Branding

Hello women in retail leaders! Welcome to episode one of WIRLC's Women in Retail Talks podcast series. In today's episode, we're excited to offer highlights from a presentation given by Denise Lee Yohn, author of the best-selling book, "What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest," at our recent…

The Federal Trade Commission, which enforces U.S. laws against deceptive ads, said Tuesday that it had closed a probe of Wal-Mart Stores Inc after the company addressed the problem of products advertised as "Made in USA" when they were not. The FTC closed the probe without action after Wal-Mart dropped all "Made in USA" logos…

Dollar Tree, parent company of Family Dollar, will rebrand hundreds of its Deals stores into Dollar Trees or Family Dollars by next summer as it works to expand the combined company. Dollar Tree bought 138 Deals stores in March 2006 and has grown the chain to 222 stores in 19 states. Dollar Tree said it will…

ModCloth is taking a major step to be more inclusive by removing the word "Plus" from its website. The fashion brand has already removed the "Plus" section from the homepage of its website and is currently in beginning stages of removing the word from the site altogether.  

Ulta peppers suburban America with its beauty emporiums, offering a wide array of cosmetics and fragrances, from Urban Decay eye palettes to tiny bottles of Versace perfume. It’s the country’s biggest specialty beauty retailer by sales. Despite its aggressive national expansion in recent years, though, many women still have no idea what Ulta is ... and…

Good brands have personality, and frankly, The Kansas City Steak Company lacked one. That was the harsh assessment from John McKinven, president of The K.C. Steak Co.’s direct-to-consumer business, during a keynote presentation at the NEMOA directXchange Fall Conference in Schaumburg, Ill. last week. The purveyor of high-quality meats was suffering from a lack of…

Target is going on a health kick, aimed at both customers and its employees. The discount-store chain will push granola bars and healthy grab-and-go snacks over candy at the checkout and hand out free basic activity trackers from Fitbit Inc. to its more than 300,000 employees as part of the effort. Target will also give…

Apple Music is getting a little bit of luxury. Burberry, the high-end fashion retailer, said on Monday that it was starting a channel on Apple Music, the streaming music service. The channel will feature performances, songs and films that have come out of Burberry’s work with British artists. The deal is the first collaboration between the two…

Retailers are increasingly partnering with high-profile bloggers — i.e., those with thousands and sometimes millions of followers, and who wield a huge amount of influence over those followers and their purchasing decisions — to act as spokespeople or ambassadors for their brands.

If you stopped wearing your K-Swiss sometime around 2002, apparently you’re not alone. Late last year, the nearly-forgotten footwear brand started a campaign to reintroduce itself to the 21st century. The comeback was complete with a Kik campaign, a campaign called “The Board” that crowdsourced creative, and a little help from producer/DJ Diplo. Digiday talked…