Branding

About a decade ago, businesses became aware of the magnitude of challenges associated with doing business in China and other emerging markets. For the most part, the customers with whom they'd be doing business with were still "the usual suspects," so the challenges were mainly around operations and logistics.

Sears Holdings and Sonic Solutions have partnered to launch an instant access movie and television series download service for Sears and Kmart customers. The RoxioNow-powered Alphaline Entertainment service will offer customers the ability to download movies and television shows on the same day they are released on DVD and Blu-ray. Sonic and Sears are collaborating to embed the service through a chip, which will be included on portable media devices, Blu-ray disc players, mobile phones and high-definition television sets. "Collaborating with Sonic provides a great opportunity for Sears and Kmart to launch digital services for customers seeking even faster

I love products that make me stop and think; products that halt me in my tracks and cause me to say things like, “What's that?” and “Just how did they do that?” Then, upon studying it further, “Well, now that makes perfect sense. I wonder why no one ever thought of it before?”

Astute merchants watch and monitor the way their customers buy and use their products, and continually adapt their offer accordingly, quenching their customers’ need for their merchandise in unique formats.

Just four days after confirming its surprise new logo was, in fact, legit, Gap is returning to its old design.

Borders Group Inc. President Michael Edwards says he has hit on a solution for reviving his money-losing bookstore chain: Be less like a bookstore.

By being honest and real with its customers, DSW redeemed both a negative customer experience and halted a potential public relations debacle with a simple, timely email message.

Gary Friedman, Restoration Hardware's chairman and co-CEO, says the brand has destroyed the previous iteration of itself, clearing the way to express itself in a never-before-seen fashion. A statement about the relaunch is in a 56-page direct mail piece that went out in late August and is also on the company's redesigned website, which proclaims the retailer to be "reinvented, remodeled, reborn."

Along with closely held Title Nine and VF Corp.'s Lucy brand, Lululemon belongs to an emerging class of retailers focused primarily on designing, making and selling athletic wear to women — and grabbing growing shares of the estimated $15 billion market for women's fitness attire.

How can your brand nudge its customers to make your products a bigger part of their lives? What are some small ways that you can make your brand more accessible to your customers?