"The boutiques are "both are a little different than the (other) brands in the upscale segment," says Mark Schwartz, who runs J.D. Power's travel practice.

Tech brands make up 30% of the top 50 in this year's ranking of the most valuable brand names. Apple, with a valuation of $57.4 billion, squeaked by longtime nemesis Microsoft to take the No. 1 spot, Kurt Badenhausen reports. Coca-Cola, IBM, Google, McDonald's, General Electric, Marlboro, Intel and Nokia round out the Top 10.

Rance Crain conducts a fascinating video interview with direct-marketing giant Lester Wunderman who, at 90, is chairman emeritus of the eponymous direct-marketing agency that's now owned by WPP's Young & Rubicam, operating 130 offices in 55 countries. Crain's write-up of the interview leads with the observation that Wunderman has installed shoji screens on the windows in his New York office to help him achieve an "in-look" as opposed to an "out-look." Among those in-looks is that "personal advertising" -- which uses data and other information to understand the habits and needs and composition of families -- is overtaking, …

If Disney can produce risqué movies, why can't Volvo do "naughty" events? Shirley Brady says the Swedish brand that's famous for its safety features is trying to shake its image as a family-friendly brand by hosting parties in London, Paris, Milan, Berlin and Madrid to attract a mix of mix of hipsters, bloggers and celebrities to its new S60. Over 3,000 partygoers were secretly filmed at the parties to see if they were tempted to "break the rules." An alluring actress, for example, pretended to be married. The Italians proved "chivalrous"; the English, "pushy." In …

Wal-Mart says it has listened to its customers and thinks that it finally has a fashion team in place that will give them what they want. Based an announcement it made last month, that would appear to be the basics: underwear, socks, T-shirts and jeans. "Wal-Mart has suffered from not knowing who they want to be," Allen Questrom, the former CEO of JC Penney Co. who recently left Wal-Mart's board, tells Ann Zimmerman. "They're either trying to be too fashionable or too basic." And basics have with low margins, he points out, and don't drive traffic. …

Amazon's next-generation Kindle is a slim white or carbon-colored e-reader that has double the storage space but is 15% lighter and inches smaller in width and height than the Kindle 2. It will sell for $189, the same price as it predecessor, and have both 3G wireless and WiFi capabilities, Andy Greenberg and Elizabeth Woyke report. Writing in Fast Company, Da n Noscowitz says that Kindle 3's most impressive new feature is the screen which is, "bar none, the best e-ink screen I've ever seen. It's fantastically sharp, with excellent contrast (Amazon claims 50% …

Natasha Singer breaks the news that Novartis will give away up to 250,000 bottles of Triaminic Fever Reducer Pain Reliever -- a new formulation for the 50-year-old brand -- in an effort to convert parents affected by the recall of liquid children's Tylenol. The program, which uses the slogan "restock your medicine cabinet," offers rebates to consumers who buy the medication from Aug. 2 through Aug. 8. The Swiss company was developing a fever product before the Tylenol recall but sped up its introduction to fill a void in the marketplace, a company spokeswoman says. "If you …