JCPenney slashes CEO Ron Johnson's pay, woos fashionistas with store-in-store bijoux bars.

Facebook dispute over Timeline trademark will go to jury trial; faces questions about new smartphone.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk will personally guarantee car buyback values as company introduces leasing.

A&W introduces Mini Polar Swirls via Vine.

Angelina Jolie opens school in Afghanistan funded by her jewelry collection.

Apple begins production of refreshed iPhone this quarter.Continue reading...

Yum! Brands third quarter earnings report is being closely watched.

Barclays to buy ING online assets.

Yahoo's Marissa Mayer urged to repurchase stock, profiled in New York magazine.

AT&T shares network with IBM to lure more customers to the cloud.

Amazon veers more into advertising.

American Airlines loses traffic over operational issues.

Apple asked by Taiwan to blur satellite image as Samsung spat dings brand perception.Continue reading...

London Heathrow is the third-busiest airport in the world, moving close to 70 million people down its two runways each year. It can feel a bit cramped there and anybody who has walked its floors might tell you that all 70 million of those folks were in the place the day they were there. 

The government has threatened to scuttle a proposed third runway, which has Heathrow operator BAA threatening to sue as it's eager to expand capacity. And from the "you can't please all the people all the time" dept., one group of Brits would love the 83-year-old airport to be leveled and converted into landscaped gardens, a residential area, and a university. Yet customer surveys indicate that over 70% of passengers at the airport rate their experience as 'Excellent' or 'Very Good.'

As it looks to become more efficient and truly "make every journey better" in order to bump those customer survey results even higher, Heathrow's retail partners and shoppers are certainly happy. According to an airport spokesperson, “Heathrow has the highest retail sales of any airport in the world ahead of Incheon airport in South Korea in second place.”Continue reading...

It's withdrawal time for millions of viewers of the wildly popular Downton Abbey, the British series that just concluded its second season on PBS. The period costumes, the two-track intrigue of the nobility and working class, the witty dialogue delivered in delicious British accents — all contribute to a success on American television not seen at this level since British classics such as Upstairs Downstairs and All Creatures Great and Small had their lengthy runs on PBS.

As fans anxiously await Season Three of Downton Abbey, however, another Anglophile-wooing TV channel is trying to take advantage of the the hiatus and the halo effect of the show: BBC America.Continue reading...

With flood waters in Thailand still afflicting its global supply chain, what Honda could use right now is some distractions. How about its own sense of humor — and some exciting future products?

OK. Honda and its Acura luxury brand are certainly coming through with the former, launching seasonal advertising campaigns to promote their holiday-incentive programs. Happy Honda Days here back again, delivering fine shots of irreverence just as Americans might be ready for such a 'tude, bracing for the holiday commercial avalanche.

For instance, "Elves are shoddy craftsmen," intones the Honda brand's dry-humored new spokesman, actor Patrick Warburton, in one new spot, clad in a festive red cardigan. By contrast, he says, Honda vehicles are made by "real human beings, with a dedication to quality."

And just to make sure the Yuletide-flouting point isn't lost, he adds: "You don't build the most durable, longest-lasting line of cars in their class with weak little elf hands."Continue reading...

One of the basic tenets of sales is to go where the people are. So when Kmart decided it wanted to put some bucks toward going after tween and teen girls, it didn’t just plunk some ads down in a few magazines and on a few websites.

Instead, the Sears-owned retailer partnered with Alloy Media to create an online series, “First Day,” that features well-coiffed girls, cute boys, and lots and lots of clothes that you can find at — are you sitting down? — Kmart.

Then they give it a YouTube channel and a Facebook page, Twitter feed and watch the magic happen.Continue reading...

Aloha Petroleum redefines brand.

Apple sees its biggest product launch ever with one million pre-orders in 24 hours for iPhone 4S.

Arista and Jive iconic music labels close, bumping Britney Spears and other artists to RCA.

BankUnited repositions brand.

Chevrolet turns 100, amps up green cred, plans new Camaro.

Chrysler whittles vehicle plan.

Conde Nast to increase branded content under new entertainment head.

Discovery banks on Rosie O'Donnell to save Oprah Winfrey's OWN network.Continue reading...