"Acosta Partners for Wal-Mart Demos" at Supermarket News.  "Acosta Sales & Marketing here said its integrated marketing division has formed a partnership with Out Front Marketing to provide custom experiential marketing for products outside Wal-Mart stores...Out Front Marketing creates and executes experiential solutions and events at Wal-Mart parking lots and store exteriors. The company uses portable marketing centers called “Mobile Brand Boxes,” which can include interactive simulators and games as well as other loyalty and brand-building tactics."  Read more:  https://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/acosta-partners-wal-mart-demos#ixzz2RRXGCTO2   "Sleeping ad giant Amazon finally stirs" at Reuters.  "An Amazon mobile ad network, launched late last year, [...]

  "Wal-Mart Vs. Amazon: World's Biggest E-Commerce Battle Could Boil Down To Vegetables" by Clare O'Connor at Forbes.  "What else can Wal-Mart possibly do to win the web? Nielsen’s Todd Hale has one answer. “E-commerce is growing at 11% a year, but sales for consumer packaged goods online — food, groceries, everyday items — are more like high double digits, almost 20%,” said Hale, SVP of consumer and shopping insights. “This is the space Wal-Mart has to go after: perishable items. That’s where they need the infrastructure.”  Read more:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2013/04/23/wal-mart-vs-amazon-worlds-biggest-e-commerce-battle-could-boil-down-to-vegetables/   "A free lunch at Costco?" by Donna Freedman at [...]

    "DIY chain Menards bets bigger is better" by Karen Dybis at The Detroit News.  "According to marketing-research firm IBISWorld Inc., Home Depot and Lowe's accounted for about 73.4 percent of industry revenue in 2012, making home improvement a highly concentrated industry.  IBISWorld estimates that Menards generated revenue of $7.6 billion during 2012, accounting for about 4.8 percent of the industry's market share. Generally, IBISWorld estimates revenues at home-improvement stores will increase at an annualized rate of 3.1 percent to $191.5 billion by 2018."  Read more:  https://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130423/BIZ/304230325#ixzz2RHgocIpE   "Big box uses emerge as more Wal-Mart sales go online" by [...]

  "The Store Is Media And Media Is The Store" by Doug Stephen at Retail Prophet.  "You see, what’s actually evolving is a new and far more complex role for the store, and online brands like Google, Bonobos and Warby Parker are affirming it, as they each embark on creating their own, branded, physical stores. They along with a growing number of other online pure-plays recognize that in order to “fully actualize” their brands, they need to animate a physical presence and visceral experience for their consumers, not to move products but more critically, to move hearts and minds"  Read [...]

  "Twitter Lets Advertisers Target Keywords In Tweets - But It's Still No Google" by Robert Hof at Forbes.   Here’s how Twitter describes the way it will work: For example: let’s say a user tweets about enjoying the latest album from their favorite band, and it so happens that band is due to play a concert at a local venue. That venue could now run a geotargeted campaign using keywords for that band with a Tweet containing a link to buy the tickets. That way, the user who tweeted about the new album may soon see that Promoted Tweet [...]

  "Orchard Supply Loses Fight Against Home Depot" at Courthouse News Service.  "A California hardware chain cannot pursue claims that Home Depot's exclusive supplier deals with power-tool manufacturers illegally restrained trade, a federal judge ruled...Orchard sought to hold Home Depot, Milwaukee Electric Tool and Makita liable for tortious interference as well as violations of the Sherman Act; its California counterpart, the Cartwright Act; and unfair competition law.  U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco dismissed the case Friday for failure to state a claim."  Read more:  https://www.courthousenews.com/2013/04/17/56792.htm   "Target’s ‘Show Don’t Sell’ Content Strategy" by Giselle Abramovich at Digiday. [...]

  "Americans sticking with cheaper store brands, Deloitte survey finds" at Life Inc.  "Deloitte's annual American Pantry Study out Tuesday shows nearly nine in 10 consumers are substituting private-label, or store, brands for national brands they've regularly bought in the past.  The survey, which was conducted in January, also finds 94 percent of Americans indicate they will remain cautious and keep their spending for food, beverage and household goods at its current level despite the stronger economy and climbing stock market."  Read more:  Read more:  https://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/04/16/17778843-americans-sticking-with-cheaper-store-brands-survey-finds?lite   "Target’s first-quarter forecast gets a little more gloomy" by Dee Depass at Star [...]

"Game on: Why Walmart is ranking suppliers on sustainability" by Mark Gunther at Green Biz.  "So Walmart is asking lots of questions of its suppliers. Among them: How can wheat be grown with less water and fertilizer? How can chemicals of concern be removed from toys? What mining practices were used to extract copper, gold and silver for computers or jewelry? What percentage of your televisions sold last year were Energy Star certified? Do the grapes in a bottle of wine come from a farm with a biodiversity management plan? How much water was needed to produce those polyester pants?  If [...]