More than 50 million Americans are “food insecure,” according to a 2011 US Department of Agriculture study. In its latest designer collaboration, Target is partnering with FEED Projects to help change that. 

Target is joining forces with Lauren Bush Lauren's FEED Projects, which has previously partnered with Gap, Bergdorf Goodman and Pottery Barn, but the Target partnership is the largest to date. The collection is due to launch June 30. The duo just wrapped up a five-city tour of Feeding America programs that took them to food banks and local pantries in San Francisco, Minnesota, New York City and more. Target and FEED are hoping the partnership will generate 10 million meals for Feeding America.

"Target (has) such a massive reach that we just don't have," Lauren told USA Today. "So it's wonderful when we can partner with Target to really just blow it out and have such a big impact in a short amount of time."Continue reading...

Even though economies are still rough around the world, people everywhere still desire to own all sorts of stuff that they don’t really need. Facebook, which now has about a billion users, is aiming to help some of those folks get what they want by enabling wishlists, a popular feature on retail sites such as Target.com and Amazon.com.

The famed social network is now showcasing the products of seven different retailers and allowing some users to click on a “want” button that will put the desired item on a wish list for others to see, Reuters reports. This is part of a test of “Collections” functionality, that will also see if buttons marked “Collect” or “Like” will work better. In time, all of Facebook’s users and brand partners) will have access to the tool.Continue reading...

Get ready to be nostalgic for Restoration Hardware. The retailer that once scarily commodified the products of an entire generation’s youth as it grew through the ’80s and ’90s is reinventing itself to forget about the nostalgia and pay more attention to high-end furniture, the Associated Press reports.

The rebrand will include simplifying the name of the place to RH. "RH enhances our identity and moves us beyond our hardware store beginnings," CEO Carlos Alberini said in a statement. "It enables us to leverage our core capabilities of innovation, curation and integration of new ideas and businesses."

This is the next step for a chain that has been changing since Stephen Gordon launched it in 1980 and severed ties in 2005, through to when Sears acquired a stake in 2007 and the company was sold back in 2008 to a private-equity firm.Continue reading...

It wasn't just the unsuspecting audience members who flipped for Oprah's two-part, final Favorite Things gift-giving year-end special. Featured brands can also expect a boost in holiday sales thanks to the halo effect of the Winfrey wand.Continue reading...

Turns out the iPad is gaining wide adoption among magazines, but not nearly as much by brand marketers. According to Advertising Age, there are "only a handful of iPad branded apps" that are not from media companies out of the 11,000 iPad applications.

While the iPad got off to a good start in April with a glowing review from The Wall Street Journal's influential tech columnist, Walt Mossberg, the device still appears to be positioned as more of a replacement for or enhancement to magazines. Advertising Age reports that sales of 3.27 million iPad devices probably account for the lack of brand interest; iPhones and iPods dominate the 100-million device market.

That doesn't mean brands are avoiding the iPad altogether. In fact, some of the notable brands that have developed apps especially for iPad are E-Trade, Gap, JC Penney, Kraft, Nike ID, Pottery Barn, and Weber's.

At only $1.99 to download, Kraft's app, "Big Fork Little Fork," does a particularly good job of leveraging iPad's larger screen – using the size and the touch capability to create an interactive experience. Consumers can call up a virtual library of 300 recipes, along with games, how-to videos, and other interactive elements. Kraft partnered with Meredith Integrated Marketing to enrich the content, which will refresh on a periodic basis.
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United Parcel Service has just launched "UPS Direct to Door," a program that brings samples and offers from select brands to recipients of UPS residential shipments. According to UPS, the offers—for example, an invite to Zappos.com’s VIP club—are packaged in a custom-designed UPS Direct to Door Pak. Then they're delivered to residents in test ZIP codes in five US cities, as regular deliveries are being made. Each Direct to Door Pak can contain about twelve offers and samples.

According to Marketing Daily, focus group research conducted by UPS revealed that offers delivered via traditional direct mail marketing went unnoticed. "The focus group attendees said they would feel differently about it if a sample package were delivered by hand by a familiar person." What better person to do that than the UPS driver, someone the customer trusts and is familiar with?Continue reading...