Note to Sears: Nobody Needs More Stuff
2009-08-20
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Illinois – Sears Holdings (SHLD) announces earnings today; turns out their second-quarter loss is $94 million, or 79 cents a share, with revenue falling to $10.55 billion from $11.76 billion. I could have guessed it going into their Westfield Sarasota Square store. On our visit, the clerks wereMORE HERE
Solutions for Reader’s Digest after Ripple-nomics
2009-08-19
Ripplewood Holdings had sent an American classic into bankruptcy. Read BrandlandUSA’s stories about how to save this American icon: The potential of Reader’s Digest in a Web 2.0 World. What to do about the magazine (and company) now that it is in bankruptcy. Hint: They need to channel the Wallaces.MORE HERE
Reader’s Digest, Get Back To Basics (and Apologize to the Wallaces)
2009-08-18
PLEASANTVILLE, NY. – That private capital has been unsuccessful in a leveraged buyout of Reader’s Digest Association Inc. should be no surprise. Private capital like Ripplewood Holdings has failed in all manner of media plays. The reality is that during a downturn, a company can’t be expected to be payingMORE HERE
Keep Johnnie Walker In Kilmarnock Scotland
2009-08-17
KILMARNOCK, SCOTLAND – Great brands are associated with a place. This is true even more with alcohol other products that have elastic demands. The place of manufacture adds to the allure of the brand, and that helps build a market for it. You differentiate your liquor product not only byMORE HERE
Interview: Singer Songwriter Jake Holmes, America’s Most Memorable Jingle Writer
2009-08-15
NEW YORK – Jake Holmes perhaps has had as much influence on American music as any other singer songwriter, but unless you are a devotee of early 1970s rock or advertising, you probably don’t know his name. But you certainly know his music, which includes Gillette’s “Best a Man CanMORE HERE
Hungry for Horne’s on the Highway
2009-08-14
PORT ROYAL, VIRGINIA – When you think roadside, you think Stuckey’s and Horne’s. Both were the roadside rest stops; before the government got in the bathroom business with so many Interstates, places like Stuckey’s and Horne’s served up bathrooms, souvenirs, gas, food and whopee cushions to the American masses. Stuckey’sMORE HERE
Advertising Behind a Bicycle and Modern Signboard Ad Ideas
2009-08-13
Advertisers and agencies get so obsessed with technology in advertising that we forget that there is still effective analog advertising. One such concept is Sarasota’s I Pedal Ads, a bicycle-powered billboard. In most areas, zoning and sign restrictions have become so severe that there are fewer and fewer ways toMORE HERE
Delta: Use the Northwest Airlines Brand Or Lose It
2009-08-11
It’s a fundamental of trademark law. To keep a trademark, you have to use it. My old Virginia bank Virginia National Bank learned that lesson. It dropped the name VNB, and merged a number of times into what is now Bank of America. A few years ago, a new start-upMORE HERE
America’s Eight Greatest Sunscreen Brands
2009-08-10
Amazon.com WidgetsIt’s summer. You go to the beach. There is that SMELL. What smell is it? Coppertone smell? Hawaiian Tropic smell? Bain de Soliel? Got to have a smell. That got us thinking, just a day after we wrote about Sea & Ski. What are the TOP sunscreen brands ofMORE HERE