Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

Welcome to Retail Unwrapped, a podcast from The Robin Report. Join Shelley E. Kohan as she shares insights and unpacks issues at the core of retail and consumer products. The conversations are lively and the opinions are honest. New episodes every Friday.

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report is a business podcast hosted by The Robin Report, with 311 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

The Robin Report hosts Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report, a business show with 311 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

  EP 311: Halloween and Hershey’s Are Enduring Traditions

  Sep 25, 202627 min

  We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! It’s no surprise that there's a lot going on in the mind of the consumer, with concerns about the economy, what's happening globally, and the pressures of online social interactions. Halloween provides a welcome reconnection with people in real life. Join Shelley and Stephanie Berman, Vice President of Retail at The Hershey Company as they discuss how Hershey brings memorable moments to life with street fun, new products, and meeting consumers where they are. They discuss how to leverage consumer analytics, tools, and technology to make this Halloween an emotional experience by getting closer real-time to the consumer. Stephanie reveals how her field teams bring real-time insights to adapt and adjust to consumer needs. Learn how Halloween is more than family fun and a popular tradition; it is a time for unapologetic self-reward, social connection, and anticipation with about 67 percent of parents purchasing Halloween candy by mid-summer. Impressively, it is also a $900 million business for Hershey. Special Guest : Stephanie Berman, Vice President of Retail at The Hershey Company For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

  Retail Unwrapped on the Road: How Ace Gets Retail Media Right

  Sep 22, 202618 min

  We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retail media, currently over-hyped and over-promoted, is typically seen as a novel advertising channel. That sells the network short as a business growth strategy. It is a powerful tool for multi-location, co-op-model retailers when it is used to tie advertising to sales, distribution and new customer acquisition across the brand. Join Shelley and Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President and of Head Retail Media at Ace Hardware, as they discuss how Ace is bringing together advertising, store distribution, ecommerce, delivery, customer acquisition, data, and the in-store experience. Learn how the network multitasks to inform and alert its independent store owners about everything from the weather to influencers to make Ace relatable and amplify the trusted relationship its customers expect. Ace also is a poster child for vendor relationships with is new Vendor Council that tests new media strategies and its Retailer Reach direct channel between vendors and store operators to maximize local inventories. Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President, Head Retail Media, Ace Hardware For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

  EP 310: Can AI Be Trusted?

  Sep 18, 202630 min

  We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! AI is in the crosshairs of its creators, ethicists, legislators, and a nervous public. With recent headlines predicting the demise of humanity, how does anyone trust AI? On a more operational level, retailers can train and scale AI, but it cannot build trust or relationships, which is an expensive blind spot for retailers. The emerging issue is that AI fluency will separate the haves and the have-nots, and retailers that understand and use AI as a tool to build trust will have a competitive edge. Join Shelley and Aaron Strout, author of Wired for Purpose: Why Humanity Is the Biggest Differentiator in a Digital World , as they reveal how Ford and Ikea became victims of their own tech hubris. Special Guest: Aaron Strout, Author, Wired for Purpose: Why Humanity Is the Biggest Differentiator in a Digital World For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

  EP 309: Brand Drift and the Risks of AI Marketing

  Sep 11, 202629 min

  We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Most retail brands don't collapse in one dramatic moment; they drift, one small decision at a time. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 40 percent of CMOs pushing for bigger rebranding budgets will lose influence with the C-suite because they can't prove the return. AI is already eroding organic search, adding to brand drift. Join Shelley and Karen Leland, founder of Sterling Marketing Group and author of “The Brand Mapping Strategy,” as they unpack why reinvigorating a brand beats rebranding. They discuss how brand marking is findable, followable, or unforgettable and the risks associated with each. Special Guest: Karen Leland, founder of Sterling Marketing Group and bestselling author For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

  EP 308: A Visionary Designer Engineers a Radical Ganni Sneaker

  Sep 4, 202641 min

  We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! It stands to reason that emerging technologies should help engineer visionary designs, and new tools will enable new solutions to old problems. That’s how Maria Intscher-Owrang, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Simplifyber used her curiosity and creativity and looked to sci-fi to reinvent a supply chain. She and her team developed natural fiber liquids that can be molded with 3D technology into unlimited shapes and engineered to outperform or even replace traditional fabrics and/or plastics. This short cuts traditionally complex multi-step manufacturing and transforms the traditional supply chain in the process. They have engineered these materials for apparel, footwear and car interiors. Her latest invention is to mold Ganni moon shoes through a fusion of sustainable and compostable bamboo, sugarcane, and wood enhanced by crystals. Join Haley and Maria as they dig into her journey of developing bio-based engineering and design with tech advanced tools. Maria describes her passion to change an industry and find alternatives to fossil-fuel based fibers, expendable apparel that pollutes unregulated environments, and unsafe clothing manufacturing conditions. Listen, learn, and be inspired. Guest: Maria Intscher-Owrang Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer at Simplifyber, For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.