News and Analysis
Can Target’s Private Label Products Help Them Compete? Three Brand Experts Weigh In
Target launched its first private label brand in 1984 with the launch of the Honors clothing line. These product lines are now called “owned brands” by the MULO (multi-location) retail giant, which now has nearly 50 owned brands, some of which they have begun to sell to other retailers, making Target a wholesaler and shopping […]
Going for Retail Gold: How the Olympics Impacts MULO Retail & Food
We recently wrote about “momentjacking” and how MULO (multi-location) brands take full advantage of events — big and small — to boost sales and consumer engagement. BTW, “the bon moment” in French means “the right time.” So, why is the Summer Olympics the bon moment for MULO brands? 15 “global partners” have signed on to the Paris […]
Commentary
Lessons from the 2022 Holiday Shopping Season
As 2023 gets into full gear, we should look at the key trends and factors persisting and fueling growth into the next holiday season peak, which will arrive before we know it. Retailers and brands planning for upcoming quarters should remember these lessons from the 2022 holiday e-commerce shopping season:
Latest Posts
Meet a New Flock of Local Influencers: An Interview with Emily Steele of Hummingbirds
Meltwater recently reported on “influencer fatigue” and asserted that only 3 percent of consumers are still swayed by the opinions of celebrities. But we all know that word-of-mouth marketing and targeted social media with the help of local influencers can still be highly effective tactics. A new breed (or should we say flock*) of influencers […]
Geofencing: How to Leverage Location-based Ads
Geofencing is one of the most underutilized paid media strategies. Marketers in any vertical can use targeted location-based ads to serve personalized creative and messaging to the right audience, whether that user is on the other side of the globe or walking by the front door. What Is Geofencing? Geofencing is delivering digital ads based […]
BOOM: Pets are a Profitable Priority for MULO Brands
Consumers are spending on their “fur babies” these days in record numbers! Viewed as members of many families, dogs, cats, birds, guinea pigs, and even rabbits and snakes compel shoppers to take out their wallets to feed, tend to, and even dress their beloved animals. The market size for the the pets care segment was […]
Real Talk About Advertising ROI: Focusing on Fundamentals
Advertising isn’t an exact science: at best, advertisers might be able to establish cause and effect between a particular campaign and ROI, but the why of why a campaign succeeded or failed is often a mystery. Agencies and their clients will often have to move from quantitative analysis (each dollar spent translated to X amount […]
Survey: Despite Data Privacy Fears, Consumers Eagerly Embrace AI to Save Money
Consumers are leery of many things, but artificial intelligence doesn’t appear to be one of them. That’s according to a new survey by UserTesting, which found that despite concerns over data privacy — and a general uneasiness about brands using their personal information without consent — the majority of Americans are eager to embrace AI […]
Yelp Launches Index to Combat Deceptive Reviews
With fraudulent reviews on the rise, Yelp is making a change. Since 2012, Yelp has placed more than 4,900 Compensated Activity Alerts and Suspicious Activity Alerts, but for consumers, it can be difficult — if not impossible — to tell which businesses are bad actors on the platform. Now, in an effort to combat the […]
Locality Says Start Your Election Spending
Election season will be here before you know it, and TV remains the star platform for political campaign media spending. According to AdImpact, political ad spending is projected to reach upwards of $10 billion in media spending, with TV (broadcast, cable, streaming, etc.) on track to rake in half of that number. Locality, a TV-advertising […]
Arity and Tapestri Drive2Earn Partnership to Revolutionize Data Sharing
A strategic partnership between Arity, a leading data and analytics company, and Tapestri, an app that rewards users for sharing their data, has the potential to transform the way millions of drivers perceive and harness the value of their own location data. Together, the two firms are launching Drive2Earn, a new feature available in the […]
BUST: A Hard Landing as Soft Surroundings Files for Bankruptcy
Here we go again…another beloved retailer shutters its brick-and-mortar operations. Soft Surroundings filed for bankruptcy this week. This MULO (multi-location) women’s clothing brand once had 80 locations physical locations (reduced to 44) and is now shuttering all of them. The company, which released its first catalog in 1999, also sold home goods and accessories. However, […]
The Fastest-Growing Gyms Rely on Customer Intelligence to Win