Sales industry researchers CSOInsights stated recently that after a “flat” budget year in 2009, marketing budgets are increasing in 2010 and beyond, and that the top three items for additional budget allocations were: Web site design/content (65% stated they were increasing budget allocation) Email marketing (54%) Web search optimization (51%) Great news, right? Good to…

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Take a look at this collection of “No Longer With Us” retail stores. I don’t know about you, but I found it highly fascinating.

It’s amazing how many previously successful, nationally-recognized store brands reside on this list.

I bring this up because in a time and age long past, I worked as a humble retail clerk for a major electronics and computer “Big Box” company that is now long gone. I could tell you which one, but there’s really no point; 90 percent of the electronics “Big Box” stores from the ’90s and early 2000s went the way of Britney Spears’ relevance to the music industry for exactly the same reasons.

Each of the now-defunct, “major player” Big Box Electronic stores—Circuit City, CompUSA, Computer City, Incredible Universe, Ultimate Electronic—died because they failed to recognize the reality . . . .

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