Marketing

Patagonia, a leading designer of outdoor, surf and sport-related apparel, announced the launch of its Vote the Environment campaign. The campaign asks customers to register to vote, learn about candidates’ environmental records and vote for the world they want to live in. Patagonia is one of the only for-profit businesses to engage in a public campaign that aims to sway its customers’ voting towards the most environmentally minded candidates.

German sports apparel maker Adidas withdrew its plans to sell a controversial sneaker featuring affixed rubber shackles after the company generated significant criticism when advertising the shoe on its Facebook page. The high-top sneakers, dubbed the JS Roundhouse Mids, were expected to release in August, according to the Adidas Originals Facebook page. “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?” a caption below a photo of the sneakers read. 

With its IPO out of the way, attention has turned to how Facebook will make money to appease its new shareholders. Many retailers are using the free tools available on Facebook rather than paying to advertise on the site. While retailers are very happy with the returns they're seeing from Facebook, many are doing so for free. A prime example is luxury retailer Melrose.com, which has seen its sales rise 25 percent over the last two years. Melrose.com spent just $1,500 on Facebook ads in that time, with most of its activity focused on managing its (free) page.

Empathica, a global provider of customer experience management solutions, announced that its Consumer Insights Panel survey of more than 6,500 U.S. consumers found that despite a high desire to provide feedback, consumers are disenchanted by brands’ lack of responsiveness. Survey results showed that 85 percent of consumers have provided some form of feedback to big-box retailers, yet only 46 percent of respondents believe that brands actually use this feedback to make constructive changes to the customer experience. 

Ubiquitous connectivity allows consumers to easily check prices and buy on the go, which should worry (not terrify) traditional retailers in competitive categories. This "showrooming effect," which has been encouraged by Amazon, would enable web retailers to snatch some sales from the hands of their brick-and-mortar competition. A majority of sales are still happening offline, so the fear of showrooming - that most people are finding screaming deals online - is exaggerated. In fact, the majority of transactions still happen in stores, even when shoppers research online (yes, even when they've got their mobile devices in hand in a store

Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Wal-Mart have launched a new shopping experience that uses big trucks, free samples and QR codes to generate online sales of P&G products. 

Delia's, a 113-store national apparel chain (stores in 33 states, almost all in malls), is trying to master finding the sales promotion silver lining inside various Web crash clouds. On at least three occasions over the last several months, the chain's site suffered a non-trivial outage. It happens. But Delia's cleverly turned these outages into a marketing opportunity by sending an E-mail to all of its customers, where the chain apologized for the outage and offered to show its sincerity by offering free shipping on all products—but only for a couple of days, if that. 

The British label Burberry under the direction of Christopher Bailey is one-upping everybody else with its fall/winter 2012 campaign. Sure, there are the stunning photographs of Gabriella Wilde and Roo Panes by Mario Testino, London landmarks, fog, rain and all. And yes, there are the videos too-a series of small films that call to mind the brooding cinematography of The English Patient. But what sets these videos apart from the rest of the pack is that they are, to use the digital age's favorite marketing term, shoppable.

A magazine for teenage girls will try, joined by marketers and retailers, to add another “special” day to the American marketing calendar already crowded with celebrations both real (Christmas, Halloween) and fanciful (Black Friday, Cyber Monday).

Sports Authority has announced the launch of its first-ever customer rewards program, The League, which offers members 5% back on their total point balances of 100 points or more earned quarterly. The program offers one of the highest reward funding rates, as well as the lowest reward threshold amongst leaders in the full-line sporting goods retail industry, allowing members qualify for rewards sooner, the retailer said.