Twitter's transformation from startup to power player has hit its rocky adolescent stage. In the past six months, more than a dozen high-level employees have departed. The sudden exodus set Silicon Valley chattering: What's going on at Twitter?
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is trying to pull off an almost unprecedented trick: He's simultaneously guiding two of the tech industry's fastest-growing companies.
Say goodbye to the Picasa and Blogger names: Google intends to retire several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products, Mashable has learned.
Three of Twitter's key developers-- Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jason Goldman -- are launching a new venture.
Among the reasons why Bob Lutz became the best-known auto executive of the last two decades are 1) his outsize public personality and cultivated personal style; 2) his continuing association with fast, sexy cars; and 3) his penchant for straight talk and honest answers.
updated: Mon Apr 25 2011 12:07:00
With humor and persistence, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock dives into the hidden but influential world of brand marketing.
A few years ago, Morgan Spurlock was watching a season premiere episode of "Heroes." In it, a cheerleader, played by Hayden Panettiere, meets her father as she walks out of her new school and heads toward the parking lot.
Twitter's transition from "cultural force" to "actual moneymaking business" isn't going smoothly. A management shift is in the works, with one of the site's creators ramping up his involvement and another quietly stepping away.
Unnoticed and reported in last month's management changes at General Motors were two important direct reports that were assigned to vice chairman Steve Girsky. The new responsibility makes Girsky GM's second most powerful executive and solidifies his unique position in the corporate hierarchy.
General Motors promoted Mary Barra as its new head of product development, the first woman to hold that key position at a major automaker.
At the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, Toyota is asking "What's the plural of Prius?"
Hopefully viewers of Mad Men have calmed down from the rollercoaster of Sunday's season finale by now. While the big questions will keep us in suspense for season five, Fortune has your answers on the brands of the last episodes. (Catch up with our highlights of the first three seasons' brands in Mad Men is back, and so is product placement, and the earlier episodes from this season in Mountain Dew and Mad Men: The stories behind the pitches.)
Upon his release from prison in the new "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," corporate raider Gordon Gekko reclaims his belongings: A gold watch and a mobile phone the size of a 2-liter bottle of soda.
A New York-based brand management company said Tuesday it would acquire the Peanuts brand in partnership with the family of the characters' creator, Charles M. Schulz, for $175 million.
Al Campa, chief marketing officer of Taleo, recently received about 250 resumes for an open VP of Product Marketing position. A year ago when the job market wasn't as frantic, he says he would have received around 50 for the job at the talent management software company.
updated: Sun Dec 28 2008 21:06:00
One version of the little red wagon has undergone some high-tech changes.
Maybe you had one as a kid, or knew someone who did. It's the iconic little red wagon with the Radio Flyer logo.
You wanted to know more about greenwashing, and Scot Case, from environmental marketing firm TerraChoice, answered.
Photos published on several automotive Web sites Monday show a production version of the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in electric car General Motors plans to produce in 2010.
With one full year under his belt, Ford CEO Alan Mulally can point to a lot of progress in pulling the automaker back from the brink. But a look at Ford's financial results, as well as some comments that Mulally himself has made in the past few days, shows he still has lots of unfinished business to take care of.
If you are looking for some insight into what the automobile of the future will look like you could do worse than talk with Tom Lane. An American, he runs all of Nissan's Product Strategy anad Product Planning from his office in Tokyo.
Dear FSB: I have trouble finding my starting point for product development. Every now and then I might discover something that has to be developed, manufactured or drawn, but I'm not quite sure where to start. Do you have any suggestions or a format/model for developing new products?
The drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. reaffirmed its 2007 earnings outlook and said that seven of its drugs will hit billion-dollar blockbuster levels in 2008, but uncertainty over the experimental heart drug prasugrel continues to dog the company.
updated: Thu Dec 06 2007 16:31:00
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains why December and January are the deadliest months for heart attacks.
Try this at home: as the new television season unfolds, take note of the number of times your favorite character casually mentions a name-brand prescription drug. It'll happen more than you think.
Lindy Little Joe, based in Brainerd, Minn., was a regional manufacturer of fishing tackle until it hooked a new CEO - former Hewlett-Packard salesman Ted Takasaki. He launched a new marketing campaign and took the business national. Revenues grew to $10.4 million in fiscal 2007, up from $8.5 million in 2003.
Six years ago, you probably didn't know Rachael Ray from Ray Liotta, Billy Ray Cyrus, or a manta ray. But unless you've been swimming with the manta rays ever since, you know who she is now. So how, in less time than it takes most of us to change our hairstyles, did she go from buyer at a gourmet grocery in upstate New York to nationally known TV star, magazine editor, and purveyor of kitchen tools? By marketing herself and her ideas as shrewdly as any multibillion-dollar corporation pitching its latest widget. On the following pages, Ray and four other name-brand entrepreneurs share the secrets they used to build their eponymous empires. Even if you don't aspire to have your name stamped on anodized cookware, you'll learn valuable lessons about selling your most valuable asset: yourself.
FSB's archives are packed with entrepreneurs who reinvented stagnant industries. Here's how some of them are doing today.
The news that ABC will produce a half-hour comedy pilot featuring the cavemen made famous in ads for Geico was a nice boost for the long-suffering Neanderthals. But opinions are mixed on how it wil...
An instant message from a friend popped up on Lane McConnell's computer in September, telling him to check out a YouTube video of a cat chasing a remote-controlled toy helicopter.
When automakers fall on hard times, a string of ugly events commences that leads the company into a downward spiral. Slowing sales lead to loss of morale and faith in the company, which cause dealers to defect and talented people to leave, which in turn produces delays in new product programs that, of course, drive sales further south.
Here's how to turn your customers into your best marketers.
When PepsiCo wanted to differentiate its Mug root beer from competing products, it called David Altschul, the co-founder of a small marketing firm called Character in Portland, Ore., who helped cre...
Audi introduced its new R8 sports car to the United States Wednesday with a drive down Manhattan's Park Avenue and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg riding shotgun.
Ready to pump some life into your business?
The Disruptor: NextMedium
When PepsiCo wanted to differentiate its Mug root beer from competing products, it called David Altschul, the co-founder of a small marketing firm called Character in Portland, Ore., who helped create a mysterious bulldog to spice up Mug's soda cans.
Though it's their first chance to make a good impression, for many companies package design has often been an afterthought. Designers were called in at the last minute, and cost was the deciding factor.
American TV is already packed with product placements.
Here's what you need to know about Ursula Burns. As Xerox was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in early 2001, Burns was in charge of one of the crucial parts of the company's turnaround -- holding contract talks with its 2,000 unionized workers in Rochester, N.Y. -- even as she was exploring the outsourcing of their jobs.
Last year's $3.24 million sale of a 1954 Oldsmobile concept car at a Scottsdale, Ariz. auto auction definitely got the attention of automobile collectors.
Ford Motor Co. is consolidating its vehicle design units, according to a published report Tuesday, a move that is expected to result in an undetermined number of job cuts.
Less than a decade ago, his company was just another anonymous Asian supplier of commodity parts. Since then, Jong-Yong Yun, the CEO of Samsung Electronics, has seen it become the world's biggest c...
As natives of Mexico City, we have always been very proud of the food and spices of our country. Mexico has some of the best cuisine in the world, although many dishes are little known in the U.S. ...
J. Walter Thompson, the 141-year-old advertising agency, held a funeral this past winter. On Feb. 28, staffers in Paris lit a bonfire and tossed in materials from old campaigns. In Tokyo founder Co...
Chrysler's former boss and current pitchman Lee Iacocca is taking some shots at General Motors Corp.
Reality television producer Mark Burnett and a company that specializes in product placement advertising have ended their three month-old court battle, according to a news report.
Maybach, DaimlerChrysler's ultra-high-end luxury car brand, unveiled a 700-horsepower twin-turbocharged V12 concept car in Berlin today.
"You're Sued!"
Carrie Bradshaw is revered on Madison Avenue for turning Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo into household names.
Creating a product or a brand image that is effective beyond its local marketplace is a challenge most international companies face.
Winged pigs have been good to the Hayes Co. The Wichita manufacturer sells thousands of hand-painted polyresin porkers, metal planters, and other lawn ornaments to retail powerhouses such as Wal-Ma...
It was certainly no coincidence that during Jessica Simpson's performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, the audience members were all holding the same brand of cellular phone.
Every so often there emerges from the smog and sun-bleached streets of Hollywood a figure who is best defined as The Guy. The Guy knows everyone and is sought after by all. He drives hot cars, wear...
One recent Sunday afternoon, my wife and I arrived at Putnam Toyota in Burlingame, Calif., to test-drive a Camry. When we told the salesperson we were deciding between that and a few other cars, he...
The incident is forever seared in Jack Smith's memory. When the former General Motors CEO was still a fast-rising executive in the early 1980s, he visited Japan to study Toyota's stamping and assem...
No matter what the jury decides about Martha Stewart, the company she founded is on probation.
The Detroit auto show always glitters with gleaming cars and spectacular visual effects. This year, though, there was a change in the air, and it wasn't from gas fumes. Sure, the annual gala filled...
In the world of the movies, its long been assumed that every time you see a car, hear a beer call or see a computer, it was likely a specifically placed product for a price. But there are some new trends in the ever-growing product placement business.
What is it, you ask? A fine question. And a popular one too, as evidenced by the fact that every time I emerged from my icy-black 2004 Crossfire, some goggling person was planted just beyond the sw...
It's Oct. 25, and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates stands on a Broadway stage, ready to introduce his company's new PC operating system, Windows XP, to the world. Gates has done plenty of product laun...
Nobody would ever mistake Lincoln designer Gerry McGovern for another spoke in Motown's wheel. Check out the hair, the shades, the clothes: He's Johnny Cash in Giorgio Armani. His manners are show ...
What does this crazy election mean to the drug sector?
The highest praise in the auto industry is reserved for those deemed to be "car guys." They are believed to understand instinctively what customers want and to be able to translate that often inart...
For the millions of Americans contentedly motoring around each day in their slick, well-engineered BMWs, it may come as a surprise that the proud Bavarian carmaker's latest attempt to conquer the w...
Watching TV these days, you can skip the commercials and still be touched by clever marketing. On Fox's The X-Files, star Gillian Anderson uses a sleek Nokia 8860 phone. The ABC teen comedy Boy Mee...
Do you know how many consumer products are introduced in the U.S. each year? Double your guess, and you might be near the actual figure: 2,400. Now, how many do you think fail to make it? Right. A ...
We last checked in with Paul Anfinsen, Erin Gershon, Stacy Sukov, and Nicole Ginsburg (now Nicole Ginsburg Small) in June--right after their graduation from Northwestern University's Kellogg Gradua...
Dr. Evil makes his headquarters a giant Starbucks? Adam Sandler disses Hooters? We all know about product placement in movies--a company pays for flattering shots of its product. But why would thes...
Kellogg's new CEO, Carlos Gutierrez, took office with a pledge to boost profits of the Battle Creek, Mich., cereal company by at least 10% a year. Pie in the sky? Gutierrez could use some. For that...
If you haven't been paying much attention to Lincoln Mercury (and why would you, given the bulky, blue-haired Town Cars and Grand Marquis the division has traditionally put out?), you've missed the...
Imagine this scenario: You're a brand manager attending a brainstorming session with your staff when your company president suddenly announces that he has an idea. You're expecting him to suggest a...
By now, moviegoers have become well acquainted with the phenomenon of product placement--the quid pro quo between corporations and filmmakers that made E.T. gobble Reese's Pieces and James Bond tra...
A year ago, entrepreneur Dale Sundby was flying. PowerAgent, the company he'd formed to revolutionize advertising on the Internet, had just raised $13 million in its second round of venture capital...
The folks who make Gerber baby food probably wish they could forget the experiment, but they once tried to market a line of meals for adults. Unfortunately, if predictably, it flopped.
Canon is unlike any other Japanese company. It never established keiretsu-style relationships with suppliers or a main bank. Its chairman, Ryuzaburo Kaku, is a born iconoclast, best known in Japan ...
Two days a month, more than 50 automotive executives and engineers travel to a sprawling manufacturing complex in Georgetown, Ky., to learn how Toyota makes cars. The tours, which include an intens...
Some stellar improvements have surfaced in the luxury-car market in the past few years--state-of-the-art traction control, side airbags, and more powerful and efficient engines, to name a few. Yet ...
It's a classic marketing challenge: How do you announce that your product is "New and improved!" without tacitly acknowledging that it had previously been old and lousy? For every flashy graphic pr...
Look for the formula of Coca-Cola, and you'll find it in a bank vault in Atlanta. Search for Intel's microprocessor blueprints or Merck's drug formulations, and you'll probably locate them in a loc...
Ah, fickle fashion. Not so long ago, Toyota's Lexus LS400 was the epitome of vehicular correctness. Its unobtrusive styling made it perfect for rich folks who didn't want to look too rich, and the ...
Doug Ivester was at his desk at Coca-Cola headquarters on a Friday in early April 1993 when the news crossed the broad tape. Philip Morris was cutting the price of its Marlboro cigarettes by 40 cen...
IN AN UNUSUALLY faddish era, building customer loyalty is one business precept that won't go out of fashion. If the Eighties rewarded widespread improvements in product quality, the Nineties will c...
To get a taste for the crazy ways marketers must compete for today's finicky consumer, stroll through the beer section of your local retailer. You'll see Icehouse, a successful new upscale beer fro...
NOBODY LIKES an economic recovery better than the auto industry, and it's Detroit -- not Japan -- that is reveling in one now. Recession-weary consumers who put off buying cars and trucks are retur...
SEEMS LIKE only yesterday the Japanese were at the top of the world's car business. Now they're discovering what life is like in the pits. Nearly every day brings more dire headlines: SALES FALL 11...
ARE YOU KEEPING your customers? You'd better be, because it's far cheaper to hold on to the ones you have than to acquire new ones. A happy contingent inside your tent lessens your need to beat the...
THOUGH BARELY out of its infancy, information technology is already one of the most effective ways ever devised to squander corporate assets. Year after year, the typical large business invests as ...
DETROIT'S remarkable resurgence contains just one flaw: The recent performance of Ford Motor, No. 2 in the U.S. and the world, has been a significant -- and surprising -- disappointment. Ford is a ...
CONFRONTED with a crisis, Lee Iacocca has always responded by stirring things up: Hire a new executive, change titles, rearrange reporting responsibilities. Now facing his biggest challenge -- dise...
SIGNS OF HYPERGROWTH are everywhere at Amgen, the Thousand Oaks, California, biotechnology firm. Like an amoeba, the company, which already sprawls over 17 low-slung buildings, is fast engulfing it...
ONE-HIT WONDERS abound in the world of consumer electronics. Some companies / are flashes in the pan, like the original Atari, which invented the videogame. Others, like Swatch, maker of trendy ele...
SPENDING AN afternoon with Betty Crocker or with the folks who make Hamburger Helper sounds about as lively as taking your grandmother to Saturday night bingo at the firehall. But General Mills, pr...
OF ALL the hortatory slogans kicked around Toyota City, the key one is kaizen, which means ''continuous improvement'' in Japanese. While many other companies strive for dramatic breakthroughs, Toyo...
THE YEAR isn't even over yet, but John Sculley is already waxing philosophical. ''Nineteen ninety has been the worst year in my business life,'' says the CEO of Apple Computer as he nudges his cher...
The autumn of 1990 finds Detroit's Big Three racing to catch up with Japan's premier automakers. General Motors is pushing out the first models made by Saturn, its seven-year, $3 billion effort to ...
REMEMBER Woody Hayes? The late, great Ohio State football coach had a passion for winning the old-fashioned way. His teams moved downfield not with razzle- dazzle passes but by grinding out 3 1/2 y...
Governments will provide some of the greatest business opportunities. Japan will launch a major advertising campaign in the U.S. to counteract the rise in Japan bashing. The Japanese are smart enou...
AS ANNUAL MEETINGS go, Procter & Gamble's promised to be pleasantly uneventful. Sales and profits were up; ditto the stock price and the outlook for the future. Even the animal-rights activists wav...
IT IS THE WORST OF TIMES for middle managers, that beleaguered band of demibosses currently blamed for most ills afflicting corporate America. Either their jobs are vanishing in mergers, takeovers,...
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