Chief Marketer Staff

• The Relevance of Credibility in Marketing

  Look no further than two recent examples of relevancy gone bad and the negative impact it has had on the brands: Tiger Woods and Toyota.

• People In The News: MeritDirect, Western Sierra, Charming Shoppes, VisionPoint Marketing

  MeritDirect, Western Sierra Acceptance, Charming Shoppes and VisionPoint Marketing have recently announced personnel changes.

• Data Integration Concerns Lead Marketer Woes: Survey

  Readers who haven’t been sleeping well of late may take some cold comfort in knowing their compatriots are tossing and turning right along with them. Why the restlessness? Primarily over concerns about measuring results and increasing effectiveness, integrating marketing channels and turning data into actions.

• Agencies

  American Eagle Takes Lesson From Shutting Sub-Brand, Ends Year Strong

  All right, so American Eagle is shutting one of its brands. But not without having learned a lesson about launching a brand

• Gupta Resigns From InfoGroup Board

  Vinod C. Gupta has resigned from the board of directors of infoGroup. Gupta

• Email

  Artful Use of E-mail Gives American Ceramic Society Triple-Digit Sales Spike

  In less than three years, the American Ceramic Society increased product sales by more than 200%

• Staples Launches New Web Site Aimed at Businesses

  Staples, the office supplies giant, has launched a new commercial Web site StaplesAdvantage.com (www.staplesadvantage.com) aimed specifically at business customers.

• U.K. DM Payment Fraud Drops 15%

  The value of online, mail order and telephone order fraud in the U.K declined by an estimated 15% to 278 million British pounds ($306 million) in 2009, compared with 328 million pounds ($494 million ) in 2008, according to Retail Decisions, a payment fraud prevention company.

• DataLogix Names Hillyard CFO

  John Hillyard has joined DataLogix, and will serve as the company

• First Data Appoints Forehand Interim CEO

  First Data Corp. has appointed Joe Forehand chairman and interim chief executive officer (CEO).