Marketing Tactics

Best Buy’s defense of its market share proved costly during the holidays as greater-than-expected price cuts caused same-store sales to decline 0.9%, resulting in significant margin erosion and a vow to accelerate cost-cutting efforts in 2014.

Total sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 4 declined slightly to $11.5 billion, with the domestic segment accounting for $9.75 billion of those sales. While domestic same store sales fell 0.9%, the company can take some comfort in the fact that its online comps increased 23.5%.

New York - The volume of emails sent by marketers increased nearly 13% during the 2013 holiday season compared with the 2012 holiday season, which also saw record highs in volume. Data from Experian Marketing Services shows that while email click-through rates and transaction metrics decreased year over year, the increase in email volume led to a 9% rise in the number of total transactions from email marketing campaigns and an 18.4% increase in overall revenue.

In November of last year, Target opened a popup store featuring an exclusive collection of bath and body products by Sonia Kashuk in New York’s Grand Central Terminal. Now the retailer is preparing to launch an exclusive line of Sonia Kashuk makeup, beauty tools and cosmetic bags in March.

Charmin will transform the Hard Rock Café in Times Square into the “Soft Rocks! Café" to showcase Charmin Ultra Soft, which now features comfort cushions.

NEW YORK — Unilever’s Clear Scalp & Hair has tapped model Miranda Kerr to be the newest face — and hair — for Clear Scalp & Hair in the United States, giving her the title of the brand's first global brand ambassador.
 
Debuting this month, Kerr will star in a national advertising campaign appearing on TV, in print and on digital properties.

Aliso Viejo, Calif. — John Rockets has opened its first restaurant in Guarulhos, Brazil, a suburb of Sao Paulo. It is the brand’s 100th location outside of the United States.

Franchise partners Antonio Augusto Ribeiro de Souza and Nicolli Ciappina de Souza operate the restaurant at Shopping Internacional, a large retail center with 2.4 million visitors per month. The partners have committed to opening 29 additional restaurants in Brazil over the next 10 years.

Chris Saridakis, president of eBay Enterprise, a division of eBay, has resigned for personal reasons, according to the company.

An external search will be conducted for a successor, the company said. Until the search is completed, Tobias Hartmann, VP, omnichannel operations and international, will serve as the company’s interim head.

Saridakis had served as president of eBay Enterprise since June 2011, following the company’s acquisition of GSI Commerce (renamed eBay Enterprise in 2013), where he was part of that company’s management team.

By Gerard Loosschilder and Juan Tello, Skim