News and Analysis
The C-Store Five: Consumers Love These Convenience Store Brands
As we’ve covered in Street Fight, the C-store (convenience store) is a MULO (multi-location) category that is having a moment—a huge moment. Formerly viewed as the corner bodega or the highway stop for gas, smokes, emergency items, a beverage, and a bathroom break, C-stores are starting to play a more prominent role in the retail […]
MULO Brands With Soul August Pick: Sheetz
C-stores are a MULO (multi-location) brand category that often doesn’t get enough attention. Also known as convenience stores, the industry encompasses roadside retailers and neighborhood chains that we frequently rely on for last-minute grocery purchases, emergency items, and snacks/beverages. Given the transactional nature of these businesses, we don’t often consider them to have a “culture.” But Sheetz […]
Commentary
Connecting Retail Media Networks with Custom Audiences
Retail media networks (RMNs) are becoming a dominant force in the advertising world, propelled by the valuable first-party data they generate. This rise, however, also presents unintended challenges: the creation of walls around this data to protect consumer privacy and the retailer’s competitive advantage, resulting in a fragmented view of consumers. While safeguarding privacy is […]
How Generative AI is Propelling Local Advertising
The digital advertising landscape has never been more dynamic or more complex. As small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) grapple with these changes and challenges, they also face opportunities for growth. Generative AI technologies are empowering marketers with intuitive, powerful, and personalized advertising strategies, helping them to save time and effort and compete like never before. […]
How AI Is Transforming Phone Calls Into Data
“This call may be recorded for training and quality purposes” We’ve all heard a version of this ubiquitous message a thousand times. Chances are we don’t even notice it any more due to a form of audio “ad blindness”. Still, if we stop and think about it, interesting questions arise. What are these recordings actually […]
Latest Posts
The People Have Spoken: BrightLocal Reveals Review Ratings
When consumers search their small screens to decide where to shop, eat, buy groceries, or exercise, they often consult reviews. In fact, poor scores may send someone off to your competitors’ brands—never to return. We all know that UGC (user-generated content) and consumer reviews play a big role in decision-making today. The annual consumer review […]
Surveys 2.0: Chatmeter’s AI-Driven Solution for Enhanced Customer Insights
Chatmeter has announced the release of Surveys 2.0, a new solution from its Pulse Ai: Signals platform. This AI-driven tool offers multi-location brands a 360° view of customer insights by continuously analyzing survey data, reviews, and social data in real-time. This looks to be the first time such comprehensive, real-time analysis has been available in […]
The Billboard Now Big Screens: OOH Trends from Kevin Bartanian
We know that many consumers today use their small screens (i.e., phones and tablets) to organize their lives, find the things and experiences they need, communicate with friends, family, and colleagues, and watch countless hours of strangers and animals doing bizarre and sometimes comical/inspirational things. Marketers from MULO (multi-location) brands use those screens to push […]
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 […]
Streets Ahead: TikTok Adds Yelp-Like Features, AI Overviews
In this week’s Streets Ahead update we learn about TikTok adding Yelp-like features and Google’s updates to AI Overviews. TikTok Adds Yelp-Like Features The News TikTok is adding features similar to Yelp, categorizing location-specific videos into segments such as food and drink, hotels, and shopping. This update aims to improve user experience by making it […]
BUST: Clothes & Pizza
Last month, two very different MULO (multi-location) brands, Bob’s Stores and Mod Pizza, had significant financial challenges. MULO retailers and restaurants shuttering their brick-and-mortar operations or restructuring is certainly not major news these days. However, the recent announcements from these two brands prove that just because a consumer category is stable or growing, some businesses […]
Intent, Context and Attention: 3 Signals Helping Brands See in the Dark