Archive: Marketing
Chatting It Up with Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart held its first online chat with shoppers Thursday on its new Web site, www.makeyourdollarstretch.com. The guest chatter was Ellie Kay, who dug herself out of $40,000 in debt and now writes books about saving money. The chat was the latest example of Wal-Mart's attempts to refresh its image under the new slogan, "Save Money. Live Better." (The old motto was "Always low prices. Always." Just in case you missed it.) For two hours, Kay fielded questions on everything from how to start a budget to paying for college tuition to filing bankruptcy -- though not in such a depressing...
By Ylan Mui | June 20, 2008; 12:00 PM ET | Comments (0)
Retailers Want Your Rebate!
Retailers are feeling very Jerry Maguire these days. All they seem to be saying is "SHOW ME THE MONEY!" That money would be your rebate check, or in government parlance, your "economic stimulus payment." The IRS announced last week that it had begun depositing money in taxpayers' bank accounts and expected to continue the payments through mid-July. The agency has posted a schedule for the rebates on its Web site, along with a calculator to help you figure out how much you're going to get. Retailers, of course, are wasting no time in helping you figure out how to spend...
By Ylan Mui | May 5, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (4)
The Saucy Siren of Starbucks
We are on the phone with Starbucks public relations and trying hard to sound like a hard-nosed investigative reporter. We want to ask about their newly brown logo and the mermaid -- Compare the new logo (top) with the old logo (bottom). (Images Courtesy of Starbucks) "She is a siren," spokeswoman Bridget Baker corrects. "A siren has a split tail and a mermaid has a single tail." She pauses. "This is my job." Well, we had to ask. And that's because the logo unveiled this month to celebrate the new Starbucks' Pike Place Roast reveals the saucy siren in all...
By Ylan Mui | April 25, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (6)
Drug Ads: Taking Medicine Never Looked So Good
Remember all those tricks drugmakers used to get you to take medicine as a kid? They made cough syrup sweet and acetaminophen chewable. They transformed horse pill vitamins into friendly cartoon characters. Well, perhaps a better approach would've been to inundate you with ads--ones that depict a fearful and alone child who becomes happy, confident and popular after taking a pill. That formula, it seems, works well on millions of Americans, who watch as many as 16 hours of prescription drug ads every year -- far more than the average time spent with a primary care physician. Since the Food...
By Annys Shin | January 30, 2007; 09:00 AM ET | Comments (40)
Fat Wallets, Slim Satisfaction
Reader Ken Roberts of Arlington recently wrote to complain about his fat wallet. The problem: It's gotten unwieldy thanks to all the customer loyalty stores from several grocery stores, the bookstore, pet store, drugstore, shoe store, sports-equipment store. etc. As Roberts said: "My wallet isn't that big." Besides, he added, "I'm always trying to simplify my life, so even one extra card bothers me." Roberts asked: "Wouldn't it be nice if they could all be combined onto one card. Rather than handing out new cards, stores could gather your card information and add the info to their database--maybe give...
By | September 7, 2006; 06:30 AM ET | Comments (43)
Whose Line is This TV's Anyway?
I went to the beach for an old-fashioned vacation last week and got a glimpse of the future: Checkout TV at the supermarket. Now that TVs are in every corner of every airport and even in a growing number of elevators, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see them in the grocery store. But I was. As I approached the checkout, there it was: a very loud TV promoting one supermarket item after another. And when the line was long enough (which it was a couple of times), I even got to listen to some entertainment news,...
By | August 9, 2006; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (27)
Fly the Noisy Skies
Just when you think flying couldn't get any worse... I took a trip to New York last weekend, flying U.S. Airways Shuttle. All went pretty smoothly; the plane even left the gate before the scheduled departure time both coming and going--a real treat. So why am I complaining? On the way home, as I settled in for a short nap, I was brusquely awoken by a way too loud announcement, "Welcome to US Airways." "OK," I thought. "Just go back to sleep." But the announcement went on and on and on and on as the airline used its captive...
By | April 28, 2006; 06:30 AM ET | Comments (40)
