May 9 - Lowe's this month hosts its annual "Plant for the Cure" campaign, which benefits breast cancer awareness organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

May 9 - Hershey Co. is staging an on-pack continuity program dangling free movie tickets.

I sometimes get the feeling that, once everyone has figured out exactly how to translate their unique shopper insights into relevant, localized, customer-centric marketing programs, retailers are going to act just like they did 75 years ago.

You'll have consumers who frequent particular stores because they feel understood and appreciated there, because they know that the products they need and the services they want will be available within those walls, because they feel like that retailer cares about them as individuals.

Treating customers as individuals with particular wants and needs wasn't called "shopper marketing" 75 years ago. I don't think retailers even had a term for it -- unless it was something general, like "good business sense." But it was practiced on a daily basis at every successful store.

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Supermarkets add more amenities, incorporate new technologies, and class up private labels in an effort to engage shoppers.

As new pet products proliferate, brands are forced to fight for space and shoppers in stores.

Information Resources Inc.'s annual report showcases the year's most successful new brands.

Ad spending through traditional media channels reached $149 billion in 2007, up 0.2% compared with 2006, according to data from TNS media intelligence.

An overview of in-store media and technology news gathered from February's Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas and March's GlobalShop in Chicago.

Sustainable 'green' packaging has become a dominant trend in packaging design.

Colin Beaton, Watt International's managing director, Middle + Far East, provides a virtual tour of high-end retail designs from Dubai, Delhi, London, Shanghai and Las Vegas.

The Institute's Peter Breen uses examples from the 2008 Super Bowl to examine the wide range of tactics marketers have at their disposal when preparing themed sports tie-ins, including official sponsorship, secondary ties, piggybacking, and generic 'big game' marketing.