Bethenny Frankel may have been a housewife a few years back when she starred in the reality shows Real Housewives of New York and Bethenny Getting Married, but she got hot and heavy into business now with her Skinnygirl cocktail brand before selling it to Beam last year.

Now she must be pretty proud mama of the business she founded, which is expanding into cleanses and workouts to become a lifestyle brand — the drinks company was the fastest-growing brand of spirits in America last year, according to Technomic research (via MSNBC).

The company had a .388 percent increase in sales last year, Technomic reports. Skinnygirl started out by just selling a premixed margarita and now has "four lines of premixed cocktails with four flavored vodkas and three wines debuting nationally this month."Continue reading...

The newly-launched TED-ED website is TED’s latest delivery on its brand promise of “Ideas Worth Spreading;” a dynamic site with customizable tools for educators.

Enhancing the TED-Ed YouTube channel launched in March whose short videos have garnered over 2.5 million views, this latest platform lets teachers tailor TED-Ed videos with follow-up questions and assignments.

Each short video (three to eight minutes) includes multiple choice quizzes, open-ended questions and a ‘Dig Deeper’ section. When a student answers incorrectly, a ‘Video Hint’ directs them to the point in the video with the correct answer. Teachers can browse content by subject with videos mapped via tagging to curricula taught in schools and access correlative materials that augment with the learning level.Continue reading...

The folks at Lego thought they were throwing open a door to a wealth of new consumers when it introduced its Lego Friends line back in December. Since it’s being designed for and marketed to girls, the company figured it would be creating a whole new source of revenue and please any parents eager to bring their daughters into the world of Lego.

Instead, it got a whole lot more, with 50,000-plus people signing a petition against the new line. The uproar’s volume may have been turned down since then but Lego Friends still has its detractors, a fact that the toy-maker is aiming to turn around.

The first step comes today, when Lego execs are scheduled to meet with two young women who helped lead the petition and discuss possible improvements, a release from Change.org states. Bailey Shoemaker Richards and Stephanie Cole launched the campaign against Lego on the Change.org site. The two 20somethings are members of the “girl-fueled organization SPARK Movement,” according to a press release.Continue reading...

A year ago, Frito-Lay was stymied about how to expand its healthy snack business. Now its nutritionists and flavor profilers have figured out a way to drive sales by pushing the taste frontiers of "all-natural snacking." To that end, it's expanding its Smartfood brand with a new line called Smartfood Selects. The new sub-brand offers more varieties of products and an array of nutritious-sounding flavors such as feta herb hummus.

While parent PepsiCo is focused on the carbonated side of its beverage business, Frito-Lay has led the better-for-you charge for the company's edible brands for a number of years, with initiatives such as baked instead of fried potato chips, the SunChips line and Flat Earth, a since-stalled line of vegetable and fruit snack chips introduced several years ago.Continue reading...

IKEA today previewed its seventh annual Ikea PS collection, showing at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile (Milan Furniture Fair) and arriving in European stores in August. But the bigger buzz was its move into home electronics, with the new Uppleva (Swedish for "uplifting") hybrid HDT/home entertainment center.

Integrating RCA's HDTV system into a flat-pack entertainment unit, the TV-embedded furniture "comes in three designs and will be sold first in Sweden, France, Poland, Germany and Italy in June, with a few more markets due to launch in the second half of the year," according to the Associated Press. "By the first half of next year, it will be available worldwide, with the cheapest costing about 6,500 Swedish kronor ($955)."Continue reading...

Marmite is considered a yeasty feast by some, and ick-inducing goo by others, but love it ior hate it: the iconic British brand has earned a reputation worldwide since its conception in 1902. 

Marking its 110th anniversary this year, Marmite is tipping its cap to another iconic British brand celebrating a major milestone this year: Queen Elizabeth, who celebrates 60 years on the throne at her Diamond Jubilee on June 5th.Continue reading...

H&M today confirmed the name for the new higher-priced store brand it's planning to open in 2013, following rumors that it was developing a new sub-brand to extend its appeal to those shoppers who zoom in whenever the fast-fashion retailer collaborates on a diffusion line with a high-end fashion designer.

A publicist for the fashion-conscious Swedish-based retailer told AFP "it is correct that H&M will launch a new chain in 2013 called & other stories, but this is all the available information we have as of today." The retailer also confirmed to just-style.com that the new store brand will launch in Europe, and will "build on the positive experience of Cos."

H&M's stable of retail brands includes the higher-end Cos in addition to Monki, Weekday and Cheap Monday. A spokeswoman told Fashionologie that the new store brand "will not be a luxury brand, but it will be a retail chain that will follow the same ambition as H&M, to offer our customers the best price for a comparable item."

The & other stories name taps into a popular theme in retail, where creating a brand story is red hot. Witness the Stefan Sagmeister-branded Story, a New York concept store that launched in February and changes its theme, fixtures, brand partners and inventory every four to eight weeks. Its current theme: color.

Jamba Juice keeps on spreading its brand mojo in new places, now including American schools and the supermarket tea aisle.

"Whatever it is that defines you, Jamba Juice wants to be part of helping you live a healthier and more wholesome life," Julie Washington, SVP and recently named chief brand officer of the California-based smoothie chain, told brandchannel. "We're trying to make sure everyone knows the wealth and breadth of Jamba's food and beverage offerings."

Jamba, which has an endorsement deal with tennis pro Venus Williams, has been in expansion mode beyond its smoothie menu for some time now, including introducing oatmeal and flatbreads, expanding into South Korea and the Philippines, diversifying into coconut water and CPG goods for stores. Lately, its gambits have included acquiring Talbott Teas and testing an in-school-outlet concept, in addition to new fresh-squeezed juice blends.

"Two years ago, our biggest competition probably could have been considered McDonald's, because they were getting into smoothies," said Washington, who was Jamba's general manager of consumer products before moving earlier this year to the new branding post. "Today, people talk about Starbucks," she added, as Jamba's main rival because the company began selling its recently acquired Evolution juice line in its coffee stores and in a standalone store in Bellevue, Wash., last week.Continue reading...