Amazon's brand value soars 32% in Interbrand's 2012 Best Retail Brands report.

Apple's iPad challenger Proview is open to a settlement as Apple extends checks on Chinese suppliers. Apple also signed China Telecom as second iPhone seller.

Cabela's expands and rolls out smaller-store format.

Coca-Cola sponsors teen parties in Tanzania.

FedEx may be eyeing TNT Express.

Ford signals moderate growth and expansion in China.

Gap teams with fashion bloggers for Be Bright global launch.Continue reading...

Don't look now, PepsiCo and Kraft, but a proven CPG rival is coming after your global snacks business in a big way. Kellogg's just-announced acquisition of the Pringles brand from Procter & Gamble signals the potentially significant elevation of Kellogg's ambitions in snacks.

Kellogg was able to pick up Pringle's from P&G for $2.7 billion, of course, only after Diamond Foods — which owns the Emerald Nut brand — had to back out after an investigation of accounting irregularities with the co-op's walnut growers resulted in the replacement of Diamond's CEO and CFO.

Kellogg executives were openly thrilled at the opportunity to triple their global snacks sales in one move and to become the world's second-largest maker of savory snacks after PepsiCo's Frito-Lay brand.Continue reading...

Apple knock-off stores in Queens, NY, forced to surrender goods, while Apple's HTC patent victory gets US review.

NHL restricts players from social media on game days under new policy.

Borders starts shutting down in California.

Carrefour plans drive-in stores in France.

eBay targets hip mobile shoppers with new campaign.

Esprit pays the price for 'neglecting' its brand.Continue reading...

Tony the Tiger is changing roles with the times, and so is advertising for the Kellogg's Frosted Flakes that he has so distinctively represented for 60 years. The cereal giant is asking its venerable mascot to play offense instead of defense in a new approach to advertising its so-non-PC sugary cereal.

Kellogg's TV ad features an athletic Tony clowning around in the back yard with a father, his young son, and playing baseball.

With the noose tightening around Kellogg's freedom to advertise Frosted Flakes to kids, because regulators and activists are trying to further throttle promotion of suspect foods directly to children, the company has decided to try some new tactics.

Instead of targeting moms, Kellogg's is aiming directly at fathers. As Ad Age notes, more dads are buying groceries these days, and more fathers say they're eating Frosted Flakes along with their children.Continue reading...

There's a growing market for plus-size fashion among sophisticated fashionistas.

In response, The Limited is launching eloquii, a new line for fans of the Limited brand who want “a clothing line that celebrates your sense of style, respects your curves and offers uncompromising fit and quality.”

Launching Oct. 19 (according to its Twitter feed) and online-only (for now), eloquii is "fashion that loves you back," as seen in the promo above. Other retailers are stepping up, too — including Lane Bryant, the plus-size fashion retailer that puts the sexy in plus-size fashion.Continue reading...

Kellogg’s Krave cereal has only been available for a year in the UK, but it’s got a pretty sweet handle on how to gain attention on social and digital platforms.

The brand this week released an iPhone and iPad app — called the Krave Krusader game — in the iTunes store. The goal: "In your relentless pursuit you must run through the Krave world catching as many Choc Chunks while trying to avoid or smash through all the obstacles and jumping the gaps. Collect the many different power-ups as you go to help you along the way to a winning score. Every week one Top Krusader wins a limited edition prize pack!"

Kellogg's UK marketing team is also using the cereal's Facebook page to poll fans on what the next flavor should be that it puts on the market permanently. The goal is to have the page’s more than 145,000 fans vote on two limited edition flavors and then add the winner to the permanent list of Krave flavors in 2012 — and to spur awareness and sales, of course.Continue reading...

The newest version of Kellogg's Rice Krispies may still snap, crackle and pop – but the little guys hiding in the cereal will have to do it without benefit of gluten. In a major acknowledgement of the fast-growing demand for gluten-free foods, Kellogg has announced the introduction of Rice Krispies Gluten Free Cereal.

Because of the rising incidence and recognition of celiac disease and gluten intolerance among American consumers, both adults and kids, all manner of natural-foods and niche startups created the gluten-free ready-to-eat cereal niche. And they have commanded this growing segment in part because the cereal industry’s major players mostly have left it to them.

Kellogg’s latest move could change all of that.

Breakfast cereal largely is considered a better-for-you aisle in the supermarket anyway – except for those pesky concerns about too much sugar – and Kellogg, General Mills and others have made major strides in boosting the intrinsic healthfulness of their products over the last several years. Not only have they largely switched to whole-grain raw materials but they also have created countless low-sugar and low-sodium options and included actual fruit in more varieties.

Rice Krispies Gluten Free represents the next step.Continue reading...

Kellogg's Special K cereal brand just released its first-ever book, The Special K Challenge™ & Beyond, to provide weight managers (aka dieters or anyone watching their weight) with recipes, fitness and nutritional advice as they participate in the Special K Challenge™. 

Featuring more than 100 recipes, as well as fitness and nutrition tips, the book is an enhancement to the Special K Challenge mobile app. The book's description: it "takes the guesswork out of weight management by allowing participants to replace two meals a day with select Special K® products along with two snacks and a sensible third meal. The Special K Challenge™ & Beyond addresses the need for sensible options for the third meal of the day, with delicious recipes that you can enjoy beyond the Challenge."

"The Special K brand recognized the need to help simplify the promise of the Special K Challenge for consumers and offer meal ideas for the third meal of the day and beyond the two-weeks of the Challenge," says Katherine Brooking, RD and author of the book's foreword, who is also participating in a discussion this week on the brand's Facebook page.