Kansas City
A columnist for Retail Online Integration, George founded HAGUEdirect, a marketing agency. Previously he was a member of the Shawnee Mission, Kan.-based consulting and creative agency J. Schmid & Assoc. He has more than 10 years of experience in circulation, advertising, consulting and financial strategy in the catalog/retail industry. George's expertise includes circulation strategy, mailing execution, response analysis and financial planning. Before joining J. Schmid, George worked as catalog marketing director at Dynamic Resource Group, where he was responsible for marketing and merchandising for the Annie's Attic Needlecraft catalog, the Clotilde Sewing Notions catalog, the House of White Birches Quilter's catalog and three book clubs. George also worked on corporate acquisitions.
Joe Keenan is the editor-in-chief of Total Retail. Joe has nearly 20 years experience covering the retail industry, and enjoys profiling innovative companies and people in the space.
Sheplers, a western-wear retailer, on Friday reported it had been victimized by a data breach in which customer credit card information was exposed to hackers. The company said the breach involved credit cards used at its stores between June 11 and Sept. 4. Sheplers said it doesn't believe the incident affected its online store. The company said it's working with law enforcement investigators, but "at the present time, we believe it's safe to use payment cards at Sheplers." According to the company, the customer information at risk includes names, account numbers for credit and debit cards, and card expiration dates.
Tribute bands pretend to be something else. Their motivation may be out of admiration, but essentially these musicians copy successful bands right down to dress, hair style and accent. Tribute bands appeal to a subset of fans of the bands being imitated. They limit their potential by pretending to be musicians perceived to be more talented than themselves. Is your company a tribute band? Are you constantly pretending to be your competitor? Here are some ways to tell:
Many consumer catalogers have unknown gold nuggets in their database. These nuggets are called businesses. If you treat these high-value customers as if they're retail customers, you're missing a big opportunity. If your product line has this cross-over appeal, you could potentially double your sales through expansion into the B-to-B universe.
Deft, Netherlands-based IKEA plans to incorporate geothermal technology into the heating and cooling system of its future Kansas City-area store. The store, which is under construction in Merriam,...
The strongest promotion in this spotlight comes from Ray-Ban, in large part due to its branding. Ray-Ban is hosting "Envision the Possibilities," encouraging consumers around the world to contribute their visions to the #EnvisionSeries gallery. Ray-Ban has two Facebook apps working for the promotion. The first app is for "Never Hide Films," which right now is featuring "insanely talented people who are changing the way we view creativity in social media." The second, called "Social Visionaries," scans public Facebook data to create personalized videos: "The Social Brilliance of [Facebook Username]."
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