Pfizer drops on weaker sales of specialty care drugs and emerging market slump, plans to buy back up to $10B in shares.

UK lawmakers prepare to grill Starbucks, Amazon and Google on taxes.

Con Edison makes progress in restoring NYC neighborhoods' power, while MTA offers free fares in bid to get New York moving again.

Apple's Cook fields his A-team before a wary Wall Street.

Avon sees sales drop in China and the U.K.

Barclay's hit with record U.S. fine.

Burger King tests delivery service in Florida.Continue reading...

Apple shares reach $700 as iPhone 5 shatters sales record.

Belvedere owes Bruce Willis for years of representing Sobieski vodka.

Burberry says strategy won't change as brand brings capes to London Fashion Week.

Chrysler and GM will get a chance at deal similar to new labor accord between Ford and Canadian Auto Workers.

Conde Nast plans French Vanity Fair.

Dole Food to sell businesses to Itochu.

Dos Equis finds some fans unimpressed with Obama endorsement by its "most interesting man" actor.Continue reading...

Subway still has the most restaurants of any U.S. fast-food chain. And probably even more important, it still has the most buzz.

At least according to the mid-year review of U.S. Buzz rankings by YouGov BrandIndex. Subway once more stands atop the rankings for all brands, followed by Cheerios, Amazon, History Channel, Ford, Discovery Channel, Lowe's, Olive Garden, YouTube and Google.

Subway "has consistently been teh top Buzz generating brand in BrandIndex over the last three years," YouGov's analysis of its results says. "Equally impressive to the No. 1 position is the brand's unique ability to keep marketing and advertising 'fresh' as scores continued to improve in 2012 while most other brands in the top 10 have trended lower through the first six months of the year."

Among other things, YouGov cited Subway's "ever-popular" $5 foot-long promotion, its "celebrity roster" of brand ambassadors — which lately have included NBA star Blake Griffin and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps — and new breakfast offerings.Continue reading...

Google’s Android mobile operating system is #1 on the top 20 brands favored by the LGBT community, according to the researchers at YouGov BrandIndex. Last year, Google's YouTube topped the annual LGBT ranking.

The 2012 LGBT buzz list includes four Apple-related and several other tech and social media brands, and looks quite different from last year’s ranking, with 12 new brands making the top 20: Android, iPad, Target, Samsung, Aleve, Kindle, Advil, PBS, LG, Starbucks, Comedy Central, and Skype. Disneyland and Disney World share fourth spot, reflect the parks' annual LGBT days and outreach to the gay community.

“Gay consumers number 15 million and counting, spending $743 billion annually” in the U.S., according to LGBT marketing agency Prime Access. Falling out of the top 20 this year: Google, Amazon, Whole Foods, Claritin, HBO, Lowe's, Cheerios, Food Network, M&Ms, Nike, Trader Joe's and Bose.Continue reading...

Are cereal boxes "platforms for content"? So argues Mark Addicks, the chief marketing officer for General Mills, who walks USA Today's Jefferson Graham through the addition of QR codes and augmented reality to the company's cereal brands. Betty Crocker, by the way, is another digital/social platform for the company. "There's never been a time like this," observes Addicks, a 23-year veteran of the company. "Because of the digital technology that resides in people's hands … we can now deliver content that engages and enhances the experience. Before, we had to rely on a 30-second TV ad."Continue reading...

Who knew you could lose weight eating Cheerios? The oat-cereal brand has been spun a lot of different ways over its six-decade history, from a playful and convenient baby food to a government-certified cholesterol fighter.

Sales of Cheerios boomed a few years ago after General Mills focused on the heart-healthiness of oats. Then the feds fired a shot across GenMills' bow, instructing the company that Cheerios had gotten a bit too cheerleady in its front-of-package messaging about the cardio benefits of oats.

So now Cheerios has rebooted and re-emerged, this time as a weight-loss brand. A new partnership between Multi Grain Cheerios and Meredith's Fitness magazine is limited to 7.5 million specially marked boxes of the cereal that are supposed to be available in supermarkets through mid-year.Continue reading...

AMR reassures employees on pensions.

Amazon builds Fire tablet on Android without Google apps.

Anheuser-Busch president steps down.

Apple aims to shore up financial results.

Callaway tries to lure young golfers with Justin Timberlake involvement.

Chesapeake Energy pulls back on gas drilling amid glut.

Conde Nast may be cooking up another "shelter" magazine.

GM deals with Volt mini-mutiny as some Chevy dealers spurn allocations of the car.Continue reading...

It's tough to run a multinational CPG brand these days. There's tepid consumer spending in the U.S., Europe and even Asia, on top of that "new normal" thing that came out of the Great Recession. Regulators are pursuing food and beverage companies that aren't getting on the better-for-you train fast enough. And commodity prices and currency-exchange rates vacillate wildly.

In its just-released list of new products planned for 2012, Kraft Foods reflects many of these pressures — but also reveals a determination to use the strengths of the brand and the company to take advantage of developing opportunities. General Mills likewise provided a sampling of its new-product forays for the new year, in a conference call this week.

Whether it's transfering successful product ideas from one national market to another, or doggedly trying new ideas in nutritional products, Kraft has laid out an ambitious schedule of 70 new items for the new year.Continue reading...