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	<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Advertising &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Advertising &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>&#8216;Big Gas Savings&#8217;: Kmart&#8217;s Funny Followup to the Viral &#8216;Ship My Pants&#8217; Ad</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/24/big-gas-savings-kmarts-funny-followup-to-the-viral-ship-my-pants-ad/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/24/big-gas-savings-kmarts-funny-followup-to-the-viral-ship-my-pants-ad/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 15:17:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Big Gas Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gas prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gasoline]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kmart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ship My Pants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[viral]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[viral ad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[viral marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80782</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kmart surprised consumers everywhere recently with the &#8220;Ship My Pants&#8221; ad, a viral juvenile-humor hit viewed more than 17 million times on YouTube since being released in April. Now, the all-purpose discount retailer appears to have struck goofy gold yet again, with an online ad promoting Kmart&#8217;s &#8220;big gas savings.&#8221; Say either phrase quickly — &#8220;ship my pants,&#8221; &#8220;big gas savings&#8221; — and you get the joke. Each of these phrases is repeated and tweaked over and over in their respective ads. &#8220;Whoah, I just might ship my pants,&#8221; a woman says, upon hearing word from a Kmart sales staffer describing the retailer&#8217;s service that ships goods for free to customers who can&#8217;t find items them want in stores. &#8220;I just shipped my pants and it&#8217;s very convenient,&#8221; an older woman chimes in. As the variations on shipping one&#8217;s pants (and drawers and nighties and beds) continues on, as does the &#8220;Beavis and Butthead&#8221;-type giggling of viewers, presumably. (MORE: Does Kmart&#8217;s Hilarious New Ad Acknowledge That Kmart Stores Are Hopeless?) The &#8220;Ship My Pants&#8221; extended poop joke was such a hit—it quickly became one of the most-shared ads ever—it was probably inevitably that Kmart would follow up with another attempt at silly tongue-in-cheek humor. On Wednesday, Kmart did just that, releasing a &#8220;Big Gas Savings&#8221; ad on YouTube. This time, the ad promotes a 30¢ off per gallon gas deal at participating gas stations for customers who spend at least $50 at Kmart. The deal almost seems besides the point, however. The main point of the ad is to make people laugh … and think about Kmart more. &#8220;Sounds like you could use some big gas savings,&#8221; one woman says to another—who happens to be the mom featured in &#8220;Ship My Pants&#8221;—as they&#8217;re filling up at a gas station. &#8220;Thirty cents a gallon, that&#8217;s a big gas discount,&#8221; a bearded man says. &#8220;Dad, look at that big gas truck,&#8221; a boy (also from &#8220;Ship My Pants&#8221;) says, pointing to a gas tanker. And on and on. All along, of course,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80782&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Advertising</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/marketing-2/advertising-marketing/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>For JC Penney, the Right Direction May Be … Reverse</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/17/for-jc-penney-the-right-direction-may-be-reverse/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/17/for-jc-penney-the-right-direction-may-be-reverse/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apple Store]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coupons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[discounts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fake prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J.C. Penney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JC Penney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JCP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[logos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mike Ullman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ron Johnson]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80187</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[JC Penney has its old CEO, Mike Ullman, in charge of the company again. Abundant sales and coupons have returned, as have brands that disappeared for a spell. In many ways, the JC Penney of old is back. Whether this is a good thing for the company remains to be seen. About month ago, within days of Ron Johnson being fired as CEO and Mike Ullman retaking his former position at the helm of JC Penney, Ullman quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying that there were no plans to bring back the old JC Penney. &#8220;I wouldn’t recommend that we go back to the way J.C. Penney was when I left,” he said. “Things change.” Still, JC Penney has essentially done a huge about-face in recent weeks, and it&#8217;s understandable why: The short-lived Johnson era, with its no-coupons stand and new focus on hip boutique brands, alienated customers and damaged sales badly. For the three-month span ending May 4, JC Penney reportedly lost $289 million, with sales decreasing 16.4% compared to a year ago &#8212; which was itself an awful period for the retailer. To bring back customers, JC Penney has been bringing back its traditional, pre-Johnson pricing and discount strategies. This week, jcpenney.com was littered with old-school discounts—for instance, 50% to 60% off patio furniture, and 30% to 40% off clothing with the St. John&#8217;s Bay label, the retailer&#8217;s exclusive brand that disappeared during the Johnson era and was brought back in March. (MORE: Splurge Surge! Luxury Spending on the Rise) Of course, there are those who view such discounts are straight-up frauds, based on artificially inflated list prices. Johnson himself would be in this camp. In January 2012, Johnson, the retail superstar who had helped turn Target and the Apple Store into huge success stories, promised to get rid of such &#8220;fake&#8221; prices and summarily slashed original prices by 40% or more. Shoppers weren&#8217;t crazy about the newly cheap list prices—because their arrival prompted the end of sales and coupons—and so in recent weeks the retailer has<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80187&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/retail-big-companies/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>My Beer Can Is Better Than Yours: Aluminum Can-ovations for Better Beer Drinking</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/11/my-beer-can-is-better-than-yours-aluminum-can-ovations-for-better-beer-drinking/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/11/my-beer-can-is-better-than-yours-aluminum-can-ovations-for-better-beer-drinking/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 May 2013 12:00:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aluminum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anheuser-Busch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anheuser-Busch InBev]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beer can]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beer cans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boston Beer Company]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budweiser]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[can]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Coors Light]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[craft beer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[craft breweries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Helles Lager]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jim Koch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lager]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MillerCoors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Samuel Adams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sly Fox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TV commercials]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79530</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You might think that one beer can is the same as any other. Big beer companies and craft brewers alike say different, and they&#8217;re rolling out new cans with wider mouths and funky designs that they claim make for vastly superior beer drinking. Beer makers around the U.S. are trying to draw the attention (and thirst) of drinkers lately with something of an aluminum revolution. The most talked-about new beer vessel has to Budweiser&#8217;s angular &#8220;bowtie&#8221; can, which kinks in at the center—and, interestingly, holds less beer than the usual can. This spring and summer, Anheuser-Busch InBev will also be selling Budweiser in limited-edition &#8220;patriotic packaging&#8221;—red-white-and-blue American flag cans (and bottles)—with a portion of sales going to benefit the Folds of Honor Foundation, which gives scholarships to families of American soldiers killed or disabled in service. Anheuser-Busch executives say that the bowtie can is meant to appeal to consumers who are &#8220;looking for new things, the trend-seekers.&#8221; No one is claiming that Budweiser will taste any different in a bowtie can, or in an American flag can for that matter. On the other hand, most other brewers that are introducing new cans at least make an attempt to argue that the new design somehow enhances the drinking experience. Coors Light has been mocked in the past for its beer can &#8220;innovations,&#8221; which included a vented wide-mouth can for &#8220;easier drinking&#8221; and the &#8220;cold-activated&#8221; can, in which the mountains on the logo turn blue when the can is chilled. Now, the brand is simultaneously mocking itself while introducing yet another &#8220;can-ovation&#8221; of dubious purpose. (MORE: Budweiser&#8217;s New &#8216;Bowtie&#8217; Can Design: More Aluminum, Less Beer) Coors Light&#8217;s new &#8220;double vent wide mouth&#8221; design—if a regular vent wide mouth was good, then a double vent must be doubly good—is being billed as &#8220;The World&#8217;s Most Refreshing Can.&#8221; In one intentionally ridiculous ad, the can is compared to rapper-director Ice Cube; in another, a giant multi-armed robot machine toils to create the fancy new can, while a scientist in a white lab coat does<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79530&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/121779434-e1368026286354.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Opening a beer can</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>The Charles Ramsey-McDonald&#8217;s Episode: How a Viral Marketing Opportunity Can Backfire</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/08/the-charles-ramsey-mcdonalds-episode-how-a-viral-marketing-opportunity-can-backfire/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/08/the-charles-ramsey-mcdonalds-episode-how-a-viral-marketing-opportunity-can-backfire/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 23:50:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amanda Berry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Big Bird]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Charles Ramsey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chipotle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cleveland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gina DeJesus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McDonalds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oreo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poland Spring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sesame Street]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[viral]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79583</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Using a story about women being kidnapped and held against their will for years for marketing purposes is questionable enough. Now that the hero in the story turns out to have a history of domestic violence convictions, the Charles Ramsey-McDonald&#8217;s episode is shaping up as an argument that perhaps brands should respond to viral marketing opportunities slowly, cautiously—and sometimes not at all. The accepted wisdom today is that when a brand is suddenly front and center in the news for almost any reason whatsoever, the company must seize the moment and take advantage of the situation as a marketing opportunity. Responding with speed is deemed to be absolutely essential. Oreo, for instance, was widely lauded for its quick-thinking Tweet during the Super Bowl blackout. The Tweet, featuring a photo of the iconic cookie and the caption &#8220;You can still dunk in the dark,&#8221; was put up in 10 minutes—before the lights were back on at the New Orleans Superdome—and was immediately retweeted and liked on Facebook tens of thousands of times. (MORE: Stealth Celebrity Endorsement: No Money Changes Hands, Just Free Burritos) The Etch a Sketch toy and Sesame Street&#8217;s Big Bird both had big moments in the news during last year&#8217;s presidential campaign, and Poland Spring bottled water received plenty of attention thanks to Marco Rubio&#8217;s &#8220;Gulpgate&#8221; during the Republican Address to the Nation in February. These odd spectacles were all viewed as prime branding opportunities that fell into the laps of their respective marketing departments—an opportunity that Poland Spring, for one, was criticized for botching. This week, McDonald&#8217;s was suddenly, bizarrely in the news in a big way, when a man named Charles Ramsey became a viral sensation. Ramsey is the neighbor who helped rescue three women who had been abducted and held captive for a decade in a home in downtown Cleveland. In interviews that have been shown on TV stations around the world—and viewed millions of times online—Ramsey mentioned that he was &#8220;eating my McDonald&#8217;s&#8221; when he heard screaming, leading him to save a woman trying<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79583&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Marketing</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/marketing-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Hot Pizza: So Popular Restaurants Will Try Almost Anything</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/06/hot-pizza-so-popular-restaurants-will-try-almost-anything/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/06/hot-pizza-so-popular-restaurants-will-try-almost-anything/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 14:59:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Emerging Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blaze Pizza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chili's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chipotle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Domino’s]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fast Casual]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gen Y]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honest Pizza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Little Caesars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[millennials]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Jersey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Papa Murphy's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pizza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pizza Hut]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Webcam]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79315</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Pizza is popping up in more (and sometimes unusual) places, and it&#8217;s being prepared and marketed in new (and sometimes unusual) ways. Why is pizza so hot all of a sudden? Pizza has been popular for decades, of course. But lately, consumers&#8216; love for pizza has inched up a few degrees. Recent consumer research revealed that 41% of Americans now eat pizza at least once a week, up from just 26% a few years back. A post at QSRWeb.com (short for Quick Service Restaurant) from Jeff Fromm, an advertising executive with a special focus on marketing to millennials, offers some insight as to why pizza is so beloved by today&#8217;s consumers—Gen Y consumers in particular. Pizza is not only quick, easy, and relatively cheap, it&#8217;s also shareable (this group is incredibly social, seen in social media and many other ways) and endlessly customizable since you can always mix up the toppings. Supermarket experts have pointed out that millennials never want to eat the same thing twice, and pizza is brilliant in that you can eat it day after day and always be having something new. So naturally, all sorts of restaurants are trying to new and innovative things to get the attention of pizza-craving consumers. Here are a few examples: More Transparency Last fall, a Domino&#8217;s makeover introduced what the chain calls &#8220;pizza theater&#8221; as a way to entertain customers picking up orders. Instead of orders being prepared somewhere mysteriously out of the line of sight of customers, cooks have been tossing and spreading dough right behind the pickup counter. The point isn&#8217;t merely to give people something to watch while waiting around, but to make the pizza-making process more transparent, so that customers can see how things work and feel the operation is professional and trustworthy. (MORE: Nothing to Hide: Why Restaurants Embrace the Open Kitchen) More recently, the chain launched Domino&#8217;s Live, a website that broadcasts workers making pizzas 12 hours per day, on a choice of five cameras, inside a Domino&#8217;s in the Salt Lake City area.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79315&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Food and Beverage Industry</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/food-and-beverage-industry/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/pizza.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">pizza</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Can Frozen-Food Companies Make TV Dinners Cool Again?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/26/can-frozen-food-companies-make-tv-dinners-cool-again/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/26/can-frozen-food-companies-make-tv-dinners-cool-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:45:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78463</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[American diners have been giving frozen food the cold shoulder lately. Aging boomers are put off by high sodium and calorie counts in many frozen dishes, while many young adults would rather stop by Subway, Chipotle or Domino&#8217;s than bother turning on an oven at all. But frozen foods are refusing to be relegated to the metaphorical back of the freezer of consumers’ minds. “According to proprietary research from the organizations, 98% of products in the frozen aisle are experiencing flat or declining sales in the U.S., across nearly all categories,” Advertising Age magazine says. Ad Age reports that a consortium of industry heavyweights is getting ready to throw $50 million in cold, hard cash at the problem. A huge advertising blitz will be launched later this year. A spokesperson from the American Frozen Food Institute tells NPR, &#8220;Frozen-food manufacturers are united to weigh in in a comprehensive fashion.&#8221; “Weigh in” might not be the best term to use, given that many people view frozen food as unhealthy. Our dining habits and preferences today are supposed to lean toward fresher, less-processed food. What we’re eating might not necessarily be better for us — Panera’s Chipotle Chicken on Artisan French Bread sandwich sounds innocuous, but it’s really an 830-calorie fat-and-salt bomb. But many consumers think they&#8217;re eating healthier, and that’s what counts when we go to the grocery store, sandwich shop, or drive-through. Increasingly, the frozen-food aisle doesn&#8217;t come across as particularly tasty or healthy. “I don’t think it’s particularly appealing merchandise,&#8221; says Bob Goldin, executive vice president at Technomic, a food-industry consulting firm. “There’s a perception among consumers that probably the quality doesn’t meet the standards of fresh prepared or restaurants.” What&#8217;s more, &#8220;there’s so much competition for the food dollar these days, there are other alternatives that are perceived to be more attractive than frozen food.” (MORE: Why We’re Wasting Billions on Gluten-Free Food) Analysts say categories that could be described as ingredients rather than dishes — frozen veggies, for instance — are holding their own. Frozen breakfast items are doing<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78463&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/200494066-001-e1366910904600.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/200494066-001-e1366910904600.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Young man eating TV dinner, mid section</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>Does Kmart&#8217;s Hilarious New Ad Acknowledge That Kmart Stores Are Hopeless?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/19/does-kmarts-hilarious-new-ad-acknowledge-that-kmart-stores-are-hopeless/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/19/does-kmarts-hilarious-new-ad-acknowledge-that-kmart-stores-are-hopeless/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:45:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Josh Sanburn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free shipping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kmart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[layaway]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[same-day shipping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sears]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shipping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Target]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Walmart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78046</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In just over a week, Kmart&#8217;s 30-second &#8220;Ship My Pants&#8221; spot &#8212; go ahead, say it quickly &#8212; has received close to 13 million views online. The viral hit should give the struggling retailer some much-needed buzz. It might also call attention to why some shoppers stopped going to Kmart. Let&#8217;s be honest: Kmart isn’t cool. In the pantheon of big-box general merchandise retailers, Walmart is the 600-pound gorilla, inexorable in its pursuit of efficiency and cheap prices. Target is sort of the hip one. And Kmart, well, it&#8217;s just kind of there, right? If you associate the Kmart brand with anything these days, it&#8217;s a kind of Martha Stewart-flavored aspirational respectability, or perhaps layaway, or bankruptcy court. That’s why the retailer’s irreverent “Ship My Pants” ad, released last week, is so surprising. Not because of the faux-scatological content per se &#8212; though that did raise a few eyebrows &#8211; but because this somewhat edgy and definitely funny ad came from such a tired snooze of a retail brand. (MORE: How Far Can the Mighty Apple Fall?) The commercial highlights the store’s Ship to Home service, which Kmart launched a year ago, offering customers free delivery on any item they can’t find in stores. Andrew Stein, Kmart&#8217;s vice president and chief marketing officer, says the company wasn&#8217;t trying to make a viral ad. The goal was to just create a funny, compelling commercial that promoted the service. About a month ago, the “Ship My Pants” ad ran in a town hall meeting of Kmart employees. Stein says everyone loved it. “The outpouring of affection, the goodwill and the laughter that we got internally told us we really had something here,” he says. The video had been uploaded to Stein’s personal YouTube page, and the only way to view it was through the specific url, which was getting passed around from employee to employee following the town hall. The next morning, Stein discovered the video had been viewed 2,500 times on his page. Since then, it’s had about 13 million views on YouTube and has<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78046&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/retail-big-companies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/kmart.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/kmart.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/kmart.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Kmart</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/d88247e41871fc555c4a2747167091d2?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jsanburn</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Latest Unavoidable Fast-Food Buzzwords: The Rise of Crazy, Premium, Snacks</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/11/latest-unavoidable-fast-food-buzz-words-the-rise-of-crazy-premium-snacks/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/11/latest-unavoidable-fast-food-buzz-words-the-rise-of-crazy-premium-snacks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:43:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arby's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Burger King]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crazy Cheesy Pizza Crust]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extreme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fast food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KFC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McDonalds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[menu items]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[menus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pizza Hut]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[premium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[quick service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snacks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sonic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taco Bell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yum brands]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77442</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You&#8217;re not crazy. The words premium and snack really are popping up on chain-restaurant menus everywhere. Crazy is making some appearances too. Why are these the latest restaurant buzzwords? And why are they supposed to resonate with customers? Let&#8217;s take a look. Crazy Sensible food is boring. Fast-food fans — young ones especially — supposedly want something different, something a little, well, crazy. A Fortune post noted that crazy and similar terms have accordingly been showing up on chain-restaurant menus. Most obviously, there&#8217;s Pizza Hut’s new Crazy Cheesy Crust Pizza, which features 16 dough pockets stuffed with extra cheese around the pizza — a design that indeed seems pretty crazy. Why has crazy become the menu term du jour? &#8220;What&#8217;s happening is that the American palate has moved from boring to bold,&#8221; Nancy Brown, a partner at branding firm CBX, told Fortune. &#8220;I think crazy is what extreme was because extreme has kind of run its course.&#8221; (MORE: Shamrock-Shake Alert! Why We Can&#8217;t Resist Those Limited-Time Offers) One of the fast-food players known for being &#8220;extreme&#8221; a few years back was Pizza Hut&#8217;s sister at Yum Brands, Taco Bell. The chain began offering items like the Extreme Cheese and Beef Quesadilla in the late ’00s. It has since moved on to menu offerings that are &#8220;crazy,&#8221; or more precisely &#8220;loco,&#8221; with last year&#8217;s introduction of the highly successful Doritos Locos Taco. Premium A 2011 Technomic report found that premium was the most persuasive menu term for getting customers to order an item with beef; 28% of surveyed consumers said they&#8217;d be more likely to order beef with the word premium, and they&#8217;d be willing to pay a 5% premium for their premium order. Well, surprise, surprise, a study conducted by Mintel for BurgerBusiness last year reported that usage of the word premium on restaurant-chain menus has soared. By its count, there were 138 &#8220;premium&#8221; offerings on chain menus last year, compared with just 69 in 2007. The word premium &#8220;connotes high quality or high price without committing to being either,&#8221; BurgerBusiness noted.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77442&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Food and Beverage Industry</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/food-and-beverage-industry/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<item>
		<title>We&#8217;re #1! Toyota and Ford Bicker About Who Has the World&#8217;s Best-Selling Car</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/11/were-1-toyota-and-ford-bicker-about-who-has-the-worlds-best-selling-car/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/11/were-1-toyota-and-ford-bicker-about-who-has-the-worlds-best-selling-car/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:45:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Autos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[F-series]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ford F-150]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ford Fiesta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ford Focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toyota]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toyota Camry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[toyota corolla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trucks]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77421</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s a battle for bragging rights, with two automakers saying they each had the world&#8217;s best-selling car model last year. Can they both be right? Ford hasn&#8217;t been shy about its ambitions to steal the World&#8217;s Best-Selling Car title away from Toyota, whose Corolla usually holds the crown. After the sales totals came in for the first half of 2012, Ford boasted that its Focus was the top seller, with 489,616 units worldwide over the six-month span. &#8220;The nearest competitor, Toyota Corolla, sold 462,187,&#8221; a Ford press release stated. And since the sales tallies for all of 2012 came in recently, Ford has been trumpeting the fact that the Focus is &#8220;officially the world’s best-selling vehicle.&#8221; But is that, in fact, a fact? Using R.L. Polk &#38; Co. data, Ford stated that a total of 1,020,410 Focuses were sold worldwide in 2012. The Toyota Corolla seemingly came in a distant second place, with 872,774 cars sold. (MORE: The Trouble Lurking on Walmart&#8217;s Empty Shelves) But the actual wording Ford used in its announcement was that the Focus was the &#8220;best-selling vehicle nameplate in the world&#8221; (our emphasis) last year. That&#8217;s not the same as being the clear-cut best-selling vehicle. As Reuters reported, Toyota insists that the Corolla is still the overall sales champ. Once all versions and alternate names of the Corolla are included, there were really 1.2 million &#8220;Corolla&#8221; models sold in 2012. &#8220;Toyota still sees the Corolla as the world&#8217;s most popular car,&#8221; Toyota spokesperson Ryo Saka stated. This is hardly the first time that competing automakers have looked at the same data and drawn very different (and very obviously biased) conclusions. According to Automotive News, several automakers are currently simultaneously playing with the numbers in order claim that their trucks have the best fuel economy and/or the most towing capacity. The results &#8212; and the claims &#8212; all depend on how they slice the data. Regardless of whether the Focus truly earns the World&#8217;s Best-Selling Car title, Ford comes away from 2012 with legitimate bragging rights. Focus<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77421&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Autos</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/autos-companies-industries/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/137981363.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/137981363.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/137981363.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">General Views Ahead Of Domestic Vehicle Sales Figures</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<item>
		<title>In New Ad, McDonald&#8217;s Compares Loving Big Macs with Mental Illness</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/09/in-new-ad-mcdonalds-compares-loving-big-macs-with-mental-illness/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/09/in-new-ad-mcdonalds-compares-loving-big-macs-with-mental-illness/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:22:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fast food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[irony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McDonalds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mental illness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[millennials]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77106</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How&#8217;s this for an &#8220;edgy&#8221; new ad: In a poster displayed on a subway, a woman is shown bowing her head and holding a hand over her face in shame. Next to her are the words &#8220;You&#8217;re Not Alone. Millions of people love the Big Mac.&#8221; A toll-free phone number is also shown on the poster, with the idea that anyone &#8220;suffering&#8221; from problems like this poor woman can call the number for help. Turns out the number (800-244-6227) connects you to a McDonald&#8217;s corporate line. [UPDATE: A representative for McDonald's reached out to us and said that the ad was not approved of by McDonald's. A statement credited to McDonald's spokesperson Nicole DiNoia said the following: "A local print ad displayed on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) was recently brought to our attention. We can confirm this ad was not approved by McDonald’s. And, as soon as we learned about it, we asked that it be taken down immediately. We have an approval process in place, with our marketing and advertising agencies, to ensure that all advertising content is consistent with our brand values. Regrettably, in this incident, that process was not followed. We sincerely apologize for this error.”] Boston Magazine noted that the ad has shown up on the Orange line of Boston&#8217;s T subway system. Unsurprisingly, some people say the ad is in bad taste. Notably, David Yamada, who hosts a blog for the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. After seeing the poster, which looks like an ad for a crisis center only with different words, Yamada wrote that McDonald&#8217;s has hit &#8220;a new low&#8221; by &#8220;making fun of public service ads for people who may need mental health counseling&#8221;: The ad writers and executives in McDonald’s high-priced marketing operation missed the boat badly on this one. I’m sorry, but the ad is just too close to the real thing to be funny. What is funny (sorta) is that the ad essentially admits—with wink-wink irony—that there&#8217;s something shameful, embarrassing, awkward, or painful<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77106&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Advertising</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/marketing-2/advertising-marketing/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/burger1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Burger</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<item>
		<title>Ben &amp; Jerry&#8217;s Free Cone Day Is Today, April 9 – And More Freebies Coming</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/09/ben-jerrys-free-cone-day-is-today-april-9-and-more-freebies-coming/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/09/ben-jerrys-free-cone-day-is-today-april-9-and-more-freebies-coming/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:02:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Odd Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[7-Eleven]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[7-Eleven Day]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ben & Jerry's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bowling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Free Comic Book Day]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Free Cone Day]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free ice cream]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Free Tea Day]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freebies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ice cream]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ice tea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slurpee]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77121</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Everybody loves ice cream. And everybody loves freebies. And free ice cream? That&#8217;s almost too good to be true. So consumers understandably get excited about Ben &#38; Jerry&#8217;s Free Cone Day, an annual event when just what you think happens: Participating Ben &#38; Jerry&#8217;s locations give away one free ice cream cone per customer. This year, Free Cone Day is Tuesday, April 9, as you may have already seen on Twitter (#FreeConeDay). Free Cone Day usually marks the kickoff to the warm-weather season for all sorts of freebies. Free Comic Book Day is always celebrated on the first Saturday in May—May 4 this year. Like it sounds, this is the day that comic book stores all over the country give away a select variety of free comics. Why are stores and comic book makers willing to hand over merchandise free of charge? The event draws in crowds of people, some of whom are young (or just immature) and impressionable, and who very well may turn into loyal customers for years. It turns out that Free Comic Book Day also tends to be a huge day for selling comic books, with loads of thankful, excited customers buying while picking up their freebies. A month later, the first Friday in June is traditionally National Doughnut Day, when Krispy Kreme and other chains dish out free donuts. That is, they usually give out free donuts; no official announcements have been made yet regarding National Doughnut Day 2013. (MORE: Giveaways Turn Tough Sales into Easy Sales) Likewise, 7-Eleven hasn&#8217;t officially announced &#8220;7-Eleven Day&#8221; for 2013, but in years past, the convenience store chain has given free 7.11-ounce Slurpees on 7/11 (July 11). As with Free Comic Book Day, the act of giving away free Slurpees seems to make customers only want more, and 7-Eleven Day tends to be a big day for selling Slurpees. More summer freebies to watch out for include the possibility of another Free Tea Day at McAlister&#8217;s Deli and free bowling in honor of National Bowling Day, which was held<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77121&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2013/04/09/ben-jerrys-free-cone-day-is-today-april-9-and-more-freebies-coming/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Saving</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-saving-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/benjerrys.png?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Ben &#38; Jerry&#039;s</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Southwest Airlines: We&#8217;re Not Really About Cheap Flights Anymore</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/26/southwest-airlines-were-not-really-about-cheap-flights-anymore/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/26/southwest-airlines-were-not-really-about-cheap-flights-anymore/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tourism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Transportation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[airfare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[airfarewatchdog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AirTran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CrankyFlier]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[low-fare airlines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Southwest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Southwest Airlines]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=75705</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The U.S.&#8217;s biggest &#8220;low fare&#8221; airline appears to be experiencing an identity crisis. In Southwest&#8217;s new ad campaign, there&#8217;s no silly humor and no mention of &#8220;bags fly free&#8221; or cheap flight prices. The message is that this is a different airline — one that longtime customers may feel is hard to recognize or even like. &#8220;The campaign is a departure in tonality for Southwest, and we hope it inspires our customers,&#8221; Southwest executive Bob Jordan said in a press release announcing its new commercial, which debuted during the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. &#8220;Southwest has changed a lot over the years, we keep getting better, and we want customers to see us in a new light.&#8221; The ad will come as &#8220;a shock&#8221; to TV viewers, according to the Chicago Business Journal, because of the disappearance of &#8220;all the silly, cartoonish aspects of its advertising.&#8221; The ad features no goofball humor, nor any messages about Southwest&#8217;s low fares or its value-laden &#8220;bags fly free&#8221; policies that tell the masses &#8220;you are now free to move about the country.&#8221; Instead, the commercial is filled with images of people diligently going about their jobs, as well as heartwarming clichés like “The American dream just doesn&#8217;t happen. It&#8217;s something you have to work for.&#8221; The image of Southwest as a plucky upstart taking on the industry giants is, in other words, totally gone. We&#8217;re left with the Southwest logo and a voice-over claiming its status as &#8220;America&#8217;s largest domestic airline.&#8221; (MORE: What Can Consumers Expect From the American–US Airways Merger? Nothing Good) Among travel insiders, the ad is being viewed as a sign of a possible &#8220;identity crisis&#8221; within Southwest. The CrankyFlier bashes the commercial, which is probably unsurprising given the name of the blog. &#8220;This ad is just pure &#8230; bleh,&#8221; the post states. &#8220;It says nothing to me. This could be for Southwest or any other legacy airline.&#8221; No song lyrics are audible during the ad, but the CrankyFlier&#8217;s Brett Snyder identifies the tune playing in the background and notes that<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=75705&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2013/03/26/southwest-airlines-were-not-really-about-cheap-flights-anymore/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Travel</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/travel-companies-industries/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/145508109.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/145508109.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/145508109.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Southwest Airlines passenger planes are</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Stealth Celebrity Endorsement: No Money Changing Hands, Just Free Burritos</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/21/stealth-celebrity-endorsement-no-money-changing-hands-just-free-burritos/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/21/stealth-celebrity-endorsement-no-money-changing-hands-just-free-burritos/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business of Sports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Abby Wambach]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[baseball]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bryce Harper]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[burritos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[celebrity endorsements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chipotle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freebies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Major League Baseball]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NBA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pro athletes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[schwag]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shwag]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[soccer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tony Hawk]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=75420</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s no mystery as to why companies give away swag during the Oscars to people in the movie business. The possibility that a celebrity will Tweet about the product or perhaps be photographed with it more than offsets the cost of giving goods away. The same concept explains why high-profile athletes are now welcome to eat free burritos for life. A Sports Business Daily story on the trend notes that in marketing circles, the practice of strategically giving away merchandise is known as &#8220;celebrity seeding.&#8221; Among pro athletes, the Chipotle fast-casual burrito chain is tops for freebies. Here&#8217;s how the scenario plays out: Chipotle waits for well-known people to express an affinity for the company&#8217;s food either privately or publicly, and then sends them a card that gives them a free burrito a day. The company asks for nothing in return for the favor, but many high-profile athletes have taken to social media to sing the company’s praises after receiving one. That&#8217;s exactly what USA soccer star Abby Wambach did last fall, Tweeting &#8220;Happiest day ever&#8221; after receiving her free-burritos-for-life card. Skateboarder Tony Hawk, the NBA&#8217;s Mario Chalmers and Drew Gooden, and pro lacrosse player Paul Rabil are among the other athletes who can flash a personalized Chipotle card in exchange for one free burrito daily until their final days. (MORE: Amazon Prime: Bigger, More Powerful, More Profitable Than Anyone Imagined) The latest big-time athlete to receive the free-burrito card is Washington Nationals All-Star outfielder Bryce Harper, who Tweeted this week words of thanks to Chipotle. &#8220;The best thing ever! I really appreciate it!&#8221; Harper&#8217;s message reads. That&#8217;s some endorsement for Chipotle. And it didn&#8217;t have to spend millions of dollars or deal with Harper&#8217;s agent or bother making a commercial or anything. All Chipotle had to do was send Harper a card, good for one free burrito daily. If Harper took advantage of the card twice a week, that&#8217;d amount to maybe $600 annually in free burritos. That&#8217;s retail. Chipotle&#8217;s actual costs are much less. In other words, this<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=75420&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Food and Beverage Industry</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/food-and-beverage-industry/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/138881906.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/138881906.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/138881906.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">T-Mobile And Google Music Host The Family Crest At Red Light Management Celebration</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Madness for Sale: Businesses Go for a Piece of NCAA &#8216;March Madness&#8217; Basketball Tournament</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/20/madness-for-sale-businesses-go-for-a-piece-of-ncaa-march-madness-basketball-tournament/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/20/madness-for-sale-businesses-go-for-a-piece-of-ncaa-march-madness-basketball-tournament/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business of Sports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[basketball]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[billboard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[burritos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[California Tortilla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Consumerist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Domino’s]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DVDs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freebies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gambling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hot dogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Little Caesars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[March Madness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[movies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NCAA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NCAA basketball]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Outback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Outback Steakhouse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pizza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pizza Hut]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[promotions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Redbox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tacos]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=75240</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s just no stopping the madness. From Hooters restaurants to businesses selling books for homeschooled children to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, everyone seems to be pursuing a marketing tie-in to March Madness, a.k.a. the NCAA basketball tournament. This week, the nation&#8217;s attention turns to the college basketball tourney—if not the actual games, at least to office pools. It&#8217;s a costly time for American businesses; by one estimate, the loss in productivity due to the tournament will run a total of $134 million just on Thursday and Friday. Any time an event is on the minds of millions of American consumers, there will surely be businesses seeking a piece of the action. Here are some examples: The Bracket Racket The NCAA&#8217;s bracket format lends itself naturally to a series of face-to-face vote-offs on the Internet. Just substitute products, or movies, or even regional hot dogs and sausages, and wah-la! You&#8217;ve got a customized bracket that (hopefully) will be a magnet for clicks on your site, as viewers vote and check in—and probably, reveal lots of personal data that&#8217;ll help your marketing efforts further—throughout the course of the tournament. (MORE: March Madness Will Cost Businesses $134 Million. Why Aren&#8217;t Employers Concerned?) The Consumerist&#8217;s &#8220;Worst Company in America&#8221; tournament has been taking place for years, but it&#8217;s hardly the only one. Last year, in meta joke fashion, the Atlantic put together a bracket of brackets, in which Internet viewers voted for their favorite oddball brackets, from Worst Sci-Fi movie to Jezebel&#8217;s Sex vs. Chocolate showdown (the missionary position won, beating out brownies in the final), and beyond. This year, among the many brackets seeking your attention are some fairly straightforward ones, like the battle for the best sitcom at Vulture.com and the best music single of the past year at Billboard.com. Redbox, meanwhile, has a Movie Matchup, and picking winners yields points that can be used for free movie rentals. There are also curiously specific vote-offs, like the top player in Houston Rockets history at Bleacher Report and the Cooking<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=75240&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why the Better Business Bureau Should Give Itself a Bad Grade</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/19/why-the-better-business-bureau-should-give-itself-a-bad-grade/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/19/why-the-better-business-bureau-should-give-itself-a-bad-grade/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[20/20]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BBB]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BBB Southland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Better Business Bureau]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scandal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yelp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=74711</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week, the Better Business Bureau announced that it had officially expelled one of its local affiliates, the BBB of Southland, which served the greater Los Angeles area. The expulsion stems back to a pay-to-play scandal unearthed in 2010 by the ABC News show 20/20. The investigation showed extortion-type practices applied to local businesses: Those that paid annual dues to the BBB were handed accreditation and A ratings, while those that didn&#8217;t play along were given subpar grades, even if they hadn&#8217;t received complaints. Most disturbingly, investigators were able to get accreditation and an A- grade for a fake, totally nonexistent business after paying a $425 fee to the local BBB. (The name of the dummy business was Hamas—yep, the same as the Middle Eastern terrorist organization.) Katherine Hutt, a spokesperson for the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which oversees the 113 independently operated local BBBs around North America, characterized the Southland affiliate scandal as &#8220;an isolated situation.&#8221; Getting rid of the the rogue branch just proves that the BBB is &#8220;the leader in advancing marketplace trust between businesses and consumers,&#8221; said Carrie A. Hurt, president and CEO of the national Council of BBBs, in a press release. “We hold businesses to high standards for honesty, transparency, fairness and integrity, and we hold ourselves to those same standards.&#8221; It&#8217;s certainly good that the Southland branch is no longer associated with the BBB. But the fact that it took more than two years to expel a branch that was basically engaged in open extortion is cause for concern. What&#8217;s more, a closer look at the BBB shows what appear to be built-in conflicts of interest throughout the organization. At the very least, the BBB certainly isn&#8217;t what many consumers think it is &#8212; some quasi-government combination of consumer advocate, watchdog, and complaint bureau. And even after jettisoning the bad apple in southern California, the BBB hardly seems fair and transparent. What with the rise of online forums and user review sites like Yelp and Angie&#8217;s List, the services provided by the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=74711&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Shamrock Shake Alert: Why We So Love Those Limited-Time Offers</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/11/shamrock-shake-alert-why-we-so-love-those-limited-time-offers/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/11/shamrock-shake-alert-why-we-so-love-those-limited-time-offers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fast food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Halloween]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[limited-time offer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LTO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McDonalds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McRib]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pumpkin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seasonal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shamrock Shake]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Starbucks]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=74114</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the fast food world, the &#8220;limited-time offer&#8221; is a remarkably powerful thing. The influx of fish on fast food menus during Lent tends to correspond with an influx of seasonal customers. Last autumn, Starbucks customers seemed ready to riot when news broke that the coffee chain was running out of pumpkin spice lattes, a favorite appearing every fall. The main appeal of the McRib appears to be that it isn&#8217;t available all the time, at all McDonald&#8217;s locations. For the most part, fast food limited-time offers, or LTOs, are timed to coincide with a holiday or season. St. Patrick&#8217;s Day, March Madness, baseball season, Father&#8217;s Day—they&#8217;ll all see their share of &#8220;special&#8221; food and drink items. They&#8217;re obvious ploys to juice sales, and more and more of them pop up every year for a simple reason: They work. The Wall Street Journal recently noted that it&#8217;s not merely the &#8220;limited time&#8221; quality that attracts diners. Sure, we&#8217;re motivated by the feeling that we don&#8217;t want to miss out on something that won&#8217;t be around forever. But there&#8217;s often more to it than that. Many LTOs have become traditions that consumers eagerly anticipate with the arrival of every season and holiday, right alongside Halloween decorations and Black Friday sales. It&#8217;s almost as if it wouldn&#8217;t really be autumn if pumpkin-flavored coffee, pancakes, and shakes failed to appear on chain restaurant menus. About the same time of year that Christmas music takes over every mall, consumers are reliably game to want peppermint and chocolate twists added to almost anything edible. (MORE: Top 10 Iconic Junk Foods) Add green food coloring to whatever, and we&#8217;ll buy it around St. Patrick&#8217;s. OK, so maybe that&#8217;s an exaggeration. But there is something almost Pavlovian about the consumer response to LTOs, especially ones that announce the arrival of a season and that trigger fond memories. In fact, fast food establishments think very carefully about LTOs. They plan menu item rollouts for months, sometimes years, in order to get it just right with consumers. The quick-service<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=74114&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link>
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		<title>Why Some Restaurants Hate Restaurant Week</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/02/28/why-some-restaurants-hate-restaurant-week/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/02/28/why-some-restaurants-hate-restaurant-week/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tourism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alex Seidel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Atlantic City]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Denver]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[diners]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eating out]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fruition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ocean County]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[restaurant deals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Restaurant Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[toledo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=73255</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Restaurant Week deals promise increased foot traffic during what&#8217;s normally a slow time of year, as well as ample exposure to new customers. Could Restaurant Week promotions also be bad for business? Every year at around this time, it&#8217;s peak season for Restaurant Week, when restaurants in cities ranging from Atlantic City to Toledo offer special set-course pricing deals for lunch and dinner. California&#8216;s Orange County Restaurant Week, for example, stretches through March 2, with restaurants rolling out special menus and flat $20 lunches and $30 to $40 dinners. More than 100 restaurants are participating. And yet, they&#8217;re not necessarily joining in to turn a profit this week, as an OC Register article pointed out: “We’re not going to do this for free, but we’re not making anything on it, either,” said Cathy Pavlos, chef-owner of Lucca in Irvine. “The whole point is to show the public what we can do. “It’s show time.” (MORE: Why Restaurants Have Been Holding Back on Hiking Menu Prices) For some restaurants, though, the prospect of drawing in new customers isn&#8217;t enough to justify participating in Restaurant Week promotions. To play along, restaurants typically must pay fees to local tourism bureaus. For Restaurant Weeks in places such as Atlantic City and Ocean County, fees run around $500. In Denver, restaurants fork over $350 to $450, plus an additional $660 if they want to be included in advertising. According to the Denver Post, the fees are but one of many reasons several of the city&#8217;s top restaurants aren&#8217;t bothering with a Restaurant Week deal this year. Johnny Ballen, a co-owner of The Squeaky Bean, told the paper that he is skeptical that cheap Restaurant Week deals boost business in the long run. &#8220;They say it&#8217;s all about getting people out to restaurants to try them, but I don&#8217;t really think it creates return business,&#8221; he said. In fact, some restaurant owners think that Restaurant Week crowds can annoy their best customers. &#8220;Quite honestly, we lost money last year,&#8221; Frank Bonanno told the Denver Post, explaining<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=73255&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Food and Beverage Industry</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/food-and-beverage-industry/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/88624432.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">A table at a restaurant</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Luxury Wheels, Honda Price: New Breed of Upscale Cars Selling for About $30,000</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/02/12/luxury-wheels-honda-price-new-breed-of-upscale-cars-selling-for-about-30000/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/02/12/luxury-wheels-honda-price-new-breed-of-upscale-cars-selling-for-about-30000/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:00:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Autos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[affordable luxury]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Audi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Audi A3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BMW]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BMW 320i]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cadillac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cadillac ATS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kate Upton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[luxury]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mercedes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mercedes CLA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rich]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=70325</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Luxury automakers like Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac would hate for their cars to be described as merely &#8220;average.&#8221; Yet new models from these and other upscale auto manufacturers are average in a way that&#8217;s undeniably appealing to consumers: they all have starting prices at around $30,000. The average price paid for a new car is $30,803, according to Edmunds. Perhaps it&#8217;s no coincidence then that $30,000 is being called the new &#8220;sweet spot&#8221; for introductory-model luxury cars. It&#8217;s the price point at which high-end automakers can attract buyers of fairly average means. Think of this as the equivalent of luxury designers launching affordable fashion lines aimed at the aspirational masses. While several automakers are pushing luxury-within-reach cars, Mercedes is getting the most attention with its new CLA line of vehicles. The line starts at just under $30,000 — previously unheard of for Mercedes — and is expected to attract younger buyers especially. In addition to the price, the Super Bowl commercial featuring Kate Upton probably had some role in boosting interest in the new Mercedes series. What&#8217;s particularly interesting is that Mercedes is especially targeting the average — rather than elite — consumer: &#8216;They could eat into the mass market,&#8217; IHS Automotive analyst Rebecca Lindland said to Automotive News. &#8216;A $30,000 Mercedes — and they will cap the car at $35,000 — is an incredibly competitive price point, even against the higher-end Honda Accord.&#8217; (MORE: Not Your Grandpa&#8217;s Mercedes: Luxury Carmakers Aim for Younger, Less Rich Clientele) BMW, meanwhile, has introduced the 320i sedan with a base sticker price of $33,445 — $4,300 less than the previous low price for a 3-series vehicle. While Car and Driver is a fan of the 320i, the editors took note that the new car&#8217;s 180-horsepower engine is a downgrade from the 240-horsepower 328i: The loss of 60 horsepower isn’t felt during daily commutes, but when pushed harder, there is an undeniable performance difference. There are a few other sacrifices as well: The M Sport package, for those whose interests are in show rather<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=70325&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Autos</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/autos-companies-industries/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>In the Fast Food World, Is Fish the New Chicken?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/02/08/in-the-fast-food-world-is-fish-the-new-chicken/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/02/08/in-the-fast-food-world-is-fish-the-new-chicken/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:45:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carl's Jr.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dining Out]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fast food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fish]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fish McBites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fish sandwich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hardee's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McDonalds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nina Agdal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[restaurants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[snacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snacks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[swimsuit model]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wendy's]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=69932</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[McDonald&#039;s and Carl&#8217;s Jr. are among the big fast food chains casting out new fish items as a way to reel in customers—especially during Lent, when many diners cut back on meat. In recent months, fast food establishments have demonstrated a taste for chicken. Poultry has reached a new level of popularity among fast food restaurants and diners alike because it&#8217;s a cheaper and healthier alternative to beef (or at least it&#8217;s perceived to be so). Chicken is also easily prepared in bite-size portions (nuggets, dippers, McBites, etc.), making it a perfect fit for the rising culture of on-the-go snacking. If one affordable, quick, and healthy (or at least healthier) snack proves to be a hit with customers, fast food restaurants are sure to see if similar offerings can succeed as well. That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re seeing a big push for fish lately. McDonald&#8217;s just announced that for the first time ever it will offer its new Fish McBites in kids&#8217; happy meals now through March &#8220;to coincide with Lent,&#8221; according to the Associated Press. (MORE: Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos Are Coming to Taco Bell!) It&#8217;s no coincidence that Fish McBites made their first appearance during a test run last February, also during Lent—the period leading up to Easter when Catholics traditionally don&#8217;t eat beef, poultry, or pork on Fridays. Moms in general have also said that they&#8217;d like to see more options (and healthier options) in kids&#8217; meals, and kids tend to like finger foods that can be dipped. So Fish McBites should be appealing on several fronts. McDonald&#8217;s isn&#8217;t the only quick-serve chain that&#8217;s chosen the early part of the calendar year to launch a big fish initiative. This week, Carl&#8217;s Jr. and Hardee&#8217;s introduced the Charbroiled Atlantic Cod Fish Sandwich at all locations around the country. The company announced the new sandwich was aimed directly at consumers tweaking their diets during Lent, and also folks concerned about eating more healthfully in the new year: “For almost half-a-century, whenever fast food customers wanted to get a fish sandwich<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=69932&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Food and Beverage Industry</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/food-and-beverage-industry/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/1500_mcd_1204.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">McDonald&#039;s Same Store Sales Up 7.1 Percent In January</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Why Some Brand Extensions Are Brilliant and Others Are Just Awkward</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/02/07/why-some-brand-extensions-are-brilliant-and-others-are-just-awkward/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/02/07/why-some-brand-extensions-are-brilliant-and-others-are-just-awkward/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:00:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sponsorships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brand extensions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chipotle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eva Longoria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Girl Scout cookies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[girl scouts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jersey Shore]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nestle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NyQuil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paula Deen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snooki]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sustainable]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Virgin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zippo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=69711</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When done correctly, a brand extension can be a huge hit, with the only complaint among consumers amounting to Why didn&#8217;t they do that sooner? Sometimes, though, the launch of a new product featuring a well-known brand is such a mismatch the reaction is more like What were they thinking? Brand extensions are all around us. Bloomberg News recently highlighted how the fast-casual burrito chain Chipotle—which prides itself on having fresh, sustainable, humane, organic, chemical-free ingredients—has started selling hoodies, T-shirts, and other clothes that are likewise sustainable. “We’re doing the same thing with clothing &#8212; it’s all about looking at the supply chain all the way from the beginning,” Scott Mackinlay Hahn, a designer involved in the Chipotle line, said. “We’ve been trying to blend fashion, style, and trend with sustainability.” (MORE: The 10 Best Brand Extensions &#8212; According to Me) Chipotle is also sponsoring festivals that feature organic local foods and craft brews, and it is looking into the possibility of expanding into a line of sustainable kitchen accessories, such as bowls and cutting boards made from reclaimed wood. Will consumers buy Chipotle-branded cutting boards and $65 organic-cotton hoodies? Maybe not in huge numbers. But at least it seems within the realm of possibility that some people would be into the idea. Not all brand extensions succeed in that department. AdWeek has published the results of its reader survey evaluating new brand extensions, some of which are largely deemed strange, perhaps even nonsensical and embarrassing. Edward M. Tauber, Ph.D., a research associate for the brand extension agency Parham Santana, provided three rules for successful brand extensions: “The brand should be a logical fit with the parent brand; the parent should give the extension an edge in the new category; and the extension should have the potential to generate significant sales.” (MORE: Thanks to Colin Kaepernick, 49ers Won the Super Bowl for Team Merchandise Sales) Indeed, the winners named by Adweek readers were extensions that seem very natural for the brands invovled. Nestle and Girl Scout Cookies are both known<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=69711&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Marketing</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/marketing-2/</primary_category_link>
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