- Mark Levin Signs Multi-year Deal with ABC, Expands Show to 3 Hours
- Consumerist.com Adopted by Old-School Consumers Union, Stops Selling Ads
- For Auto Industry, 2009 Holds Even Tighter Ad Budgets
- User-Generated Magazine Publisher 8020 Media Shuts Doors
- Out-of-Home, Fueled by Digital, to Weather Recession Well
- Clear Channel Swaps Cincy Stations for Five in Green Bay
- Consumers Swarm to Discounters for Grocery Items, Don’t Switch Back
- Wikimedia Raises $6.2M to Keep Wikipedia Afloat
- Conde Nast’s Jan. Ad Pages Slip More than Most
- Aegis Faces Possible Sale or Spin-off of Non-core Businesses
- Top US Cities for Charitable Givers, by Category
- Online Fitness, Video Game Spending Outperforms Brick-And-Mortar
- RIM Must Fix Glitches, Boost Satisfaction To Hold Off iPhone
- LCD TV Revenue to Fall YoY for First Time Ever
- Top 10 Broadcast Media Websites - November 2008
- Top 10 Entertainment Online Advertisers by Image-Based Impressions - November 2008
- Top 10 Sports Websites - November 2008
- Eight in 10 Online Holiday Shoppers Read Web Reviews
- Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index: Merry Outlook for Some, but Not Others
- Firefox Share Tops 20% in November
Don't Believe the Hype
‘Capitalist Department Stores’ in France Target of ‘Afghan Revolutionary Front’
The renowned Printemps department store in the French capital was evacuated today after bomb threats were received, CNN reports. Five sticks of dynamite were apparently discovered inside the store, which is usually packed with shoppers this time of year.
A letter sent to Agence France Presse, ostensibly by a group calling itself “Front Revolutionaires Afghan” (Afghan Revolutionary Front), warned...
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Black Friday Sales Up 3% from 2007
Though Black Friday sales this year rose 3% from last year, reaching $10.6 billion, analysts warned that it may not necessarily be an indicator of a healthy holiday shopping season.
The rate pales in comparison with the 8.3% rise in 2007 (vs. 2006) and is the worst increase since 2005, when Black Friday sales actually decreased 0.9% year over year.
This year, the gains were greatest in the...
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‘Must-Have’ Products Still in Demand
Sales of discretionary items have been steadily falling since the beginning of the year, but brands that you “eat, drink, smoke, or wash yourself with” are faring well in the downturned economy, writes Brandweek.
More consumers are choosing to save money by shopping at grocery stores and cooking at home, leading to diminishing restaurant sales and increases in the grocery category.
For example,...
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Most Consumers: Rebate Checks Were No Economic Stimulus
This spring, US consumers were excited about tax rebate checks - a Harris Poll found that 45% said the checks would help stimulate the economy - but now that summer is over and most stimulus rebate checks are cashed, attitudes have changed, a new Harris Poll finds.
More than half of Americans (52%) say spending the checks did not stimulate the economy and 37% say it did, according to a...
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Online Sales Growth Slows in ‘08
Second quarter e-commerce sales growth was up 9.5% from the year previous - the first YOY single-digit growth since the government started measuring quarterly growth in 1999, reports the Dallas Morning News.
Retailers’ web sales are still growing faster than brick-and-mortar sales. Gap, for example, recorded an 11% increase in revenue from online sales in 2Q08 (vs. 2Q07). In comparison, total...
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Amazon Kindle: ‘the iPod of the Book World’
A Citigroup analyst doubled his sales forecast for Amazon’s Kindle - an electronic book reading device - and caused shares to jump an additional 10% from their already increased value, MarketWatch writes.
Saying that Amazon could be “on track to sell as many as 380,000 units” this year - the same amount of iPods that sold in the first year on the market - Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney further Continue Reading »
4 (Not 7) in 10 Shoppers Make Decisions In Store
Nearly 40% of US shoppers wait until they are in the store to decide what brand to buy, according to a new study by the WPP Group agency OgilvyAction (via AdAge).
The statistic is much lower than the 70% often quoted in support of shopper-marketing services and in-store media vs. other advertising channels.
“But it’s not that 70% of every shopping cart is made up of something people didn’t...
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8% of US Women Are Recession-Proof Shoppers
Fully 8% of all women - or 5.4. million consumers - are “recession-proof” shoppers who will continue to shop and spend money even during an economic downturn, according to a survey commissioned by Elle magazine (via Brandweek).
More than half (53%) of shoppers in this category will spend as much or more in 2008 than they did in 2007. Just 34% of all other shoppers will do the same.
According...
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Mixed Results for Clothing Retailers
Apparel is one of the categories most negatively affected by the recent consumer spending slowdown, but not all clothing retailers are showing poor results in earnings or in stock value, reports Forbes.com.
Q1 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), however, fell 2.5% to $114 million. Still, over the past 12 months, EBITDA has risen 7.4%.
Credit spreads...
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