Friday Link Farm: the brand-name crop

I sometimes wonder whether a company's being covered because what it's doing is newsworthy, or because its name is sure to attract readers. All of the links below had me pondering for a moment before I decided.

"Macy's Brand a Tough Sell in Chicago" (ChiTrib, Nov 14, 06) -- Surprise! Chicagoans not so crazy about changing Marshall Field's name to Macy's. This reminds me of how Washington, D.C. people reacted when Macy's took over Hecht's.

"Amazon.com Learns the Old-Fashioned Truth About E-Commerce" (eWeek, Dec 27, 06) -- Here, the online bookseller is used to sex up the column's real premise: "The attraction of e-commerce is the ability to potentially move tens of millions of SKUs while paying for a miniscule fraction of the personnel that a similarly sized brick-and-mortar player would need. That benefit clearly comes with a reduction in the ability to provide customer service, however, and that customer service shortfall has derailed more than its fair share of online storefronts."

"Amazon's Secret Price Guarantee" (Slate, Jan 3, 07) -- Timothy Noah continues to read the fine print so you don't have to, discovers that perhaps you can get a refund from the e-tailer. It's an interesting counterpoint when you consider that a story about Amazon.com engaging in dynamic pricing broke around the same time.

"At Wal-Mart, Lessons in Self-Help" (NYT, Apr 4, 07) -- The retailing giant offers a "personal sustainability project," which has employees vowing to fine-tune their personal health or environmental footprint. Good model for making healthy, sustainable living available to a lower-paid workforce, or example of corporate intrusion? And what makes this so different from workplaces that already offer fitness incentives or cafeteria meals?

"Wal-Mart May Fashion a Comeback in Apparel" (BrandWeek, April 2, 07) is listed out of chronological order because ... "Is Wal-Mart Too Cheap for Its Own Good?" (NYT, May 30, 07) examines whether that low-low-low price image is one of the things keeping people from buying apparel there.

Comments

[cirocco]

"Amazon.com Learns the Old-Fashioned Truth About E-Commerce" (eWeek, Dec 27, 06) -- Here, the online bookseller is used to sex up the column's real premise..."

Dude, we sell more than just books! We DO undeniably have the ability to sex up just about anything, though.