Canadian Retailer - Spring 2016 - 4

PUBLISHER'S DESK

Personal and relevant
engagement
WHILE the opportunities and vehicles

to connect with consumers are seemingly growing by the day, there is an
everlasting truism that remains: know
who you are talking to.
As the President and CEO of Retail
Council of Canada, I am privileged to
see many innovative retailers explore
new and exciting ways of reaching their audiences. Our retail members are no longer looking at marketing vehicles as tactics but rather
considering these channels as extensions of customers' experience
with their brands.
A particularly interesting current discussion is how flyers are
evolving. Both print and digital options are finding new ways of fulfilling Canadian consumers' continued love-affair with this retail
medium (For the Love of Flyers pg. 12).
The growing sophistication and acceptance of programmatic buying (The Future is Automatic pg. 16) continues to change how retailers plan and consider their digital media dollars. The expanding
role of content and social media (Where Your Customers Are pg. 20)
and how varied every consumer and brand is in interacting and engaging through these vehicles (Going Mobile pg. 24) means smart
retailers, marketers and all business leaders will always be pioneering and experimenting.
Retail success however will never lie just in synthesizing the
critical data inputs of why people choose to shop and how they will
decide where to buy. It will also require the continued commitment
and imagination on the part of everyone associated with a retail
transaction to respect and interact with each consumer in a way that
feels totally personal and relevant.
Retail Council of Canada's theme for 2016, and for our STORE 2016
conference (May 31-June 1) is #retail matters. As the largest private
sector employer, retail contributes to every community across the
country. We need to keep it this way. As the Voice of Retail, RCC
fights tenaciously to ensure retailers large and small can continue to
successfully run their businesses.
Retail matters because by growing our healthy retail sector while
respecting what our customers want and how they need for us to
engage with them, we all win.
Sincerely,

Diane J. Brisebois
President and CEO
Retail Council of Canada

CANADIAN RETAILER | SPRING 2016

SPR ING 2016 | VOLUME 26 ISSUE 2

publisher

Diane J. Brisebois
a s s o c i at e p u b l i s h e r

Michael LeBlanc

editor-in- chief

Sean C. Tarry
(416) 922-6678, ext. 286
starry@retailcouncil.org
art direction

Scope Media
www.scopemedia.ca
contributors

Jesse Donaldson, Stuart Foxman,
Andrew Hind, David McPherson,
Robert Price, Randy Scotland
d i r e c t o r o f p u b l i c at i o n s

Angela Caroyannis
acaroyannis@naylor.com
project manager

Kim Davies
kdavies@naylor.com
sales manager

Bill McDougall
bmcdougall@naylor.com
editorial office

1881 Yonge Street, Suite 800
Toronto, Ontario M4S 3C4
Phone: (416) 922-6678 | Fax: (416) 922-8011
www.retailcouncil.org
a d v e r t i s i n g/ p r o d u c t i o n o f f i c e

Naylor (Canada) Inc.
300 - 1630 Ness Avenue,
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3J 3X1
Phone: (800) 665-2456 | Fax: (800) 709-5551
www.naylor.com
Canadian Retailer is published six times each
year by Retail Council of Canada. Members
receive complimentary copies of the magazine
with membership. The annual subscription rate
for non-members is $36.75 + tax.
Publication Mail Agreement No. 40064978
Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to:
Circulation Department, 1881 Yonge Street,
Suite 800, Toronto, Ontario M4S 3C4
cdnretailer@retailcouncil.org.
We welcome your article suggestions and any
photographs pertaining to retailing in Canada.
Please note the opinions expressed in Canadian
Retailer do not necessarily reflect those of Retail
Council of Canada. For article reprints, contact
Naylor (Canada) at 1-800-665-2456.

Like RCC on Facebook
Follow RCC on Twitter @RetailCouncil
Connect with RCC on LinkedIn
Watch RCC at www.youtube.com/
user/RetailCouncil

http://www.scopemedia.ca http://www.retailcouncil.org http://www.naylor.com http://www.youtube.com/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Spring 2016