For the past several years there has been an uneasy relationship between producers of Green consumer products and major retailers.Â
Large retailers saw Green products as a very limited niche opportunity.
Many Green manufacturers saw traditional retail channels as part of the problem, rather than the solution.
This tension is clearly easing. Today the Wall Street Journal reported [...]
The recession has had a fascinating and unexpected impact on the price battle between private label products and brand name CPG products.
The chart below (from IRI’s January Times and Trends report) shows how the prices of private label products increased MUCH more rapidly than the total CPG market during 2007 and 2008. I believe these price increases [...]
I was on a morning flight from NY to Chicago yesterday, reading the story in the New York Times about the death of Gourmet Magazine. News about yet another magazine folding is hardly even news.
What makes this more interesting is that I looked up from the article to see that the in-flight entertainment was an [...]
There have been countless articles written on the true size of the Social Networking world. I’ve contributed to the deluge with a couple of posts on my own site (Myths of Social Networking and More Myths of Social Networking).Â
Anderson Analytics recently released an extremely useful study on the SNS market. You can read a summary [...]
Price promotions are an important tool, especially in these difficult economic times. But, the panic of declining sales often leads marketers to confuse price promotion with brand strategy. No where is this more evident than in fast food, where we’ve seen many restaurants try to drive traffic by virtually giving away their food.
A recent LA Times article outlined some [...]
Yesterday’s Ad Age featured an article by Bob Garfield that I think does a great job of summing up the factors leading to the decline of global media. I certainly enjoyed reading it - I hope you will too. Bob Garfield Article.
The Bottomless Pit of CPMs
Garfield points to the primary factor fuelling this mass implosion as [...]
I have finally found a bright spot in these financial hard times. Direct mail is in the tank. My mailbox is less cluttered, trees feel safer and my mailman is walking a little straighter.
The most recent report by Mintel Comperemedia reports that nearly all the major Direct Mail categories are down. Some of the categories [...]
As we all know, advertising revenues are down. Print, TV, Radio, Online. All down. So, media companies are looking everywhere to fill that void. So if traditional advertisers are down, what’s going up?
Porn
Cable companies may be raising their subscription rates - but apparently they’re starting to lower the cost of On-Demand-Porn channels. In addition, they’re [...]
Retailers continue to struggle for ways to successfully cope with an accelerating decline in consumer spending.  Major retailers, across all spectrums, are experiencing dramatic declines in same store sales:
Williams Sonoma - 38% (forecast)
Gap - 14%
Target - 6%
Macy’s - 7%
Home Depot -9%
Some of the strategies being seen in the marketplace include:
 Cut costs - not prices.
Some stores, such as [...]
In the past five years, music companies, newspapers, book publishers and others have seen their revenues plunge as they’ve lost control of their content. Now television broadcasters are fighting the same bloody, ugly and ultimately losing battle for control.
Network executives and advertisers have been tearing their hair out trying to understand what to do about [...]
