From: Barneys New York
Subject Line: Gorgeous Garmets for the Gloomy Months - In Stores Only
Date: Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Gorgeous garmets or not, Barney's can't spell! It happens to the best of us at one time or another, doesn't it? Thanks to eagle eye Megan Regard for catching that one!

Posted by lfharmon at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is something truly decent about sending out non-promotional holiday wishes. Snaps to all of you out there who were willing to risk losing a little revenue in the short term in order to express long-term good will. And with that, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!


From: Built by Wendy
Subject Line: Happy Holidays from Built by Wendy!
Date: Wednesday, December 20, 2006

From: Barneys New York
Subject Line: Merry Christmas from Barneys New York
Date: Sunday, December 24, 2006

From:CHEFS
Subject Line: Season's Greetings from CHEFS
Date: Sunday, December 24, 2006

Posted by lfharmon at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Uh-oh. You'd better start checking your email more often. Limited-time offers are going down from days to hours this holiday. What do we think: is the within-hours window a smart way to make quick money, or a waste of an EDM campaign? I'd love to hear your experiences.

From: Saks Fifth Avenue
Subject Line: FREE SHIPPING Ends at 1pm! + Designer SALE
Date: Tuesday, December 19, 2006

From: Harry & David
Subject Line: Hurry! Only a few hours left for Overnight Delivery
Date: Friday, December 22, 2006

From: Neiman Marcus
Subject Line: 5 more hours to shop: FREE DELIVERY ends at 1PM ET Today!
Date: Friday, December 22, 2006

Posted by lfharmon at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Restoration Hardware
Subject Line: Give the Perfect Last Minute Gift – Shop Gift Certificates
Date: Thursday, December 14, 2006

This is a brilliant piece of copy: "Give the Gift that's Never Re-Gifted". That should have been the subject line of this campaign, too. So many retailers are pushing gift cards this season, and this is the first promotion that's really turned my head. Lackluster creative, but very compelling copy.

Posted by lfharmon at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: American Eagle Outfitters
Subject Line: Get Gifted with Great Gifts under $30
Date: Wednesday, December 13, 2006

While it's a challenge we face all year long, avoiding the dreaded "garage sale" mish-mash of product photography becomes particularly difficult during holiday, when strategy calls for random groupings of product to be featured together under various promotional umbrellas such as "free shipping" or, in this case, "under $30". But American Eagle Outfitters has done something extremely intelligent in order to avoid that. They've photographed all of their giftable product in a super-holiday environment, which, rather than playing up the "garage sale" factor effectively neutralizes it. Think about the amount of work and hassle this saves: creative no longer needs to fake backgrounds to make products shot in different environments look as though they were shot at the same location; business and creative don't have to argue about what products can be tastefully featured in tandem. This is total genius! Let it inspire us all to do better photo planning for Holiday 2007. Let's photograph absolutely everything in front of a Christmas tree, then rest just a little easier for the the rest of the holiday season. High five, AE!

P.S. AE, if you actually did a great job of PhotoShopping these products onto this background, think of how much easier it would have been if you'd photographed them all this way in the first place!

Posted by lfharmon at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am all for innovation, but this is ridiculous. To start, Neiman Marcus appears to be exceedingly proud of the "unfolding magic" which is possibly the crappiest video ever made. Come on! What the heck is that!?

And then there's Crate & Barrel. They're so excited about their first TV commercial that they sent an ad about an ad. Wow! A TV ad? Amazing!

Finally, we've got Bergdorf Goodman selling CDs. Maybe I just don't grasp their greater "live-in-our-brand-bubble" vision, but how does a Bergdorf Goodman CD collection make any sense? And who buys CDs anymore anyway?


From: Neiman Marcus
Subject Line: The Christmas Book is here!
Date: Tuesday, October 3, 2006

From: Crate and Barrel
Subject Line: Preview our new TV ad
Date: Thursday, October 5, 2006

From: Bergdorf Goodman
Subject Line: Volume: Preview & own the music of Bergdorf Goodman
Date: Friday, October 27, 2006

Posted by lfharmon at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With all this talk of "luxury" lately I thought I'd do me some research. I happened across three very interesting reads:
"Living It Up: America's Love Affair with Luxury", by James B. Twitchell
"Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses - as well as the Classes", by Pamela N. Danziger
"Trading Up (Revised and Updated): Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods...And How Companies Create Them", by Michael Silverstein, Neil Fiske & John Butman

So gift yourself a little market research this holiday season. In addition to upping your on-da-job skeelz, you may also gain some insight into your own consumer behavior. Enjoy!

Posted by lfharmon at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: PUMA
Subject Line: Play the game. Win PUMA prizes.
Date: Thursday, November 7, 2006

Here, PUMA does a nice job using white, as well as incorporating holiday without blasting us with red. (I am SO SICK of seeing red in my email inbox! Winter will be a welcome sight.) ... Although, is that Michelle Yeoh hovering ghostlike behind the body copy? That's weird.

And what the heck is this "Round Three of our Holiday Heroes puzzle" thing? People are so busy this time of year and their inboxes are so crowded; they don't have time to read multiple paragraphs of contest rules, and they don't have the interest to keep up with more than one "Round" of information. So do us a favor and keep it simple: give us a few good gift ideas and a free ship offer, please.

Posted by lfharmon at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those of you unacquainted with giggle, they're a baby/new parent store, offering a product assortment "pre-sorted to include only the most healthy, stylish and innovative" items. I think they've done a great job distinguishing themselves from both branding and merchandizing perspectives.

As far these EDMs go, I love the design template; the stripes and the dropshadowing around the border make for an unexpected, fun combination. But are we so overloaded with product that we don't know where to look? As a $-friendly designer, I'm all for showing the widest breadth of assortment possible, but how many elements are "too many"? At what point do we overwhelm a user into overload? Do too many click-through opportunities cancel each other out entirely?

From: giggle
Subject Line: Spooktacular Halloween Treats
Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2006

From: giggle
Subject Line: 50 amazing gifts under $25, plus FREE gift wrapping
Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Posted by lfharmon at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Enormous dueling superheroes! Which of the two would you click through? (C'mon, help me out, I'm hurtin' for comments here...) I'd have to go with Pottery Barn's "Free Shipping" offer. (Didn't you know? Nobody pays for shipping anymore!)

From: Restoration Hardware
Subject Line: Introducing Our New Holiday Catalog
Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2006

From: Pottery Barn
Subject Line: FREE shipping on more than 60 items
Date: Thursday, October 26, 2006

Posted by lfharmon at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Lacoste
Subject Line: Happy Holidays to Lacoste's Friends and Family
Date: Monday, December 4, 2006

It's snowing gators! Look out!

This holiday season, I've received a flurry of "Friends & Family" special offers like this one, all from retailers that are not my family nor my friend. While I understand the desire to make customers feel special and deals seem exclusive, it doesn't make sense to claim an intimate connection with a subscriber who's never made a purchase before.

That won't stop me from using the discount though. Keep 'em coming.

Posted by lfharmon at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This season, apparel retailers have struggled with how to acquaint customers with a bevy of new and novel styles including skinny jeans and winter shorts, as well as trapeze tops, dresses and coats. As the leaves collected in enormous piles in the yard, "How To" EDM campaigns collected in my email inbox. Banana Republic produced a number of these "How To" campaigns, and I think they did it well. They provided quick, digestable tips (avoiding the temptation to write paragraph-upon-paragraph that no one will read), which, combined with illustrative photos, made casual, work and evening trends easy and accessible.

I feel like Banana's fashions are rebounding a bit after several suck-out seasons. I bought something there for the first time in ages this month - a "wool military caplet." It wasn't inspired by the "How To" campaigns, so I can't attest to their effectiveness, but I rather like the sweater.

On an unrelated note: is anyone else sick of these two models? I'm sure they're nice girls, but I'm tired of seeing them in every campaign. I see these gals more often than I see my actual friends and family...Although perhaps that says something more about my at-the-computer:away-from-the-computer ratio than it does about Banana Republic's model variety.

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Fall's best new silhouettes are here...
Date: Tuesday, September 19, 2006

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: How to wear the season's chic new layers
Date: Tuesday, October 10, 2006

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Defining your work style + the classic pump
Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2006

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Dress the part(y): petite going-out looks for every occasion + evening shoes..
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Posted by lfharmon at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)