Camille P. Schuster, Ph.D.

Why is it that Walmart's scientific analysis, conclusions, and interpretation for consumers is better than any other program? Once again Walmart attacks the issue by trying to create its own set of criteria (that consumers have to go to the website to thoroughly understand) that is different from everyone...

Just like consumers cannot be categorized as representing all consumers, retailers or manufacturers can not be categorized as representing all retailers or all manufacturers. Some retailers and some manufacturers are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in specific areas. No retailer or manufacturer is leaps and bounds ahead...

Maybe the fact that there is so much disagreement about the ads this year is that they appealed to specific parts of the audience and not the whole audience. That being said, if the ads are supposed to appeal to specific parts of the audience, the Super Bowl is...

There was a great webinar yesterday given by Doug Stephens for Junction Solutions addressing the future of retail. His main point was that technology is not the issue. The primary issue is the consumer behavior change created by the technology and, in this vein, argued that entering a store...

Does Dixons do business outside of Europe? Has John Browett done business outside of Europe? If the answer to either or both of those questions is no, why is he a great choice to expand in Asia? I, too, am in the skeptical column.

Some Chambers of Commerce have been offering group health insurance to their small businesses. This is a smart idea.

The "greeter" is an icon image associated with Walmart. When Walmart changed away from "low prices always," consumers did not accept the upscale image and Walmart went back to "save more, live better." When Walmart took out huge numbers of branded products consumers reacted negatively and brought many back....

Limited assortment stores do not need the large footprint of the normal or big-box stores. As a result, they can fit in spaces closer to neighborhoods. The challenge is to identify the proper assortment that will appeal to that neighborhood while maintaining cost efficiencies for running the store. If...

Paid advertising needs to be identified in print media so paid endorsements could be required to have disclosure, but who would monitor that? In the absence of notification of whether reviewers have been paid, it appears that Ryan is right -- caveat emptor.

Experimentation is good for generating new ideas, products, and services. However, creating a service that duplicates existing tools (intranet bulletin boards) without any added value is not going to go very far. Given the privacy settings on most social networks, ensuring a closed network on a social media site...