National Retail Federation launches year-long advocacy campaign

Casual Living Staff -- Casual Living, 9/23/2011 9:29:12 AM

The National Retail Federation has launched a year-long advocacy campaign to advance a "Jobs, Innovation and Consumer Value Agenda" on behalf of America's retail industry.

The campaign includes the launch of a new interactive website, retailmeansjobs.com, and significant investments in grassroots activation of retail businesses, employees and consumers across the country to urge participation; congressional outreach; advertising in multiple media including print, radio and online; a viral campaign to showcase the "Faces of Retail" by engaging consumers and employees in a video contest to be launched in 2012; the release of new research that measures retail's unique role as the nation's most significant driver of jobs, innovation and consumer value; a unique social media campaign including a viral video, with heavy emphasis on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; an international push to highlight the importance of retail to the global economy.

At the top of the retail industry's Jobs, Innovation and Consumer Value Agenda are corporate tax reform; passage of pending free trade agreements; steps to make it easier for foreign visitors to obtain visas so they can travel to the United States and shop in U.S. stores; leveling the playing field for sales tax collection by passing the Main Street Fairness Act; modernizing aging transportation infrastructure that slows down the retail supply chain and drives up costs; repeal or delay of a health care employer mandate that would force job cuts; and protecting consumer privacy while promoting innovations like mobile marketing.

Earlier this month, NRF asked the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction "supercommittee" to consider three of those issues - corporate tax reform, the Main Street Fairness Act and the employer mandate - among its options.

"This campaign represents a major step forward in the retail industry's efforts to have a voice that is commensurate with our massive role in the nation's economic and employment picture," said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay, who has reorganized the 100-year-old trade association with a new emphasis on advocacy, communication and education. "On issues of jobs, innovation and economic competitiveness, the voice of retail matters a great deal - and over the coming months it will be heard loud and clear."