Management

Brookstone, the innovative product development company and multichannel specialty retailer, announced the appointment of Stephen Bebis as the company's new president and CEO and as a member of the company's board of directors, effective immediately. Prior to joining Brookstone, Bebis spent 14 years as founder, president and CEO of Golf Town, the largest specialty golf retailer in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. Starting the business from scratch, Bebis grew Golf Town to 57 locations across Canada and led the expansion of the company into the Boston market last year with seven stores.

Workers at a Cambodian garment factory that makes clothes for Levi's, Gap and other well-known international brands are striking for more pay and better working conditions. More than 5,000 workers from the Singaporean-owned SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd. failed to reach an agreement with their employers Tuesday to end an 11-day strike. Ath Thon, director of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers, said workers are demanding an increase in their base pay of $61 a month for 8-hour days, six days a week. He said they want a $5 salary hike and an extra $25 a month for transportation and housing.

Digital Content is everywhere - your website, blogs, social media outposts, and every mobile device imaginable. And with customers and prospects radically adjusting to this wealth of information, companies are investing in developing digital content like never before. Despite their efforts, however, these same companies often miss valuable opportunities because they lack a well-rounded content marketing strategy.

This new whitepaper from Bridgeline Digital identifies the top 10 steps to building a content marketing strategy that you can execute within your company in an effective and timely manner.

What you will learn:

- What is content marketing management
- Why you should treat content like a critical business asset
- How to understand the content needs of your audience
- Why maintaining an editorial calendar is so important
- Why you need to give your content a "voice"
- Why content management and web analytics tools can best help you deliver relevant content

Gander Mountain withdrew last week from two National Rifle Association (NRA) events that partially focused on supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in next month's recall election. Gander Mountain had planned to host workshops in connection with the meetings at its stores in Rothschild and Eau Claire, WAOW-TV reported. When the company withdrew, the NRA moved the meetings to other locations. Gander Mountain, which sells firearms and other hunting gear, said it has been a longtime supporter of the NRA and has partnered with the organization many times before. But the company said it recently decided to stay away from political events.

Marketers have developed quite a bag of promotion and coupon tricks to get consumers to spend more at the checkout counter or when mailing in the order form. The good news for online retailers is that modern e-commerce software lets them easily adapt these proven promotional techniques to an online environment to lift average order sizes, revenues and profits.

You Will Learn About:

- Free Shipping
- Premiums
- Discounts
- Coupons
- and more!

West Marine announced the company's board of directors has named Matthew Hyde, 49, president and CEO, succeeding Geoff Eisenberg, 59, who, earlier this year, disclosed his intention to step down upon the appointment of a successor. Hyde will join West Marine on June 19.

A new digital marketing landscape is beckoning; how can you be sure you're prepared? With the simultaneous explosions of mobile, social networking, Wi-Fi and constant connectivity, we're creating a world that constantly offers more, with more selection, more options and more more than ever before.

More than 3.5 billion pieces of content are shared weekly on Facebook alone — certainly the fastest growing of the social platforms, but definitely not the only one. It's simply not enough to call this digital landscape "modern marketing" anymore.

Key points you'll take away from this free whitepaper include the following:

• how to build the best team, insource vs. outsource;
• what are the right tools for your marketing strategy — content management, e-marketing, web analytics and e-commerce;
• how to choose the most effective technology for your company goals — SaaS vs. perpetual, integrated vs. multiplatform; and
• how to tie all three together to increase traffic, visitor engagement and conversions.

Foot Locker announced the promotion of Richard A. Johnson to the position of executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective immediately. Johnson will retain responsibility for all of the company's store banners worldwide. He's been executive vice president and group president, retail stores since July 2011. Johnson has been with the company for more than 15 years in positions of increasing responsibility, including as president and CEO of the company's Foot Locker divisions in the U.S., president and CEO of Foot Locker Europe, and president and CEO of Footlocker.com/Eastbay.

Office Depot announced that it's finalized an agreement with the U.S. Army Partnership for Youth Success (PaYS) Program. The unique program will provide Office Depot with a source of highly qualified applicants for potential employment following their service in the military. It also serves as an additional recruiting incentive that increases the Army's ability to man the force.

Redcats USA, a multichannel, web-driven home shopping leader, announced today that Jonathan (Jon) Bernstein has been appointed CEO of The Golf Warehouse, effective immediately. Bernstein is a member of the Redcats USA executive team; his office is located in Wichita, Kan., the home of The Golf Warehouse, and he will report to Jay Berlin, CEO of The Sportsman’s Guide, another Redcats USA brand.