Branding

Jones Group Inc. announced that it is deepening its partnership with world renowned designer Brian Atwood through the acquisition of the Brian Atwood brand. The transaction will bring Brian Atwood's existing and future collections, inclusive of his luxury shoe collections, into the Company's portfolio and furthers Jones' strategy of acquiring and nurturing the world's best creative talents and designer brands to infuse a strong design-driven perspective in the Company's portfolio. 

Everything you do, everything you say, everything you are — and I mean everything — is a direct reflection of your brand. All of these things need to be managed and controlled, but in a way that doesn't seem managed and controlled. Sound difficult? It is. That's why so few brands actually do it well.

Neiman Marcus is rebranding its contemporary departments within each of the 42 Neiman Marcus stores as Cusp shop-in-shops. Neiman Marcus first launched the Cusp brand in 2006 with two freestanding stores that offered consumers a contemporary assortment including apparel, shoes, handbags and accessories in a boutique environment. The brand has grown over time and now includes a total of six Cusp stores and Cusp.com. 

Online spending may be increasing, but the venerable catalog is doing anything but fading away. In fact, it's still an important part of business for retailers. “It’s basically a marketing tool,” said retail analyst Eric Beder, a managing director at Brean Murray, Carret & Co. “The beauty of a catalog is that you don’t have to go online to see it, so you can use it anywhere.” More than 12.5 billion catalogs were mailed out to homes in the U.S. last year, according to the Direct Marketing Association, the largest global association for the marketing community.

You'll be hard-pressed to find an uglier quarterly report out of the retail sector than what J.C. Penney (JCP) delivered on Tuesday night. Investors figured that new CEO Ron Johnson's "Fair and Square" pricing strategy wouldn't be a hit right away, but no one assumed that the recently remodeled department store chain would be this earnings season's biggest disaster.

The dynamic mobile landscape offers many opportunities, but it will take a smart retailer to cut through the noise, capture consumers’ attention and drive action. Branding through excellent ad experiences, connecting consumers to deals, and targeting critical ad times will enable retailers to place themselves where the consumer is already browsing and keep their brand relevant.

Liz Claiborne Inc. said Tuesday that it's officially changed its name to Fifth & Pacific Cos., following an initial announcement in January that it would do so. The company sold the Liz Claiborne and Monet brands to J.C. Penney in November, freeing it up to concentrate more fully on its Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand and Kate Spade labels. “As we say a final goodbye to the iconic Liz Claiborne name, we know the time is right for a change, and we welcome our bright new future as Fifth & Pacific Companies,” CEO William McComb said.

Babies"R"Us today announced the launch of a multilevel partnership benefiting families of the United States armed forces in collaboration with Operation Shower, an organization that hosts baby showers for military wives to ease the stress of their husbands’ deployment. Beginning today, Babiesrus.com/OperationShower will serve as an online information portal where visitors can learn how they can support this charitable program and ensure that military moms-to-be, who are often far away from friends and family, receive basic essentials for their newborns. To kick off the partnership, the Toys"R"Us Children's Fund, a public charity affiliated with Toys"R"Us, has donated $100,000 to Operation Shower.

French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, maker of Louis Vuitton handbags, Moet Champagne and other high-end brands, beat revenue expectations Wednesday, but doubts remain about the sustainability of the sector given the poor economic climate in Europe. The company said it “will continue to focus its efforts on developing its brands, will maintain a strict control over costs and will target its investments.” One of the ways it manages those brands is through a carefully managed social media campaign, primarily focused on Facebook pages.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, Pinterest is primarily image-based. Engagement is all about leveraging visual images to establish quick connections between brands and consumers while promoting social sharing and ultimately driving traffic to the brand's website.