Google, Inc.

SEATTLE — Banana Republic and Google Offers, a coupon incentive program, are joining with Starbucks and Opportunity Finance Network to support the Create Jobs for USA program.

The pair, which are the first businesses to join Starbucks in the initiative, will run special promotions and make donations in support of the program that is designed to raise money to put Americans back to work.

Why has Google arguably become the most popular advertising platform on the planet, attracting a whopping $36.5 billion in ad spending in 2011?  And why has Facebook, with an expected IPO valuation of around $100 billion, become such a juggernaut in digital marketing?

The short answer is both Internet platforms combine huge audiences and some capacity to understand individual preferences (based on online behavior and conversation) in order to help brands engage the right consumers with more relevant advertising content and dialogues. 

Retailers should expect online purchases to become a bigger piece of retail sales, particularly in the key fourth-quarter period, where they could soon represent as much as 20% of holiday sales, according to Sucharita Mulpuru, VP and principal analyst, Forrester Research, and a leading expert on e-commerce and trends in the online shopping space.

“The pie for bricks-and-mortar retail is shrinking,” Mulpuru said during a presentation at the National Retail Federation’s 101st Annual Convention & EXPO in New York City.

How much is a brand worth? If the brand in question happens to be Walmart, the answer is an eye-popping $139 billion, according to Interbrand Design Forum’s ranking of the top 50 U.S. retail brands by brand value. The study calculates the financial net worth of retail brands based on three metrics: the brand’s financial performance, the role the brand plays in driving consumer selection, and the ability of the brand to secure the delivery of expected future earnings.

Is it any wonder that online giants Google and Amazon are both reportedly planning to test the waters with physical stores? Certainly not when you look at some of the retail stats from Apple’s amazing first quarter (ended Dec. 31, 2011). The company had record revenues of $46.3 billion, and its stores continue to astound.

Consider:

Despite considerable efforts by Walmart in recent years to improve its reputation, a recent Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient poll shows the company has considerable room for improvement.

The study, now in its 13th year, surveyed 17,500 consumers about their perceptions of the 60 most visible companies in America. Not surprisingly, a fair number of those were major national retailers who have become household names. Walmart ranked 41st overall on the list of 60 companies and 10 other retailers were ranked ahead of Walmart.

Target was ranked 27th on the 2012 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient study behind five notable retailers and in roughly the same position with the same score as the prior year, the market research firm announced on Monday.

By Steven Kramer, [email protected]

Sporting a physical design identical to the iPhone 4 and a total lack of expected features, initial reactions to the iPhone 4S were that it hardly seemed capable of living up to Apple’s claim as “the most amazing iPhone yet”.