Artists Revealed

Beck's Canvas

Courage

Nelson Peltz, activist marketer

Brand reinvention is usually not part of a raider's attack plan, unless you're Nelson Peltz. Peltz, 66, spends hours wandering supermarkets, malls, and fast-food restaurants with his ten children (ages 5 to 45) to get investing ideas, which he later chews over with partners Peter May and son-in-law Ed Garden, who together run Trian, a hedge fund founded in 2005. According to people familiar with the fund, Trian now has more than $5 billion under management, including investments in companies such as Heinz, Wendy's, and Tiffany.

Fortune Magazine

James Biber Remakes Starbucks for ‘Architect’

The July issue of Architect magazine asked five architects, including James Biber, to redesign Starbucks in light of the company’s recent downturn. (Shares have fallen by 42% in the last year, and the company has announced its plan to shutter 600 stores.) Biber, who is featured on the cover caffeinating in New York’s City Bakery, proposed an environment that caters to a range of experiences—from fast to slow, from social to private—within a setting redesigned to be simple, efficient and universal. The approach even includes a new name for the chain: *$.

blog.pentagram
architectmagazine.com

Book Club

johnnybunko.com

The Best Global Design of 2008

The second big trend in 2008 was the return to minimalism and elegance. Apple's (AAPL) gold-winning MacBook Air laptop and iPhone best represented this trend. So did the silver-winning Whirlpool (WHR) Duet front-loading washing machine. Other winners were not beautiful but simply sensible. The Flip video camera by New York's Smart Design and Pure Digital Technologies is a pocket-size, easy-to-use videocam that employs no cables or complex software.

Business Week

WOO WOO

Stengel on Leadership, New Media and the Purpose Institute

Our pilots [on single-point agency leadership] are going exceptionally well. We are learning a lot from them. But there's no doubt the future for P&G and our agencies will be on high-performing, highly inspired integrated teams. That's where I think you get breakthroughs and embrace a lot of the opportunities we maybe were not embracing years ago when our teams were not as integrated.

Ad Age

The Process

P&G Global Marketing Chief Stengel to Step Down

The company announced today that Mr. Stengel, 53, who captains its $5.2 billion marketing budget, will step down Oct. 1. He will be working on special projects effective Aug. 1.

Succeeding him will be Marc Pritchard, 48, former head of P&G's cosmetics business who most recently had overseen a stepped-up global restructuring effort concentrated largely on how the company's regional market development organizations and global business units divide their duties.

Ad Age

Starbucks' Lessons for Premium Brands

Schultz sought, admirably, to bring good coffee and the Italian coffeehouse experience to the American mass market. Wall Street bought into the vision of Starbucks as the "third place" after home and work. New store openings and new product launches fueled the stock price. But sooner or later chasing quarterly earnings growth targets undermined the Starbucks brand in three ways.

Harvard Business Review

BBDO acquires Barefoot

"We have been interested in Barefoot for several years," said Andrew Robertson, President and CEO, BBDO Worldwide. "We're both about 'The Work,' and we have been impressed with how they've evolved into a digitally-driven integrated agency. Recently, we've had a chance to work together and get to know each other's organizations. We felt like this was a good time to forge a partnership."

Cincinnati Enquirer
Ad Age

The Death of Mass Luxury

It certainly looks that way. Executives at luxury retailers such as Saks (SKS), and high-end brands ranging from Coach (COH) to Karl Lagerfeld, are bemoaning the disappearance of free-spending shoppers. "You're seeing more pressure on that aspirational luxury consumer at our entry-price points," says Steve Sadove, chief executive officer at Saks.

Business Week

How to make everyone happy

If you are willing to satisfy people with good enough, you can make just about everybody happy. If you delight people and create change that lasts, you're going to offend those that hate change in all its forms. Your choice.

Seth Godin's Blog

Weak economy may be Wal-Mart’s strong suit

A year ago, Wal-Mart seemed to be mired in a world of woes. The discounter’s sales growth was anemic and its share price was slumping. Its two big nemeses, WakeUpWalMart.com and Wal-Mart Watch, two union-backed campaigns critical of Wal-Mart’s labor practices, regularly lambasted the retailer for its wages, benefits and treatment of workers. An attempt to appeal to more affluent shoppers had backfired badly, leaving the company’s apparel and other departments struggling. The company had been forced to scale back growth plans.

MSNBC.com

Safeway Hires P&G Vet Dietz as CMO

Safeway yesterday said it appointed Diane M. Dietz as its new evp and CMO, filling the spot vacated by Brian Cornell, who left the grocer to become CEO of Michael's Stores.

Dietz will oversee Safeway's marketing, merchandising, manufacturing, and distribution functions, and reports directly to Steve Burd, the chairman, president and CEO.

Brand Week

The End of the Line for Line Extensions?

Within the past year, some of the most heavily extended personal-care brands in those giants' portfolios -- Unilever's Dove and P&G's Pantene and Olay -- have slowed substantially or even declined in the U.S.

Ad Age

On Motivation

Outofyourleaguegirl

P&G's Sustainability Initiatives -- Not So Sustainable

Yet several of P&G's competitors have begun rethinking their approaches to chemical use. Earlier this year, Clorox launched a line of natural plant-based home cleaners; Wal-Mart, eager to line its shelves with green products, couldn't wait to get them into its stores. S.C. Johnson created a Greenlist, a ranking of chemicals according to their safety, and wherever possible has stopped using chemicals from the most hazardous class. Method and Seventh Generation, two smaller companies that make cleaning products using naturally derived ingredients, have been growing by double digits while some of P&G's comparable brands are flat or declining.

Fast Company

How to Build Brand Friendship

That human dynamic is the root of brand loyalty as well. Our "relationships" with brands aren't nearly as deep or meaningful as human relationships, but they do share some of the same characteristics. The extent to which you can create a sense of belonging, friendship, and dependability between your brand and customers is the extent to which you have a powerful brand asset.

Business Week

Wolff Olins' Intuitive Branding

So it seemed like a good moment to see if Wolff Olins (part of the Omnicom media conglomerate) has found the secret of being taken seriously by top-flight clients and yet still managing to produce work that is successful, news-worthy and distinctive. On a cold day in January, I went to their spacious offices near King's Cross to find out.

Business Week

Less Hyphen, More Burst for Walmart

Brand New