2012 100 - Networld Media Group

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GUESS
Despite weak holiday sales, Guess has
made a “conscious decision” to cut
down on markdowns and promotions.
“We cannot and we would not continue
to go in that direction,” says CEO Paul
Marciano. The company, which generates
more than 40 percent of its sales
from Europe, expects a challenging
year ahead as the sovereign debt crisis
moves closer to the heart of the eurozone.
Guess is now banking on store expansion
in North America and growth
in Asia to help drive profits and offset
99 PAYLESS SHOESOURCE 100
Faced with a U.S. unemployment rate averaging 9 percent
and competition from shoe departments at discount
retailers such as Target Corp. and Walmart, Collective
Brands, is closing 475 underperforming Payless
and Stride Rite stores — about 10 percent of its total
locations—over the next three years, more than 300 of
which were to be shut by January 2012. Luring priceconscious
urban-area customers in the wake of the longest
recession since the Great Depression has been the
company’s biggest challenge, as Payless saw same-store
sales drop for four straight years.
the weakness in Europe. The trenddefining
apparel retailer is among the
first in line to try using Microstrategy’s
Gateway for Facebook analytics to tap
into Guess’s one million Facebook fans
and nudge its social media marketing
conversion rate above the typical tenth
of a percent mark. The Microstrategy
gateway opens the possibility of using
Facebook as a CRM database, says
Guess CIO Michael Relich. Incorporating
Facebook data into customer
profiles will relieve Guess from probing
too deeply into customer preferences
when they sign up for the loyalty
program, something many shoppers
dislike. By pulling shopper data from
Facebook, Guess expects to enrich its
customer profiles and keep them automatically
up to date.
GODIVA CHOCOLATIER
This year, marketers at Godiva were saddled with the daunting task
of persuading women to eat more chocolate. Their answer? Put the
high-end chocolatier’s wares within arm’s reach where consumers
can just munch them mindlessly. At the risk of diminishing its upscale
brand, the 80-year-old boutique chocolatier began placing its
indulgent confections on grocery store shelves in the form of jumbo
candy bars, cupcakes and
brownies. Godiva even
uses its exquisite, premium-priced
chocolate
to coat pretzels, espresso
beans and — gasp! —
Oreos. “We want to get
more Godiva into people’s
mouths more often,”
explains chief marketing
officer and senior vice
president of global brand
development Lauri Kien
Kotcher. “It’s all about
chocolate snacks, little
chocolate treats. … When
those things come, you
just keep eating.”
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