Marketing

Typically, the arrival of the back-to-school season is a time for retailers to rejoice and shoppers to revel in the comfort of a familiar ritual. This year, of course, that’s all gone out the window. We’re in uncharted territory, and tentative consumer behavior is driving a high degree of anxiety among retailers. Uncertainty around both…

The realities of the pandemic have made Back to School a tough puzzle for retailers. The nation is divided on how it should approach the upcoming school year, and while no one can define what “school” should look like, brands can play an important role in helping us work out how to prepare. Successful marketers…

In episode 261 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Carly Stein, founder and CEO of Beekeeper's Naturals, a bee-powered natural wellness company that's obsessed with revamping the conventional medicine cabinet. Listen in as Stein discusses the inspiration behind the natural medicines company, her career background, and how she informally tested Beekeeper's Natural products…

The 2020 back-to-school season is going to look very different this year. Following months of remote learning and virtual classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many states across the country are uncertain about returning to school in the fall. This leaves a huge question mark in retailers’ campaigns for one of the biggest shopping seasons…

As a kid, Labor Day weekend was always an exciting time. It meant the end of summer, but also the beginning of so many new experiences. New classes, new friends, and new clothes! I now think of these moments through my son’s eyes, with the goal of helping him to prepare for back to school.…

There was a time in my life when I thought deciding what outfit to wear on the first day of school was the most challenging and difficult decision of prepping for a new school year. Boy was I wrong. As summer winds down and the COVID-19 pandemic continues on, schools are faced with much more…

As shelter-in-place rules continue to change across the country, it’s an important time for brands to stay connected with consumers. Social media is a tool that makes this possible, and a spike in impression inventory across paid media campaigns underscores its success in doing so. In fact, according to internal reporting data from my company,…

Last week, CommerceNext hosted its Virtual Summit as a forum for information sharing as the retail industry starts to rebuild from the effects COVID-19 has had. Melissa Campanelli, co-founder of Women in Retail Leadership Circle as well as brand and content director, Total Retail, moderated a panel which discussed the impacts of recession on marketing and merchandising…

Gift cards, both physical and digital, have often been viewed (mistakenly) by retailers as strictly a transactional product — in most cases to be rolled out during the Q4 holiday shopping season. However, gift cards hold a lot more value to a retail organization than simply as a product that's purchased in-store or on an…

In episode 257 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Massimiliano Tirocchi, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Shapermint, an online marketplace for women's shapewear. Listen in as Tirocchi discusses the Sharpermind brand, the body-positive message at the core of the brand, and his professional background. He shares how Shapermint adjusted its marketing strategy during the…