BDO Seidman, LLP - Accountants and Consultants

Chicago, IL –  According to a new study by BDO Seidman, LLP of chief marketing officers at leading U.S. retailers, more than one-quarter (26%) of America’s retailers are offering some type of charity promotion during the 2007 holiday shopping season.  Of those businesses conducting a charity-linked promotion, exactly half (50%) are donating a specific dollar amount or a specific percentage from every sale, while just under one-third (30.8%) are donating proceeds from a specific product, such as red T-shirts for the Red Campaign.  In addition to charity initiatives, more than a third (37%) of the CMOs say they are increasing their marketing focus on “green” products this holiday season compared to 2006.

“The retail industry is increasingly sensitive to projecting a positive corporate image to their customers,” said Catherine Fox-Simpson, a Partner in the Retail and Consumer Product Practice of BDO Seidman.  “The holiday season, when retailers are exposed to more consumers than any other time of year, presents the prime opportunity to identify their brand with worthwhile causes whether they be linked to charitable work or focused on environmental sustainability.”

These findings are from the most recent edition of The BDO Seidman Retail Compass Survey which examined the opinions of 100 chief marketing officers at leading retailers located throughout the country regarding their expectations of the 2007 holiday shopping season.  The retailers in the study were a pure random sample of the nation’s largest, excluding automotive dealers and restaurants, with revenues ranging from $100 million to billions of dollars, including 15 percent of the top 100 based on annual sales revenue.  The telephone survey was conducted in October of 2007.

BDO Seidman, LLP has been a valued business advisor to retail and consumer products companies for almost 100 years.  The firm works with a wide variety of retail clients, ranging from multinational Fortune 500 corporations to more entrepreneurial businesses, on a myriad of accounting, tax and other financial issues.

About BDO Seidman, LLP

BDO Seidman, LLP is a national professional services firm providing assurance, tax, financial advisory and consulting services to a wide range of publicly traded and privately held companies. Guided by core values including, competence, honesty and integrity, professionalism, dedication, responsibility and accountability for almost 100 years, BDO Seidman provides quality service and leadership through the active involvement of its most experienced and committed professionals.

BDO Seidman serves clients through 35 offices and more than 300 independent alliance firm locations nationwide. As a Member Firm of BDO International, BDO Seidman, LLP serves multi-national clients by leveraging a global network of resources comprised of 621 Member Firm offices in 107 countries. BDO International is a worldwide network of public accounting firms, called BDO Member Firms, serving international clients. Each BDO Member Firm is an independent legal entity in its own country.

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