Have a bacon milkshake, or a bacon-flavored chocolate bar, or PB&J vodka. What about tacos made of Doritos. Marketers are trying weird combos to extend and differentiate their brands.

VW has agreed to purchase Ducati for around $1.12 billion through its Audi brand.

Mark Mobius, chairman of Emerging Markets Group, writes that companies in places like Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and South Korea are grabbing brands and making them their own (The most obvious example is probably India's Tata now owning Jaguar and Land Rover.) He writes that Millward Brown, in 2006, found that among the top 100 brands globally, there were only two brands from emerging countries. "In 2011, there were 19 from the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and Mexico. So despite their relatively shorter time in the marketplace, emerging market brands currently represent nearly one-fifth of the top …

Chevron has improved the quality of its convenience stores in recent times, and starting this month, it's taking yet another step in the evolution of Chevron ExtraMile. The West Coast c-store chain is currently rolling out Seattle's Best Coffee to all of its 271 company-owned and 273 franchise ExtraMile locations. The approximately six-week deployment is scheduled to finish in June. "Coffee is a really important part of our offering," said Ian Noble, retail district sales manager for the company.

German luxury clothing maker Hugo Boss began selling its apparel in China through franchisees or by wholesaling goods to independent retailers in Hong Kong as early as 1982, but it didn't open its first company-run stores in China until 2006, 15 years after Italian suit maker Ermenegildo Zegna.

Ford Motor Co. will collaborate with other transportation and technology companies to make decisions on the future of transportation, said Ford CEO Alan Mulally. For Ford, that means offering a range of powertrains, including the 2012 Ford Focus Electric, Mulally said Monday at Fortune magazine's Brainstorm Green conference here. The Focus Electric gets an EPA-estimated 105 miles per gallon equivalent in combined city-highway driving.

Even before it opens a Walmart Neighborhood Market in the Chinatown section of downtown Los Angeles early next year, Wal-Mart said it plans to open a Neighborhood Market in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Panorama City. Wal-Mart said Monday construction on the 31,000-square-foot store is already under way, and the store is scheduled to open by the end of 2012. It will be housed in a space in a 90,000-square-foot shopping center that was formerly occupied by an independent operator, Valley Foods Warehouse, which shut its doors five years ago.

New Mexico this year is celebrating 100 years of statehood. It seems, however, that lots of people who haven't seen a map think the "Land of Enchantment" is part of Mexico. It also competes with Arizona and Nevada. So Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson is booting up a $2 million branding campaign about New Mexico's culture and outdoor adventures. It also gives the state a new logo, "New Mexico True."

T-Mobile USA is planning a more aggressive advertising campaign, with its spokeswoman Carly Foulkes trading her magenta dress for the black leather of a biker, and the company highlighting its "4G" HSPA+ network more than ever before. The carrier, which is making a $200 million incremental increase in advertising spending, is focused on a tougher brand image. Previously, Foulkes, who has been in T-Mobile's ads since 2010, was deployed to highlight T-Mobile's fast HSPA+ network, but the advertising spots were bright and sunny. Now, after T-Mobile lost 802,000 postpaid subscribers in the fourth quarter, due mainly to its lack of …

The three-day Coachella music festival isn't just an opportunity for brands to pass out free swag with company logos. Sponsors are experimenting with new types of brand advertising. Heineken, one of the nine companies sponsoring the event, has a Cold Storage Room, where attendees can store up to two cases of Heineken in a cooler that can only be accessed with the owner's scanned thumbprint. Since Coachella attendees can't bring outside drinks into the venue, Heineken insures that it is the beer of choice for the thousands camping and partying at the event. "Heineken is always looking to improve the …