Noreen O'Leary sits down with Andrew Varga, who joined Papa John's as CMO nearly a year ago after spending 22 years at Brown-Forman. The biggest difference between marketing at B-F and Papa John's, Varga says, is "this business is as fast as any you're ever going to see." With real-time data readily available, you can make changes on a Friday that will affect weekend sales. Intent on expanding the digital presence of America's No. 3 pizza chain, Varga launched the Specialty Pizza Challenge, which saw more than 12,000 consumers submitting pizza recipes via Facebook. Three finalists, each …

Bruce Horovitz takes a look at retailers who are adapting the homegrown "look-what-I-got-at-the-store" fashion videos produced by teens as part of their back-to-school marketing quiver. Known as "hauls," the show-and-tell snippets not only influence teens but also mothers of teens, according to trends guru Maxine Lauer. J.C. Penney will announce plans today to turn a handful of videos into a core component of its marketing at jcp.com/teen, Horowitz reports, joining teen-oriented retailers such as Forever 21 and American Eagle in exploring the venue. "It's the buzz-worthy story of 2010," says Mandi Mankvitz, social-media director …

Whether you're looking for a humongous 3-D television or a device to trim your ear fuzz, Panasonic has you covered. But, Hiroko Tabuchi reports from Tokyo, analysts are wondering whether Panasonic should really be trying to market all things to all consumers? Granted, it's not the only Japanese manufacturer suffering from ADD (see Sony, Sharp, Fujitsu, Toshiba, NEC, Casio, Hitachi and Kyocera) but the affliction distracts managers and cedes key categories to more focused marketers such as Samsung and Apple, critics say. "We probably sell tens of thousands of products; we've never counted," acknowledges …

Surveying the American marketplace, Adam Sacks finds that the artisanal movement -- from craft beers to pickles to handbags to bicycles -- has become our "national consumer religion." And it's not just coastal hipsters anymore, either, who are buying and purveying handcrafted items. Who'd have thunk that the heart of Texas would produce Tito's Handmade Vodka? As with every marketing story nowadays, there's a "hard-times" twist. "When everything is falling apart, it helps to know how to put things together," Sacks writes. "And isn't that the secret message of so much artisanal longing? That when everything goes to …

The YMCA is yielding to the vox populi and is rebranding itself as, simply, "the Y," Stephanie Strom reports. The nonprofit was founded 166 years ago as the Young Men's Christian Association. "We're trying to simplify how we tell the story of what we do, and the name represents that," says Neil Nicoll, Y president and CEO. At the same time, the Y is launching efforts to emphasize the impact its programs have in local communities on youth, healthy living and communities, from promoting sidewalk building in Sioux City, Iowa, to trying to increase the distribution of fresh …

Right now, they're calling it Stephanie's after one of the principal's daughters, but that may change before the first one opens next year with, possibly, herb gardens on the roof, grass parking lots, fresh flowers on tables and biodegradable cutlery to go with breakfast offerings like cinnamon steel-cut oats and lunch and dinner entrees like smoked-chicken sweet-pea soup, Rupal Parekh and Emily Bryson York report. The reporters came across preliminary plans for the concept, which was developed by entrepreneur Steve Sidwell. He, in turn, enlisted former McDonald's executives Mike Roberts and Mike Donahue in developing the execution …

A study of automobile dealerships to be released today finds that Mercedes-Benz and Lexus showrooms earn the highest scores, while Ford and Lincoln, whose salespeople were more likely to ask why the shopper considered the brand, rate above the industry average, Jewel Gopwani reports. Overall, however, fewer salespeople offer vehicle brochures than in the past and that may be a mistake. "I'm absolutely certain that paper brochures help sell cars," says Fran O'Hagan, CEO of Pied Piper Management, which deployed 3,658 secret shoppers, ages 21 to 65, to dealerships between July 2009 and June 2010 to collect more …

They may be selling the razor blades rather than the razor, as King Camp Gillette famously advised more than a century ago, but not everybody's buying. Tired of trying to keep up with the cycle of shaving-system upgrades and price hikes, some men are hoarding blades made for older razors and discovering ways to prolong their lives, Ellen Byron reports. This spring, both Procter & Gamble's Gillette and Energizer Holdings's Schick launched shaving systems touting improved blades and more ergonomic handles. They cost more, too, of course. "I'm a full-on capitalist, but there's a little bit …