Is there any U.S. brand with a stronger heritage than Budweiser? The flagship of Anheuser-Busch hasn't been taking any chances lately as it strives with various marketing initiatives. The brand has established a ubiquitous presence in sports marketing, including the NFL, and more recently is sponsoring its own "Made in America" music festivals with Jay Z, who also received his own Budweiser spot with "Dream. On."

With NBA 2017-18 just about a month away, the league has started to market the season in earnest, unveiling three spots with the tag "I'm Why," under its ongoing umbrella campaign, "This Is Why We Play." Spots will break on ABC on Sept. 24 during Game 1 of the WNBA Finals between the Los Angeles Sparks and Minnesota Lynx. They will then go in to regular rotation on ESPN, TNT, NBA TV, NBA.com and NBA apps.

Although billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is running a handful of companies, including Tesla, he's not too busy to respond to a single frustrated customer. A customer tweeted Musk complaining of "a terrible experience with very pushy sales guy." Musk responded: "Def not ok, Just sent a reminder to Tesla stores that we just want people to look forward to their next visit. That's what really matters."

When many people join a gym, they do so with the best of intentions. They want to be healthier and get into better shape. Even as they rarely or never go, they stay members because they think someday they'll become regulars. Costco' works the same way. Members are lured in by the prospect of saving money, and even if they don't take advantage, they renew because they intend to in the future.

In Roanoke, Va., Goodwill is testing a new type of store format called Simply Goodwill. Prices at Simply Goodwill will be lower than at a traditional thrift shop with children's clothing starting at $1.00 and adult clothing starts at $2.75, according to Forbes. While retailers across the country are shuttering, thrift-store shopping is growing, with up to 18% of Americans regularly purchasing goods from thrift shops, according to the Association of Resale Professionals.

By the end of August, 17 CEOs had departed, or announced their intention to, in almost as many months. "This is a pretty unprecedented situation where you see that level of turnover in such a short space of time," says Bernstein analyst Alexia Howard. For one thing, the old tricks of the trade have stopped working. The outgoing class of CEOs rose up through the ranks during the glory days of big brands, when economies of scale in manufacturing and advertising plus annual population growth made winning easy.

In a study of national quick-service restaurants, which looked at tweets from customers, one brand was far and away the most likely to be discussed for its bacon. In fact, it was 5.5 times more than the average. And that would be Wendy's, which has never shied away from bacon. To wit, it is home to the Baconator, Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, Bacon Delux, Double Bacon Burger, Son of Baconator and a Bacon Queso Cheeseburger.

For those who remain on hurricane-ravaged islands in the region, where at least 38 people died when Irma swept from Barbuda to the Florida Keys this month, there's little other choice than to rebuild. Last year, the Caribbean's growing tourism industry accounted for about 15% of the region's gross domestic product, or $56.4 billion, and supported 2.3 million jobs, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, an industry group in London.

These markets provide Nestle with 42% of its sales, for example. CEO Mark Schneider recently told investors that "strong emerging-market posture is going to be a winning position." For some companies, it means a focus on young people. As Coca-Cola International's president said in 2014, "There's 600 million teenagers who have not had a Coke in the last week. So the opportunity for that is huge."

Nikon scoured the globe to fine 32 photographers to promote its D850 DSLR and all 32 are men. Female photographers were baffled. For its part, Nikon said the women the company invited were unable to attend. "We're here. We're working. We exist," Daniella Zalcman, a photojournalist based in London who created a database of female photographers, said in an interview. "The problem is the organization not making the adequate effort to include us."