True&Co may be every woman’s answer to the sturm und drang of buying a bra.

Joining the growing list of e-commerce breakthroughs—think Zappos and Warby Parker—True&Co has scaled the most personal mountain of buying intimates online. Their model asks new customers to take a 15-question quiz, then selects three different styles for them to choose from. Then, an algorithm interjects to pick two additional bras to send out, giving a customer five bras to try on at home, no obligation to buy, priced from $45 to $62. 

The quiz asks the basics; band and cup size and the brand of her current “best fitting (and beloved) bra,” as well as questions like, “Do your cups runneth over?” and “What is your shape?” with these choices: Well-Rounded, Bottom Happy, Taking Sides and Bottom & Sides. 

“We have an algorithm that defines 2,000 body types,” said co-founder Michelle Lam, who started the company with Dan Dolgin and Aarthi Ramamurthy. 

It’s a brave new world where mathematics and marketing can determine and deliver anything from brasseries to orange juice suited to consumer preference, taking into account countless decision variables. Continue reading...

Google turns in soft quarter as PR fail pummels stock.

HSBC hit by worldwide cyberattack.

McDonald's profit falls as U.S. growth slows.

Abbott study of kidney drug is halted.

Apple's iPad Mini poised to cannibalize sales.

Lance Armstrong endorsement implosion toll reaches $30 million.

BBC director general to testify on Jimmy Savile scandal, as new head of BBC Worldwide named.Continue reading...

Social media monitoring has never been more necessary, or complicated. In the wake of acquiring Seesmic last month, HootSuite is getting more sophisticated — just as Twitter is clamping down on limiting third-party clients. HootSuite's just-launched Command Center, lets users monitor their social media mentions, publish and engage other users, all while analyzing and measuring results in one dashboard.

The goal, CEO Ryan Holmes tells VentureBeat, is “a hub where every social interaction can be seen, studied and spread.” That's the holy grail for marketers looking to wrap their bosses' heads around ROI (or some other kind of object) every time social media enters the conversation. 

A virtual ‘situation room,’ or ‘master control,’ HootSuite enables large enterprise companies to control all social activities real-time with dashboard views that include blocks such as, "Twitter Daily Retweets," "Twitter Follower Growth," and website visits.Continue reading...

You think only your friends are checking out your social-media postings? Think again. Checking out what the hoi polloi is putting up on social-media sites is a window into what the American culture is thinking a feeling. That’s a goldmine for the thinking person’s marketer.

One of those marketers apparently works at Amazon.com Inc.’s Zappos. The site, known for its shoe sales, has partnered with Pinterest to create a new site called PinPointing that will suggest Zappos products to consumers based on their Pinterest posts.Continue reading...

Accor speeds expansion after profits rise.

California Pizza Kitchen adds healthful items to menu.

Denny's to open 10 restaurants in Chile in first major expansion in South America.

ESPN extends deal with Major League Baseball through 2021.

FTC files false-advertising charges against Your Baby Can Read program.

Ford breaks ground on new plant in eastern China. Continue reading...

Above, watch Ingrid Vanderveldt's interview with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh at the recent SXSWi confab in Austin, which Dell just released on its YouTube channel. Watch the video and read Ingrid's takeaways below.Continue reading...

American Express announced an innovative social media integration with Twitter this week, enabling US cardmembers to turn customized Twitter hashtags into savings via sync.americanexpress.com. Promoted with the tagline “Sync. Tweet. Save.” the social marketing promotion is the most direct use of Twitter to date by a brand that creates a real utility for customers: couponless savings loaded directly to their synced cards and automatically delivered in a credit statement.

“With Twitter, we’ve really hit the trifecta. We have a great platform in Twitter,” said Ed Gilligan, Vice Chairman, American Express. “We know our cardmembers are engaged in Twitter. We’ve been working with them to think about how can we help them move from conversations to commerce. To turn a tweet into a transaction.”

Brands trying out Amex Sync include Best Buy, McDonald’s, Whole Foods Market, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Century 21, The Cheesecake Factory, Dell, FedEx Office, FTD, Gulf, H&M, Seamless.com, Sports Authority, Ticketmaster, Virgin America and Zappos. They'll be closely watching the analytics on this test, with the Amex Synch API offering also supplying reports to merchants about customer spending, online and offline.

And if they're in Austin for SXSW on March 12th, they can celebrate at a concert featuring Jay-Z.Continue reading...

Adidas taps Katy Perry for new campaign.

AFL-CIO launches image campaign.

Airbus posts record sales.

American Airlines stops flying to India, sacks 150 workers.

AOL leads companies testing crowdsourcing.

Apple expands iTunes Match, reportedly preps interactive textbooks for the iPad, while pre-earnings valuations vary.

BASF halts its genetically modified products in Europe, including its Amflora potato.

Beats Electronics breaks up with Monster.

Beyonce accused of skin-lightening in album promotion, gives first post-baby interview.

BlackBerry-maker RIM criticized by analysts for PlayBook incompatability.

BMW recalls 89,000 Mini vehicles.

Burberry quarterly profits jump 22%.

Carnival faces heat in wake of Italy shipwreck, its worst accident in 40 years, as environmental fears mount and cruise industry is rocked.

M&M's will introduce a sixth candy character — Ms. Brown — in its Super Bowl commercial, while Kia plans 60-second commercial with Adriana Lima and Motley Crue, in keeping with trend to longer Super Bowl spots.Continue reading...