I chuckled when I saw this headline on a recent Valpak mailer “Think direct mail is dead? Think again. As a new mover, let me tell you I seem to be on every list imaginable. There is no lack of direct mail in my household, between the move and our natural catalog and online shopping […]
For the last number years or so we’ve seen the emergence of quirky, innovative and sometimes irreverent consumer shave clubs. Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s come to mind. These businesses are full of personality…some wacky, others cheeky…but definitely not boring. Recent examples of videos from this group are: (here, here, and here). The internet has […]
Recent articles and events re-inforce the narrative started a few years ago: the retail shake-down cruise is nowhere near over. Issues with once mighty giants like Sears Holdings filing for Chapter 11 – on life support waiting for last minute funding, JCPenny becoming a penny stock for the first time since the 70’s, and others […]
Any college football fan knows of the Heisman House, a popular series of TV commercials for years featuring College Gameday. I visited the University of Notre Dame for the Michigan game earlier this year and an unexpected surprise was the Nissan Heisman House experience. Located next to the main tailgating area, this was well crafted […]
I had the opportunity this week to donate and recycle a bunch of computer stuff that had been accumulating in my house for years. I’m always a bit apprehensive about this because of privacy, with contact lists, financials, passwords, etc. which is why trust in this service is so important. I relied upon the Dell […]
A week doesn’t seem go by without some high profile CEO, Hollywood A-lister, or politician getting roasted for an ill-advised tweet. In the last week I can recall Elon Musk firing off a tweet about the possibility of taking Tesla private and catching his Board and financial staff off-guard. Weeks before it was for insulting […]
I recently attended the 2018 Notre Dame Chief Marketing Officer Summit sponsored by the Mendoza College of Business. The theme was “The Future of Customer Engagement in a Digital World”. Top marketing officers from Kellogg Co, TD Ameritrade, Intuit, Keds, Constellation Brands, American Eagle Outfitters, Ally Financial, Edward Jones, and USAA shared thoughts among others.
We are well into 2018 and we’ve seen our share of stories reinforcing the narrative that large retailers continue to shrink their footprint, (Toys R Us, Foot Locker, Best Buy cell phone stores), while Walmart, Amazon and even several Chinese retailers test larger automation. This new testing is well beyond the adoption of simple tablets at casual dining restaurants like Applebee’s and Chili’s, so we’ll focus on what’s new.
The last few years have seen some dramatic shifts in the footwear retail landscape. It may have started quietly in 2014, when kids shoe retailer Stride Rite announced it would close 140 retail stores and shift those resources to ecommerce.
News from the last 30 days has us convinced that a tipping point has been reached with major brands selling online through Amazon. Once a sensitive subject among major brands who feared a backlash and loss of business from their traditional retail channel, the floodgates now appear to be open.