It's a tough time to be in the grocery business. Walmart, which derives nearly half of its revenues from grocery sales, recently reported that February 2013 was the worst sales month they've had in 7 years — an absolute disaster, according to leaked internal memos. The...
As a retailer, your success is almost entirely dependent upon how successful your sales team is. Not all salespeople are created equal. There are tremendous variations in personability, physical attractiveness, and understanding of human nature as well as the sales process to take into account....
Duane Reade was facing an invisibility issue. The drug store chain was struggling in a crowded marketplace, surrounded by legions of Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aids, and Health Marts. With competition on every side, Duane Reade wasn't giving their customers a reason to choose them—and they...
It's one of the most common, frustrating, and expensive mysteries of retail. You start carrying a new line of merchandise—products that you're genuinely excited about, high quality stuff that you can offer at a competitive price—and your customers just don't care. They walk right by...
L.L. Bean has been very successful in the mail order business for one hundred years. Founder (and namesake!) Leon Leonwood Bean would be proud — and probably absolutely dumbfounded by the latest role the familiar catalog has taken on in the marketing and promotion of...
When Walmart promised, earlier this month, to hire any recently discharged veterans who want a job, it made headlines around the world. Veterans have had a disproportionately difficult time finding employment after finishing their military service: the Huffington Post reports that unemployment rates among veterans...
What are your competitors going to be doing to attract their customer's attention in 2013? Many of them are going to attempt acting less like advertisers and more like publishers, according to this Adweek article focused on the digital marketing trends to expect in 2013. Strategic...
First, it happened at Wal-Mart. Then it was employees at numerous NYC McDonald's staging a one-day strike. Both groups of strikers were advocating for better wages, health care benefits, and the ability to organize. The typical striker makes less than $8/hour. At approximately $1,280 a month,...
What would you say if you learned that everything you learned in business school is wrong? Not just wrong, in fact, but fundamentally and fatally flawed, rotten to the proverbial core? How would that knowledge change how you function as a business leader? These fascinating questions...
If there's one story that bears examination in the wake of the 2012 Presidential election, it's why so many people were so profoundly shocked by the outcome. This is a tale about the power of narrative, and how the stories we believe shape the way...