The Power of Retail

Kids love to be able to design their own clothes, and now a retailer has come up with the very same idea in a workable manner. Springwise reports that Fashionology LA, a Beverly Hills store is allowing its teen customers to design their own clothes, by selecting from a several designs as inspiration and then selecting what they would like to make of it, using the touch screen Design pads. They will also be able to select a mood suhc as Pop, Rock, Peace, Malibu or Juku, select the embellishments they would like to be on the garment and so on.

Once the design process is complete, you head to the U-Bar where an inhouse Fashionologist will use a heat press and add the design elements to the garment. Once ready, the customer can put on the garment and be photographed in it and if she agrees, the photo will be shown on the stores 70inch screen and also be emailed to her so she can share her new look with her friends. The cost of the process costs from USD 20-90 depending on what item you pick and how elaborate the design is.

Popularity: 25% [?]

One of the most popular marketing techniques is the use of promotional products such as clocks, pens, T-shirts, USB drives and so on. A company can make good headway creating promotional products with its logo to distribute on a trade show, seminar or other event as these things do make an impact. While they are quite a common approach to marketing, the trick is to use them with the right products, so that they fit the customer profile and can be used effectively and productively. These are especially great for the immediate local market area as they will make a direct connection to the business. th

Popularity: 43% [?]

Looking for a job is becoming quite a global activity these days. I no longer matters where you are physically located, as you can easily find any kind of job anywhere in the world. So if you are specifically looking for an IT job, just do an IT job search in the country that you are interested in and you can be sure to find several great options. It never used to be quite as easy and quick as this before, but now being in a different location is no excuse for not being able to find a job. The Internet has made so many things so much simpler for all of us. For a small minority, this might not be a good thing, but for the majority of us it is a great advancement. Good luck on your job search!

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There is so much new technology and terminology that a lot of people are just pretending to understand it all, while actually they are thoroughly confused. They will never admit it of course. As usual, bLaugh has found a fun way to highlight this situation by making a comic about it. It is one of their older ones, but is good nevertheless. This one is really funny!

Enjoy!

Popularity: 71% [?]

The toy forecast for the summer is predicting lots of interesting things this year. With the economy on the slowdown, even though the economists are trying to deny it, consumers are not wanting to spend too much on luxury items. They will however, continue to spend on things like swing sets which they perceive to be long lasting and a good value item. Things are tough for lots of retailers, across the industry segments, but if you study the consumer, there are ways to find out how to make them spend. Many families are cutting back on travel this summer, instead opting for their local area and taking vacations that will not require too much driving to avoid paying for gasoline. So, there are ways that most families will be spending their money, marketers and retailers just needs to get into their heads and understand what they will spend it on.

Popularity: 69% [?]

Everyone knows that golfers are quite mad when it comes to their love of the game. Nothing should get in the way of their game, or else hell breaks loose! I used to play a lot of golf several years ago, daily in fact, but have not played for a while now. It’s a time consuming sport, not to forget an expensive one too, especially if you go for top of the line products such as these Callaway irons which are sure to give you a better game, but will set you back a bit as well. Golf is all about the swing, an effortless swing at that. The harder you try to swing and play a better game, the more the chances are of bungling it up. So one should forget about it all and just have a fun time, unless of course you are aiming to play with Tiger Woods!

Popularity: 20% [?]

Tesco’s Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has lots of reasons to celebrate. The company has been seeing a growing demand for its in-house brand of food which the company will be expanding to over 250 new products, such as ready meals, juices and teas, specialized yogurts and meats that are ready to be grilled, which sells for $9.99 and contains four sausages, four chicken thighs, four beef patties and four chicken drumsticks.

The company opened in November and has been gathering customer feedback from a variety of sources, including comment cards, surveys, online surveys etc on how to improve the shopping experience. It was thanks to this initiative that the company started accepting American Express credit cards, which has been widely appreciated by shoppers.

Customers have also commented on the ease of shopping at Fresh & Easy stores, with brighter signs making it easier to find products and read the information regarding the in-house brand.

According to Tim Mason, CEO of Fresh & Easy, “We developed Fresh & Easy by listening to what consumers wanted in a grocery market. We are delighted customers have responded so well to our own-brand foods. We know our popular ready meals — such as our mango chicken and beef lasagna — give families a great value alternative to take-out, and now there will be plenty more for customers to choose from.”

Popularity: 26% [?]

Dockers has always been one of consumers favorite companies with a special connection with a wide audience range. Lately, this has been even more true, with the new Dockers contest which is reaching out to a new segment of customers. The Dockers Commercial Contest is a great way to get involved with your favorite casual wear company, by creating your own story about your pants and submitting it to the Dockers TV Commercial Contest.

Just imagine a day in the life of my favorite pants, my tan pair of capris, would be like. The weekend would be the most exciting time of the week when they would go out for a nice long al fresco brunch after which it would be a trip to the museum and a movie in the evening to finish off a nice relaxing day. A day in the life of my Dockers would be definitely chilled out and fun. It just goes with the territory, after all. There’s no doubt about it at all, that Dockers are some of the most comfortable pants available and with the newer more stylish options available, I’m sure Dockers are sure to find their way into everyone’s closets.

While they are not always the kind of stuff featured in fashion magazines, the universal opinion has always been that they are the most comfortable way to be dressed. The changing workplace also means that more and more people are able to wear them everyday instead of just casual fridays, as was the case earlier.

Popularity: 37% [?]

JCPenney is shaking things up! A couple of decades ago, you could only get old-fashioned clothes that even employees might not have bought. Walk into a store now, and you will be able to pick up the latest of styles for teenagers, along with stylish clothes for working women, lip gloss by Dior and Sephora cosmetics. Quite a change for a stogy old company!

While the company might still not be at the cutting edge of fashion, it has found its target market with great accuracy. For the average middle class women, between the ages of 35-54 having an annual income ranging between $35,000 and $100,000, this is ‘the’ store to shop at. For younger customers as well, there is lots in store at JCPenney, who will be introducing new labels for dorm room furnishings and a back-to-school wear line called Fabulosity designed by Kimora Lee Simmons.

The company has seen a setback with consumers cutting back on spending, but that has occurred across the board with all retailers. According to Steven Hoch, marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says that JCPenney’s current turnaround is a great success story of recent times. Adding that, “J.C. Penney had to retrench and reposition. It was long and painful. The stores are significantly smaller than they used to be. But it has succeeded in becoming a moderately priced department store that offers good value.”

J.C. Penney had planned to open 50 new stores nationally this year but has scaled back to 36. The company’s 2007 annual profit was $1.11 billion, down 3.5 percent from the $1.15 billion the stores earned in 2006. Yearly same-store sales were flat when compared with those of 2006. And company officials say they do not expect sales to pick up during the rest of this year.

“I don’t think I’ve seen an environment as unpredictable as the current environment,” said company Chief Executive Officer Myron “Mike” Ullman III at a meeting with investment analysts last month.Two things J.C. Penney won’t cut back on, officials said, are the development of new labels and customer service.

By year’s end, the stores are expected to roll out several new brands. J.C. Penney also has started a new “customer first” service program that, among other things, allows employees to drop whatever they are doing to assist customers who need help in finding what they came to buy.

Popularity: 40% [?]

All marketers want to be able to connect with the decision maker of the house and in most cases it is women and especially moms. When it comes to Gen Y moms, reaching out to them is not the same as what worked in earlier generations. According to research by Moxie Interactive, the way to target Gen Y moms is different. Based on their findings, moms born after 1978 are committed to using products that other generations have used, but have a smaller circle of friends and therefore put a lot of stock in what their peers have to say about a product or service. According to Joanna Sammartino, managing director of Moxie Interactive’s New York office, “They’ll respond to a recommendation from another parent much more favorably than a straightforward ad.”

Gen Y moms are more likely to use community features such as posting comments and asking questions about a product at parenting sites, instead of heading straight to the commerce section as older moms will do. How that translates for marketers is that they need to use a softer approach with this segment of customers, such as using blogs, and social networking sites to become more familiar to consumers and build brand awareness. Word of mouth publicity is a very vital tool for this generation of moms too.

Moxie, an interactive ad agency that works for such clients as Nestle, Coca-Cola and Maybelline, says that while Boomer moms tend to be less tech-proficient, they are willing to spend a surprising amount of time comparing prices, products and services–perhaps because they are more likely to have older kids who require less hands-on care.

“Marketers think mothers are just too busy to play casual games,” she says, but Moxie has found that plenty of moms are de-stressing with electronic games. “And they regard something like a marketer putting a brand name on checkers, for example, as a non-intrusive, non-marketing way to reach them.”

Popularity: 34% [?]