Marketing Tactics

Parsippany, N.J. -- Budget Car Rental and Simon Property Group have combined forces to market to Latin American travelers. When these travelers book a Budget car in Boston, Miami, New York City and Orlando, they will receive a shopping voucher that can be redeemed for a package of coupons, discounts and other special offers at Simon destinations in those cities:

Burlington Mall and Wrentham Village Premium Outlets in Boston

Dadeland Mall, The Falls, Miami International Mall and Sawgrass Mills in Miami

Digimarc Corporation, a digital solutions company, has added audio watermarking to its Digimarc Discover mobile engagement platform. An audio watermark is embedded in an audio signal and identifies ownership of copyright, so retailers and brands can differentiate Digimarc’s solution from competing technologies. 

Digimarc’s mobile engagement platform is designed to enable retailers and brands to simplify and enhance mobile consumer engagement, build brand loyalty and drive purchase opportunities from each component of their marketing campaigns. 

LEXINGTON, Mass. — The Keds division of footwear manufacturer Wolverine Worldwide is back for an encore performance with superstar Taylor Swift.

This fall, Keds will launch its second footwear collaboration with seven-time Grammy award-winning, multi-platinum singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The collection expands this season to 17 styles, offering a variety of prints, colors and finishes inspired by Swift.

Seattle -- TC Global (dba Tully’s Coffee Shops) has announced the completion of the sale of substantially all of its assets to Global Baristas, an investment group led by Patrick Dempsey. Global Baristas bought the assets in an auction in bankruptcy court last January. The company plans to continue to operate Tully’s Coffee Shops and to retain all of the employees.

Every week, retailers unleash significant advertising and promotion efforts in the perpetual competition to engage shoppers, drive trips and grow sales. Annual retail sales and market share are the result of the competition that played out in the preceding 52 individual weeks, and many companies highly value “winning the week.” But some weeks can be much more competitive than others, creating challenges for retailers also facing strong pressures to be efficient and limit costs.

Seattle – Nordstrom is expanding a trial of marking the items in its stores that receive the most pins on Pinterest with small “P” logos. As reported by BusinessWeek, Nordstrom is taking the pilot from two to 13 stores.

Nordstrom, which has 4.5 million Pinterest followers, gives store associates access to an online dashboard that notifies which items the store has in stock are most pinned in their geographic area. The pilot is expected to conclude later this month.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in June 2012 vs. June 2013 and noticed some common overall trends across top retail chains. Although Staples and Walmart each saw large year-over-year increases in circular page count, page count was fairly stable overall, with none of these key retailers seeing a decrease of more than 13%.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Kmart is celebrating its inclusion in the summer comedy, “Grown Ups 2” by offering one Shop Your Way member a chance to be an extra in a future Sony Pictures Entertainment film.

Shop Your Way Members can enter the "Stars of Summer Sweepstakes" now through Sunday, July 21, for a chance to see themselves on the silver screen.