Brand

Toyota's advertising slogan is "Moving Forward." But the company's U.S.-based executives keep moving out. James D. Farley, head of Toyota's Lexus division and a driving force behind the popular Scion brand, has left to run Ford Motor Co.'s global marketing operation, Ford said yesterday. He is the third high-level executive to leave Toyota's North American business since August. Last month, James E. Press, Toyota's top U.S. executive and former head of Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., quit to take a job at Chrysler, which earlier had hired Deborah Wahl Meyer, then head of marketing for Lexus, Toyota's luxury brand.

McCormick & Co.'s pre-filled spice and seasoning grinders have proved so popular with consumers that the Sparks spice maker has sold enough in four years to put one in more than half of American households. That's $63.5 million in sales - enough that when McCormick management noticed one of its suppliers selling what they considered a knockoff earlier this year, they didn't like it. Their request to the supplier to stop was rejected, according to legal papers. The dispute landed in federal court this week in a lawsuit in which McCormick accuses Weatherchem Corp.

Anyone who has ever tried to win an online contest could learn something from Adrian Piccardi. Piccardi, a 20-year-old freelance movie editor, has netted $23,000 in the past eight months by taking first place in three best-video competitions, campaigning by giving away beer and reaching out to more than 100,000 "friends" on MySpace for votes. He is a marketer's dream. By going to extraordinary lengths to persuade people to cast ballots in online contests, Piccardi has sent hundreds, even thousands, of users to Web sites that are trying to sell something.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Earvin "Magic" Johnson used to dominate the basketball court. Now, a team of restaurant developers is helping him own the food court, too. Sodexho USA's Retail Brand Group, an Allentown subsidiary of the Gaithersburg-based food services giant, is working with hoops legend Johnson to develop three restaurant concepts through his Magic John Enterprises that will trade on Johnson's sports and business success. Plans call for a sports bar, a sandwich shop and a Magic Johnson Marketplace food court, brand group officials said this week.

MILWAUKEE -- As baby boomers become more interested in hip and knee replacements than motorcycles, Harley-Davidson Inc. might feel their pain. Even as it comes off the most profitable year in its history, the Milwaukee maker of the world's most famous motorcycles has challenges on several fronts: The graying of its prime audience. The median age for a Harley buyer is 47, compared with 38 for other motorcycle companies. Increased manufacturing costs. Harley is gearing up for labor contract talks in Milwaukee and Kansas City, Mo., after weathering a short but costly strike at its largest assembly plant in York, Pa. Some union members say the spirit of cooperation that once existed between labor and management is broken.

Shoppers scouring for good buys at bargain magnet C-Mart can see the changes on the sales floor. Workers replaced handwritten price tags with bar-coded tickets. Computerized machines are in, while old-fashioned cash registers are out. By January, with a click of a mouse, customers should be able buy discount designer clothes and furniture now found only at C-Mart's Joppatowne and Landover stores. C-Mart's new owners want to build the company into a national retailer. That is a challenging proposition: trying to balance the roots of this paper-and-pencil enterprise against ambitious goals to become a big chain.

Another company has jumped on the bandwagon.com.KnowledgeLink Interactive Inc., a Linthicum-based company that helps businesses search for and retrieve news articles and other documents electronically, said yesterday that it is changing its name -- effective immediately -- to Powerize.com.The switch is the latest example of a national trend in corporate nomenclature, the addition of ".com" to company names. The suffix originally appeared at the end of corporate World Wide Web site addresses.

STOUGHTON, Mass. -- Reebok International Ltd., the third-largest U.S. maker of athletic shoes, said yesterday that Carl Yankowski, president and chief executive officer of the Reebok brand, quit to become chief executive of an unidentified company.Reebok International Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paul Fireman will assume Yankowski's duties. Yankowski, 51, joined Reebok 14 months ago from Sony Corp. His resignation is effective immediately.Yankowski was named in August 1998 to oversee licensing, sales, marketing and advertising of Reebok-brand items, as well as development of shoes and clothing.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Here at the Final Four, the scary thought is that the Duke Blue Devils are unbeatable. The scarier thought is that they might be even more unbeatable next season.Think Gary Williams is depressed now? How would he feel if Maryland lost Steve Francis to the NBA and Duke kept Elton Brand and William Avery?No player has left Duke before completing his four years of eligibility. And even if Brand and/or Avery departed after their sophomore years, the Blue Devils would be loaded.

LEVI STRAUSS & Co. announced last week that it would close half of its manufacturing plants in the United States and Canada and lay off 5,900 employees -- 30 percent of its North American work force -- as it shifts more production to overseas contractors.The fabled jeans maker was reacting to a sales falloff -- down 13 percent last year -- as younger consumers abandoned their classic 501s for trendier styles from designers such as Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger or lower priced versions from retailers like Target and J. C. Penney.

General Motors Co.'s deal to sell Saturn to the Penske Automotive Group has fallen through, forcing the automaker to shutter the brand altogether. The sale had been expected to be completed as soon as this week. "Penske Automotive Group ... has decided to terminate discussions with General Motors to acquire Saturn," GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said in a statement. As a result, "we will be winding down the Saturn brand and dealership network." The news is a blow to GM, which had made selling three of its brands, along with shutting Pontiac, a key component of its post-bankruptcy restructuring efforts.

On September 5, 2009, MARGARET (Peg) MARTIN (nee Dowling); beloved wife of the late Jack R. Martin and devoted mother of the late Ane R. Stone, and survived by her daughter Patricia M. Brand and her husband David; dear grandmother of Michael Stone, Heather Stone Lang and her husband Rocky, David Brand, Jr., Meridith Brand, and Robin Brand O'Hara and her husband John; loving great-grandmother of Ellie Rodgers, Halle Stone, and Jack O'Hara. Friends are invited to visit with the family on Thursday from 10:30 to 11 AM at the Oakcrest Village Chapel, 8820 Walther Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21234.

A new challenger has entered the sneaker arena and with the endorsement of several high-profile athletes and one rapper, Protege hopes to provide an affordable alternative to the big-name shoe brands. On Saturday at the Kmart on Wabash Avenue in Northwest Baltimore, about 500 people were on hand to meet New York Knicks forward Al Harrington and his guest, rapper Fat Joe, at the Protege Basketball Block Party. Harrington, who helped develop the shoe line, is one of the first athletes to sign with Protege.

Hospitals, insurers unveil price plans As consumers and employers struggle with soaring health costs, hospitals and insurers unveiled sharply contrasting proposals for hospital price increases Wednesday before the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. Hospitals proposed an average increase of 3.84 percent for the year beginning July 1 while insurers want 0.8 percent. There is always a gap between the two sides' proposals, "but rarely one of this magnitude," said Robert Murray, the commission's executive director.

NASCAR settles suit with former official auto racing NASCAR has settled a $225 million lawsuit filed by a former official who said she was subjected to racial discrimination and sexual harassment during her two-plus years working for the stock-car organization, the Associated Press has learned. The suit was settled during a Dec. 3 mediation held in New York between Mauricia Grant and NASCAR. Settlement terms were confidential. "We're glad to have the case settled on mutually acceptable terms," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said yesterday.

At the Towson Farmers Market, there was one thing cooler than the cucumbers. That would be Baltimore County insurance agent Ted Hawrylak. What you see is what you get with this 51-year-old Catonsville resident. "My style and my attitude are similar; laid back and casual, easy to get along with." Age: 51 Residence: Catonsville Job : Insurance agent at the Towson New York Life office Self-described style : "Bold yet plain. Conservative, yet edgy." The look : Tommy Bahama lime green shirt.

John Ayodele of Nigeria recently became the proud owner of a used Hummer. He went through his daughter, a grad student living in Maryland, to buy it from a Perry Hall plumber for $24,500. Ayodele, an engineering executive, has practical reasons for buying and shipping across the Atlantic a vehicle seen by many as an eco-villain. Nigeria's potholes are like lunar craters. And the truck could almost certainly plow through most log roadblocks laid out by highway bandits. Too bad for Hummer there aren't more highwaymen out there.

John McCain once had the most powerful brand in American politics. He was often called the country's most popular politician and widely admired for his independent streak. It wasn't too many years ago that "maverick" was the cliche of choice in describing him. But that term didn't even make the list this year when voters were asked by the Pew Research Center to sum up McCain in a single word. "Old" got the most mentions, followed by "honest," "experienced," "patriot," "conservative" and a dozen more.

Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services, which provides pipeline infrastructure and building materials for the construction industry, is moving an operations center that will employ about 100 workers from Beltsville to a redeveloped warehouse in Southeast Baltimore. Construction is to start at the Holabird Industrial Park on Monday to redevelop the 15-acre site of the former Lesaffre Yeast Corp. manufacturing plant, which closed in late 2005. Principals of Baltimore brokerage firm Corridor Reznick LLC acquired the property for $2 million in December 2006 and have been doing environmental cleanup and marketing, Michael B. Glick, chairman of Corridor Reznick LLC, said yesterday.

General Electric is planning to sell its appliance division, one of the oldest businesses in the conglomerate's 120-year history, people briefed on the proposal said yesterday. A sale of the unit, which makes refrigerators, microwaves and washer-dryers among other items, could fetch at least $5 billion, these people said. GE and its investment bank, Goldman Sachs, have been laying the groundwork for an auction over the last few weeks. The sale would also mark the end of a brand of household products that made General Electric a fixture in American homes over the last century.