Honda's brand extension into the advanced light business jet category took its first FAA-certified flight this week, with a 51 minute test flight in North Carolina. The first customer aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in 2012.

A Global Branding Challenge for British Airways [Travolution]

Acer Aims to Top Global PC Market [Reuters]

Why'd You Pick That Airline to Fly on Thanksgiving? We Thought So [Ad Age]

To Help Donors Choose, Website Alters How it Sizes Up Charities [NY Times]

Campbell's Quest for Productivity [Bloomberg Businessweek]

Comcast's Steve Burke: Meet the Un-Mogul Reinventing TV [Ad Age]

Now a Giant, Google Works to Retain Nimble Minds [NYT]

Why 'Zoom-Zoom' is Staying Put in a Year of Change for Mazda [Ad Age]

Climate Control: Unlikely Allies in the Fight on Carbon [Bloomberg Businessweek]

Few Smartphone Owners are Loyal to their Brand [Reuters]

US Tries to Contain Damage from Wikileaked Documents [AP]

Who's Afraid of Apple, Google, Facebook? [Bloomberg Businessweek]

America's Culture of No [Reuters]

Consumer Reports 2010 "naughty and nice" list of brands' holiday policies takes a dim view of gouging customers.

For retail returns, Best Buy's measly 14-day limit earns the electronics chain a black mark, while J&R's price-matching (even post-sale) policy puts it on the nice list. Similarly, Wal-Mart's generous return policy gets a check mark, while CompUSA's restocking fees earn a demerit.

Mobile shoppers, meanwhile, are warned to read the fine print.Continue reading...

Differentiating an airline brand is getting tougher these days. As airlines are forced to eliminate amenities and charge for baggage, meals, blankets, and other perks that used to be complimentary, air travel begins to look pretty much the same regardless of the carrier. Not so, says Korean Air.Continue reading...

Long before Richard Branson and JetBlue shook up the travel industry, the original maverick airline was considered Southwest. Now pushing 40, the airline handled some 86 million passengers last year — more than any other airline in the United States.

With 3,200 flights a day and a fleet of 544 planes now serving 69 US cities, it maintains consistent profitability in an industry plagued by ... well, pretty much everything. And in a year when it faced an unexpected challenge during the Kevin Smith Twitter debacle, it's heading into 2011 with a (scheduled) lack of turbulence.Continue reading...

Any brand owner looking to learn a lesson about getting noticed should just watch Richard Branson.

The iconoclastic head of Virgin has a penchant for publicity that keeps his name popping up in the press with uncanny regularity.  

His latest gambit is silly but it's still making headlines. Branson bet AirAsia owner Tony Fernandes that his Virgin Racing Formula One team would finish higher than Fernandes' Lotus Racing team. The loser of the bet agreed that he would dress up as a woman flight attendant for the winner's airline.

Well, Sir Richard lost, and Tony is playing out the bet for all it's worth.Continue reading...

Alaska Airlines is in the news – and not for shuttling the Palins around.

A Canadian couple recently missed their flight tending to a baby diaper emergency. Forced to spend the night and fly another airline home, they launched a publicist-attention-getting blog called Alaska Airlines Hates Families, demanding the airline (famed for its 1980s spot above, and for Apolo Ohno's endorsement) reimburse their $1,038 ticket.

A blogosphere groundswell of sympathy erupted, but was ineffective until a front page story appeared in The Edmonton Journal. The airline wrote them a $1,000 check, hoping it would all go away, and a new blog post went up, titled "Alaska Airlines Does Not Actually Hate Families."

But residual negative PR continues to swirl and Alaska Airlines has been dubbed “family haters,” severely detrimental to any airline in these flier-unfriendly times, with everyone's nerves frayed by TSA restrictions and passengers protesting en masse (as happened today to Ryanair).

Staying upbeat on Facebook and Twitter, Alaska Airlines' PR team is trying to smooth the roiled waters of a sullied reputation. Time for a cameo on TLC's new hit show?

Fuzzy, brown creatures are getting their fifteen minutes of marketing fame, and Air New Zealand is hopping on the furwagon!

Meet the newest star to emerge: Rico, Air New Zealand’s cheeky spokespuppet. “Sexier than Virgin’s Richard Branson and  Singapore Air’s Singapore Girls,”  (at least in the eyes of CEO Rob Fyfe), Rico – part sloth, part Latin lover – is taking the friendly skies by storm, to promote Air New Zealand’s new seats and sleek black livery.

In a series of online video advertisements, all of which begin with a short warning of the sensitive nature of the contents and language, Rico interacts with Air New Zealand passengers of all ages, mispronouncing words (“beach” being the cheapest shot) and inadvertently offending his fellow passengers.

While Rico may seem an improbable success, Fyfe explains that the strategy was actually to avoid stereotypes by using a puppet as a spokesperson, rather than a human being. Continue reading...