Marketing Tactics

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway’s Lucerne brand cow is the face of the company’s eighth annual Lucerne: The Art of Dairy art contest. Safeway chose nine student finalists whose life-size fiberglass cows stand to win one of them a $30,000 grand prize.

OMAHA, Neb. — Hayneedle, a leading online home furnishings retailer in the United States, will begin offering special, curated sales events from its independent flash sale site, the Foundary, at hayneedle.com starting May 6.

ST. LOUIS — For every Budweiser sold between now and July 4, the company will donate a portion of proceeds to the Folds of Honor Foundation to support military families.

Walmart’s commitment earlier this year to hire 100,000 veterans over the next five years prompted the USO to award Walmart U.S. COO Gisel Ruiz its 2013 Woman of the Year Distinguished Service Award.

Ruiz was presented with the award at the USO’s 47th annual luncheon where she said the honor was humbling and a surprise.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Among the highlights of the first Sears Holdings shareholder meeting since Edward Lampert became chairman and CEO were details on the company's progress in combining its brick-and-mortar and online businesses.

Flipping the coin
Last August in this space, I discussed the troubling sales trends and tumbling earnings from iconic retailer J.C. Penney, mentioning that the growing pains associated with implementing CEO Ron Johnson’s ambitious brand overhaul might have been a case of “too much too soon.” Given that Ron Johnson is now ex-CEO, it’s clear that those growing pains were too much to overcome.

SEATTLE — Jones Soda Co., a beverage company known for its colorful sodas and customer-designed packaging, announced the launch of Natural Jones Soda.

The Natural Jones Soda product line is sweetened with a proprietary blend of natural sweeteners including pure cane sugar, organic agave syrup and stevia. Each 12-ounce glass bottle contains 30 calories, five grams of fiber and five grams of sugar and comes in four fruit flavors: Green Apple, Orange Mango, Cherry and Lemon Lime.

Los Angeles – Shoppers are setting a budget for Mother’s Day spending this year, according to a new survey from PriceGrabber. Results of the 2013 Mother’s Day Survey show that 52% of consumers plan to spend less than $100 on Mother’s Day gifts, with flowers the most popular gift selection.

The survey of 6,824 US online shopping consumers also shows that 23% of shoppers will spend $100-$249, while 12% will spend more than $250 and 13% do not have a budget in mind.