The Big Fat Marketing Blog

M-Commerce may not just be a convenience for your customers, but a hindrance to your business. While I heard some positives about the mobile channel last week at the Mobile Shopping Summit in New York, like that Century Novelty has launched a mobile site and that Rue La La may see mobile fuel 20% of all its sales, there’s another trend that may help consumers, but hurt your business.

The emergence of bar code readers on smart phones, plus the price-conscious consumer, equals people possibly buying from Amazon while standing on your sales floor. more

I received a new card for my Target store credit account during the summer. In a hasty cleaning frenzy I must have stuck the envelope in a drawer and forgot about it.

When I found it a few months later, I called to activate the new card, but the automated system told me the account had been closed. Well, I didn’t close it. more

What are we to make of Jack Potter’s decision to retire as U.S. Postmaster General on Dec. 3? more

Dunkin’ Donuts tweeted recently about a contest: “A bathtub of DD coffee? Naming a pet Dunkin’? How would u share ur fanDDemonium in The Ultimate DD Coffee Fan contest? http://dun.kn/cOSeOl.”

Followers submit a video showing why they deserve to be named the “The Ultimate Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Fan.” One grand-prize winner gets a trip to Costa Rico to visit a coffee farm, 60 months of free coffee delivered to his or her door and other prizes. Ten first-prize winners get 12 months of coffee delivered to their homes.

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Tom Hansen, the Managing Director at Rivet, Chicago will be sharing his thoughts with us using a cartoon version of himself.

When the holiday season rolled around, you could always count on receiving a Harry & David catalog featuring a luscious close-up of a fruit on the front cover. Sometimes it was a glamour shot of a pear luxuriating in its own golden sweetness; other times the pear might be joined by a few other edibles on a sled, garbed in Santa hats and boots.

Not anymore. The Gift Preview 2010 edition of the Harry & David catalog looks like any other food gifts catalog—leading recipients to conclude that Harry & David has become just like any other food gifts company.

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