Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Black Friday: Chase pursues a (very) direct marketing plan
You can spend millions of dollars on an advertising campaign if you have something to sell. Alternately, you can try some cheaper experiments and hope that downmarket charm trumps slickness.
Somebody liked the latter idea at the Chase bank branch on Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan, as this picture, taken by one of our editors, Leslie Gevirtz, shows.
We can’t decide if this is a Black Friday coup of marketing genius or if one of the tellers was forced to use only materials in the branch’s broom closet. After all, this is the heart of Times Square, a place where every square millimeter is available for your ad, and at very high prices. Major corporations rarely spare expenses — or electricity — in presenting their best advertising campaigns in the heart of the U.S. financial capital. On the other hand, Chase *is* handing out $100 to everyone who starts an account. Maybe that’s the ad budget, already spent.
So goes Wall Street, so goes Fifth Avenue retailers
The fallout from the turmoil on Wall Street will be felt by retailers who have set up shop on one of Manhattan’s most prestigious avenues – Fifth Avenue.
In the past week, Lehman has failed, Merrill Lynch agreed to be acquired by Bank of America, and the government had to step in to keep giant insurer AIG from failing.
The bodegas are coming! The bodegas are coming!
The drink cooler is lined with linens. The fridge is stocked with jeans. The soup cans don designer labels.
It’s Target‘s take on the local New York City bodega as the discount retailer prepares to open four “Bullseye Bodegas” in Manhattan.
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