Kings Highway in Alexandria, Virginia.
     

Office Depot is leveraging a new back-to-school shopping trend report to drive traffic to its stores this back-to-school season.

The survey, commissioned by Office Depot, reports the manner in which parents and students approach back-to-school shopping, including who in the family has the most influence over purchasing decisions and whether shoppers stick to a provided classroom list or add personalized items to their school supplies.

Westlake Village, Calif. - When retail sales representatives demonstrate cell phone or tablet service and features to wireless customers prior to purchase, satisfaction improves considerably and the propensity to visit the same retailer again double. According to the J.D. Power 2014 Wireless Purchase Experience Full-Service Study — Volume 2 and the J.D.