The Big Mac Daddy of fast food is getting a different look — so different that regular customers may not recognize it anymore.

By 2015, some 14,000 McDonald's locations in the United States will get a miraculous McMakeover, turning them into modern, contemporary eateries with a homey inviting appearance.

Out with the old — the dominant yellows and reds, the garish arch, the fiberglass tables and the antiseptic interior. In with the new — more subtle signage, muted colors, just the suggestion of an arch, wooden tables, leather club chairs arranged in conversation areas — even flat-screen televisions and Wi-Fi.

If this sounds suspiciously like a Starbucksian transition, it should.Continue reading...

Are you a woman? Does the brand name "Playtex" mean anything to you? Anything good? If so, you also may be the new target of the £1m campaign in the UK to reposition Playtex as the underwear brand for women over 50. You might say it hopes to shape women in more ways than one.Continue reading...

Żubrówka, an artisinal Polish vodka flavored with rare wild “bison grass,” has long been a hit across Europe. It’s finally stampeding its way to the U.S., with a shortened name and FDA-approved list of ingredients.

This is not just another flavored vodka. Herbal, sweet and greenish in color, Żubrówka has been part of Polish culture for centuries and its mystique is tied up with the area where the grass grows, the Bialowieza Forest, a primeval preserve. The last remaining herds of European bison (cousins to the American bison) live here and have a fondness for the grass that flavors Żubrówka.

The vodka itself is named after the bison (żubr in Polish), with an image of one on the label, and each bottle contains a stalk of the bison grass — the reason it was banned in the U.S. until recently.Continue reading...

Belk may not ring a bell with consumers outside the Southern part of the United States, but the company is the country's largest privately owned mainline department store chain, operated by the Belk family since 1888. Belk has 305 stores in 16 Southern states that compete with other regional retailers and, of course, with such powerhouses as Kohl's, Target, and Walmart.

Now Belk is refurbishing its 43-year old brand identity with a streamlined graphic image that will be introduced this month and rolled out over the next year.Continue reading...

PricewaterhouseCoopers officially rebranded today to the name it's best known as: PwC. The corporate video above says it's more than a simple name change and visual makeover, but a freshening of the brand's value and positioning going forward.

The accounting firm, which calls itself "the most recognizable brand among the Big Four global professional services networks," says it's formally adopting the longheld "PwC" moniker "in order to strengthen, and modernize how it represents its worldwide network to its clients, its people and the communities in which it operates."

But it's not completely shedding the 22-letter moniker.Continue reading...

Here's a story that illustrates why many Americans abhor the practice of branding and its practitioners.

The Corn Refiners Association, the lobbying arm of US manufacturers of high-fructose corn syrup, is petitioning America's Food and Drug Administration to change the name of corn syrup to "corn sugar."

The lobbying group applied today for permission to drop the "corn syrup" moniker, arguing that "the name is confusing consumers." And when the Association says consumers are "confused" about what the product actually is, what it means is that consumers (now) "perfectly understand" what the product actually is.Continue reading...

In what it's calling its biggest global marketing campaign ever, UPS is dropping its "What Can Brown Do For You?" in favor of a new slogan, "We [Heart] Logistics." Print, television and digital-media ads in the US, UK, China and Mexico break today. UPS director of advertising Betsy Wilson discusses the new campaign and positioning after the jump.Continue reading...

American Apparel, the embattled US clothing brand struggling for its existence, is fighting back with its first back-to-school commercial, featuring a mock version of classic US game show The Price is Right hosted by an all-American TV personality Drew Carey — a surprising choice that indicates founder Dov Charney isn't kidding about shedding AA's hipster roots and rebranding its image and clothing to become preppier and more wholesome. Do you think consumers, literally, will buy it?