GLG News by GPS Controller Experts

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

Be careful what you wish for

December 21, 2006

Analysis of:Big-box battle: Retailers hope to lure holiday shoppers early | seattletimes.nwsource.com

Big box retailers are training consumers to shop early or shop late with no really compelling reasons to shop in between. The increasingly promotional activities before Thanksgiving, lead by Wal-Mart this year, followed up by unprecedented pricing on Black Friday created a tough first half of December for retailers, and a nerve racking final days of the pre-Christmas shopping period. 

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

Digital SLRs go beyond megapixels.

December 14, 2006

Analysis of:Digital Cameras Get Flashy | online.wsj.com

The point and shoot digital camera category is still growing, but maturing. The SLR digital camera category is a relatively new category  - just now emerging in the mass market channel - representing dramatically higher ASPs and accessory add-on opportunities for retailers and manufacturers.

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

After this overhaul, Wal-Mart should have a better perspective

December 11, 2006

Analysis of:2 Hired to Overhaul Marketing Leave Their Posts at Wal-Mart | www.nytimes.com

The current drama in marketing is just another distraction from the really big job at hand for Wal-Mart: positioning their brand for health now and in the future. Recently their marketing approach has been schizophrenic, flailing about with one approach and then another, wasting money and confusing the market in the process.

Wal-Mart must find the sweet spot of their market opportunity and then execute against that with tenacious focus and consistency. Hopefully the benefit of this recent drama will be clarity of what they really need to do next.

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

PS3 and Wii – is it fair to compare these videogame systems?

December 1, 2006

Analysis of:Nintendo launches Wii, challenging Sony | www.mercurynews.com

While not groundbreaking in it’s design, graphics or games, the Wii is groundbreaking in something that may prove out to be much more important over the long term, growing the market for video games, bringing the game console into the living room for social entertainment with friends and family.

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

Big box or big ticket retail, Black Friday is a VERY big deal that goes way beyond Friday

November 22, 2006

Analysis of:Study: Black Friday, Cyber Monday not a big deal | www.marketingvox.com

Black Friday is about capturing the minds and hearts of holiday shoppers. Share of voice drives share of mind. Share of mind drives share of wallet. Share of wallet drives market share. Bottom line, big box or big ticket items - Black Friday is very important, way beyond Black Friday.

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

Winning retailers don't force customers to choose between in store and online channels

November 22, 2006

Analysis of:Buy in the store or online? Retailers hope it's both | www.boston.com

Why choose when you can have both and and get more? Merchant or customer, having both choices adds up to more.

Cyber Monday is not a real event.The first Monday after Thanksgiving was recently given this name by the industry to create a sense of an event. The real event is the increasing focus retailers are putting on positioning and promoting their online channel to complement their physical stores, and how well that is resonating with consumers.

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

Toys R Us has the leadership to take this retailer from seriously dumb to seriously fun

November 21, 2006

Analysis of:No Playtime at Toy Chain on Its Road to Recovery | www.nytimes.com

Toys R Us drove their customers away. Huge boxes poorly merchandised with mediocre assortments, ineffective supply chain management, and dirty, dingy stores. Wal-Mart and Target really didn’t have to do much to take share. Provide clean, well lighted departments with key item assortments supported by dependable inventory and pricing management and solid, in-stock positions.  Now, Toys R Us has a leadership team that knows how to lead and win – it's going to be seriously fun to watch them shake up and wake up the toy industry.

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

Is it time for Home Depot expand into Consumer Electronics?

November 14, 2006

Analysis of:Home Depot wades into consumer electronics arena | www.retailingtoday.com

Is it good business to explore additional and complementary revenue sources? 
Does it stand to reason that home electronics and home improvement should be very complementary businesses?
Are CE manufacturers alarmed about their increasingly concentrated volume with a shrinking set of retailers, like Best Buy and Wal-Mart?

Yes. Yes and Yes.

Will the introduction of consumer electronics help offset negative affects of the housing slowdown for Home Depot?  Is Home Depot so strong in their core business they can now successfully introduce a new category of high ticket, high touch, items like Plasma and HDTVs? 

Hmmm…

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

First toys, and now plasma TVs and consumer electronics - Wal-Mart promises this is just the beginning

November 9, 2006

Analysis of:Wal-Mart jumps the gun on Black Friday? | money.cnn.com

After rolling back prices on toys last month, Wal-Mart has now earmarked nearly 100 CE products for "price rollbacks", and announced that this is just the second set in a series of planned price cuts on thousand of key holiday items.

How aggressive are the price cuts? Last week Wal-Mart reduced a current model Panasonic Plasma TV (TH-42PX6U) from a street price of $1799 to $1249.  While it's not clear how many they had to sell at this price (they are now sold out at Wal-Mart.com) symbolically this sends a very aggressive message to the market that they are returning to their discount roots after trying to reposition away from the price rollback promotions of the past.

Cathy StaufferOwnerCathyStaufferConsulting

Circuit City's Firedog - a billion dollar opportunity

November 6, 2006

Analysis of:Circuit City chases service with new Firedog brand | today.reuters.com

Using Geek Squad as the model, Firedog has the potential to become a billion dollar business without taking any share from Best Buy.

Geek Squad is projected to generate one billion dollars in revenue in 2007. That's just 5% of the $20 billion small business and home services market vs. a 17% share in merchandise. If Best Buy is able to capture roughly the same share in services as with products, Geek Squad should be a 3 million dollar business for them. Circuit City is about the third of Best Buy's size;  all things staying equal, that gives Firedog a billion dollar market potential without trading any share between Firedog and Geek Squad, and still leaving over 75% of the services market available. Add to that the potential upside to the TAM (total available market) in this underserved category, combined with incremental hardware sales that the services can pull along and the opportunity could be closer to $2 billion.

Yes there are differences between Firedog and Geek Squad:
Firedog is new, Geek Squad is almost 4 years old.
Firedog promises to support home theater and computer needs.  Geek Squad focuses on the PC and related support needs.
Firedog has 3000 associates; Geek Squad is approaching 12,000.

But they share a common and important vision: Best Buy's Geek Squad and Circuit City's Firedog want to do for small business and home services what they did for consumer electronics over the past 20+ years. Take a largely fragmented industry, (in this case the $20 billion small business and home services market) build in efficiency, scale and operational excellence to superserve the mass market, exploding the market and growth potential of the category.

Previous Page : 1234567Next51 to 60 of 66