Earlier this month, Marks & Spencer announced the launch of its “Only M&S” strapline, the first time its Food and GM divisions are being placed under a single marketing campaign. This follows a £150m re-launch of the M&S.com website in February, and the company’s plans to expand its eCommerce offerings and strategies will help them stay ahead of customer expectations and competition on high street.

On Thursday, Abercrombie & Fitch surprised the markets with a less-than-stellar earnings report: a 10% decline in sales for its Hollister brand, and 6% for its Abercrombie & Fitch adult clothing division. Its stock price fell as a result, and the company also announced a move away from logo-branded clothing to more fashionable outfits, along with quicker production processes. We can also blame the economy, more aggressive marketing from competitive brands, and other trends that have contributed to declining revenue for older brands.

Aside from dialing down the use of logos on its clothing, what else can A&F do to drive revenue and return as a trendier, more exciting brand to its customers? We have three strategic ideas that have worked with other brands, and if we were executives at the company, we’d aim to do these as soon as possible.

If you work in the fashion, electronics, or entertainment industries, then you already know that the teenage market represents a big opportunity for growth. But with so many screens and networks competing for the teenage mindshare, how can your business stand out amidst the crowd? When they’re not in school, they’re either picking out an Instagram filter on their phones, sitting on the couch playing Call of Duty, or scrolling through Tumblr on their laptops. No matter where they are, they are attached to some form of technology.

To learn more about winning over this market, we asked a few teenagers in Toronto on their thoughts about social media, effective marketing, and email marketing – and have compiled their top tips here.

Here at Canopy Labs, we’re always hungry to work with new businesses in a variety of industries. Today, we’ve found a few savory Magento stores that we thought might appeal to you too! After all, summer’s a great time to explore new foods and maybe discover a new favorite snack or two.

1. Chocomize

Last month, Canopy Labs was featured on the July 30 episode of Monocle’s weekly podcast The Entrepreneurs, which profiles entrepreneurial businesses engaged in unique markets and industries.

We’re big fans of ExactTarget’s powerful email marketing platform, and work with many companies who have taken the platform to a new level of performance. Through our work with customers, we’ve found a number of particularly helpful apps that ExactTarget power users often work with. Below, we’ve compiled a list of five marketing apps from ExactTarget’s Hubexchange that will ultimately make your digital campaigns a better experience for your customers.

1. EyeQuant

After many months of preparation, we are proud to announce our new website! Over the years, we have learned a great deal about the challenges faced by marketing professionals, sales managers, and analysts. We hope the new site will not only tell you about Canopy Labs, but also help you become successful in your roles.

This week I had the privilege of speaking at the Chief Data Office (CDO) Summit in Toronto. While Canopy Labs work aggressively with companies across all industries and revenue sizes, the CDO role is still relatively new to most organizations. In many cases, companies are still determining what a CDO should actually do, and how they should function within the broader scope of the organization.

Given the multitude of challenges that any executive experiences in a new role, we thought it would be helpful to summarize some of the ways we see best-in-class CDOs achieving their goals and growing their influence within the companies they are in. The strategies below are meant to be achievable within the proverbial “first 100 days” of the role, and will help new CDOs win the hearts, minds, and P&L priorities of the business.

If you work in industries such as finance, luxury retail, or non-profit organizations, then you can probably relate to the difficulty of identifying high net worth individuals for your organization. Whether you’re seeking a significant contribution to your latest fundraising campaign, or new clients to reach out to, these individuals represent important opportunities to expand your revenue and grow your customer base.

But how do you actually identify these potential customers for your organization? Most individuals are discreet about their assets and personal finances, and uncomfortable about sharing this information with third parties. Oftentimes, companies estimate the net worth of individuals based on average home values of their residential neighborhoods, or through third-party research firms that are commissioned to conduct surveys.

Centralizing customer data is hard – and one of the most common IT challenges for companies of all sizes, from 10-person eCommerce startups to billion-dollar retail operations. Harnessing customer data requires buy-in from all sides and can be overwhelming at times – but for the businesses that get it right, the outcome can present immediate and long-term returns. To succeed in this area, businesses need the right approach toward data collection and storage, analysis and action, security, governance, and even company culture.

So where does your company stack up? To help you get started on thinking about data analytics, today we’re launching the Customer Data Framework (CDF), which profiles 8 steps to scoring your company’s data capabilities. It is available for download as a free white paper by Canopy Labs!