Retailers these days seem to be up against a lot: rising costs, shifting consumer preferences, and dwindling loyalty are just the foremost among many concerns. But keeping consumer faith strong is arguably even more essential.

For Lowe’s CMO Jennifer Wilson, a lot of this comes down to putting together the perfect marketing strategy. Unfortunately, home improvement is not the easiest category to market. But Wilson, who has been with the retailer for nearly two decades, has it covered.

In a conversation at Shoptalk Fall in Chicago, the marketing veteran chatted with Retail Brew about Lowe’s primary marketing focus, shifting priorities, and new demographics.

Keep reading here.—JS

Grocery prices helped boost the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in December, which rose 0.4% from November and 2.9% annually, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week. Retail sales also increased 0.4% in December to $729.2 billion, and 3.9% year over year, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.

The Commerce Department also revised November’s retail sales bump from 0.7% to 0.8%.

While the CPI jump was higher than analysts anticipated, following a 0.3% monthly and 2.7% annual increase in November, core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, was lower than expected, up 0.2% month over month, the first cooldown since June, and 3.2% annually. Retail sales fell slightly below analysts expectations.

Keep reading here.—EC

With TikTok prepared to go dark as soon as this weekend, many marketers seem poised to go all in on Meta.

Creators aren’t quite so sure.

Thoren Bradley, who has amassed more than 10 million TikTok followers for his woodchopping videos, has spent the last week encouraging people to boycott Meta in response to its lobbying efforts ahead of the bill’s passage last year. (Meta has denied supporting the TikTok divest-or-ban bill.)

Bradley isn’t alone. Videos of people turning off (and calling out) Meta’s data-sharing, tracking Meta’s fluctuating stock price, and deleting Facebook altogether have circulated online since the Supreme Court hearing about the TikTon divest-or-ban bill in early January. Even before that, Google searches for how to delete Facebook and Instagram accounts were on the rise following Meta’s announcement that it would end its third-party fact-checking program.

For creators who still plan on using Meta platforms, there’s some apprehension about audience-building and monetization options. TikToker Erica Mags, who has nearly 105,000 followers on the platform, said in one video that one of her videos didn’t get the same reception on Instagram Reels as it did on TikTok—so much so that she ended up deleting it.

“Don’t make us go over there,” she said in the TikTok. “The vibes are not the same.”

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—KH