Daily Archives: January 26, 2012

Rihanna get her own “REALITY SHOW”

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Nothing says Thug Life like a fashion reality show…

Rihanna’s in the news for two things today! The 23 year-old posted photos of her new Thug Life tattoos on Twitter, and she also announced that she’ll be the executive producer of a new reality show that will look for the next hot fashion designers in the UK.

According to The Associated Press, Sky Living HD and Twenty Twenty will work together to produce the yet-to-be-titled fashion series. Strangely, Rihanna will work behind the scenes and not host the show; pop star Nicola Roberts of Girls Aloud (a UK pop group) will host. I guess maybe Rihanna wouldn’t have time to host since she’s always recording, touring, filming action movies and romping around beaches in bikinis?

The TV show will be like a very specific Project Runway: contestants will be required to create outfits for musicians and celebrities. The final challenge: create a dress for Rihanna to wear when she takes the stage July 8 at the Wireless music festival in London’s Hyde Park.

“It’s become more about taking a risk,” Rihanna said of her fashion style in Vogue last year. “When I am putting looks together, I dare myself to make something work. I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that’s a little off, but I have to figure it out. I have to make it me. I think that’s the thrill in fashion.”

UK readers – will you watch the show? I’m a bit sad I won’t be able to at least scope out the first episode in the US!

 

 

“Fresh Air” era begins at JCP

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NEW YORK — The transformation of JCPenney into America’ favorite store will begin with dramatically simplified pricing strategy and promotional cadence supplemented by an improved product presentation that will allow the 110-year-old company to regain its personality with a new generation of shoppers, according to CEO Ron Johnson.

Johnson presided over an unconventional two-hour investor and media event Tuesday morning at New York’s Pier 57 that was attended by an estimated 700 people. The choice of location, a dumpy waterfront warehouse, was symbolic in that the space was transformed to a bright and airy venue. Attendees were led down a long white hallway with images of the retailers print promotions from the past year into a meeting room with large pale blue screens onto which were projected images of clouds while new age jazz played in the background.

Johnson proved to be quite a showman as he took the stage and offered a compelling recap of how department stores slid from dominance in the 1960’s to where JCP is at today, which is basically a sea of sameness, with no price integrity and an emphasis on private brands that make it seem at times as if apparel is being sold by the pound.

Johnson is out to change perceptions and attitudes about JCP, and the path to becoming America’s favorite store will begin with a dramatically simplified pricing strategy and an equally dramatic reduction in promotions.

Fair and square is how Johnson described the new approach to pricing. The company knows that shoppers don’t begin to make purchases until goods are marked down 40% so that is where going forward pricing will begin. No games, just everyday fair values designed to regain trust with shoppers.

The same philosophy is being applied to promotional efforts where JCP is shifting from a highly promotional strategy in 2011 that saw the company invest $1 billion to promote 590 unique events to 12 monthly events each of which will receive $80 million in marketing support and include a 96-page direct mail piece with a heightened editorial emphasis.

“This new pricing approach and promotional cadence will allow us to change our personality,” said JCP president Michael Francis, the former chief marketing office at Target that joined JCP shortly after Johnson arrived.

The emphasis on monthly events has other benefits as well, according to Francis, because it simplifies store operations and frees up merchants’s time for assortment planning as opposed to constant pricing changes and determining which items to feature.

Longer term, the key element of transforming JCP into America’s favorite store involves a merchandising overhaul that is dependent on “shops” within the stores. Beginning this August, JCP will begin converting departments within its stores to shops utilizing new five foot by five foot modular fixtures that can be stacked or used to create walls. The shops will come at a pace of about two every months for the next three years until 100 separate shops are in place by December 2015.

Restaurants kick off Super Bowl promos

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Restaurants kick off Super Bowl promos

From pizza and chicken wings to burritos and subs, restaurants hope to capitalize on the appetites of Super Bowl fans
 
Pizza Patrón’s Super Bowl promotion
Super Bowl XLVI will be the year’s most important game not only for the New York Giants and New England Patriots, but also for the restaurant industry.

The Feb. 5 contest is one of the biggest sales days for several pizza and wing brands, and many other chains not normally thought of for party food are planning big offers this year.

According to estimates from the National Restaurant Association, 48 million Americans will order takeout or delivery food from a restaurant while watching the Super Bowl. Another 12 million people are expected to visit a restaurant or bar to watch the game.

Day of dough for pizza chains

Pizza Patrón, the Dallas-based chain of 100 restaurants in seven states, is hoping not only to sell lots of pizza, but also to remind its customers that it offers chicken wings and several dips, said brand director Andrew Gamm.

“Super Bowl Sunday is not the biggest day of the year for us, but it’s in the top four or five, and we want to improve and capture more business,” Gamm said.

Pizza Patrón has introduced four new Party Paquetazos — which means “combo” in Spanish and is pitched toward the chain’s core Hispanic demographic — combining wings, large pepperoni pizzas and five-piece orders of QuesoStix. They range in size from a $34.99 Paquetazo of 30 wings, two orders of QuesoStix, two pizzas and three dips, to an $84.99 combo of 90 wings, four orders of QuesoStix, four pizzas and eight dips.

Wings are featured prominently because Pizza Patron is hoping to become a one-stop shop on game day for customers, who told chain officials that they often were making two trips to buy pizza and wings from separate restaurants, Gamm added.

“On average, wings are between 10 percent and 14 percent of our sales mix, but since they’re so synonymous with the Super Bowl, we saw an opportunity to capitalize,” he said. “We matched ourselves up against some wing concepts and what they offer, and tried to create the benefit that for the same price, you get pizzas in your deal as well.”

The brand isn’t hoping for just a rush of these party orders on Super Bowl Sunday, Gamm said, but hopes to kick off continued orders of the Paquetazos throughout the year.

“Our franchisees immediately asked if they could run this all year,” he said. “With our Hispanic-customer focus, soccer is real big with them, and that season runs through early June. We developed our POP and marketing materials to run for an extended period of time.”

Papa John’s Pizza also is looking to get a yearlong boost from the game as the official sponsor of Super Bowl XLVI and the National Football League. This year the Louisville, Ky.-based brand is tying a nationwide giveaway to the Super Bowl’s pregame coin toss, and is advertising the promotion with commercials starring founder John Schnatter and football players Peyton Manning and Jerome Bettis.

Through Feb. 1, people can vote at www.papajohns.com to predict whether the coin toss will come up heads or tails. If a majority of Americans vote the correct call, the more than 3,000-unit pizza chain will give away a one-topping pizza and a two-liter bottle of soda to every customer enrolled in its Papa Rewards online-loyalty program, to be redeemed the day after the Super Bowl.

“This won’t be an easy call for America, but as the official pizza sponsor of the NFL, it’s an easy call for Papa John’s to offer a promotion like this to our loyal customers,” Schnatter said in a statement. “The Super Bowl is the largest stage in all of sports, and it’s the biggest sales day of the year for us.”

Papa John’s set a single-day sales record last Super Bowl Sunday, selling more than 1 million pizzas.