Kia names first non-Korean as president and integrates Google Maps.

Avis to acquires Zipcar brand for $500 million.

Nivea woos investors as CEO admits Rihanna was the wrong brand ambassador and brand returns to NYC's Times Square as New Year's Eve event sponsor.

Amazon apologizes for Christmas Eve outage.

American Girl's 2013 Girl of the Year doll addresses U.S. arts education cuts.

Apple sees its store in Paris robbed.

BBC Worldwide appoints chief brands officer.Continue reading...

Every so often Brandchannel gets the opportunity to go back to Branding 101.

Case on point: when we hear about a brand that pretends to have no brand.

Our last look at this phenomenon came in February, when Christian "Ed Hardy" Audigier launched a brand with "no name, no logo and no brand."

The most recent offender? "Unbranded" denim. Sold exclusively at Urban Outfitters, the description of Unbranded denim claims, "No branding. No washes. No embroidery. No ad campaigns. No celebrities." No kidding!Continue reading...

Everyone from The Village Voice ("douchebags") to Vanity Fair ("terrible people") is so excited to make jokes about the new Ed Hardy-branded condom that they completely missed one rather salient fact.

People, it's not an Ed Hardy-branded condom. It's an Ed Hardy-branded lubricant. The condoms are being produced by the designer's Audigier label and branded “Monsieur Bond." Oh yes, and there's a Sexline branded line of erotic toys.

All of this highlights a larger point: that the once branding master and designer Christian Audigier may be going off the brand extension rails.Continue reading...

Brandchannel has reported extensively about counterfeit or knock-off products. This month alone, more than $240 million worth of fake goods were confiscated in the U.S., including more than $18 million worth of faux designer sunglasses.

This is a chronic problem that only seems to get worse in a global economy, especially for designer and luxury brands. Counterfeit goods made to look like the real thing are sold for a fraction of the price of the originals, creating a huge black market and devaluing brands.

So we have to applaud the state of New York for a creative solution. Instead of destroying $10 million worth of confiscated clothing and shoes with fake labels, the district attorney's office in Brooklyn, New York came up with a novel idea: Send the goods to Haiti.Continue reading...

French fashion designer Christian Audigier has designed for a wide range of brands, including Lee, Naf Naf, Liberto, and Kookai. He is famously the creative force behind love them/hate them brand juggernauts Von Dutch and Ed Hardy.

Audigier has also collaborated on a brand of wine and champagne and a nightclub in a Las Vegas Casino. He understands the power of branding probably as well as any designer or marketer. That is why his latest move is so entertaining.

In the Las Vegas Sun, Robin Leach (Yes, that Robin Leach!) writes that Christian Audigier is "going to make the ultimate fashion statement here this week with the revelation that he’s here to launch a no name, no logo and no brand line. One of the flashiest men on the planet is going flash free!"Continue reading...