Bobbi Brown

Excitement abounds at Macy's. The company reported total sales of $27.9 billion, comparable store sales grew 2.8 percent (which includes sales from licensed departments), earnings rose 19 percent to $3.86 billion. The stores look terrific. Renovation of the Herald Square store is about 85 percent complete and is brimming with name brand vendors, from Gucci to Vuitton, Burberry to Longchamps, Michael Kors to Coach, Hermes to Tumi and Tom Ford to Bobbi Brown. The store has a new look, with updated departments such as the new shoe floor.

The warehouse is the last step in preparing a package before it lands in the hands of a customer. It's responsible for the last impression of the customer's overall buying experience. While this means it should be a key place to differentiate your brand's messaging, not many retailers recognize that order fulfillment represents an opportunity to capitalize on brand awareness. The fulfillment opportunity is responsible for the last impression of the customer's overall buying experience.

Retailer Pacific Sunwear placed its first quick response codes in stores and on print ads in March, linking to a mobile flipbook that allowed consumers to look at its new board short and swimwear lines. The codes allow retailers to enhance consumers' in-store experience while collecting valuable consumer data.

Target has the strongest consumer brand equity among retail brands, and was named as the 2011 Harris Poll EquiTrend Value Retail Brand of the Year. This is the second consecutive year Target has led the way in the category, with the gap between runner-up Wal-Mart increasing.