NEW YORK – The news that Coach (NYSE: COH) and Estée Lauder (NYSE: EL) decided to market a new fragrance for the department store market revealed a brand strategy, the brand think tank. Estee Lauder calls it their brand think tank called Beauty Bank. BeautyBank is the entrepreneurial think tankMORE HERE
Brief items: Proctor & Gamble just released its revived collection of Rochas, under the leadership of Marco Zanini. Proctor & Gamble shut down Rochas in 2006, and brought it back. The Wall Street Journal noted last week that its “nutty wide heels” and such targeted the exuberant woman who wantedMORE HERE
CHERRY HILL, N.J. – LEM is a special kind of lemon filling, found in select grocery stores and specialty food shops. Made by Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Serv-Agen, it is quite different than your regular pie filling. It was originally called Mrs. Morrison’s LEM, and was a “one-line item” company. ItMORE HERE
Back somewhere after my 1970s childhood, Super Sugar Crisp became Super Golden Crisp and Sugar Pops became Corn Pops. Thankfully Sugar Bear, that Super Sugar Crisp mascot, survived, though I haven’t seen much of him lately. It was due, then, to a 1970s health food craze that had sugar causingMORE HERE
CHERRY HILL, N.J. – The brand Serv-a-gravy has been harder to find at stores. Charlie Slade, of the company Serv-Agen, gave a bit of history of the company. The gravy brand was started by his grandfather, Herbert W. Salus, in 1936. He was a civil service commissioner and attorney. HeMORE HERE
The late landscape architect Charles Gillette had a trademark in his garden designs. Gillette, so focused on symmetrical designs and order, was not afraid to leave something wild or out-of-sync in his landscape. If he was landscaping a property, and there was a native cedar tree stuck in an oddMORE HERE
No, I’m not talking about the late Jerry Garcia. I’m talking mums. Potted mums. I have been thinking about a pot of red mums that sit by the walkway into my house. Different things happen to mums in different economies. When things are booming and we all have cash, weMORE HERE
HOFFMAN ESTATES – As the most iconic and historic retailer in the U.S. and owner of some of America’s greatest brands, Sears, Roebuck & Co. made a major jump into social media with the launch of MySears.com last spring. It now has 1.9 million monthly unique visits; (the Sears.com siteMORE HERE
FOUR OAKS, N.C. -One of the many historic meal and flour brands is House-Autry, founded in 1812. The brand dates from 1812 in Newton Grove, North Carolina. Later, the mill grew and merged with Autry Brothers Mill Company in 1967 to form House-Autry Mills. They opened a 2001 mill inMORE HERE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – So FDA issues a warning today about Novartis Consumer Health’s Maalox. We’ll print it verbatim: Choosing the wrong liquid Maalox product for your condition can have harmful consequences, warns the Food and Drug Administration. Consumers may be confused by the similar packaging and labeling of liquid MaaloxMORE HERE