Enterprise Rent-a-Car is increasing the size of its familiar green, black and white logo by about 20%, and will renovate the inside of most of its locations worldwide over a three-year period. The aim is to give Enterprise a more distinct brand identification, says Steve Smith, Enterprise's vice president, marketing communications. Enterprise, the largest major auto-rental company in the U.S., is expanding its presence into more airports and growing its other operations, including car sales and commercial-truck rental. Only 9% of its transactions occur at airports, which propel the most volume in the industry. Hertz, for example, …

With consumers feeling the need to be in control of the brands they buy, marketers need to "begin to let go," says Kent Oldham, associate director and GBS consumer view solutions manager at Procter & Gamble. "We don't control all of our touch points, and those touch points, as a result, impact us," he says. The implication of not learning from every touch point a consumer has with your company or product or service can be costly, according to Oldham, who spoke at the 2006 National Center for Database Marketing Conference in Orlando. One way …

Edward H. Meyer, who turns 80 next month, will announce today that he is stepping down as chairman and CEO of Grey Global Group. Meyer has controlled Grey Global's destiny for three decades, while building it into one of the world's biggest--and most profitable--ad agencies. Meyer last year sold Grey to the WPP Group for $1.75 billion. As part of the deal, he agreed to give up his posts as chairman and chief executive of the Grey Worldwide division by September 2005. Then, 15 months later, he was to give up his duties as chairman and chief executive of …

2006 is shaping up as the year for the department store. Their hot streak began last spring and sales to date have risen 4.4% from the same period last year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. A more appealing mix of merchandise and stores that are easier to shop have fueled the turnaround. The most obvious changes have been at Macy's, which has a renewed emphasis on fashion. "Two years ago, you would have come in here and the message was all about price," says retail analyst Cynthia Cohen. "Now, the message is about fashion and …

Muhtar Kent, who last week was elevated to president and COO of Coca-Cola, says that soda sales in the U.S. could rebound with a "winning culture" and "focus on what the consumer wants." These are the same strategies that have helped trigger this year's soft-drink sales turnaround in Australia and parts of Western Europe. The successful launch in Australia and Great Britain of Coca-Cola Zero, a no-calorie drink that tastes much like regular Coca-Cola, is considered a model of that success. Kent has headed Coke's international operations since the start of 2006. Sales of drinks sold under …

The American Red Cross emergency radio--featuring a hand crank, cell phone charger and a siren--was the clear winner as the "Best Brand Extension" in an online survey of 860 branding professionals co-sponsored by Brandweek and TippingSprung, a New York branding firm. It nearest competitor was Pantone Eurolux house paints. Other highlights were Snoop Dogg's foray into pet products, which won the "Best Extension For Pets"; Budweiser Barbecue Sauce, which was named "Best Extension of a Food Brand" and The Vera Wang Suite at the Halekulani Hotel in Honolulu, which was voted "Best Extension Into the Hotel." …

The Federal Trade Commission yesterday rejected a petition from the consumer watchdog group Commercial Alert that claimed marketers were "perpetrating large-scale deception" by paying consumers to shill for products but not revealing the financial arrangements. But the FTC did leave the door open for the commission to examine issues on a case-by-case basis. In short, marketers could be playing with fire if they pay people to post opinions about products, such as movies, cell phones or electronics to Web sites without making their sponsorship clearly visible. The ruling could lead to increased spending in an area …

Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota's CEO, is questioning a core tenet of the auto maker's corporate culture--kaizen, the relentless focus on incremental improvement. Instead, Watanabe, 64, wants kakushin, or revolutionary change in how Toyota designs cars and factories. Watanabe thinks Toyota is losing its competitive edge as it expands around the world. He frets that quality, the foundation of its U.S. success, is slipping. He grouses that Toyota's factories and engineering practices aren't efficient enough. He is pushing Toyota to reduce the number of components it uses in a typical vehicle by half--a radical idea that would usher in a new …

The scandalous Julie Roehm saga is just the most recent incident in a series of bad news for Wal-Mart, including shrinking same-store sales in November, a fake blog from independent PR shop Edelman and embarrassing leaks of internal personnel memos. Roehm's firing is also the latest abrupt reversal in a marketing strategy that has looked rudderless. A senior executive at one Wal-Mart supplier compared CEO Lee Scott to George W. Bush and suggested that Scott appoint the equivalent of the President's Iraq Study Group to recommend a way out of his own quagmire. "If he doesn't, he should …

Congress passed the first major overhaul of the Postal Service since the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. The Postal Reform And Accountability Act (H.R. 6407) now awaits President Bush's signature. Among the more dramatic reforms are a rate-increase cap that ties future postage increases to the rate of inflation and strict criteria regarding conditions for emergency rate increases. The bill will not affect the pending postal rate case, however, itself a fairly sweeping act of reform regarding how the U.S. Postal Service charges for services. The pending rate changes are expected to go into effect in the spring. …