Gap Inc. yesterday announced that former Disney executive Paul Pressler and its board had mutually agreed that he should step down as CEO, as well as resign his seat on the board of the San Francisco-based apparel retailer. The company said it would seek a retail expert to lead it. Pressler's emphasis on consumer research was considered well intentioned, but a deluge of data on Gap customers, competitors and consumer-spending hampered designers' creativity, according to one former Gap executive. The result was designs that year after year were overshadowed by those of nimbler rivals. During top managers' …

The trial of former Coca-Cola marketing department secretary Joya Williams opened in Atlanta yesterday, with federal prosecutors laying out their case that she conspired with two accomplices to try to sell product samples and confidential documents for more than $1 million. Prosecutors say the plot started in November 2005, when Williams showed family friend Edmond Duhaney stacks of documents from Coke. She told Duhaney she couldn't sell the documents because she signed a confidentiality agreement, but that Duhaney could. Duhaney, a convicted cocaine dealer, shopped the documents around, but no one was interested until he reached Ibrahim Dimson, a …

Saying that "incremental evolution is not enough," Pfizer CEO Jeffrey B. Kindler vowed to overhaul the way it does business yesterday while announcing that the company would ax an additional 7,800 workers and close several manufacturing and research sites. Pfizer--and its competitors--face a changing marketplace. Big-selling drugs introduced by the industry in the 1990s are now losing patent protection, opening them to generic competition. At the same time, the pharmaceutical companies have not been able to develop new products quickly enough. In addition, sales forces have grown in a sort of arms race, often with multiple sales …

Just as publishers are relying more heavily on behavioral targeting to drive online ad sales, marketers like Snapple are using the analytics-rich modeling to figure out what types of people are drawn to their products. Behavioral targeting defines customers by behavior rather than by demographic. Snapple and its agency assumed that the type of people that would be most interested in its "Good for You" premium green teas, which launched over the summer with metabolism-boosting, antioxidant-rich EGCG, would be health-conscious fitness nuts. People who made wellness a priority. Surprisingly, the people who responded best to the six-week …

In a memo to Coca-Cola Co. employees yesterday, CEO Neville Isdell announced that all marketing, strategy and innovation heads will report to newly appointed COO Muhtar Kent. That means, in effect, that Mary Minnick will not be replaced when she leaves at the end of February. Marc Mathieu, who was head of Coke's global core brands, will add marketing responsibilities for noncarbonated global brands effective March 1. Others in the marketing team will report to Mathieu instead of Minnick, except for the research & development and the strategy groups. Those, headed by chief innovation officer Danny Strickland and John …

Kimberly-Clark's Kleenex--an 83-year-old brand that has long been synonymous with facial tissue--is the latest venerable brand to be reengineered to stay a step ahead of generic knockoffs. Kleenex's predicament can be found at supermarkets and drugstores. Giant retailers like Wal-Mart are demanding fresh choices for consumers, while filling their shelves with their own cheap, generic lines. But Kimberly-Clark didn't want to position Anti-Viral too aggressively as a preventive health product because it felt sales would suffer if it "became the sick box," according to Gary Keider, Kleenex's marketing director. So, hedging its bets, the company decided to …

Just like the rockers who rise and fall on VH1's "Behind the Music," chief marketing officers that exude a rock 'n' roll persona inevitably seem to crash to earth. Cases in point: Volkswagen's Kerri Martin; Verizon Communications' Jerri Devard; Coca-Cola's Mary Minnick; and Wal-Mart's Julie Roehm. The quartet of high-powered, outspoken women all fell (or at least, in Minnick's case, hit the proverbial ceiling) despite--or perhaps even as a result of--crafting images as mediagenic change agents shaking up moribund institutions. Once just in charge of getting ads made and boosting awareness, top marketing executives today are responsible for …

For the past nine months, McDonald's has been running a test in two markets that threatens Coca-Cola's 50-year monogamous relationship with the fast-food giant. If a customer in College Station, Texas, or Kansas City wants a Pepsi-made Mountain Dew, the clerk will reach over to a cooler case and pull out a frosty bottle. McDonald's it trying to win back revenue from burger-buying customers that get their bottle of pop from nearby convenience stores, or that prefer energy and sports drinks to carbonated soft drinks. In Kansas City, the McDonald's test includes Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Propel Fitness Water, Lipton …

A new survey of senior-level marketers finds that brands that have been refurbished during the past three to five years are the most successful. According to the survey--sponsored by the American Marketing Association, and independent firms Luth Research and MiresBall--almost two-thirds of the 100-plus marketers polled believed their brand would benefit from a revitalization. Brands that were refurbished during this period scored the highest on the survey's success index, which is based on market share, the ability to derive premium pricing and internal brand perception. Marketers surveyed said the challenges facing their brands motivated them to change. The top …

As Congress prepares for hearings on the user fees that manufacturers pay to speed the reviewing of new drugs by the Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical executives are girding themselves for tough questions about drug advertising aimed at consumers. Spending on consumer drug advertising has grown from $1.1 billion in 1997 to an estimated $4.5 billion in 2006. The pharmaceutical industry seeks to renew the user fee law and add a new set of user fees that would pay for additional F.D.A. employees to evaluate all consumer drug ads before they are air. The user fee law will die …