There is never a lack of interesting information and opinions on the Web. Some of it is even useful. While link posts might be considered the last refuge of scoundrel bloggers, the links below have been cultivated, nay, curated, to strike a balance between intriguing and applicable. Enjoy!
Experiate Blog: How to make the store employee [...]

Brandweek interviewed Carlos Boughton and Manuel Wernicky, two Hispanic-marketing experts in about what to do (and not to do) when it comes to marketing to your Hispanic customers. While the focus of the piece is on shopper marketing in particular, I think the lessons are relevant to just about any retail situation.
Of the two [...]

Jeffry Pilcher, editor of The Financial Brand, an online journal that covers financial services branding and marketing topics, recently interviewed John Ryan President Nancy Radermecher about the role of digital signage in bank marketing.
Read the interview

If you’re new to The Financial Brand, here are some recent articles that give you a sense for the depth [...]

Food and wine as collateral for bank loans – There’s no arguing that a good Barolo or proscuiuto is valuable. So, why not use it as collateral? That’s what some Italian bankers are proposing.

Agricultural lenders see opportunities in the local foods movement – Today’s boutique and specialty growers may be big business tomorrow.

Apple’s cool matrix-style [...]

We’ve written about the potential of using social media (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Yelp, etc.) as resources for offline marketing efforts, including digital signage. The idea is that through conducting regular scans of social media networks, marketers can have a better sense for what their customers are talking about and (especially when the discussion is about [...]

While many of our European readers bask in the Mediterranean sun, we offer this collection of links directly and not-so-directly related to the world of banking and retail. Enjoy.

How tech is changing banks – Depositing checks using an iPhone? Making mobile-to-mobile money transfers? It’s all coming your way and bound to have an impact on [...]

Have you heard about Starbucks’ new retail experiment? The coffee chain that spent the last decade stamping out carbon-copy store locations is “de-branding” a number of locations, starting with a Seattle location, now called “15th Ave Coffee & Tea.”
Gone is the familiar green and white mermaid logo. So, too, are the automated espresso machines. In [...]

If you are introverted, shy or self-conscious (or know someone who is), then you can probably relate to Rob Horning’s comments in a recent blog post:
“I just started to ride my old bike…and..realized that I need a few things for riding in New York City—mainly a helmet and new handle grips. Even though there is [...]

We’re definitely in a moment of transition. A moment where an old media system is dying and a new media system is being born. An era when spectatorial culture is giving way to a participatory culture.
So begins this video thoughtpiece by Henry Jenkins, director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program:

 
Although Jenkins describes the political and [...]

The results of a recent study of by JCDecaux Airport and Eyetracker suggest that people don’t take in their surroundings (and the advertising within) in the manner we think they do.
As marketers, some of us might be tempted to think there’s a simple cause and effect at play when people encounter our ad messaging.

The ad [...]