My Starbucks Idea is now five years-old and remains the gold standard of crowdsourced tip boxes that have actually worked for a brand and delivered ideas from customers (150,00 plus) with innovations (277) that have actually been implemented.

Customers today can order a “skinny” beverage and a cake pop, garner digital rewards for using their Starbucks Card and enjoy free Wi-Fi – all thanks to suggestions from fans.

“For five years, our passionate customers and partners have been sharing their ideas with us on My Starbucks Idea, and we have listened and acted upon many amazing innovations that we have received from this online community,” said Alex Wheeler, VP global digital marketing for Starbucks.Continue reading...

Pepsi is redesigning its 16 and 20-ounce bottles for the first time since 1977 — one in a series of recent moves (see: the recent Super Bowl halftime show sponsorship and related landmark partnership with superstar Beyonce) as PepsiCo attempts to revitalize its flagship brand after a few mis-steps that led to the brand losing market share to rival Coca-Cola's Diet Coke brand in 2011.

The new design features a swirled grip on the bottom portion of the bottle, a shorter label edged in a "cola-colored" border and an enlarged version of its current globe logo and applies to Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max and Pepsi Next. 

"This new bottle is the next milestone in Pepsi's Live For Now marketing campaign," stated Angelique Krembs, VP of marketing for the Pepsi trademark. "Our single serve bottle is the most visible and tangible connection point we have with our consumers, and we love how the new bottle expresses our brand DNA."

"We started with single serve, because it is the package you're seen drinking and holding," Krembs told Ad Age. "The longer-term view is this new design system would eventually hit all touch points beyond packaging, to be honest, but certainly all other package types, as it applies."

According to PepsiCo's press release, "The new bottle's bold swirl and elevated profile reflect the brand's attributes and youthful spirit, capturing the excitement of now for Pepsi consumers. The etched, grip-able bottom allows consumers to have a more stimulating, tactile interaction with the bottle itself."Continue reading...

The secret speakeasies of the Prohibition Era hold a certain mystique. There’s something cool about knowing the password that will get you in somewhere.

Fast food joints across America are taking advantage of people’s desire to feel like insiders by offering secret menus—food that doesn’t appear on the lit-up boards behind the cashier.Continue reading...

Throughout a series of recent mishaps, Ford executives have seemed confident that their brand and products would come through in fine shape with American consumers.

Now, a couple of new assessments of automotive brand loyalty indicate  their confidence was well-considered.

Ford has placed No. 1 in loyalty rate of any brand among consumers in 2012, according to a tracking of car-registration data by Polk Automotive. Ford sported a 61 percent loyalty rate while the industry average hovered at 48 percent.

The automaker also finished No. 1 in brand loyalty in an annual survey by Experian Automotive, which found 44 percent brand loyalty overall for Ford, seven of its models in the top 10 of the survey overall.Continue reading...

Just as CES is getting underway in Las Vegas comes word that Disney is considering getting into the video-game-console market. UberGizmo reports that Disney has patented a gaming console that “will focus on providing a 3D augmented reality experience with its titles, similar to what the Nintendo 3DS does.”

While a video-game world of Disney is still a (new and improved) Fantasyland scenario, the estimated 30 million people that will pour through the gates of Disney World this year in Orlando will find themselves in a more game-like experience.

That's because Disney's digital marketing mavens are introducing a new method of payment and admission to ease navigating the park's attractions and venues: a bracelet called MyMagic+.Continue reading...

As the holidays are fast upon us, the brightest creative-commerce minds are devising promotions, deals and give-aways to snare the 2012 shopper wherever and whenever he or she may be.

The U.S. National Retail Foundation estimates that Holiday 2012 shoppers will spend $750 per family (up less than 1% from last year), with shopping smarter particularly important for higher-priced tech items that one-third of the population is focused on as lead gifts.

New research from Accenture shows a shift in consumer purchasing behavior and use of shopping channels, specifically online, regarding personalization vs. privacy, digital vs. in-store shopping and the rise of “showrooming.”Continue reading...

One in five consumers in 2012 switched companies they buy from including wireless phone, internet service and retailers according to new research released today from Accenture. 

The Accenture Global Consumer Survey polled more than 12,000 consumers in 32 countries and found that 85% of consumers would have stayed if their provider had acted differently. “Companies need to embrace the changing dynamics of what we call the nonstop customer experience,” Robert Wollan, global managing director of the Accenture Sales & Customer Services told brandchannel.

“The traditional customer-engagement funnel—beginning with cultivating awareness and ending with securing a customer’s purchase and loyalty—has lost its relevance. After all, many of today’s buyers neither enter nor exit a channel at one single point. As long as they’re using a smartphone, tablet or Internet-enabled PC, they are continuously in the channel.”Continue reading...

Starbucks is certainly feeling bullish these days. Just a few years after scaling back its US retail footprint in a rocky economy, the coffee giant is now eyeing "accelerated global growth" with plans to open thousands of new locations. It's even offering a luxe "superpremium" gift card that'll cost $450 to put in a Christmas stocking.

In a presentation at the company's biennial investor conference today, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz glowed with the news that he plans to boost the number of Starbucks cafes in the Americas by more than 20 percent — opening more than 3,000 new shops over the next five years, including 1,500 in the United States, still its biggest market.Continue reading...