Marketing Tactics

Department store retailer Belk has enlisted a hot male model to serve as a non-traditional Santa Claus at the center of a multifaceted digital initiative.

Retailers employ all manner of promotional tactics to drive holiday sales and this year Big Lots has even created a new national occasion to serve as the basis of a promotion.

The leading closeout retailer has declared Nov. 16-22 as the nation’s first “Decorate Your Home for the Holidays Week,” to provide inspiration and motivation to shoppers to begin decking the halls this holiday season.

Leading national outdoor gear and apparel retailer REI named agency executive Ben Steele as the company's first ever chief creative officer.

Steele most recently served as executive creative director at Hornall Anderson in Seattle, a globally recognized brand experience design agency with additional offices in London and New York. He will start in his role at REI's headquarters on January 1, 2015.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in September 2013 versus September 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. In the aftermath of back-to-school season, Walmart and Staples appear to be trying to clear out all remaining school and office supplies. Staples accomplished this by improving its previous offer of $5 off with purchase of $30 to $10 off and also cut backpack prices by 50%. Walmart shifted the focus from school to office, with a “Run Your Business for Less” promotion.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in October 2013 vs. October 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. CVS and Walgreens increased the number of circular pages seen in October 2014; up respectively by 18% and 11%. Walgreens added 13% more halloween candy promotions, where as CVS added 9% in October comparable. Walgreens used an attractive “Save on Treats” candy promotional page in each October circular, nicely consolidating candy promotions into concise seasonal sections.

Minneapolis --The competition for the holiday shopper continues with the news that Target Corp. is kicking off the holiday season extra early this year, with plans to offer early access to Black Friday deals for one-day only on Nov. 10, a pre-sale on Nov. 26, and a 6 p.m. store opening on Thanksgiving evening.

Pleasant Ridge, Mich. -- Belk has teamed with HelloWorld, a provider of rich engagement solutions, to launch Santa Baby Sweepstakes, a holiday-themed multi-channel incentive program accessible across digital and mobile channels.   

New York --  Chinese E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings sold about $2 billion worth of goods on its websites within approximately the first hour of its annual shopping extravaganza.    This is the sixth year Alibaba has celebrated Singles Day, or 11.11 (named after the date, 11/11), a 24-hour deep-discount festival designed to boost sales during an otherwise weak period in China's sales calendar.   

Plug and Play brings together retailers and start-ups that offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve merchants’ pain points. Chain Store Age’s Customer Disruption newletter provides a Q&A with the CEO of one of those companies in each issue. This time, the spotlight is on John McIntyre of Sightly.   What does Sightly do?  

About a year ago, I wrote a TechBytes column about a concept app called “Snap", which SAP had developed to provide consumers with interactive instructions for assembling products at home. After some fine-tuning, SAP is now officially launching a DIY home assembly app called “Bilt” for Android and iOS tablet devices.