Trends

Starbucks gets bookishIf Barnes & Noble can sell coffee, it stands to reason Starbucks can sell books. And that’s just what chairman Howard Schultz aims to do by the end of the year. While short on details, he said the work of popular authors would be featured, in much the same way the company has been selling selected CDs. Add a plan to make proprietary content downloadable to customers through the in-store WiFi network, and you’ve got even more reasons to go to Starbucks. Fast Company wonders if Schultz will now anoint bestsellers, as Oprah does.

BOSTON GLOBE

Worth checking out

https://www.drinkfuze.com/

The making of beer has changed dramatically over the centuries — particularly during the last one. The beverage has shifted from a rich, locally produced staple to a blanched, sanitized drink. But in recent years, the pendulum has swung back again, and flavorful brews are widely available; you just need to know how to choose them. And we don’t mean simply picking up a six-pack of snazzy-looking “microbrewed” or imported beer. (See Forbes’ refreshing Coolest Beers slide show.

Wired Magazine

British Tiffinbites is a chain of Indian food outlets, which might well be the first real Indian fast food brand.

The company gets its name from the classic stacked metal boxes that are used to carry home-cooked Indian lunches. Tiffinbites has replaced tin with plastic, but aims to keep the traditional, home-cooked quality. Food is centrally prepared in North-London, using fresh ingredients and with a much lower fat and oil content than regular Indian take-outs.

Tiffinbites offers seated dining, but their neatly packed and stacked boxes are also practical for office workers, who can heat them in office microwaves. Tiffinbites currently has three outlets in London, all of which are attractively designed.

Springwise
Tiffinbites

Moobella is part of the whole web 2.0 craze hitting the net like crack in the 80’s but the only difference is that Moobella is not on the web, it’s a vending machine. Based out of Massachusetts, Moobella has made new technology in there vending machines that allows you to mix your own flavors of ice cream in less than a minute. The machine itself has a touch screen display that shows an assortment of flavors and mix ins available at that time. When a flavor runs out its taken down off the menu and the onboard computer sends a message to Moobella’s headquarters telling them that machine needs to be re-stocked with that particular flavor. The machine also sends sales data back to the headquarters wirelessly.

Moobella

Seen on PFSK

It is seldom that Coca Cola allows any agency the freedom to design outside the usual brand parameters, so when Nando’s was given the go ahead to brand a Coke bottle sleeve for this special occasion, their design agency Cross Colours was briefed to interpret Freedom Day, Coca Cola and Nando’s on the bottle sleeve.

adland

French coffee drinkers who have ventured into a Starbucks are clearly among the minority ready for something completely different. One of those breaking away from tradition is Martine Puis, a 25-year-old student at the Sorbonne university. “I usually order the most over-the-top drink I can,” says Puis, sitting at the packed Starbucks on the Boulevard Saint Germain sipping an iced caramel mocha topped with whipped cream. Conversely, the American and Asian tourists, who make up at least half of the clientele, opt for European drinks like espressos and cappuccinos.

Full article at:

businessweek

Macroeconomic factors, environmental and social issues, and business and industry developments will all profoundly shape the corporate landscape in the coming years.

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