Marketing Monthly - November 2012

Roy Spence, author, chairman and co-founder of the advertising agency GSD&M Idea City

The world is waiting for full economic recovery, and the retail sector – the “engine of the American dream” – has a role in that rebuilding. Those were the words spoken and reinforced at the recent Retailing Summit conference in Dallas.

Roy Spence, author of It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For, emphasized that to survive, companies must be driven by purpose.

Culture and branding were common themes at the 2012 Retailing Summit conference hosted by Mays Business School’s Center for Retailing Studies (CRS) in October. Continued on page 10

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Aggie Advertising Club students Ryan McDonough (1st place team), Jessica Reints and Cristal Long (2nd place team), and Greg Cater (3rd place team)

Marketing major Linsday LaRosa (facing) has her résumé reviewed by a Houston advertising professional.

Dr. Lisa Troy accompanied 27 students to Houston on Nov. 2-3 to participate in the American Advertising Federation—Houston’s annual student conference. During this two-day event, students from a 4-state area met to compete in a day-long advertising campaign competition for a real-life client. Rather than competing against other schools, students were assigned to teams with members from the other schools based on their backgrounds (e.g., marketing, design, copywriting, media planning). They were then charged with developing and executing an integrated, multimedia advertising campaign for Academy Sports + Outdoors, focusing on team sports. Out of over 20 total teams, the Aggie Advertising Club members

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(Team Gig’em) 2012 AAF-Houston Student Conference attendees

The winning name tag designed as a boxing championship belt..

Ryan McDonough, Jessica Reints and Cristal Long, and Greg Cater led their teams to first, second, and third place wins, respectively. The following day students participated in résumé reviews and panel discussions from local advertising agency executives.

Although they did not participate in the advertising campaign competition as a single team, the Aggies did join together to develop and submit a Texas A&M name tag, winning first place for the most creative name tag reflecting this year’s conference theme of “Battle Royale.”

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Jillian Netzel

Marketing major Jillian Netzel ‘13 was awarded a seat on the 2012-13 American Advertising Association Initiative Future Board. The Future Board is a creative “think tank” designed to support rising stars in the advertising industry by providing them with hands-on marketing communication experience and exposure to top industry professionals. This year’s thought leader panel will be teamed up with mentors from

Len Berry, Distinguished Professor of Marketing, has been chosen to receive a Regents Professor Award for 2011-12, which he will receive in a ceremony in early 2013. The award was created in 1996 to recognize employees in the Texas A&M University System who have made exemplary contributions to the university or agency and to the people of Texas.

Venkatesh Shankar and Sridhar Balasubramanian (2009), "Mobile Marketing: A Synthesis and Prognosis," received a certificate for Top Cited Article, for the period 2007-2011, in the Journal of Interactive Marketing from Elsevier, publisher of the journal.

Initiative, a global creative agency. Throughout the one-year appointment, teams will work together on a client project and will have opportunities to interact with industry executives, shadow employees, and interact with members serving on Future Boards in Europe and Latin America.

Netzel, a senior marketing major and advertising certificate student from Houston, was selected from a pool of applicants across the country. She submitted a video résumé that described a creative achievement, explained her potential contribution to the board, and identified a creative and effective media campaign. University students from all over the country applied for the 13 available slots.

Jillian Netzel said, "I am looking forward to working with Initiative's Future Board members and gaining advice on the industry based on their personal experiences. I am also just thrilled to be a part of this influential group of young people who want to learn more about advertising, just as much as I do."

A conversation with Suresh Ramanathan at a conference and a discovered mutual interest in the green side of materialism Pia Furchheim and sustainability prompted Pia Furchheim to come to Aggieland for a working visit. She teaches, assists students in their research, and is working on her doctorate at Chemnitz University, in Chemnitz, Germany. She will be here until December 9th.

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Social Media Think:Lab Thought Leaders’ Summit 2012

“Strategies for Successfully Managing Businesses in a Social Media Environment” September 19-22 2012

Manjit Yadav attended this invitation-only conference which attracted leading researchers and executives interested in strategic issues related to social media. A Special Issue of the Journal of Interactive Marketing, scheduled to be published in 2013, will feature articles based on presentations delivered at the conference.

If you haven’t visited our Department of Marketing in several years, you wouldn’t recognize it--it’s changed!

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Allan Chen’s paper titled, “Culture, Relationship Norms, and Perceived Fairness of Asymmetric Pricing,” (presented at the 2012 Association of Consumer Research [ACR] Conference last month) received the Jagdish Sheth Foundation ‘s Franco Nicosia ACR Competitive Paper Award. The paper selected to receive this prestigious award was chosen from over 750 papers submitted for presentation at the conference’s competitive sessions.

Chen received the award at the ACR Conference luncheon on October 6, 2012.

Coauthors: Lisa E. Bolton (Pennsylvania State University) and Sharon Ng (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) Abstract: Firms are more likely to pass through cost increases than cost decreases to consumers.

One rationale for why firms are able to sustain this practice of asymmetric pricing is provided by

Kelly Haws is pleased with the acceptance of her manuscript, tentatively scheduled for the May 2013 issue of the Journal of Marketing. This is Haws’ first JM acceptance. The research represents the intersection of her research interests in food and financial decision making.

Title: “When Value Trumps Health in a Supersized World” Authors: Kelly Haws, Texas A&M University and Karen Winterich, University of Pennsylvania Abstract: Marketers often offer consumers the option to “supersize” a food purchase intended for immediate consumption. Supersized products may be attractive to consumers from the standpoint of the unit pricing as ordering a larger size of the same product results in a per unit savings and offers

consumer fairness perceptions governed by the principle of dual entitlement. The present research examines cultural differences in fairness perceptions within the context of dual entitlement. A series of experiments demonstrate that (i) interdependent (independent) consumers guided by communal (exchange) norms judge asymmetric pricing as relatively unfair (fair); (ii) such differences do not emerge when firm’s pricing actions in cases of cost increases and decreases are judged separately (i.e., when asymmetry is not transparent); and (iii) interdependent consumers’ unfairness perceptions can be mitigated by shifting their perspectives from self to that of firm. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings for price fairness, including asymmetric pricing and dual entitlement, as well as buyer-seller relationships across industry and culture.

consumers the opportunity to meet their valuebased financial goals. In the current research, we show that such pricing strategies not only lead to greater purchase and consumption, they do so by impacting important consumer goals in unrelated domains, namely by decreasing the importance placed on health goals. While supersized pricing can have a powerful effect on purchase behavior, providing health cues can prevent the decreased focus on health. In addition, supersized pricing can be utilized to increase size choice of healthy foods.

Contributions to theory are discussed, particularly for understanding decisions regarding that pursuit of multiple goals specifically at the intersection of health and financial goals. Additionally, both marketing and public policy implications are provided, including those for the growing obesity epidemic and frequent use of supersized pricing strategies for unhealthy foods.

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Representatives from the Department of Marketing ventured out from their second floor offices to host two informational sessions directed at first-year Freshman Business Initiative (FBI) students. Tables were set up outside the classroom where four sections of FBI students meet.

Approximately 500 students were exposed to the opportunities in marketing as they entered and exited their classes. Many students gratefully took home fliers with information on certificates, study abroad, and student organizations. Andrew Loring, academic advisor for marketing stated, “Many of the first-year students are unaware of the ways they can get involved in marketing during their freshman year. Our goal is to make sure students know all the opportunities open to them. Whether their interest is in marketing or another business degree, we want to make sure they know how to get involved.”

Representatives of the marketing study abroad program, Student Retailing Association, and the Aggie Advertising Club also participated. “We handed out about 100 flyers and were able to have in-depth conversations with many prospective marketing students,” said Loring.

The next step will be to get face time with the FBI students in their classes to further discuss opportunities in the Department of Marketing.

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• Vince Kuehler ‘94, VP Footwear • Gabe Thornton ‘03, VP Strategic Planning and Finance • Shelley Batten ‘00, Buyer • Kelly Alfaro ‘04, Buyer • Wendy O’Neill, Corporate Human Resources Manager Academy Executive Professors

Mary Zimmer’s Retail Concepts and Policies class and Consumer Behavior classes experienced an embarrassment of riches when Academy Sports+Outdoors sent five executives from their headquarters in Katy, Texas to the Mays Business School on October 5.

The executive team reviewed the history of Academy Sports+ Outdoors and offered their perspective on the present and future of retail. They detailed the Academy Aggies responsibilities and opportunities of careers in buying and product development.

After each visit from an executive lecturer, Zimmer’s classes send hand-written thank you notes to guests expressing appreciation for their support in educating and hiring Aggies, and taking the time to share their experiences with them.

The students do not take their involvement for granted. Some of the notes to the Academy executives include: “Thank you for sharing such valuable & interesting information about Academy!”

“The presentation offered good insight into what is expected of a buyer.”

“Thank you so much for taking the time to come to our class!”

“I enjoyed the guessing games (good and bad buying decisions).”

“I really appreciate you all taking time to help us with real world examples of how consumer behavior is so important.”

The value of our executive lecturers is inestimable.

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Tami Cannizzaro ‘80, of spm communications, a boutique PR firm in Dallas, fascinated students with a discussion of the rationale and implementation of a brand integration that spm communications did for Michaels. Michaels sponsored a new competition show called Craft Wars, hosted by Tori Spelling, celebrity and craft enthusiast. Contestants use products from Michaels Craft Closet in the competition program. The success of the brand integration was apparent from many metrics.

Cannizzaro entertained Zimmer’s retail classes and shared solid career advice by detailing her own winding career path.

She encouraged the students to, “Be open to everything!” and to know how to do things other people don’t know how to do.

In 2012, Cannizzaro published a book, “Tales of the Terminated: A Humorous Look at Life After a Layoff.”

Tami Cannizzaro, spm communications

Vicki Flenniken and Evonne Brazell, Macy’s

Macy’s targets “MOM” with its marketing strategy. The acronym, MOM, represents My Macy’s, Omni-Channel, and Magic Selling. Vicki Flenniken ‘92, VP Store Manager of Macy’s Post Oak Mall , and Evonne Brazell, College Relations Manager with Macy’s Inc. described their three tier strategy to Mary Zimmer’s classes.

The students learned about My Macy’s local focus which relies on the voice of the consumer to determine 15%-20% of the merchandise in each of the 850 Macy’s locations.

Congratulations to Flenniken for managing one of Macy’s most successful executions of My Macy’s with brands like Michael Kors and special merchandise like MK’s maroon handbag in College Station (go figure)!

Omni-Channel is the integration of the customer and purchase information across the bricks and mortar locations, telephone, mobile devices, kiosks, tablets, and digital displays.

Multi-channel customers are “best customers.”

Magic Selling refers to how Macy’s invests in their sales associates with training classes and coaching from managers using concepts of empowerment, mentoring, and rewarding behaviors Macy’s wants repeated.

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Congratulations to Rishika Ramkumar on her forthcoming article in the special issue of Information Systems Research on ‘social media and business transformation’.

Title: “The Effect of Customers’ Social Media Participation on Customer Visit Frequency and Profitability: An Empirical Investigation” Co-authors: Ashish Kumar, Aalto University, Ramkumar Janakiraman ,Texas A&M University.

Ram Bezawada, State University of New York, Buffalo.

Abstract: In this study we examine the effect of customers’ participation in a firm’s social media efforts on customers’ visit frequency and profitability. We further hypothesize and test for the moderating roles of social media activity and customer characteristics on the link between customers’ social media participation and the intensity of customer-firm relationship. We assemble a novel dataset that combines customers’ participation in a firm hosted social media site with individual customer level transaction data. To account for endogeneity that

could arise due to customer self-selection, we utilize the propensity score matching technique in combination with difference in differences analysis to obtain reliable estimates and to control for bias emanating from both observed and unobserved characteristics. Our results suggest that customer participation in a firm’s social media efforts leads to an increase in the frequency of customer visits. We find that this participation effect is greater when there are high levels of activity in the social media site and for customers who exhibit a strong patronage with the firm, buy premium products and exhibit lower levels of buying focus and deal sensitivity.

We also establish the above set of results for customer profitability. Based on our results, we quantify the economic implications of customer social media participation and offer theoretical implications and prescriptions for managers on how to engage customers via social media. Our study emphasizes the need for managers to integrate knowledge from customers’ transactional relationship with their social media participation to better serve customers and create sustainable business value.

Lisa Troy was recently recognized as a an “Outstanding Professor“at Pi Beta Phi's Fall Scholarship Banquet. Marketing student Jillian Netzel ‘13 nominated Dr. Troy for her “above and beyond performance” in her job as professor at Texas A&M University. The Pi Beta Phi’s chapter recognized Dr. Troy’s excellence at their Scholarship Banquet on November 5th at the MSC Gates Ballroom.

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Rtail ingSummit (continued from p. 1)

Ginger Hardage, SVP of Culture and Communication at Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines, for instance, is not in the transportation business. Instead, it gives people the freedom to fly and democratizes the skies.

Great companies offer customers more than quality products or services, they commit to improving the lives of their customers, says Ginger Hardage, SVP of Culture and Communication at Southwest, the nation’s largest domestic airline. Its fleet of 700 aircrafts serves 100 million customers annually.

By putting people first and treating customers like family, the low-cost airline has built an edgy brand, elevating it to 10th on Fortune’s “most admired companies” list. Hardage says maverick marketing and promotion played a key role in differentiating Southwest Airlines. In an industry plagued by bankruptcies, bag fees, bad press and overall passenger frustration, Southwest has remained profitable for 39 consecutive years by valuing people (customers and employees), nurturing its culture and changing ahead of the times to remain relevant for the ever-evolving consumer.

GameStop’s Jenn McMillen described the $10 billion dollar retailer’s culture as “irreverent.”

Journeys CEO Jim Estepa said the teen footwear chain must always “be cool” and embrace diversity. Toys“R”Us, Inc. VP of HR Kelly O’Neill labeled his employees “brand ambassadors.”

Together, they demonstrated the many diverse ways companies define, cultivate and communicate brand promise and inspirational customer experiences.

In 2010 McMillen launched GameStop’s PowerUp loyalty program. In 23 months, more than 20 million customers signed up for the rewards program. By capturing and analyzing customer purchase information, GameStop personalizes promotions, engages members through “love it/hate it” game evaluations, excites buyers through game reservations, and better drives new sales, pre-owned sales and trades. A PowerUp member who interacts with GameStop through all four of these customer experience options is worth $8x in annual sales what a non-loyalty member who shops one channel, such as only buying used games. This successful program makes GameStop very data rich and able to target and reward customers.

GameStop’s Jenn McMillen, Div.VP, Loyalty & CRM

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CRS Director Cheryl Bridges listens as Alexandra Wilkis-Wilson talks about the genesis of Gilt Groupe

Whereas GameStop’s market share and roster of 6,000 stores surprised many audience members, most Retaining Summit attendees had shopped the members-only e-commerce site, Gilt Groupe. Co-founder Alexandra Wilkis-Wilson recapped the luxury flash sale site’s early days, saying, “We didn’t have a business plan when we launched.” With experience and valuable contacts from her work at Louis Vuitton and Bulgari, Wilkis teamed with other Harvard grads and engineers to put sample sale merchandise in the hands of consumers. This mix of knowledge was vital to the business’s execution and the ultimate success of the start-up.

Gilt Groupe has changed the way people shop. Each day members receive highly customized promotional emails based on past purchases, click-through history, gender and zip code. By effectively using data, Gilt personalizes customer interaction with the brand. Gilt also made heavy early investment in its mobile application, which is now faster than the traditional web platform. This further connects Gilt to its affluent, on-trend customer base. In fact, Gilt has only run one print ad in the last five years.

Instead it relies on events, public style influencers, social media and word of mouth for customer acquisition.

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Teen shoe retailer Journeys builds customer relationships through numerous “cool” events, including the annual Backyard BBQ Tour concerts. By hosting top bands, extreme sports exhibitions, and skateboard competitions, Journeys stays relevant to an ever-finicky young customer through music and unique experiences.

Jim Estepa, CEO, says the Journeys executive team surrounds themselves with teenagers and young people to stay current with trends, lifestyles and youth culture. Many of the chain’s 1,200 stores are staffed and managed by associates under 20, which energizes the stores. Journeys celebrates and rewards “attitude” among employees through incentive compensation, recognition programs, manager meetings and amazing vacations for top performers.

At Toys“R”Us, engaged employees value bringing joy to children and families. As the world’s leading toy retailer, Toys“R”Us attracts positive people who play to win, but are serious about fun. Kelly O’Neill ,VP of HR, proposed his department members “are the drivers of the employment brand. Through video, photos, social networks, print and surveys, they communicate that kids are at the heart of the business.”

O’Neill bluntly stated, “We must hire nice, fun people because that’s not something you can teach.” Toys“R”Us’ charity work helps attract people who fit the brand. The company is the largest corporate supporter of Autism Speaks and Alex’s Lemonade Stand, which funds children’s cancer research. They help military personnel celebrate life milestones through gifts, toys, and even baby shower presents no matter where they are deployed worldwide. This consistent and cultivated employment brand message results in high team retention.

Jim Estapa, CEO, Journeys

Kelly O’Neill ,VP of HR, Toys”R”Us and Michael Wesson, MGMT Professor, TAMU

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Jim McIngvale, founder and CEO of Gallery Furniture talks about retailing alongside a photo of himself (in)famously selling his furniture back in the 70’s.

Retail marketing maverick Jim McIngvale, founder and CEO of Gallery Furniture, reviewed key tenets that drive his business, including: 1.) Create real value 2.) Don’t sell--help customers buy 3.) Retailing should be entertaining 4.) Micromanage on behalf of the customer 5.) Retail is about emotion.

McIngvale recounted an occasion when his team prejudged a customer as either not ready or unable to buy. After feeling ignored, she showed McIngvale, who is ever-present in the store, her purse filled with $20,000 in cash. Whether his customers seek the perfect night’s sleep on a $30,000 mattress or to furnish a living room for less than a $1,000 with bargain tent finds, each customer deserves respect.

He shared Gallery Furniture’s commitment to eliminating customer pain points which he defined as “anything that stands between the customer and your company.” The top complaints for his store related to a poor delivery experience.

Customers hated receiving dinged-up dining sets and scratched settees. They resented four-hour delivery waits, and worried over welcoming burly men, who offered more brawn than beauty, into their homes. Today, Gallery Furniture applies higher employment screening practices; its drivers wear recognizable company uniforms; and GPS chips monitor trucks, texting customers updates with the exact time their merchandise left the warehouse and when it will arrive at their doorstep.

The Maritz Institute shared its philosophy on “the social life of brands.” The default system of the human brain is “social.” Human beings are social creatures. While most marketers understand the need to create functional and emotional value, businesses are just learning how important it is to create social value though experiences and interaction.

“When a brand makes you feel special and strives to make your life better, in contrast to

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Craig Boyan, H-E-B president and COO

Craig Boyan chats with a conference attendee

simply trying to get more share-ofwallet, then social value is created” says Maritz Institute Director Marybeth McEuen. “And social value, at its pinnacle, is created when you join a brand community because you identify with the purpose and ideals of the brand. Great companies like Starbucks and Method understand this type of social value.”

H-E-B is the largest corporate giver to non-profits in Texas. The 340-store chain focuses on putting people and communities first.

H-E-B leadership practices “relentless dissatisfaction,” meaning that if they are not working every day to help customers and improve the shopping experience, then they are not satisfied.

Craig Boyan, H-E-B president and COO, reviewed historical fact that the American consumer today has far less discretionary income and far more debt than past generations. With wallets thinner, H-E-B promises low prices to help customers save and live better. While labor costs often top retailers’ expenses, Boyan urged the audience not to race to the bottom with wages, but instead raise them and hire great people. Finally, H-E-B is a multi-format retailer. Boyan noted that his discount stores, such as Joe V’s and Mi Tienda, and high-income stores, like Central Market and H-E-B Plus, are growing the quickest. This reflects the increasing gap between rich and poor in Texas.

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King says this starts in AT&T’s new format stores. With a passion for retail, top trained employees, and an engaging shopping experience, AT&T stores are no longer venues to merely purchase a phone. Instead, they offer solutions that transform local interactions into global ones. From your connected device, customers will increasingly abandon physical wallets for digital ones; they will learn from tablets instead of books; and, stay connected to social networks. His message was clear: “Change is not constant. It is accelerating. Be ready.”

Is AT&T a retailer?

“Absolutely!” says Kelly King, President South Central Regions. King outlined how the technology leader is integral to the new ways people shop. Consumers are more connected than ever, with 1 trillion devices estimated by 2015. From your car, home, or mobile device customers can access the world’s information at a fingertip. Many of these devices are sold and networked on AT&T. This makes the historic communications company now integrated into the retail experience.

Kelly King, President South Central Regions, AT&T

Networking between sessions

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GSD&M’s chief advertising leader for retailers for 30 years, Roy Spence, concluded by offering the following recommendations for the Summit attendees:  Retail leaders have a job to do. To enrich the lives of their customers they must do business

with purpose.  They must practice the Golden Rule.

To the 30 students in the audience – likely the next generation of industry leaders – he said:  Be curious.  Think.  Stay humble.  Stay hungry.  Help those who help you.

 Leaders fess up when they mess up.  They don’t find common ground, they find higher ground.  Retailers are best when they are in the service of others.

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Mannon admits to always finding his audiences a little hostile at first, due to the nature of Altria’s products… Following is a press release by MKTG 671 student, Nancy McGee: Dave Mannon presents Altria’s New Product Development system to marketing students at Mays Business School College Station, Texas, October 26, 2012 – Dave Mannon of Altria visited Dr. Paul Busch’s product innovation course Thursday to introduce marketing students to the company’s new product development process. According to Mannon, the company introduces 5 to 8 new products annually.

Altria is the parent company of a number of smaller companies, including Philip Morris, Ste. Michelle, US Smokeless Tobacco, and John Middleton. Altria’s brands currently hold 42% of the cigarette market, 50% of the smokeless tobacco market, and 31% of the cigar market.

Despite the company’s impressive returns over the past few years, Altria faces a number of challenges across all of its tobacco markets.

Declining cigarette volume, increased taxation ($40B!) and federal regulation, and the difficulty of marketing tobacco responsibly force Altria to focus on new product development.

Altria’s product development process is a “stage and gate” process with four gates. The first stage is Discovery, in which the new product idea is initiated. Then, the process moves through the first gate to Scoping, where product concepts are created for consumer evaluation and the intellectual property plan is put into place. The next stage is Development, and in this stage the company develops preliminary income and cost of goods estimates. If the product makes it through the Development gate, then the product moves to

Dave Mannon and Paul Busch

the Commercialization stage, where the product’s specs are evaluated and the product is transferred to manufacturing. If the product continues to Commercialization, the final stage is the In-Market stage, where the product’s success is continuously reviewed.

After explaining Altria’s sophisticated new products process, Mr. Mannon introduced the students to some of the company’s most successful new products. The first product he discussed was not a new to the world product, but a line extension. The product, called Ideal Wintergreen, is a new flavor of Copenhagen tobacco. This product was quite a risk, as the flavor of Copenhagen had not changed in 180 years. However, consumers ended up liking the new product in initial product tests. When introduced to the mass market, Copenhagen Ideal Wintergreen was, and continues to be, extremely successful. The next new product Mr. Mannon discussed was Snus, which is a type of smokeless tobacco that originated in Sweden. Snus is an innovative take on smokeless tobacco, as the product is actually contained in a pack and thus, the consumer does not have to spit the tobacco out. Altria is still tweaking this product to make it as profitable as possible.

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monitors its retailers closely to make sure they are not selling to minors.

Mr. Mannon provided insights on what makes Altria successful in a challenging industry, and proved that despite controversy, the company is committed to selling tobacco responsibly. ###

Dave Mannon

Finally, Mr. Mannon discussed Altria’s commitment to responsible marketing in the tobacco industry. Altria takes corporate social responsibility seriously, and was recognized by Forbes magazine in 2012 for being the 4th most admired company for social responsibility. The company has developed a close connection with its customers, and communicates with them on a one-to-one basis. The company recently wiped its database clean, and only communicates with customers who are 21 years of age or older. The company promotes certain promotions such as its “Biggest Night of the Year” promotion via text message, and the promotions are only sent if consumers have opted in to texting promotions.

Altria also started the “We Card” program, and

Stephanie Walsh, Lisa Troy, Monique Threadgill ‘90

Monique Threadgill, owner and founder and Stephanie Walsh, director of business development at four-time Aggie 100 member MOSAK Advertising and Insights spoke to Lisa Troy’s MKTG 347 and 445 classes on October 25. Threadgill shared her industry experience and the insights she gained from taking a start-up business to one of the top advertising agencies in Austin, Texas. The Aggie 100 recognizes the 100 fastest-growing Aggieowned or Aggie-led businesses in the world, based on compounded annual growth rate.

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Tassy Beasley, VP of Special Topics & Cathy Villarreal, HR, College Recruiting, were executive lecturers from Stage Stores in Mary Zimmer’s retail classes on October 17. Beasley explained the mission of Stage Stores is to be America’s leading small town retailer. Stage Stores brings desirable brands to under-served markets in towns with a population under 50,000. The current retail environment is very healthy for Stage Stores. Business is exploding.

They are currently growing their ecommerce business and introducing an offprice concept.

Students participated in an activity to identify best sellers within a category.

Some current buying trends are to invest in what you can wear right now and in the future; zebra patterns are trending across a variety of product categories; and “dayshine” (sparkly stuff) remains popular.

Beasley explained buying and planning career tracks at Stage Stores and emphasized that careers in retail are versatile with people often changing directions. She also described their “work hard and have fun” corporate culture.

The students say it best: “Thank you for enlightening us about consumer behavior and how Stage Stores markets to its consumers.”

“It was so fun to learn about your current trends.” ”We all loved your presentation!”

“So thankful for y’all coming in.”

Stage Stores Tassy Beasley VP Special Projects and Cathy Villarreal HR recruiter

Senior cadet talks with Beasley and Villareal about the relevance of military training to civilian work life.

Try the activity the students participated in.

For the 30-40 year old “classics” consumer, which would you choose as a buyer? ( continues next page.)

A. Zebra stripes vs. B. designer bag

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Stage Stores, Buying Quiz cont.

A. Zebra strip party dress vs.

B. more traditional party dress

A. Ruffled sparkly blouse vs. B. Animal print blouse

A. Red vs. B. orange tee

A. Black lace dress vs. B. Designer knockoff

Answers: Blouses—ruffles have been best-seller for three years and dayshine is in. Party dresses--Zebra is hot. Dresses--Black dress is lace and reusable value. Tshirts—A is red and current with YOLOpopular rap. (Texas sells more red than any other

$99 boots: A. Tall and classic vs.

B. short and trendy

state.) Bags—A has zebra. Zebra is hot. $99 Boots-classic tall boot is the big winner--the short boot gets a price markdown.

If you answered all A’s—you get an A!

We want to include your news items in the next issue. Please submit them to Laurie Marshall, Editor, at lmarshall@mays.tamu.edu,

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