Walgreens president Gregory Wasson is set to unveil today a plan to market its pharmacies, in-store clinics and company health centers to corporate and government employers, Amy Merrick reveals. Participating employees at work would be able to get checkups and preventive care, as well as services such as dentistry and optometry under the banner of the drugstore chain's "Complete Care and Well-Being" program. Walgreens isn't trying to compete with health insurers or pharmacy-benefit managers, says Wasson, who will be addressing shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Chicago. It may, in fact, contract with such companies to provide services. …

Wendy's is cutting its test of breakfast offerings nearly in half in order to improve the quality of the products and retool in-store displays and marketing, Emily Bryson York reports. The test will now run in about 450 stores in three markets: Kansas City, Phoenix and Pittsburgh. It plans to add to the number of locations by the end of 2009 and hopes for a national launch in 2011. "Breakfast is a significant opportunity for us," Wendy's CEO Roland Smith said at the Cowen and Co. Consumer Conference. But he admitted the morning items being taken off the table …

"The store is the last place where mass marketing exists," says George Wishart, global managing director of Nielsen In-Store. Better yet, people are there with the declared purpose of shopping. Booz& Co. partners Matthew Egol and Christopher Vollmer lay out the ways marketers, retailers and media companies have intensified efforts to increase the impact of in-store advertising and make it a bigger part of the marketing mix. They also take a peek at prototypes and experiments for the next generation of in-store advertising, which will allow shoppers to request information via their mobile phones or kiosks, and much more. …

My wife couldn't resist buying a bottle of Fred Natural Spring Water she saw in a bodega near New York University. Then she brought it to me and said, "I have a story for you." "Arggh," I cried, "let's hope someone has written about it because I'm hand-tied here when it come to original reporting." Well, thankfully, they have. Communications Arts tells us that designer Steve Hellerstein was commissioned by an ad agency, thread, to develop visual concepts for the launch. The brand strategist, creative director, writer, designer and photographer sat down one day and what …

The entire Interbrand report can be viewed here. 

America could oust Italy as the world's No. 1 nonsparkling wine consumer by 2012.

Noodle World's Thai American owner, John Mekpongsatorn, has a fiberglass statue of Bob's Big Boy hanging on the wall -- a perfect symbol of the Southern California melting pot he wanted his chain to reflect. The result is a restaurant many call the "Asian Denny's," David Pierson reports.

It may be easier than ever to build a global brand, thanks to modern transportation and communication options (not to mention the globalization of Western culture) but that doesn't mean that consumers will come. In fact, there is no such thing as a global brand, says Millward Brown's chief global analyst, Nigel Hollis. "Even the likes of Coca-Cola have their weak links -- it lags behind Pepsi in India, for example," writes Eric Pfanner. Only 3% of more than 10,000 brands that Millward Brown tracks show in seven or more countries. And even brands like McDonalds, whose arches …

AJ Khubani, founder, CEO and president of Telebrands, gleefully admits that he is a bottom feeder -- and given the economic conditions in television right now, it's chow time for infomercials. With so much unsold airtime, he's able to secure great rates for his products. "The worse the economy is, the better the business is," he says. Telebrands has been buying "beach front property at trailer-park prices," he crows. Khubani so identifies with the brands he promotes -- such as the PedEgg, the Get A Grip, the Ear Lift (for stretched or torn ear lobes) and the …

New business-to-business spots from Microsoft feature conversations, illustrated with clever animations, with marketers such as Katie Bayne, CMO of Coca-Cola North America; Eric Ryan, co-founder and chief brand architect for Method, WestJet CEO Sean Durfy and Quiksilver CEO Robert McKnight. Todd Wasserman aptly describes the animation as "Monty Python-esque." When Bayne mentions a "mountain of data," for example, the word "data" is spelled out dozens of times to form a cliff replete with a mountain goat on top. The executives talk about how they get their business done. "Ryan, for example, explains that …