Retail Marketing - Shopping Center Marketing

As principal of a commercial design firm that specializes in retail, restaurants, hospitality and corporate spaces, it amazes me how fast sustainable design has become the hot-button topic in the industry. Collaborating with developers, engineers, municipalities and builders has always required architectural firms to keep costs lean by reducing waste, but over the past few […]

Despite this past week, the year 2008, in general, has been an excellent one for developing nations. China, Brazil, Russia, India and other historically troubled economies continue to enjoy burgeoning middle and upper classes that are spending money on purchases they could not afford in the past.
In contrast, this has not been a good year […]

Web campaigns are a great way to engage consumers, but brands should be wary of the pitfalls.
Consumers are using the web more than ever, so it is hardly surprising that brands are trying to tap in to the trend and engage in online dialogue. The interactive nature of the internet makes it easier to achieve […]

We know about the MyStarbucksIdea website, which Starbucks positions as a catch-all blog, customer feedback site, and social networking website. The reality is that website is an unfocused slush pile for customer generated ideas.
But how many of us know about Starbucks V2V? It’s a full-fledged social networking site to promote volunteerism with customers and Starbucks […]

US consumers are going online to discuss their growing frustrations about the economic downturn as well as share money-saving tips and strategies for deferring purchases, according to Nielsen Online, writes MarketingCharts.
Gas and driving strategies and grocery-shopping considerations are two of the more popular areas of social-media discussion.
Gas and Driving Costs
As gas prices increase, so does […]

Despite the green-branding of products from grocery bags to toilet paper, most consumers are unwilling to pay extra or make sacrifices to be more environmentally friendly.
Today’s green marketing realities fly in the face of conventional marketing wisdom. The fact is people don’t buy products. They buy solutions to problems. But since most consumers don’t see […]

So Purex is doing a contest where consumers have tools to design their own T-shirt. Once you’re done designing it, before submitting your design to the T-shirt gallery, you can preview the shirt — on one of four models. And not just in a still photo, but rather a short piece of video where the […]

Dell CEO Michael Dell just introduced a never-seen-before Dell eco PC with a bamboo casing at the Fortune Green conference.  Dell claims the environment friendly computer is 81 percent smaller than a standard desktop, and uses 70 percent less power.
Not green enough for you? Well, it is also utilizes recycled materials such as old bottles, […]

Consumer recall of advertising with “green” messaging is high. More than one-third of consumers (37.1%) frequently recall green messaging; another third say they recall it occasionally (33.1%), according to a new Burst Media survey, MarketingCharts reports.
The online survey, conducted in April 2008 with more than 6,000 web users over 18 years of age, explores how […]

Let’s start with a fact.
Whichever terms you choose to characterize it—Going Green, Environmental Stewardship, Sustainable Development—the eco-agenda is not a fad. It’s here to stay.
Whilst some brands are actively engaged in the movement, other brands ignore it, and still others sit on the sidelines. Like any “new” aspect to a market, the eco-agenda started with […]