• Ford Aims Tremor At Street Truckers
    The 2014 Ford F-150 Tremor pickup goes on sale in the fourth quarter. It's a high-concept version of the pickup geared to "street truck enthusiasts," per Ford. The vehicle is the 11th pickup in the F-150 lineup. Ford said the truck is geared to sporting enthusiast buyers who don't necessarily use their pickups for work. The Tremor will be something like a new version of the Lightning, a performance street truck Ford sold from 1993 to 2004. The Lightning was once rated the world's fastest production pickup.
  • 7-Eleven To Launch Key-Storage Facilities
    A Long Island-based startup KeyMe, which stores a digital copy of one's key, so if it's lost, users can create a new one, will be in five 7-Eleven stores across Manhattan. Storing a key with KeyMe is for free. The cost of creating a physical key when you're locked out is $19.99. The kiosks can also create on-the-spot duplicates of keys, charging $3.49 for basic brass keys and $5.99 for novelty keys.
  • Cerberus Bids On Harris Teeter
    Cerberus Capital Management, from whose jaws Fiat extracted Chrysler before it was too late, has another company in the dog food bowl, apparently. Word has it the Wall Street investor has offered to buy U.S. grocery chain Harris Teeter Supermarkets. A bid has been submitted but Cerberus is undecided about how it would structure the acquisition. Still up in the air is whether Cerberus will buy the 200-store grocery chain outright or leave some of the company in the public domain, the source said.
  • Consumers Say 'Meh' To New Apple Ad
    Apple's newest TV commercials, showing consumers enjoying its products while an actor reads the company's corporate philosophy, are a flop compared with earlier ads from the maker of iPhones and iPads. The company's latest ad, which began airing June 10, has earned the lowest score of 26 Apple TV ads in the past year, according to Ace Metrix Inc. The ad scored 489 on the company's scoring system, below an industry average of 542.
  • General Mills Gets New Agency For Yoplait
    General Mills has hired Olson of Minneapolis to handle a chunk of Yoplait Greek yogurt, which will relaunch next month with a new formula, packaging and messaging. Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, the incumbent shop for Yoplait, will remain on the brand for regular yogurt varieties. But General Mills picked Olson to oversee the launch of what is being described as a "full-calorie traditional" Greek yogurt that will debut in July, replacing the marketer's existing Greek version.
  • Parents Early To Back-To-School
    July is the second-biggest shopping time of the year, with parents readying their offspring for the next school year. Last year, families with children in grades K-12 spent nearly $690 on school-related items. A Survey by BigInsight found nearly 77% of families with school-aged children say the state of the U.S. economy will impact their back-to-school spending plans. One-quarter of families with students in grades K-12 (25.7%) will ask their children to reuse, up from 23.5% percent last year.
  • Kids Use Smartphones Differently
    Business Insider tapped Survey Monkey to do a nationwide survey to see how and when people are using their smartphones. The focus is on people who are aged 18-29. The publication says the reason for focusing on the young people is that how they behave now is what's going to be normal in a few years. The results at the link.
  • Long John Silver's Names VP Media, Field Marketing
    Long John Silver's has named Paula Ashley-Rogness vice president of media and field marketing, a previously vacant position. In her new role, she is responsible for the quick-service seafood brand's analysis and strategy for national and local media planning. Rogness returned to Long John Silver's from her most recent post as vice president of field marketing for Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's.
  • Industry Launches Huge Push To Stem UK Beer Losses
    The pubs are running at a trickle in the UK, so beer industry chiefs are launching a multimillion-pound bid to arrest falling beer sales with a campaign aimed at reawakening Britons' latent love of beer. Brewing giants including Molson Coors AB-InBev, Carlsberg and Heineken have joined forces with the British Beer & Pub Association, the Campaign for Real Ale and the Society of Independent Brewers to launch the "Let There Be Beer" activity.
  • Burger Chains' Having A Tea Party
    This is the first week of summer, so behind the news about new burgers there is also a battle over iced-tea at top burger chains. Like coffee, iced tea is a high-profit-margin item that sounds even tastier to operators when sales and customer growth is hard to come by. In selected markets-including parts of Ohio and New York State-McDonald's is offering a line of Fruit Tea Fusion drinks under its McCaf umbrella. Burger King added a peach iced tea as well as sweetened and unsweetened iced tea as part of the new menu it introduced in March.
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