After only a month, Jennifer Warren, the chief marketing officer for RadioShack, has given the 92-year-old company's image quite an overhaul. With hopes to become more relevant to younger consumers, the brand is pulling out every trick to try and woo a generation of digitally-savvy consumers into its aging stores.  

Earlier this month, the electronics retailer released a new commercial advertising Beats by Dre's Pill speaker, a spot that's riddled with half-dressed women moving in suggestive ways. The spot features a soundtrack by Robin Thicke, which is available for download with the purchase of a Beats product. With over 1.8 million views, it's the retailer's best effort to attract attention to the host of other electronic brands it carries, especially hip ones like Beats by Dre, as it continues to battle its long-time reputation as a wires and batteries-type shop.Continue reading...

When it comes to headphones, it’s all about whose head they're sitting on. Last summer at the Olympic Games in London, plenty of companies shelled out millions to be official sponsors, but one that didn’t bother was likely the biggest winner. Beats by Dre headphones kept getting airtime on international TV as athlete after athlete seemed to be sporting them.

These days, the business started by one of the world’s most influential—and richest—rappers, Dr. Dre. is commanding top billing among audio equipment providers. Dre is sitting extra pretty after HTC bought a 51 percent stake in the company in 2011 to the tune of a reported $100 million. (HTC later sold back 25 percent to Dre and co-founder Jimmy Iovine for $125 million.)Continue reading...

HTC One, a.k.a. the Facebook Home phone that's coming to AT&T and other carriers, is just one focus of the company’s impending brand refresh and aggressive marketing campaign to get better market placement against competitors like Samsung. 

HTC has been known for good hardware and not-so-good promotion, but squaring off against marketing-savvy Samsung requires the former to up its game. "It's one thing to make a great device—HTC has done that before," Mike Woodward, president of HTC America told the LA Times. "What is a little different this time is the way that we're going to market. We want to really get that down to the streets and get that down to consumers." 

HTC had been using “quietly brilliant” as its slogan, but the brand is looking to step out of its shell with a new marketing message that has “bold,” “authentic” and “playful” themes. The new tagline, "Everything Your Phone Isn't," is courting "Generation Feed" (what HTC calls tech-savvy, early-adopters). "Tech millennials are hard to connect with," Erin McGee, HTC North America VP Marketing told Ad Age. "We wanted to create a closer connection by targeting passion points."Continue reading...

Beats by Dre launched three new products at its pop-up turned permanent store in NYC's Soho today: the Beats Pill, the Executive headphones and upgraded in-ear headphones called urBeats in the brand's first solo product launches since parting ways with Monster Cable. Musician Trent Reznor is also joining the company as a consultant, while the recently acquired Mog music service is getting closer to launch. More details are here.

With the 2012 Olympic Games a week away, brands are beginning to get an idea of just how much of a bump they got from a few weeks in London at the most watched event in TV watching history.

When it comes to the most effective ambush marketing campaigns, there is no shortage of contenders. Paddy Power took true ambush action and suffered the International Olympic Committee's significant wrath. BMW's Mini executed probably the most garish ambush strategy during the discus and javelin events. And it's easy to see Nike as a favorite. Its "greatness" campaign was a hit from America to China.

But another brand stood out more than Nike -- from America to China -- and saw an immediate, significant sales increase. It's a brand that appears to be making unconventional marketing its core platform for brand building: Beats by Dr. Dre. Continue reading...

"Some journalists have been surprised to see Olympic workers taping over the logos on their Dell and Apple computers, since neither company is bankrolling the games, and the U.S. women's soccer team has been told not to hand out its media guide because it has 12 small logos of its sponsors — which are not official Olympics 2012 backers."

The absurd levels to which Olympic organizers are going to erase any and every possible non-sponsor brand name from peaking out came to its absurd apex on Saturday during the archery competition. On his way to the bronze medal, Chinese archer Xiaoxiang Dai was forced to put neon-yellow tape on his hat to cover its nearly invisible, black on black logo for… the Chicago Bears. Continue reading...

Amazon leads Klout list of most influential retailers.

Avon ousted CEO Andrea Jung's two-year exit deal criticized by former CEOs.

Bank of America settles fair-lending case for record $335 million.

Beats by Dre pumps up headphone sales.

Diddy plans to launch tequila brand.

Facebook tests private messaging between users and brand pages.

FedEx disciplines delivery man who tossed computer monitor.

Frito-Lay sued over "all natural" claims.Continue reading...

This afternoon, if you happened to be wandering in NYC's Soho neighborhood (where the temporary Apple store is located, in fact), you would have caught the opening of the Beats By Dre store.

What's interesting about this opening is that it appears that the only advertising or marketing that was used for this store was by way of pure social media. The special guest at the opening night party? Let's just say we'd be surprised if it didn't turn out to be Dr. Dre himself.Continue reading...