Viewpoint

The Walmart Smart Network's endcap program has a consistent MO in which the advertised product is stocked individually or in shelf trays on a standard shelved endcap.

The Institute's editors process a lot of field photos, many of which we use to illustrate the marketing and merchandising activity we report on or, conversely, as the guides for what we need to cover.

One of the questions I'm asked most often is, "What's ahead for digital signage in the mass and grocery channels?"

Here's a shopper marketing-related question: How many consumers honestly like "10 for $10" sales? Since the Institute began tracking supermarket activity in 2003, these sales events have been among the more prominent staples of many promotional calendars.

It's a cardinal rule of show business to leave the audience wanting more. But it's more fun to leave the audience wanting to argue. It means you've struck a nerve worth striking.

I don't communicate on Twitter, mostly because I have a tough time limiting myself to 140 words, let alone 140 characters.

When you consider the sheer volume of speeches, white papers, seminars and articles written about the field of in-store marketing over the past decade, it's a bit surprising that there hasn't been a book dedicated specifically to the emerging discipline of shopper marketing -- until now.

Driven by what National Retail Federation president Tracy Mullin called "the worst economic environment in nearly a century," 2009 was a year to remember in many ways. Here are a few that I'll remember most vividly:

The word January commemorates Janus, the two-faced Roman god of portals, beginnings and endings. In these turbulent times, both of Janus' heads must be spinning.

The most significant event of 2009 turned out to be something that stopped happening: Walmart began to systematically eliminate the pallet displays and four-ways of PDQ trays that, for years, have been a can't-miss opportunity for national brands to increase sales.

There's an old saying: "If you live long enough, you see everything -- twice." I thought of that adage a lot these past few months while reading

October 2009 delivered two major merchandising events that present a clear (if, perhaps, overly simplified) example of the difference between traditional in-store marketing and its smarter, older sibling: shopper marketing.Halloween, on the one hand, provides a textbook case of historical in-store