Long-tail marketing has its success stories, sure, but simply avoiding the clutter of mass markets isn't enough to guarantee success, write Eric K. Clemons, Paul F. Nunes and Matt Reilly, who go on to offer six strategies for finding the sweet spot that will coax consumers to pay a premium price for a product. They call it "resonance marketing." The strategies are 1. Target Carefully; 2. Listen to Your Customers. Really Listen; 3. Control Production Costs; 4. Control Distribution Costs; 5. Some Apparent Losers Are Worth Keeping 6. Prune Your Portfolio Ruthlessly. "Many shoppers will compromise …

Many of the companies at the top of the Reputation Institute's list of the companies with the strongest global reputation have one thing in common, Laurie Burkitt reports. They are innovators. Google and Sony rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and other companies with eye-catching consumer products in the Top 10 include Apple (No. 6), Ikea (No. 8) and Intel (No. 10), whose semiconductors power cars, computers and televisions. "Innovation is a powerful tool for reaching consumers," says Reputation Institute managing partner Kasper Nielsen. Another way to excel internationally is by establishing a sense of prestige around …

Michael S. Rosenwald takes a look at the AOL brand 25 years after its birth, peering ahead more than backwards. Observers wonder, he writes, whether the service associated with the screeching sound of dial-up Internet connections can carve a niche creating targeted content in a broadband world dominated by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo. According to Nielsen, AOL currently attracts the seventh-largest audience of any Web brand. It has achieved that status mostly by creating or buying some of the most popular sites on the Web including Engadget.com, PoliticsDaily.com, FanHouse.com, DailyFinance.com and even MMAFighting.com -- an approach similar to Disney's …

Milagro super-premium tequila is targeting "urban expressive" consumers between the ages of 25 and 39, brand manager Suzi Cesco tells Noreen O'Leary, in its first-ever consumer campaign. The tagline for the print and outdoor effort, "Tequila, Evolved," positions the William Grant & Sons brand as trendy and sophisticated. Danny Schneeweiss and Moy Guindi, who felt tequila options were entrenched in "donkey and sombrero clichés," launched the brand in 1997. Its estate-grown Agave cactus is roasted in brick clay ovens, distilled through a proprietary method and packaged in artisanal bottles. Consumption increased 39% over the last year, according to …

Fortune Brands is confident enough in the recovery to start hiring again, following three years during which it slashed 10,000 jobs -- 40% of its workforce -- and closed 25 factories, reports David Kesmodel. It also will produce a new line of kitchen and bath cabinets. The conglomerate makes Moen faucets, Simonton windows and Aristokraft cabinets as well as unrelated brands such as Jim Beam bourbon, Sauza tequila and Titleist golf balls. Despite double-digit sales gains in its home products in the first quarter, CEO Bruce Carbonari says Fortune remains "cautious" about projecting consumer demand. Kantar Retail vp …

Toyota is buying a $50 million stake in electric-car maker Tesla Motors, and Tesla is buying a closed Toyota joint-venture factory in Fremont, Calif., to build its Model S and other vehicles, Alan Ohnsman reports. The plant, known as the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. or NUMMI, was for 25 years a joint venture between Toyota and the former General Motors. "This seems like a good deal for both parties, especially Toyota, from being able to avoid the political fallout from shutting NUMMI down to being able to offer a new electric vehicle with just a low initial …