With its bright-red branches and cheerily aggressive sales techniques, Bank of America's expansion philosophy in New York City is borrowed from retailers like Gap and Wal-Mart. BOA has gone from zero to 41 branches in Manhattan in two years, and is now the Big Apple's fifth-largest banking network, with deposits of about $19 billion. The bank adopted retail-chain techniques to measure branch performance and to map prospective customers to determine where to build next. A global technology, service and fulfillment executive helps oversee efforts to monitor and maintain what the bank calls "customer delight." Adopting motivational techniques from companies …

At an analysts meeting today, Frito-Lay will unveil Flat Earth snacks, which contain half a serving of fruits or veggies per ounce (about 11 chips). The line includes three veggie crisps, such as Tangy Tomato Ranch, and three fruit crisps, such as Wild Berry Patch, at $2.99 per 6-ounce bag. They will roll out in February. Flat Earth will be joining an increasingly crowded shelf for healthy snacks. Product tracker Mintel has counted 45 veggie-based rollouts in the past year. "This may replace the whole-grain fad," says Lynn Dornblaser, Mintel director of customer solutions. But at least one nutritionist …

Coca-Cola Enterprises, the world's largest bottler of Coca-Cola Co. products, was admittedly late to the bottled water and tea game. But recently, it has vastly expanded the portfolio of drinks it pushes into large retail stores, mom and pop delis, restaurants and vending machines. In addition to the well-publicized "calorie burning" Enviga green tea line, Coke Enterprises has begun marketing Godiva Belgian Blends, a line of premium drinks touted as "more decadent than just plain coffee," several new Minute Maid drinks, Gold Peak premium iced tea, and Vault, a caffeine-laced energy drink. The company's 2006 list of product introductions …

Despite analysts' suggestions that disappointing third-quarter sales could be linked to a cut in ad spending in favor of in-store promotions, Hershey president-CEO Rick Lenny insists that "[efforts] closer to the point of consumption and point-of-sale tend to have the higher return." Analysts are concerned that Hershey might be trapped in the food industry's "cycle of doom," in which ad spending is cut to make the numbers, then restored when sales fall, then cut again. Analysts also worry that the marketer's lack of advertising might potentially be hurting the category overall. Hershey's measured media spending fell from $147 …

Schering-Plough's Coricidin HPB--a cold/cough remedy that was popular in the Sixties and Seventies--is undergoing a packaging face-lift following a rise of nearly 8% in sales over the last year. The new design retains all the elements of the old one, but ups the prominence of the red heart icon and increases the size of the "HBP" typeface. The tweaking was necessary because the brand gets relatively little shelf space, and the previous heart icon could sometimes be mistaken for the letter C. The brand, which has languished for years, has benefited from two developments. Products like Sudafed that contain …

Sam's Club, which has always advertised more aggressively than its warehouse club rivals Costco and BJ's Wholesale Club, is turning up the heat this holiday season. It is running ads in Oprah's magazine and offering gaudier "dream packages," such as a Cessna Citation Mustang minijet. The strengthened marketing push signals an evolution of Sam's Club, which hired a new ad agency this year (StrawberryFrog) and revamped its branding and logo as part of a bid to gain a greater portion of its customers' spending. "We obviously want new members," says Executive Vice President of Marketing Mark Goodman, who joined …

A group of senior scientists at the National Institutes of Health charge that a three-pronged marketing campaign by Eli Lilly and Co. for Xigris, which is used to treat the deadly infection sepsis, "orchestrated" the development of practice guidelines for the drug in order to drive sales. In an article published in yesterday's New England Journal of Medicine, the scientists claim that Lilly is sponsoring lobbying efforts to turn the guidelines into quality standards. Hospitals that follow such quality measures receive higher payment from insurers. The primary author of the paper says that patients and physicians deserve guidelines …

Falling gas prices and rising optimism are expected to fuel a significant jump in consumer spending this season, according to a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation. The average shopper is expected to spend close to $800 this year, compared to last year's $738.11. They also will take advantage of sales and discounts, spending an additional $99.22 on themselves. The number planning to shop online is up sharply, from 36% last year to 47.1% this year. Discount stores remain the No. 1 destination with 70.3% of those surveyed, followed by grocery stores (49.3%), specialty stores (48.4%), …

Piece by fabricated piece, Lexus is unveiling its new luxury LS 460 sedan at the World Financial Center Plaza in New York. In an installation art exhibit called "Unpacking," a multi-layered Plexiglas sculpture of the automobile evolves each day as panels are removed and placed around the plaza. Each panel contains a few words from Lexus' manifesto, which begins: "There is no map to innovation...." Invitations to the installation were sent to the 30,000 employees who work in the Financial Center. There are also banners, posters and ads on screens in the walkways of the center. Plus, Lexus is sponsoring …

Mall owners are installing gigantic banners and huge screens--50 and 126 inches wide--at high-traffic locations in an effort to generate extra cash from advertising. Their selling point is critical mass. Malls owned by Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, for example, welcome 2.4 billion visitors annually. That's four to five times more than the total attendance at all professional and college-sports events nationwide, says Stewart Stockdale, the company's CMO. Its client roster boasts such names as General Motors, Visa and Tiffany. "Walking in the mall, you will see an ad for a longer period of time than driving past a billboard …