[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Click play >> to view this month\u2019s video welcome(47 seconds) from NYC<\/em>\u2028The annual NRF convention at the Javitz Center was abuzz with new technology that will make running a retail organization more efficient with state-of-the-art systems and programs. The exhibits floor was full of representatives and retailers and as many high tech sounding names. Hopefully, these innovations will save the companies enough money to offset the loss of revenue most stores experienced in the past couple months of holiday sales.. With a lousy December (-0.4%) and an overall disappointing two-month holiday period (3% vs. a prediction of +4%), there were many reasons given for the poor performance in the trade articles that followed today\u2019s release of December figures. The old stand-by \u201cbad weather\u201d and over-used \u201ctentative consumer\u201d were cited most often. Nobody, however, said that their marketing efforts were off the mark.<\/p>\n I won\u2019t dwell on that again in fear of sounding redundant from last month\u2019s article. However, it was interesting that most of the program at this year\u2019s convention failed to address the key issues of marketing and branding. About the only sign of the \u201cB-Word\u201d was on one of the displays at the NRF bookstore where 4-5 books promised the key to better branding. (Unfortunately, my book isn\u2019t quite finished in time to hit the shelves!) In talking with several of my retail counterparts at the convention, we all were in agreement that this year\u2019s holiday marketing efforts were about as exciting as the 30 re-runs of the clay-mation version of \u201cRudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer\u201d. It just seemed that those who did advertise had nothing to say other than another \u201clowest prices\u201d sale in ads that looked so similar; one had to yawn whenever we opened the daily newspaper (those of us who still get the paper, that is.),<\/p>\n Looking for answers, maybe these disappointed retailers should have been sitting in church with me when our pastor used a quote that seemed to \u201chit the nail on the head\u201d \u2013\u2028\u201cThe bitterness of poor quality lingers on long after the sweetness of a cheap price fades away.\u201d Sure, we all have to have a great price image to survive in today\u2019s marketplace. However, whatever happened to giving customers a really great shopping experience (especially at the holidays)? With lousy service, jam-packed clearance round racks, and with advertising that seemed dull and redundant, retailers have lost the value part of the proposition. It\u2019s interesting to look at the December comp\u2019s, that the ones with the worst performance were also the ones with the dullest advertising and store presentation. I won\u2019t list them here, but the December results are available online so you\u2019ll know who I mean.<\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting that Wal-Mart broke with some really good ads that communicated their value statement while at the same time they broke with blockbuster pricing. The turnaround in sales also reflected a much better shopping experience in the remodeled stores that I visited. Costco\u2019s results continue to be amazing in view of their lack of any advertising. The store experience says it all. Flat screen TV\u2019s were the hot items and these stores had displays that rivaled the big electronics stores and were a lot less confusing to shop.<\/p>\n Macy\u2019s announced that while it now had its logo on hundreds of stores in every market (which produce lousy sales), they were expanding their San Francisco web offices due to increases in their online business. The amount of gift card sales only punctuates our customers\u2019 lack of enthusiasm to shop for actual gifts and other traditional holiday items.<\/p>\n The time to start building Holiday 2008 sales is now. Stores need to take a look at their marketing efforts and research their brand position and start NOW to provide a reason for customers to shop them now and on an ongoing basis. It\u2019s the only way to build a better business all year.<\/p>\n RAC CHICAGO\u2014A GOOD PLACE TO START.\u2028To get inspired and re-energize your branding efforts, start out by attending this year\u2019s Retail Advertising Conference in Chicago on February 6-8. The program promises to be one of the best in helping you make your marketing message \u201cstick\u201d with your customers. Click this link <\/a>to get all the information about this year\u2019s program and registration.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Click play >> to view this month\u2019s video welcome(47 seconds) from NYC\u2028The annual NRF convention at the Javitz Center was abuzz with new technology that will make running a retail organization more efficient with state-of-the-art systems and programs. The exhibits floor was full of representatives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}