Marketing

I've been an enthusiastic and vocal supporter of Penney's "no sale" strategy for almost a year now, sticking with the brand even as its marketing fell on deaf ears with consumers and investors. The stock was up last month and its website was reportedly a favorite visit during the holidays, but there's every reason to expect it will report dismal fourth quarter results (expertly obfuscated with stats on eyeballs, awareness and whatever). I now believe the company is doomed. We should stop holding our collective breath waiting for success, and start looking for lessons to learn from its failure.

The often-overlooked week between Christmas and New Year's is still a busy one for retailers-and Macy's is staking its claim. The retailer has dubbed the period from today through Jan. 1 its "Week of Wonderful," with plans for special promotions and deliveries of new merchandise. Consumers, often on vacation, flood malls to return gifts and use gift cards. In recent years, as gift cards have become increasingly popular, retailers have sought to stock fresh merchandise, rather than leave shoppers to pick over discounted holiday items. 

Retailers are making every effort to stand out to consumers this hectic holiday season. The focus is on the most competitive and profitable days of the year; Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now behind us, but they represent only the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Here are some tips for retailers to get those last-minute sales this holiday season:

American Apparel Email Margaret Bogenrief is a partner with ACM Partners. Recent Posts 3 Reasons Why Kohl's Is Sinking Black Friday Belies Darker Economy As we push into the final shopping week before that retail holy grail of Christmas, its time for...

The shift from analog to digitally influenced shopping at brick-and-mortar stores is the most important change in shopper behavior that marketers need to act on today. Ryan Partnership surveyed over 8,000 consumers this year to find out which digital tools they use, and which are really driving impulse purchases, increased spending and choice of retailer. Ryan's proprietary Impact Score uses that information to measure each tool's influence on shopping behavior. The results provide guidance on the best ways for retailers to use digital tools this holiday season. Here are five of those tips:

Target launched a new blend of entertainment and shopping this past October with a three-part series short film that simultaneously merchandises the complete outfit each actor is wearing. The user interface features the main target.com menu, a video player screen, the merchandised product list on the right side of the video and shopping cart favorites at the bottom of the video.

For some, it's the season of giving. For Bing, it's the season of attacking … Google that is. Bing has premiered a new TV commercial that calls out Google for recent changes it made to the Google Shopping section of its search engine, which essentially makes the section a pay-to-play zone. In the ad, a woman warns a friend who just bought a new pan he found on Google not to get "Scroogled."

Consumers rarely differentiate between devices when shopping online, but "laptops" rated as the No. 1 shopping query, followed by Nexus and Apple Mini. Variables in searches for electronics should clue in marketers on budget allocations and strategy. Traditional campaigns don't always work best during the holidays. Retailers approach the season with specific budgets in mind, but that doesn't always prove the best strategy. In fact, Google's Retail Head Brett Goffin calls the approach "shortsighted, because nonfluid" budgets could cause advertisers to leave sales on the table if they budget too low prior to the quarter.

Last Friday, a record number of shoppers hit retail stores. And even though most consumers were well aware of the Black Friday sales ahead of time, brands made sure that they put their advertising muscle behind the promotions to make sure that shoppers were running through the door early Friday morning. On the chart this week, we see evidence of that, with three Black Friday campaigns making the top 10.

Brands know that content is king. But the challenge is finding the right strategy for a constantly changing digital landscape. According to research by Econsultancy, 90 percent of marketers say that content marketing is going to be extremely important to them in 2013. But only 38 percent actually have a strategy in place. Digital agency 360i recently released a report that details what marketers can do to develop a strategic content marketing plan - covering everything from content development (creation and curation), to syndication and distribution, to optimization.