Is strategic pricing dead?

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

Given the accessibility of pricing information today, is it possible to be strategic in pricing your products and services? Or are we, all, trapped by the…

Retail Social Media Top 10 [Infographic]

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

A look at how some of the top U.S. retail brands stack up on social media.

POS users: A new attack has been discovered

by Brad Cyprus — Chief of Security and Compliance, Vendor Safe Technologies

During the Christmas holidays, families across America were anxiously awaiting the day of merriment and joy when they could rip open their presents, spend time…

Starbucks reusable cups, a redemption story

by Lisa Biank Fasig — Director, JZMcBride and Associates

Will a reusable cup get people thinking about their reusable cards? Starbucks may soon find out.

The Retail Revival has begun!

by Doug Stephens — President, Retail Prophet Consulting

Are you creating value?

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

Three calls is all that it took to identify a futile effort and how wasteful the investment in an innovation effort had been.

Did you just spell your customer's name wrong?

by Micah Solomon — president, four aces inc

"They spelled my name wrong again!" sings Loudon Wainwright III, the incomparable (if hard-to-spell) singer-songwriter.

Cookies and the key to success in retail

by Doug Stephens — President, Retail Prophet Consulting

For the holidays I took my friends, clients and business colleagues cookies. I bought them from a small coffee house and bakery in Toronto called Le Gourmand …

Leverage others' experience instead of wasting time on pure invention

by Chris Petersen — Owner, IMS

From the first days of school, we are taught that "copying others is bad." In the process of teaching students to think creatively, we create a lifetime…

Outhouses and QR codes: Never assume the norm

by Jeff Weidauer — Vice President, Marketing & Strategy, Vestcom International, Inc.

New research from the NPD Group shows that nearly 100 million people (or about half of Internet users) listened to music online in the past three months. No…

Predictable results

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

In the world of pricing, results are more predictable than we might think. Recently a Fortune 500 marketing professional told me that his company had changed…

Can you add value?

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

If you think I’m asking about your organization’s capabilities, I’m not. Then where, exactly, does the ability to add value lie?

What do you do after you become PCI compliant?

by Brad Cyprus — Chief of Security and Compliance, Vendor Safe Technologies

Congratulations! You took the time to become PCI (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliant by accurately filling out your Self-Assessment…

Two simple ingredients of personalization that almost all retailers miss

by Chris Petersen — Owner, IMS

Having lived in Canada, it is true that Thanksgiving is also celebrated there, albeit a month earlier than the US. The US Thanksgiving celebration has become a…

Is this the end of marketing?

by Doug Stephens — President, Retail Prophet Consulting

Imagine a world without marketing. No really… imagine a world where no one tries to sell you anything. Not because they don’t want to but because attempting…

Four myths of the marketplace

by Harvey Mackay — Author, Mackay Mitchell

1. We don’t have any competition.

The allure of low prices

by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

I missed the irony on my first read of the email in which a marketing firm talked about pricing. The second reading left me laughing. It never ceases to…

Autonomy vs. standards: in business, customer service and the customer experience

by Micah Solomon — president, four aces inc

As a business keynote speaker, I spend a lot of time speaking about the need for employee autonomy in customer service and business operations in general. And…

Paraprosdokian phrases for life, and retailing today

by Chris Petersen — Owner, IMS

Perhaps Yogi had it right all along: Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

The one simple thing your retail associates should be doing, but probably aren't

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

As Dale Carnegie's sixth principle teaches us, the sound of a person's name is the sweetest and most important sound to that person. It is an immutable truth…