Viewpoint

A couple of days ago, I celebrated my 20th anniversary here at the Institute. I joined in May 1994 when the company was called Hoyt Publishing and its prime properties were a magazine called

One grievance commonly voiced by shopper marketers is that their programs are held to much higher, more detailed standards of measurement than media advertising has ever been required to achieve.

Is shopper marketing an art … a science … a little of both, or none of the above? While nobody (well, maybe a few wonky industry consultants) takes time to ponder an “essay exam” question like this, it does lie at the heart of the challenges shopper marketing practitioners face every day.

As this issue went to press, Effie Worldwide unveiled the winners of its 2014 Shopper Marketing awards program, 10 campaigns deemed worthy of industry-wide recognition as best in class by several juries of marketing executives.

Most of us probably have one of those proverbial brothers-in-law who rant about politics at family dinners. Everything’s fine until he says, “So, did you hear that Obama …” Then, all bets are off until Mom makes everyone change the subject.

As a supplement to this issue, the Path to Purchase Institute is pleased to present its fifth

You’ll see a lot of dollar store coverage in this issue (see Related Articles), which brings to mind one of those big questions that often get asked at conferences: Just how enduring are the penny-pinching behaviors of shoppers that became so evident during “The Great Recession” of 2007-2009?

The Path to Purchase Institute’s website currently boasts roughly 10,500 articles and nearly 75,000 images.

Twenty five years ago this month, the first issue of

Legend has it that when news of Elvis Presley’s death first broke back in 1977, one entertainment industry exec observed drily:

I couldn’t find any of the small chlorine tablets that I like to use in the pool when I visited Walmart on July 7.