Q&As

In a play on Publisher’s Clearing House’s Prize Patrol, reps from Hostess will visit the homes of some of its sweepstakes contestants on Halloween to dish out $1 million to one winner

You may have inadvertently set up barriers that keep your customers from wanting to take that final step and purchase from you. Here’s what some of those barriers may be, and how you can break them down to encourage more sales

Shopper marketing agency Mars Advertising has named Timothy Goeglein as vice president and retail channel marketing director, a new position, in the Cincinnati office

Consumers who use more than one channel when shopping for goods overwhelmingly prefer to move from online to brick-and-mortar locations, according to a new study

Woodworking supplier Sherwood Creations is touting two Web sites in its fall/winter catalog

General Mills is out with a marketing campaign to reinvigorate its Chex Cereal Party Mix, which includes an online sweepstakes, videos and recipes

British rock band Oasis is getting open-air play from New York City street musicians playing tunes from its latest album in advance of its October release

KFC is partnering with Activision to help promote next month’s release of the “Guitar Hero World Tour” music video game with a host of promos

The former executive vice president at Relay Worldwide, Pete Kelly, has opened his own shop, situ8, an experiential marketing company

Google announces plans to dock data repositories offshore, in ships that use wave motion as a source of energy. Separately, reports of piracy are up. What does this mean for the data industry a few years down the road? The Loose Cannon neatly sidesteps this question in this week’s column.