It's an often overlooked area of the supply chain, with a woeful record of success. Josefin Aspegren, marketing director with Optilon, talks about the challenge of assessing the efficacy of trade-promotion programs.

Canadian Pacific is donating $1m to various organizations active in relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey.

You can love CRM as a discipline, but don't have any illusions about its ability to survive in the cruel world. The reality is that customer relationships are fragile things; they need the right environment to flourish and be profitable.

Despite the embattled state of the global economy and resulting lack of political enthusiasm for tackling environmental and climate change issues, the $866bn global environmental market managed 4-percent growth in 2011, according to research by Environmental Business Journal.

The strongest case Africa presents for its attractiveness to manufacturing is its GDP growth. The continent is home to six out of the top 10 countries that are experiencing economic growth, according to an analysis by the Economist. Over the past decade, it has been the second-fasting growing region in the world, averaging growth of 5.1 percent during that period.

In many companies, marketers have been first movers in social media, tapping into it for insights on how consumers think and behave. As social technologies mature and organizations become convinced of their power, they will take on a broader role: informing competitive strategy.

The health of the world's economy continues to deteriorate as insufficient demand, unemployment and the ongoing debt crisis in Europe undermine recovery efforts, results of the ICC-Ifo World Economic Survey revealed.

Some 19 percent of consumers plan to spend more or substantially more (5 percent) on holiday gifts this year versus last year, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs 2012 Holiday Spending Intentions Survey. This is the highest percentage of consumers reporting they intend to increase spending over the previous holiday season since the International Council of Shopping Centers began asking the question in 2004.

Nearly 60 percent of retailers say delivering a consistent customer experience across all touch points is their number one priority this holiday season, according to survey results released by RedPrairie Corporation. And to help them meet this goal, 29 percent of retailers indicate they will hire more seasonal workers this year than last.