Samsung

CHICAGO — Indianapolis-based appliance and electronics retailer HH Gregg is looking to Leo Burnett USA and Spark SMG, a full-service media agency of Starcom MediaVest Group, to help it expand brand awareness for its products.

"From the beginning, Leo Burnett and Spark demonstrated a deep understanding of our business and our vision for the future," said Jeff Pearson, SVP of marketing. "After a diligent process we chose Leo Burnett and Spark as the best agencies to help us build a winning national brand."

Chairman, president and CEO of Fast Retailing Tadashi Yanai is among the 2013 Time 100, the magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. 

Yanai was the only retail and CPG company executive to make the list. Other notables with a connection to the retail industry included Samsung CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon, Paypal co-founder Elon Musk and fashion designer Michael Kors. The complete list will appear in the April 29 issue of Time, available now.

FORT WORTH — RadioShack has named Jennifer Warren as its new SVP and CMO, and Michael DeFazio as its new SVP of store concepts. 

By Keith Carpentier, Tensator.com/us

Richardson, Texas -- Samsung Electronics and Best Buy Co. have entered into a partnership to install Samsung in-store shops in more than 1,400 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores across the U.S. beginning this month.

By early May, 900 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile specialty stores will feature the “Samsung Experience Shop,” with the remainder launching by early summer.
    

RICHARDSON, Texas — Best Buy has partnered with Samsung Electronics to install Samsung Experience Shops in more than 1,400 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile specialty stores across the United States beginning this month. By early May, 900 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile specialty stores will feature the Samsung Experience Shop, with the remainder launching by early summer.

Samsung Electronics America announced that its 2013 TVs will begin shipping this month in the United States, beginning with the LED 8000-series and the Plasma 8500-series.

New York -- More than half (53%) of industry leaders believe that improving customers’ retail experience is essential to creating a successful mobile payments scheme, according to a recent survey by SAP.

The study, SAP’s third consecutive GSMA Mobile World Congress survey, found that the “secret sauce” for creating a better retail experience includes POS services such as near-field communication (28%), facilitating universal acceptance of mobile payments (25%) and location-based point-of-sale offerings (24%).

WASHINGTON — The Lenovo ThinkPad T430s topped TopTen USA's list for energy-efficiency.

The nonprofit group, appaluded he fact that the laptop uses only 7.4 kilowatt hours of electricity in a year of typical use. The average comparable model uses 28 kWh per year—almost 4 times the energy.  On average, TopTen-listed laptops use about half (48%) the energy of comparable models.

PORT WASHINGTON — Despite a plethora of constantly changing products, the consumer technology industry saw its sales decline 2% in 2012, according to The NPD Group. This is on top of the less than 1% drop in 2011. Since 2010, consumer technology sales have declined by $4 billion.