It’s U.S. Open Time: Pro Athletes Help Brands Win
Partnerships between brands and sports figures are becoming more popular, but now female athletes are starting to show a stronger ROI.
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American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney Ad Spawns a Culture War
The American Eagle disaster proves that retailers can no longer afford to confuse stock market performance with DEI awareness. Not in an era when customers dissect corporate messaging, then build communities around it on social media. The Sweeney ad demonstrates what happens when a company’s entire chain of command neglects to question the implications of what they’re putting out in the world, or how that messaging fits into the global climate.
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Ulta Beauty Scales Internationally with Space NK
Space NK is still growing at pace. Last year, its earnings increased 34 percent to $265 million, powered by growth in its under-25 consumer cohort, the retailer’s fastest-growing demographic. Even with the return of Sephora in the U.K., and the growth of Boots, the domestic Walgreens-owned chain, which has also pivoted hard into beauty, Space NK has retained customers with its loyalty program and differentiated offer.
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Aspirationals Compromise Luxury Brands
For brands and conglomerates, such as LVMH and Kering, that have exposure to both aspirational and legacy luxury consumer segments, it’s essential to do a better job of identifying aspirational consumers and tracking their evolution along their luxury journey toward becoming elite customers. This demands insight into how identity is shaped and reshaped over time. The real differentiator is understanding the deep drivers that anchor someone to a brand, even in times of economic friction.
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All in the Family (Dollar)
Maybe Family Dollar needs to buy a zombie brand like Bed Bath & Beyond or Sears for linchpin products that consumers still value and can’t find anywhere else. These could be the cornerstones of a differentiated merchandise mix that makes Family Dollar stand out from the competition.
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Stop Thinking Omnichannel, Start Talking Harmonic Retail
Retailers have traditionally thought in terms of distribution channels and have structured their internal systems and metrics around them. But that channel-centric thinking is at odds with how customers actually engage with retailers. For example, customers may start their journey
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Millennials Are Getting Bored with Startups
Everyone wants to be part of a brand\’s come up story nowadays. In today\’s retail startup environment, entrepreneurs start off small and unknown with the hope of a rags-to-riches narrative with a devoted millennial following. And judging by the brands
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Ocado: Tom Hanks or C. Thomas Howell?
Recently the Wall Street Journal reported that Kroger has struggled to come to grips with the impending online grocery upheaval. While Kroger has tried many new things – from testing digital shelving to embarking on autonomous vehicle delivery, one Kroger
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Amazon Go Stores Will Go: Walmart Eats Their Lunch
For sure, Amazon took all the oxygen out of the room and the breath away from the entire retail industry. And it continues … except for one retailer. As it turns out, Amazon was but a tweak in the nose
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I Want It Now
We have been reporting about the customer service experience for years – following the arc of the neighborhood store in the 50s where everyone knows your name to the AI-infused tech age of drone delivery where, when and how our