We’ve been hearing that the recent financial turmoil was only going to make what was already going to be a tough fall for retailers even tougher. In one of the first pieces of evidence that this is in fact true, Williams-Sonoma lowered its revenue and earnings guidance today for the third and fourth quarters and full year because weakening sales dropped even further in October.  

 “Over the past six weeks our sales trends have weakened dramatically, reflecting a significantly higher level of consumer concern over the events that have taken place in the global financial markets as well as the increasing likelihood of a prolonged recession,” said Howard Lester, chairman and CEO of Williams-Sonoma, in a statement. The decline in demand affected all of Williams-Sonoma’s channels and brands, with the decline in comparable store sales accelerating from negative 14% in August to negative 20.1% in September to negative 26.6% so far in October.

Reuters and others are reporting that Howard Lester, CEO of Williams-Sonoma Inc., recently sold 14% of his shares in the company to cover what’s known as a margin call. The information was revealed by Williams-Sonoma in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

When a company borrows from a brokerage house to buy stocks on credit using securities and the stock dips below a certain point, brokers who lent investors money through these margin loans can demand that investors sell part of the stock or deposit more money to cover the losses. This is a margin call.

The upscale home furnishings chain is one of several multichannel merchants that have watched its value drop significantly this year amidst a soft US economy and weak housing market.  Shares of Williams-Sonoma have lost 53% of their value since the beginning of the year. Over the past month, the stock has lost 33%. Shares closed at $12.10 on Wednesday.

Lester sold approximately 1 million shares in all on Monday and Tuesday for an average of $12.63 and $13.17, respectively. Following the sale, he owned about 6% of the company’s shares.

…perhaps it will work for the UK’s House of Lords? I’m speaking, of course, about reaching out to youth about politics through YouTube and other online social media.

Today the Associated Press reports that Britain’s House of Lords is aiming to soften its image with young people through a series of video shorts highlighting the legislative body’s import for British history. The effort - which will consist mainly of interviews done with a pop music background - is also coupled with a newly launched House of Lords blog.

Using blogs, music videos, virtual worlds and video games is a tactic that many US marketers of finance and insurance products are investing in to appeal to youth. Recent examples include Wells Fargo’s virtual world for smart spending and Bank of America’s use of Mo Rocca’s comedy in online video ads.

There is an assumption that this sort of initiative is necessary to entertain Millennials in order to get them to pay attention to issues like voting, banking and health insurance. Strange, this group demonstrates a desire for voice in government as well as personal wealth and health security. Should these “boring” topics really be a tough sell?

Results from these campaigns are still emerging and carry an important takeaway. Companies that enter into a new medium and slap some glitter puff paint to an unchanging corporate message (Who remembers The Hub?) still seem to fail with Generation Y. But companies that focus their appeals to youth around a solid value proposition for the always-plugged-in consumer (Great example: WSJ’s Loomia) are merely leveraging new channels to build their street cred with youth.

McLuhan was right: the medium is the message. But marketers should know that their message has to stand up in any medium with buying power, and the only way to do that is understand the product or service’s value for the audience.

For more thoughts on social media’s role in marketing’s future, check out next week’s Gloves Off debate: “What works on social networking sites?”