Marketing Tactics

San Francisco -- A new U.S. study conducted online by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Placecast showed that fathers use their mobile phones to save money.

The Wave IV poll in the Alert Shopper series of research revealed that 58% of American dads with smartphones said they had taken action on a promotion or coupon received on their phones, outpacing moms and those without kids.
 

Redmond, Wash. -- Microsoft Corp. on Thursday announced that it plans to open 500 “Windows Store” shops in 500 Best Buy stores across the country and in more than 100 Best Buy and Future Shop locations in Canada. The roll out will launch in late June, lasting through September.

The in-store shops will sell exclusively Windows-based tablets and computers and other Microsoft products, with support from dedicated staff, in an interactive environment.  

MATTHEWS, N.C. — With Father’s Day just around the corner, Family Dollar is touting its small-store format, accessible staff and assorted product offerings to draw shoppers into its stores.

The value retailer is offering greeting cards, apparel and grills, while reminding shoppers that stores carry not only grills but also charcoal, coolers, hot dogs, hamburgers and even condiments.

LEXINGTON, Mass. — Stride Rite Children's Group's first-ever multichannel loyalty program, launched in Nov. 2012, has leapt beyond the million member milestone within six months.

The company estimates that 75% of specialty store and online transactions are associated with a rewards member.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Red Legacy, a commercial real estate developer for shopping centers, has hired Stacy Scheelk as its new senior director of new business development.

Scheelk is a shopping industry expert with a background in local, regional and national business development and marketing. She will be charged elevating and maximizing the potential of each development by fomenting partnerships, securing sponsorships, creating specialty retail and increasing ancillary income.

REDMOND, Wash. — Best Buy has landed a partnership with Microsoft Corp. that will allow the retailer to offer a Windows Store at 500 of its locations in the U.S. and more than 100 Future Shop locations in Canada.

Retailers are poised to benefit from the June 14 release of The Man of Steel and the extensive licensing activity connected to the latest Superman reboot. Warner Bros. Consumer Products has launched a broad, multi-category licensing program with a variety of global licensees to support the highly anticipated film.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Global workwear brand Dickies has teamed up with country music group Eli Young Band. They are offering fans an opportunity to meet the band on the No Shoes Nation Tour with Kenny Chesney.

North Wilkesboro, N.C. – Despite discussions about the need for retailers to develop a “social media strategy,” the reality is that social media is not a monolithic entity. Different social media platforms reach different types of consumers, are used for different purposes and draw traffic at different times of the day. Thus, a social media strategy really needs to be a collection of smaller strategies that are built around the dynamics of each individual platform a retailer chooses to leverage.

Chicago -- Omnichannel specialty apparel retailer Threadless takes an active approach to Twitter marketing that has resulted in significant lifts in site traffic and customer engagement. At the recent Internet Retailer conference in Chicago, representatives from Threadless and Twitter discussed how retailers can get more from their Twitter campaigns.

“Every tweet was a call to action,” said Threadless Marketing Director Todd Lido. “We were seeing growth but it felt like the strategy was getting stale.”