News

Jewel joined for the debut of the Swiffer Sweep and Trap, which features soft rotating beater blades that are designed to scoop up large particles into a removable dirt bin for quick disposal.

The singer-songwriter led the debut — which took place in New York at the kid-oriented venue Make Meaning — with a live performance of the new "Clean-Up Song." Her acoustic performance is available for free download on the Swiffer Facebook page at Facebook.com/Swiffer.    

Sam's Club has named David Badeen as VP health care. Badeen will be responsible for pharmacy, OTC, optical and hearing centers, as well as third party contracting and pricing. In this new role, he will report directly to Jill Turner-Mitchael, SVP health and wellness.

Jack Link’s plans to purchase Unilever’s meat snacks business, primarily sold under the BiFi brand (Germany, Benelux, Austria and Switzerland) and the Peperami brand (UK and Ireland). The sale is expected to close by the end of March.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction, subject to customary closing conditions, also includes the manufacturing facility in Ansbach, Germany.

PCMS, a supplier of software and IT consulting services, has named retail technology executive Andrew Winans as CEO of its Americas operation.
 

Overstock.com has been named the 2013 Compuware Best of the Web Gold award winner in the U.S. Retail Product Order Transaction category and the Bronze award winner in the U.S. Retail Last Mile category.

The annual Compuware Best of the Web awards honors the top performing mobile and websites. The awards measure home page and key user transactions based on average response time, availability and consistency of websites across five U.S. industries (i.e. retail, banking, brokerage, insurance and travel) based on analysis throughout 2013.

The Coca-Cola Company is preparing to make changes to its board. Former ambassador Donald F. McHenry and Swedish businessman Jacob Wallenberg will not stand for re-election to the board at the company’s annual meeting of shareowners in April.

“Ongoing investigation.” “Forensics and law enforcement continue to investigate.” For now, it is a bit too early to write the “Lessons Learned” piece about the Target/Neiman Marcus/Michaels data breach incident. But there are a few things that were known before these latest payment card/database breaches occurred and should be put into context in light of what we are currently investigating.

Target has been ramping up digital efforts for a few years now, but its Digital Vendor Marketing (DVM) team is putting the retailer on the mobile games map.

Target sees mobile games as an opportunity to directly reach customers and showcase the brands and vendors on its store shelves.

“We’re really focused on creating great games for guests that are simple, yet challenging enough to make you want to play again and again,” says Dawn Block, who oversees the DVM team as a VP of Target.com and mobile.

Facebook has reached an agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a cross-platform mobile messaging company, for a total of approximately $16 billion, including $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. The agreement also provides for an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest during four years subsequent to closing.

Banana Republic will unveil an omnichannel marketing campaign called “True Outfitters” in March 2014.

Styled by Jessica Diehl and shot by Mikael Jansson, the campaign was developed with Laird+Partners, Banana Republic's advertising agency. The campaign will appear in March and April publications, supplemented by outdoor, online and direct mail. Digital portions include a dedicated website and a special YouTube event on March 2.