Girl Scouts Seek an Image Makeover†

Green Skirts Are Out as Organization Faces a 'Nonjoiner' Society

Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2008 — The cookies will stay, but the green skirts are history.

The Girl Scouts, seeking to reverse declining troop numbers, is shaking up its image. On Tuesday, the organization is expected to announce the appointment of its first chief marketing officer, a former senior partner and executive group director at WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather.

Laurel Richie will be in charge of modernizing the image of the Girl Scouts, which is viewed by many as a rigid, old-fashioned organization focused on cookie fund-raisers and campouts. "Girls think of us as outdated," says Kathy Cloninger, chief executive of Girl Scouts of the USA. "They have stereotypes of who we are that are not right."

Revlon's Makeup Test†

After a Painful Flop, Company Focuses on Its Core Brand

Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2008 — Revlon's new cosmetics have to do more than create just another pretty face.

Starting this week, TV ads starring longtime spokeswoman Halle Berry will introduce a line of Revlon makeup infused with minerals. Print ads launched in magazines last month featured Jessica Alba touting new Revlon foundation in a bottle that lets consumers' customize their shade, and this month she is featured in lipstick ads.

The blitz marks the first major initiatives since the company's Vital Radiance cosmetics line aimed at older women flopped 18 months ago, leading to the ouster of its chief executive, more than $70 million in losses, the dismissal of about 10% of its U.S. work force and a new strategy for Revlon.

Starbucks Takes a 3-Hour Coffee Break

Starbucks temporarily closed stores as it retrained workers and tried to revive “the romance of coffee.”

New York Times, February 27, 2008 — At Starbucks stores across the country on Tuesday night, it was time for the corporate version of re-education camp.

In its campaign to revive the intimate, friendly feel of a neighborhood coffee shop, Starbucks orchestrated the closing of 7,100 of its American stores at precisely 5:30 p.m. for a three-hour retraining session for employees

Is CBS Trying to Rebrand Couric?†

Latest Ads More Cronkite Than Katie as Newscast Continues to Trail Rivals

Advertising Age, December 10, 2007 — With Katie Couric's perky personality and "Today" background at the ready, her arrival at CBS to anchor the evening newscast was billed as a chance to reinvent the program in a way that would attract more women and younger viewers. That hasn't exactly worked out. Now CBS is promoting the show as if Walter Cronkite still sat behind the desk.

The Ins and Outs of Brand Reinvention

Women's Wear Daily, October 30, 2007 — For some mature brands, reinvention is the only source of survival. For others, it's an impossibility that no amount of financial resources and design talent can accomplish. Companies such as Burberry, Coach, Gucci, Lacoste, Dior, Diane von Furstenberg, Guess and J. Crew are textbook cases of brands that have reinvented themselves and enjoyed tremendous success in a second life.

Reviving John Deere

How the CEO of the green tractor maker whipped the 170-year-old company into shape and doubled net income.

FORTUNE, October 15, 2007 — When a company has been around as long as John Deere - 170 years, to be exact - it enjoys a rich history and, in the case of the Moline, Ill., firm, loyal customers who "bleed green." But a company that old can also get set in its ways - and bad habits can seep in.

When CEO Bob Lane took the wheel of the farm equipment giant in August 2000, he quickly identified Deere's biggest problem: spending too much money to make money. Factories tended to overproduce, churning out a steady level of product no matter what the season or the demand. Its results were inconsistent:

Best Global Brands

How five names in this year's rankings staged their turnarounds

BusinessWeek, August 6, 2007 — Reviving even a storied brand isn't easy once consumers have a negative perception of it...Still, it's possible to stage a brand comeback. Several such stories emerged in this year's ranking.

When Creating Brands, Dress Rehearsals Help

New York Times, August 5, 2007 — CAN the selection of a showerhead make or break a hotel brand? Some hotel executives seem to think so.

Starwood is one of several hospitality companies developing hotel brands or rebranding old ones. Since 2005, some 31 brands have been announced, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, more than at anytime since 1988-89, when 27 were introduced. And with this increased competition, identifying market segments and customer preferences has become essential to creating customer loyalty — which is where the showerhead, among other details, becomes crucial.

Holiday Inn chain gives itself a face-lift

USA Today, July 19, 2007 — The roadside Holiday Inns that became fixtures in towns across the USA beginning in the 1950s are disappearing. London-based InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), current owner of the brand that pioneered franchised motor hotels, is in the process of shedding roughly half the nearly 1,100 properties that it had in 2004, mainly by ending franchise agreements with operators of substandard properties.

The Florsheims, Back in Their Own Shoes

New York Times, June 24, 2007 — IF a death notice had been drafted for the Florsheim Group in 2001, the year that the company went on life support, it might have read something like this: A well-known company, whose shoes outfitted generations of American boys and men for school, work, weddings and funerals for most of the 20th century, died yesterday.