Fabrizio Freda, former president of the Global Snacks division of Procter & Gamble, will succeed William P. Lauder as president of of Estée Lauder Cos. on March 3, and will replace him as CEO within 24 months. The move outside the company for a leader--Lauder's father, Leonard A. Lauder, is currently chairman--is seen as a seismic cultural shift. Lauder says he recruited Freda to inject a fresh viewpoint into the company, plus a renewal of disciplined thinking and analytical judgment. Lauder adds that Freda's background with P&G--where he is now based in Rome--provides a European sense of global branding. Since …

In a move that could add further competitive kick to what has been a tough year for the U.S. auto market, Chrysler reportedly plans to offer a new round of rebates and incentives next month. The campaign will kick off with Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler television ads Nov. 20, and will emphasize the lifetime warranty the company began offering on engines and transmissions earlier this year. The heaviest discounts are likely to come on four slow-selling models that are being discontinued: the Chrysler Pacifica, PT Cruiser convertible and Crossfire, and the Dodge Magnum. The campaign will also include the "Red …

Hoping to drive holiday traffic and win over shoppers in markets where its name replaced local favorites it absorbed as part of its acquisition of the May Department Stores in 2005, Macy's is running star-packed ads featuring celebrities such as Donald Trump and R&B singer Usher. It has also made changes in merchandise including exclusive alliances with well-known designer brands, and has returned to more promotions at some locations. Former May customers haven't responded as well as the company hoped to the September 2006 re-branding. A year after Marshall Field's and other May stores officially converted to the Macy's nameplate, …

Stores selling so-called affordable luxury to aspirational buyers are starting to feel the pinch of the weak economy. Only the most elite brands--and the retailers catering to the richest customers--are likely to escape the current economic climate unscathed. The outlook is very different from the recent years, when sales of all sorts of luxury goods exploded, boosted by a rising stock market and strong fashion trends that spurred purchases. The boom led marketers to broaden their target audience from the super-wealthy to include the growing ranks of upper-middle-class consumers. Wall Street is concerned. Nordstrom's share price has fallen more than …

Kenny Chesney, the three-time winner of the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year award, has signed an exclusive, long-term deal to promote Corona Extra. The partnership with Crown Imports, the Chicago-based beer importer, is featured in a full-page ad in the today's edition of USA Today. Chesney fills the void in the marketing mix that was created when Jimmy Buffet was signed last year by Anheuser-Busch to back Land Shark Lager, brewed by the Margaritaville Brewing company, which is actually A-B's brewing facility in Jacksonville, Fla. Chesney will kick off the sponsorship with the 2008 Poets and Pirate …

With competition intensifying among airlines for business customers, Southwest Airlines says it will actively court them by tweaking its long-standing policy of cheap fares and one-class service. CEO Gary Kelly says the airline will generate at least $100 million a year in additional revenue by raising last-minute fares and calling that category "Business Select." Customers who buy those tickets will get a place in Southwest's "A" boarding group. Business Select customers will also get a complimentary cocktail and will be able to earn points faster in Rapid Rewards, Southwest's loyalty program. In another initiative aimed at attracting business travelers, Kelly …

Champion, the HanesBrands athletic apparel subsidiary best-known among consumers ages 30-50, is launching its largest marketing effort in a decade in an effort to engage the twentysomething consumer, says Claire Edgar, director of brand marketing. Champion is being positioned as clothes for the gym, for play--for your life. Print ads, out-of-home and an online component are "about people being active in a social space; a pick-up football game, a guy and a girl wrestling," Edgar says. This campaign spend--$27 million--is significant considering Champion spent nothing on measured media last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Its biggest spend in recent history …

The Federal Trade Commission yesterday announced multimillion-dollar penalties against lender Ameriquest Mortgage, adjustable bed seller Craftmatic Industries, and home alarm firm ADT Security Services for violations of the Do Not Call list rules. The agency alleged that Craftmatic obtained consumers' phone numbers through sweepstakes entries, then placed tens of thousands of calls to entrants who were on the Do Not Call list. The company and three of its subsidiaries agreed to pay $4.4 million--the second-largest Do Not Call penalty ever--to settle the charges. ADT agreed to pay slightly more than $2 million to settle charges that two of its authorized …

Billboard magazine decided on Tuesday--the day before weekly sales data is released--to reverse its policy of not counting the sale of albums sold exclusively through one retailer, effectively anointing the Eagles' new release, "Long Road Out of Eden," as the No. 1 album of the week. The two-disc set is being sold exclusively through Wal-Mart. One reason cited was that mass merchants now account for a far larger slice of the market than previously. Big merchants have accounted for about 39% of sales so far this year--far more than conventional CD stores or digital services like iTunes, although the balance …

Imax, which has a 40-year head start on the competition for large-format 3-D films, demonstrates how ahead-of-the-curve technologies can find themselves in danger of being leapfrogged when something new comes along. In the case of 3-D films, many of the nation's 4,000 screens equipped with digital projectors can show those movies at a fraction of the cost of the Imax system. Film studios are helping finance the rollout of the digital projectors, making them essentially free for theater owners. In contrast, if a theater wants to install an Imax system, it pays around $250,000. Imax is taking a number of …