The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Maybe it’s time to tighten the belt again?

Last week we posted a report that consumers are planning on spending less this holiday season. Now The Conference Board says consumer confidence has dropped in October, which means we may have an even bluer Christmas than expected.

Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, says labor market conditions are playing a major role in this grimmer assessment. Franco says the short-term outlook has also grown more negative: a greater proportion of consumers anticipate business and labor market conditions will worsen in the months ahead. more

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Warren, PA-based apparel and home decor merchant Blair Corp. have issued another voluntary recall of women’s full length chenille robes after more reports of deaths due to these robes allegedly catching fire. more

So did you hear that there’s going to be a Free Shipping Day on Dec. 17, and all merchants are invited to participate? I heard about it, because I read it in The Briefing Room.

OK, that was kind of a cheesy plug for the new service of Multichannel Merchant. But I needed a cool way to tell everyone that The Briefing Room has launched, and why you need to visit it each and every single day. more

So much for the new austerity. Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus has already sold out of its special edition 2010 Jaguar just unveiled in its Christmas Book fantasy gifts catalog.

It took only about four hours from when the order phone lines opened on Oct. 16 for all 50 XJL Supercharged Neiman Marcus edition Jags to be snapped up at $105,000 a pop. Jaguar is only producing 50 of these cars, so when it’s over, it’s over. more

There’s nothing worse than getting a “robo call” from an automated machine. Except when it’s a wrong-number robo call.

I actually got two of them at the office Friday night—both meant for my colleagues on the sales side—from some vendor exhibiting at the DMA show in San Diego this week. more

Although catalogers have been dealt various blows the past couple of years, including the now legendary 2007 postal rate increase, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal talks about the importance of print catalogs to consumers. more