The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Apparently there’s nothing so enjoyable that someone can’t find a way to make it nasty. Now flash mobs, those pseudo-spontaneous acts of guerrilla goofiness, have made their way onto the list of criminal tactics retailers need to be on the lookout for.

The National Retail Federation has included “criminal flash mobs” in its list of theft tactics retailers should be aware of. A surprising number of them already are, to their dismay. more

Last fall, Focus Brands, the franchisor and operator of Cinnabon cinnamon roll bakeries and other brands, held its first summit for small to mid-sized licensees. The idea was to bring them together and get them talking partnerships to leverage each others brands, grow their products, get consumers shopping in isles they may not necessary shop in and trying products they may never have otherwise purchased.

One of those attendees was a representative from SunMaid, which had begun licensing the Cinnabon brand in 2002 to produce Cinnamon Bread. Production began in small areas around Michigan and Ohio and over time more regional bakeries began to make the product. The business grew region by region and is now one of Focus Brands best selling SKUs. At the summit there was lots of talk about cross promotions. more

Old-school merchants like Fahrney’s Pens are using QR codes in their summer catalog mailings. In doing so, catalogers are taking advantage of the USPS’s special summer sale, which gives merchants a 3% mailing discount.

Are you on board with the USPS’s initiative? If so, Multichannel Merchant would like to see your work and hear from you. Please email a PDF of the cover or page that contains the QR code to Tim Parry (tim.parry@penton.com) and tell us about your QR Code campaign. We want to see what’s working and why, and we may feature your work in an upcoming issue (and/or on or on our Website, or in this very blog).

Last week, Dr. Melody King of Treepodia penned an article for Multichannel Merchant about using video to combat Google Panda. In her piece, she hits it’s best to post videos direct to your eCommerce site, so you can take advantage of the SEO.

In late spring, Stephan Spencer wrote a feature on how to optimize your videos for YouTube. Generally, it’s the same premise, but it’s more about getting your videos seen in YouTube’s search engine (which is the second-largest search engine to YouTube’s parent, Google).

Is one way better than the other? Or does posting your video direct to your site give you the same benefit as posting to YouTube? What’s your take?

Raise your hand if you joined a Facebook group to reminisce about your old home town or high school over the past few weeks. Raise your hand if you joined more than one of these groups. Raise your hand if you spent all day yesterday glued to your couch, following a particular group or groups.

Me? Last week it was the Life in Fairfield & Westport pre-1989! group. This weekend, it was If you’re really from New Canaan (CT) you’d know…..

Can these start-up groups that seem to be sweeping Facebook help it fend off the threat of Google+ (Yes, that links to Multichannel Merchant’s Google+ page… and we can;t figure it out!)? Yes, no and maybe, I guess… and here’s why I think that: more

The USPS is still losing money. Here’s an article from MSNBC.

How do you propose the USPS can turn things around?