Other People’s Recycled News | August 10-16

Canadian retailers a hot item

“Canada has performed better than anywhere in the world,” said Richard Baker, chief executive officer of NRDC Equity Partners, which owns the Hudson’s Bay Company. “We are very bullish on Canada,” Baker said in a telephone interview. “We are highly interested in an additional investment in Canada.”

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Housing, manufacturing data point to end of recession: economists

An astounding rebound in the resale housing market combined with good news out of the manufacturing sector Friday to suggest that Canada is slowly but surely digging itself out of recession. The Canadian Real Estate Association reported that 50,270 homes traded hands on the Multiple Listing Service in July. This is up 18.2% from a year ago and set a record for the month of July.

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Q&A on Sourcing Manufacturing in China

Another important point is it doesn’t always make sense to use a Chinese, or foreign, contract manufacturing facility.  We’ve seen a number of examples of companies bringing manufacturing back to the US.

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Using Innovation to Extend and Expand Product Lines

Small companies must get creative to survive the recession – even going so far as to branch into new lines of business (assuming they have the cash to do it).  But mission creep comes with serious risk.  What are some tangible do’s and don’ts about expanding your product line?

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4 Ways to Gain Customer Loyalty

Don’t take your customer or market position for granted. Don’t let your service capabilities slide. Don’t coast on your reputation while allowing your brand to deteriorate. Inevitably, it will catch up with you.

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Customer-Centric Design: Got Empathy?

We all know what our customers want. We’re confident that we understand the problem. We look at reams of marketing reports. We conduct the focus groups. We survey them. We have plenty of data. Guess what? It’s not enough. Data can only indicate facts.

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