Subway hasn't had a good year. The Milford, Conn.-based chain has had slower sales; Suzanne Greco had to take the helm as her brother, Fred DeLuca, fights leukemia; and the growth-focused company saw Starbucks leapfrog it as the nation's second-largest restaurant chain, per Nation's Restaurant News Top 100 census. And now it has to win back customers without Jared Fogle, who helped create its calorie-watching motif over the past 15 years. "It's a nightmare," said John Gordon, a San Diego-based restaurant consultant.

Michael Van Der Sande, SVP of global marketing at Renault, speaking about the brand's opportunities and strategy in India, says with 118 countries, 122,000 employees, the biggest challenge is keeping a consistent brand. "That all these people and the dealer network of 13000-14000 dealers around the world offer that same value and that coherent experience that we want Renault to stand for," he said. "My job is to ensure that the customer can recognizably find Renault in all aspects."

Logitech is doing a major brand redesign, with a bold color palette, new logo, and a new sub-brand called Logi. That sub-brand is, in the words of Chief Design Officer Alastair Curtis, formerly at Nokia, for "future-facing stuff, it will start to define new categories and new business spaces." He said the new Logitech is going to design "the whole experience" of buying and owning one of its products as one.

The traditional studio film won't come out on video until at least 90 days after it's hit theaters. But a new agreement between Paramount and two major theater chains could cut that release time in half. Viacom-owned Paramount has made a deal with AMC theaters in the U.S. and Canada's Cineplex chain that lets the chains share in some secondary market-revenue, if they allow the titles to reach the home video market earlier than usual.

CVS Health was a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Was. The company, which has removed cigarettes from its shelves, decided maybe it would also be consistent to remove itself from the Chamber, which has been alleged to have lobbied for America's tobacco industry in other countries. "CVS's purpose is to help people on their path to better health, and we fundamentally believe tobacco use is in direct conflict with this purpose," a company spokesperson said.

Questions are swirling about whether Julie Hamp, Toyota's top PR executive, was targeted as a gaijin when arrested for having imported oxycodone. Hamp has been held in a Tokyo jail since June 18 when she was arrested. Observers say her arrest and the threat of prosecution against her may have been influenced by the fact that she is a foreigner, and one of the highest-ranking women in the normally male-dominated Japanese business world.

German beer maker Warsteiner is having fun at Beck's expense. There's a new digital billboard in New York, for example, touting the private company's German credentials after Anheuser-Busch InBev NV was accused of watering down the origins of its own Beck's. "Warsteiner. Premium German Beer From, You Know, Germany" is the slogan. AB InBev settled a U.S. class-action lawsuit over Beck's about its "originated in Germany" slogan.

Let's see, there's NASCAR, NBC, Macy's, the PGA. And certainly the list will grow as the ever-obstreperous Trumpster continues exercising his mandibles. The latest to revile the palavering potentate is Phillips-Van Heusen, the clothing conglomerate and world's second biggest licensor, behind Trump's brand of mid-priced menswear. Said a spokesperson, "We are in the process of winding down this business. The license agreement was scheduled to run through 2018." Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and Speedo are among PVH brands.

A group of passengers is suing U.S. airlines over allegations they have colluded to keep airfares high since a string of mergers consolidated the industry. The lawsuits, filed in New York and Illinois, accuse Delta, American, United and Southwest airlines of engaging in a "conspiracy to fix, raise, maintain, or stabilize prices of airline tickets through a number of mechanisms." The lawsuit was filed after the Department of Justice announced its own antitrust investigation.

Fran O'Hagan, head of research firm Pied Piper, says Mercedes-Benz has benefited from moving its dealership model from a "museum curator" approach to "being as helpful as they can, turning car shoppers into Mercedes owners." In the end, it's often the way a dealer treats customers that can make or break a sale no matter how good the vehicle, O'Hagan emphasizes. Mercedes-Benz leads in the Pied Piper Satisfaction Index, based on reports by mystery shoppers. Infiniti, Lexus, Mini and Toyota round out the top five, and BMW, at sixth, has begun climbing the charts.