Apple, as ever, is all the talk in China:

• Company loses iPad trademark in China and faces $1.6 billion lawsuit, prompting question: "Why Haven’t the Apple Stores Been Shut Down?"

• Labor woes continue with The Economist weighing in on the "but these jobs are better than farming rice" argument.

• Is this a 7th generation iPod nano? With a camera?

• iPhone woes continue as Apple admits China Mobile SIM cards and iPhone 4S are not speaking the same language.

• Siri gets Rosetta Stone: Chinese.

But it's not all Apple in China:Continue reading...

Taco Bell has been marketing itself for a long time as an inexpensive place to eat rather than as a quality eating experience and now it turns out that those who went the other direction, such as Chipotle, are actually winning the consumer dollars. Motley Fool reports that Taco Bell has closed down 1,000 of its locations since 2000. Even with that, the restaurant makes up 60% of restaurant behemoth Yum! Brands’ profits in the United States.

Yum!’s attentions are focused on expanding Pizza Hut and KFC in China, but concern for Taco Bell has some trying to figure out how it can rebrand. One of the main reasons it needs to refresh its image is because the restaurant is still reeling from a lawsuit that alleged that the restaurant used meat that was only 35% beef, even though the accusations were later withdrawn, as Taco Bell president Greg Creed announced on YouTube.

While Taco Bell — with hopes high for a Super Bowl bump — has been suffering, rivals like Chipotle are booming.Continue reading...

After everybody blows their budgets at holiday time, consumers generally go into a brief hibernation of sorts. They eat at home and start scraping their pennies together again for the next time they need to show some consumer confidence.

USA Today takes note of how fast-food establishments are going to do everything they can to keep those consumers coming out and spending their dollars, though “a key indicator for the industry, foot traffic, was down 0.6% in the third quarter of 2011,” according to a new report from NPD Group, and “restaurant visits in the first half of 2012” are projected to be “flat.”

So what tactic will the industry pull out to lead hungry Americans their way? Deals!Continue reading...

Apple reportedly plans in-store branded boutiques at Target, while the iPhone's new Siri feature is said to double mobile data usage.

Porsche and Volkswagen compensation claims increase, while VW closes market cap gap with Toyota and looks to expand in China and India.

Dunkin' Donuts gears up to double number of U.S. locations.

Alcoa is scaling back.

Audi is adding models to win more U.S. market share.

Baskin-Robbins to expand to Vietnam.Continue reading...

The NFL is the most sizzling property in TV advertising these days, and at the moment there seems to be no ceiling on fan and brand interest in riding the momentum. It's already clear that Super Bowl XLVI on February 5 in Indianapolis, to be broadcast by NBC, will go down as the single most lucrative advertising event in television history.

The Comcast-owned broadcast network has sold out of its commercial spot inventory for the Big Game, reportedly at a cost of up to $4 million for each precious 30 second unit of screen time, which is up from about $3 million a year on Fox last year — and about 60 percent since 2001. 

But a month before the Super Bowl, there's still speculation about other aspects of marketing in and around the extravaganza.Continue reading...

The first Muppets movie in six years hits theaters a day before Thanksgiving with the hopes of rejuvenating the franchise. The last two films—Muppets Wizard of Oz (2005) and It's a Very Merry Muppets Christmas Movie (2002)—largely fell flat. This time around, titled simply The Muppets, the new film hopes recapture the success of the 1979 original The Muppet Movie, which was not only a critical darling but also the highest-grossing Muppet movie of all time.

But it's a new age of filmmaking, and The Muppets are tacked with more than entertainment. Like all other Hollywood stars, they're being asked to sell a film, and, in the process, move product. Muppet News Flash: the film is going to have product placement.Continue reading...

When 1985’s Back to the Future blew the doors off of the box office (eventually pulling in $303.87 billion), two sequels were automatically set into motion and released in 1989 and 1990. And somewhere in there, someone got fully turned onto the joy of product placement. 

Back to the Future II was particularly chockfull of brand names, including Pepsi, Texaco, Mattel, Pizza Hut, Black and Decker, The Weather Channel, 7-Eleven, and AT&T, among others. But fans salivated most over the special shoe that Nike designer Tinker Hatfield created for the film, the Nike MAG shoe, with its glowing LED panel and an electroluminescent “Nike” for Michael J. Fox to wear as the film’s hero, Marty McFly.

Sneaker aficionados had been begging the company for years to release the same shoe to the mainstream. So in a highly-publicized eBay auction in September, Nike made only 1,500 to auction off on eBay to raise cash for Michael J. Fox’s Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. The result was $4.7 million from consumers, which a matching initiative doubled to $9.4 million.Continue reading...

Pizza Hut, America’s largest pizza chain, 7,200 restaurants strong, has thrown down the gauntlet (again) against global hunger with "Share a Slice of Hope."

"Global hunger statistics are astounding, with nearly one billion people going days or weeks without a substantial meal," said Scott Bergren, Pizza Hut CEO in a release. "We want to make a difference and we're asking our customers and employees to 'Share a Slice of Hope' with those in need. Just $1 donated to the World Hunger Relief campaign feeds four children in need." 

Pizza Hut’s campaign, accessible on multiple donation channels including its website, has social gaming giant Zynga in its court for the first ever offline-to-online contribution rewards-based play.Continue reading...