Marketing Tactics

With award season here, Target is hoping shoppers will want to get the red carpet look of their favorite celebrities.

The retailer announced it has begun carrying a favorite skin care line of A-Listers: Embryolisse. The premium assortment features high-end masks, firming creams and cleansing milks that specialize in anti-aging and deep hydration.

Retailers are always looking for new promotional opportunities and with the arrival on the Lunar New Year a mall operator in upstate New York hopes to generate shopper traffic with a range of Chinese-inspired activities.

Many companies have developed robust social media platforms for marketing and advertising, but aren’t quite sure how to manage customers who visit a company’s site to lodge a customer service inquiry, simply vent or even express satisfaction with a product or service.

They simply run away from customers. Yet, these same companies would never ignore a customer phone call or email, probably because it seems more controllable than the social media environment.

Soft Surroundings has completed a dividend recapitalization that was financed through an expansion of the existing credit facility.

The women’s lifestyle retailer is in the midst of a nationwide store expansion strategy, and the new debt financing includes a designated facility to fund future store openings. The company opened 11 new stores in 2015 and has identified over 15 locations for 2016.

Target is debuting its new Who What Wear fashion collection this week and a stylish group gathered in New York City to celebrate the highly anticipated launch and take a sneak peek at the line.

A star-studded event last week included actress and The  Honest Company founder Jessica Alba, actresses Kate Bosworth and Jaime King and Target Stylist Zanna Roberts Rassi, who hosted a livestream of the event on Periscope.

When it comes to e-commerce, the top driver is actually something the experience doesn’t offer.

According to two surveys of online shoppers in the U.S. and Canada conducted by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, in December 2015 and January 2016, a leading 55% of respondents cited the lack of crowds, traffic and hunting for parking as a top reason to buy online. Another 46% said shopping online takes less time than shopping in stores, while 46% also mentioned free shipping.

Kroger is changing the way it organizes beer, wine and liquor on its store shelves by asking a private distributor to charge alcohol companies for placement, according to a report from Time magazine. (Time)

Food Lion is feeling good about recently reaching the milestone of 1 million Facebook fans, and is sharing the positive vibes.

In recognition of this social media achievement, Food Lion is donating 1 million meals to those in need. The meals will be donated to Feeding America in the form of a monetary donation (Feeding America provides an average of 11 meals for every dollar donated) and distributed evenly among 30 local Feeding America member food banks within the grocer's service area. The donation will span across its 10-state footprint.

Shake Shack and Uber have digitally collaborated on customer experience with a little help from Visa Inc.

In December 2015, New York-based, 66-unit Shake Shack and Uber utilized the new Visa Commerce Network to offer a cross-promotion. Built on the VisaNet electronic payment network and accessible through application programming interfaces (APIs), Visa Commerce Network works by connecting transactions between two merchants.