Coffee and makeup don't generally mix, but when it comes to selling either globally, similar skills are apparently needed. Coffee giant Starbucks has plucked its new Global CMO from Sephora in Sharon Rothstein, who was SVP of marketing for the  will join the company in mid-April and won’t just be overseeing the marketing efforts of Starbucks, but also the company’s other brands, such as Seattle's Best Coffee, Evolution Fresh, La Boulange, Tazo and Teavana, Motley Fool reports.

Rothstein, who will be replaced at Sephora by former report Julie Bornstein (promoted from SVP of digital to chief marketing and digital officer), has worked with a plethora of big brands including Godiva, Starwood Hotels and Resorts and P&G, so she knows a thing or two about customer experience and brings those Sephora-honed digital chops.

“I have been a loyal Starbucks customer and fan for most of my adult life and I am humbled to become a partner (employee) at one of the few companies in the world that embraces the value and responsibility of balancing business performance and social impact,” she said in a press release. Rothstein will also oversee the company's Seattle's Best Coffee, Evolution Fresh, La Boulange, Tazo and Teavana brands.

The social conscience side of Starbucks also gets a boost from another big announcement this week: that it's buying its first coffee farm, a 600-acre spread in Costa Rica that will serve as the company's first global agronomy center and the center of its $70 million ethical sourcing program.Continue reading...

Interbrand announces the 2013 Best Retail Brands report.

Coca-Cola honored with first Clio brand icon award.

Starbucks names new global CMO in former Sephora marketer Sharon Rothstein, as McDonald's passes Starbucks as most social brand.

Apple rumored to pull out the stops for the next iPhone to take on Samsung, which has replaced Nokia as top smartphone brand in China and confirmed it's developing a smartwatch to take on Apple's rumored wearable computer.

BlackBerry prepares to bring million-selling Z10 smartphone to U.S. on Friday with 100,000 apps.

Burger King hopes folks gobble up new turkey burger.

Carl's Jr. and Hardee's introduce Jim Beam bourbon burger.

Clorox introduces smart tube technology to packaging design.Continue reading...

Yahoo! teams up with Facebook for social site revamp as Marissa Mayer puts her stamp on the homepage.

GE sues Whirlpool over alleged price fixing in Europe.

New York Times puts Boston Globe on the block.

AB InBev updates Modela discussions with DOJ.

Alamo targets broader audience.

Apple files patent for slap version of rumored iWatch.

AT&T expands partnership with BMW.

Boeing plans to propose package of fixes for Dreamliner.

Burger King unveils new ads with a human element.Continue reading...

Black Friday is mere days away and America’s (make that North America's) most-devoted consumers are busy doing their stretches, dressing themselves in layers, and plotting their battle plan for early Friday morning.

Retailers, of course, would like to help them in any way possible in order to maximize the amount of money flowing into their cash registers throughout the punishing annual bricks-and-mortar portion of the shopathon. More of that activity, of course, is moving online and mobile — but for those committed to the physical act of shopping, they'll need help — and brand marketers are anticipating their needs.

For these seeking retail rejuvenation on Friday, a host of caffeinated beverages and coffee retailers are throwing incentives their way to get them to suck down as much as possible to refuel while on the run.

For those who tweet #dunkindonuts on Friday morning between 6 a.m. and noon Eastern, they’ll get put in the running to win one of six Keurig brewers and two boxes of Dunkin’s Hot Cocoa K-Cup packs. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven is handing out a free hot beverage for folks who come in on Friday and buy a Red Bull energy drink. Sonic Drive-Thru is opening early nationwide and offering its breakfast burrito at half price all day. What else could a crazed Black Friday consumer want? Continue reading...

Starbucks has been spreading its wings in recent months. First the news came that some of its outlets would start serving beer and wine. Then Starbucks opened its first Evolution Fresh juice bar in suburban Seattle. Earlier this month, the ubiquitous coffee chain purchased the Bay Area's La Boulange bakery for $100 million in a bid to upgrade its food offerings. (That deal was done in cash, by the way. No word if the money was in a briefcase handcuffed to anybody’s wrist.)

That’s a lot of wing-spreading, but Starbucks execs over there must be cranking down extra double espressos these days because now comes word that Starbucks is giving more love to another sub-brand by opening its first Tazo tea store this fall in the hopes of doing for tea what the company has done for coffee drinking.

The plan is for the Tazo store, located in its corporate hometown of Seattle, to “sell more than 80 varieties of loose-leaf tea and other tea products,” Reuters reports, and “also offer hot and cold tea drinks, brewing equipment, pastries, packaged chocolates, infused sugars and honey.” As it is now, Tazo is a $1.4 billion brand for Starbucks, but the company would like to grow it since it estimates that the global market for tea is $95 billion.

And today Starbucks announced its first Seattle's Best Coffee "commuter concept" store in Brooklyn, near the NYC borough's new Barclays Center sports arena that will be home to the Brooklyn Nets this fall.

According to a press release, SBC's "concept menu, which debuted as a test in Chicago in March, boasts delicious coffee beverages, and commuter-friendly sandwiches and snacks that will appear for the first time on the East Coast." We assume that Brooklyn Nets co-owner Jay-Z will approve.

First Coinstar counted your coins. Then it changed rental-video distribution with its Redbox vending machines. And now, Coinstar — working with Seattle's Best Coffee — wants to change the way Americans pick up their daily cup of coffee.

Coinstar and the Starbucks-owned brand are partnering to sell coffee in thousands of kiosks across the United States beginning this summer. The two companies expect the kiosks — placed in grocery, drug and mass-merchandise stores — to sell thousands of cups of coffee each year and maybe revolutionize coffee dispensing just as Coinstar expertise has caused big changes in the other two businesses.

Prices will start at $1 for a brewed cup of coffee up to $1.50 for fancier concoctions including espresso and mocha and vanilla latte. While there's nothing new about vendor-dispensed coffee, this stuff will be brewed to order from beans ground just for you.

"The quality of the beverages are going to be the quality you'd find more closely aligned with that of a hand-crafted beverage created for you," Jenny McCabe, Seattle's Best director of communications, told brandchannel. "It's just that no person hands you the cup." The machines will be called Rubi, which McCabe said was a moniker coined by Coinstar.Continue reading...

Activision Blizzard to cut 600 game-making jobs.

Apple helps Nasdaq hit milestone.

Audi expects flat profit, citing uncertainties.

BYD suffers from pressures in Chinese auto and solar industries.

Buick touts technology in new Veron compact sedan.

Chevron talks with Russia about Arctic exploration.

Chick-fil-A, Starbucks and Subway top customer experience ranking.

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Starbucks is pressing the envelope in plenty of ways with its namesake brand, but the company also is continuing to innovate through its sibling brand, Seattle's Best Coffee. The newest wrinkle: a Facebook-based contest called "Create Your Deliciousness."

Seattle's Best has launched a year-long marketing campaign "inspired by the brand's mission to bring great coffee to everyone," the company said in a press release. And what better way to do that than to let every individual define what they mean by "great," in their own unconventional coffee combinations and dream drinks?Continue reading...