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Kate Newlin

About Kate Newlin

Kate Newlin is principal of Kate Newlin Consulting as a business strategist working with senior executives at critical crossroads in the development of their brands, categories and portfolios. She uses a five-step methodology respected for its ability to surface unmet consumer needs that provide strategic competitive advantage for her clients. She is also is the author of Shopportunity! How To Be A Retail Revolutionary.

Otherworld Retail

By Kate Newlin   |   February 20, 2022

Do your eyes glaze over when you hear the term “metaverse?” Maybe Covid updates or supply chain bottlenecks are more riveting. Or comp-store sales versus a year ago. A 45-year-old athlete’s on-again, off-again desire to retire. Anything else. Well, congratulations. You must be a CEO of a major retailer or CPG brand. Now, at the apex of your career comes a dodgy idea forced upon you by Silicon Valley narcissists who know nothing of fashion trends or packaged food fixations. The Metaverse Isn’t Going Away My great friend and …

Otherworld RetailRead More

Retail in a Transitional Crisis

By Kate Newlin   |   November 22, 2021

A few years ago I worked with Godiva Chocolatiers on a new loyalty initiative to take it beyond spontaneous purchases and holiday whirlwinds at its tiny shops. The most remarkable piece of learning came from a conversation with the president of the company. The week before Christmas was an “all-hands-on-deck” time for them, when he told me every senior executive throughout the Godiva world would go to work in the stores over the holidays. They would run the cash registers, work with clients to create the perfect holiday gift and bring fresh …

Retail in a Transitional CrisisRead More

Small Businesses at Risk

By Kate Newlin   |   June 14, 2021

An informal survey of fashion, retail, communications, and innovation gurus suggests to me that if leaders genuinely want the economy to roar back and remain roaring, fundamental change is required. We simply cannot return to our old, pre-Covid default settings. If we are honest, the business of supporting small business has been rattling along for generations, adding factions and fiefdoms to some mythic Rube Goldberg device. The Machine of Small Business The machine of  business was not created by a cartoonist illustrating how to make simple …

Small Businesses at RiskRead More

Betting Big on Going Bigger

By Kate Newlin   |   March 22, 2021

The other afternoon on Dateline White House on MSNBC, Nicole Wallace mused with a female guest about what will happen when they can go outside again. Their consensus: They need elastic-banded pants. Their knowing smiles suggest we all will expand our wardrobes. After a year of relying on figure forgiving leggings, t-shirts and hoodies, entering the once and future world of wardrobes frozen in the amber glow of our year-ago closets may come as yet another shock to our already traumatized selves. Yet it must be said, our year of living Covidly …

Betting Big on Going BiggerRead More

The New Consumer Faces an Anxious Future

By Kate Newlin   |   January 18, 2021

Conventional wisdom insists the world as we’ve come to know it this past year balances precariously on a polarizing precipice: economic instability vs. the stock market’s irrational exuberance. Remember what happened to irrational exuberance? Consumer behavior today straddles a tipping point. To be clear, marketers are balancing the same divide. Poised on this teeter-totter, the key question looms: wither brands that understand and serve The New Consumer? Fairytale Moments Today’s reading of reality reminds us of the ballet version of The …

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The Winter of Our Discontent

By Kate Newlin   |   December 9, 2020

Sometimes it helps to stand back and look for the big truths hiding in plain sight amidst massive mounds of little insights, false positives, mistaken assumptions and, well yes, wishful thinking. Such a truth revealed itself as I took my regular Fitbit-inspired walk around Manhattan today. I started on the Upper East Side in the 90s and headed 35 or so blocks south, before heading back up: my roughly10,000-step daily requirement and all logged before 9:00 AM. Invigorating, right? Well, not quite. An Urban Wasteland Typically, I walk down …

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Reimagining JCPenney

By Kate Newlin   |   November 23, 2020

Several weeks ago, a colleague asked me which retailer(s) I thought were genuinely innovative. For me, "innovative" and "retailer" rarely fit in the same sentence, but, my immediate response: Carvana. Disruption for Detroit The world of used, or previously owned cars will never be the same. It has now been transformed into a fascinating, fun and, dare one say, festive shopping experience. Carvana is a totally reimagined catalytic wonder-what-it-would-be-like moment of new car ownership all the way through to the thrill of delivery and …

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How to Understand Your Customer

By Kate Newlin   |   October 26, 2020

Remember when the Paradox of Choice was published? Sociologist Barry Schwartz's thesis was that consumers were stunned by the sheer staggering number of product category options, and thus defaulted to making no choice. Scores of CPG clients began the laborious process of attempting to re-rationalize SKUs, until "cease and desist" orders were issued internally. The shelf space strategy was to edit the number of offerings to mitigate the paradox of choice syndrome, until the impact on slotting fees raised its ugly head. Shopping vs Buying The …

How to Understand Your CustomerRead More

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Copyright © 2022 · Robin Lewis, Inc. All rights reserved. Copying or reproducing, by any means whatsoever, of The Robin Report, or any distribution hereof, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of Robin Lewis, Inc. is strictly prohibited. The Robin Report is published for senior executives in the retail, fashion, beauty, consumer products and related industries. The opinions expressed herein are not, and should not be construed as investment or other advice. All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice.