Zel Bianco

I've watched Vine grow as a social media tool and believe it's definitely viable for retail marketing. Six second video clips might not seem like enough time, but as people infuse personal decisions more than cost and brand, it's important to find ways to connect to shoppers in a...

Cute is a relative term that means nothing and something at the same time. Mr. Granot's statement, "It's a conscious decision made by consumers to cute-up their lives through consumption," is an interesting take. I know that cuteness drives purchases in my home, albeit not from myself. However, "cute"...

Fourth quarter sales are always a critical time. I think anything you can do to remind customers of your presence and products is good. I agree with Al, multiple emails from a retailer are too much. Unless it's a new promotion, it isn't necessary to email more than twice...

The Warby Parker guys have certainly made their way through the speaker circuit and seems like an old story already, however, they are quite impressive. The fact that they keep on innovating in areas where they had problems to fix suggests that they will ultimately be very successful.

We already...

Time is our most expensive commodity and the only thing that cannot be replaced. In recognizing that, companies that offer true value in time-savings and high customer service levels will win. It frustrates me that every time I call my bank I have to enter in the same qualifier...

It really depends. Having client service and business development staff use LinkedIn and Twitter to develop awareness and thought leadership is a given and increasingly critical, but some others are productivity killers. When staff that should be writing code is constantly breaking their train of thought to respond to...

I was on the train this morning, looking at an advertisement, and noticed the social media directives of "Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter." And I thought, why? What is this going to do for me? What does it do for the company? The 34% of people...

Penney's customers are motivated by promotion, not deceit. If they're going to change sticker prices, they should at least remove the original pricing that shows a lower amount. A more graceful approach would have been to offer the lower coupons on higher priced items, but if the item re-price...

I like this story. Doesn't America love a comeback? The poverty penalty—the phenomenon that poor people tend to pay more to eat, buy, and borrow—is a sad fact, so I applaud Whole Foods trying to empower this great city.

Whole Foods does have the perception of being in more upscale,...

People like the idea of shopping in a fully automated environment, but place them in a store with no attendants and watch how many people freak out. People like options and to be self-sufficient. We are comfortable relying on ourselves because we do it every day. But to have...