Ben Sprecher

In some sense, marketing can be defined as "establishing and reinforcing specific habits in consumers." The reason marketing is so difficult is that the messages and media required to do that for different shoppers vary widely.

Here are a few key habit-influencing opportunities every marketer should be ready to...

This is an interesting article, but it misses one key question: how do you know this social stuff is actually *working*?

"Likes" don't shop in your stores, "fans" can't be used to pay your electricity bill, and "followers" don't increase inventory turns. These things only matter if at the...

Reducing food waste pays a number of dividends: lower labor and wholesale costs, increased efficiency in the supply chain, reduced impact on the environment (in terms of both energy use and waste products), and potentially even reduction in hunger in the community.

On the last point, there's a charity...

It's all well and good for vendors to come to the table with anecdotes and observations, but the real opportunity lies in having those stories backed up by cold, hard facts.

For example, we find that among our retailer and vendor partners, a typical vendor's year-over-year change in sales...

Death to the penny! No one will miss it. Why?

First, we round all the time today, we just don't notice. Sales tax in MA (where I live) is 6.25%. If I buy a $2 widget, do I bemoan the inflation because I have to pay $2.13 instead of...

A card on a keychain does not equal loyalty, and a points balance does not equal engagement.

With the explosion of digital media, consumers are under sensory attack from every direction, and the ONLY way to achieve a lastingly loyal relationship and to earn the customer's attention is to...

What a great framework from a great thinker and contributor to these discussions! Liz is completely on point that there is a new way to value the relationship with each shopper, and these four components make a compelling model for thinking about that non-monetary value.

Of course, at the...

You can't try on 10 pairs of shoes online (well, with Zappos.com free shipping both ways, you actually can). And you can't get careful, personalized advice from a sales associate when you are browsing the web (well, with interactive chat and 24-7 live customer service reps, you actually can)....

Retail *is* Big Data. The organic pulse and flow of so many different people acting both in concert (employees) and independently (shoppers) eventually ends up as 1s and 0s at the POS.

And I always marvel at how clearly the data tells the "story" of retail: the regular weekly...

In our experience, there are several even more effective strategies:

1) Targeting existing buyers of PL with "reach" or "up-sell" style offers to get them to buy more or to re-purchase sooner.

2) Targeting lapsed PL consumers to get them to buy again.

3) (in some cases) Targeting shoppers who...