Archives tagged: retail
As the global economy continues to be stressed and prices for all kinds of raw materials continue to rise, manufacturers are looking for ways to preserve profits. Although manufacturers are substituting materials where they can and locking in long-term contracts to protect themselves from price hikes, they may ultimately face the conundrum of passing along rising costs in the form of price increases to their customers. Will it work? Mixed results.
More At the beginning of the Great Recession, Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) had a clear policy against price promotions. By the end of the Great Recession, price promotions were clearly part of Abercrombie & Fitch’s retail strategy. What changed? Was Abercrombie & Fitch’s price promotion policy shift simply another shoot-from-the-hip shotgun response to declining sales, or was it a needed change to improve growth and profits?
More While the GROUPON model — the idea of getting a $50 meal for $15 — is clearly compelling to consumers, does it work for the retailer?
More In one of the most turbulent and bizarre weeks on Wall Street in recent memory, two of the most important indicators of the future of American business announced their earnings and quickly took a U- turns south. The two companies are Hewlett-Packard and Wal-Mart. Read why.
More It now appears that Border’s and Blockbuster will get their life-saving transfusions of cash and will live to fight another day. As P.T. Barnum once said: “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Neither of these companies deserves to survive.
More Activate Dormant Customers Through Strategic Discounting In today’s erratic economy, the key to growing your business involves activating dormant customers by using…
More Since its launch in 2008, Groupon has generated a storm interest. Positively featured in numerous news articles, news broadcasts, and even a few academic postings, but not every business working with Groupon reports satisfaction. Some are complaining of high expenses that brought few new customers.
So which is Groupon: goldmine, tar pit, or some niche in between?
More The Wall Street Journal has reported that Proctor & Gamble Co.’s new CEO, Robert McDonald, is “slashing prices” and warns of an impending price war in the branded consumer packaged good (CPG) industry. Yet, Mr. McDonald states, “In my mind there’s not a price war going on.” Is the Wall Street Journal guilty of hyperbole or is Mr. McDonald blithe to the profit destruction of price cuts?
More The saga of Steve Jobs and the Apple IPhone 4 gives warning to any strategic smartphone marketer who attempts to intrude on Apple’s turf.
More Going into the great recession, many commentators suggested and corporations undertook across the board price cuts. Many, but not all. Nordstrom took a different route. The results of their approach are in: better customer attraction, better profits, better post-recession positioning.
In this article, we will examine some key strategic decisions made by Nordstrom which enabled their counter-trend approach to triumph over the oft quoted “best practices”.
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