Word: branding
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Pets don't have the benefit of a television show or movie providing free promotion for the brand. Nor do they have access to the cash that one of the big toy companies, like Mattel or Hasbro, can provide. The Zhu Zhu Pets are a small-business success story. The toys are made by Cepia, a seven-year-old St. Louis, Mo., company with only 16 employees. "It's fascinating, as you talk to executives from other toy companies," says Storch. "They are thumping themselves on the side of the head, wondering, 'How did I miss this...
...keep up with demand. Hornsby is currently in China overseeing an expansion of the company's production capacity. Over the past few months, Cepia has opened three new factories in the Shenzhen area, which now gives the company four facilities. Not that the supply shortages necessarily hurt the brand. "Zhu Zhu Pets have crossed that tipping point, where scarcity is part of the appeal of the product," says McGowan, who predicts the pets will rack up $70 million in sales by year's end. "Getting it gives you some extra social standing. 'Yeah, I got my hamsters. I worked...
Thanks to a flooded plant in Atlanta and a broken bakery in Tennessee, Kellogg Co. confirmed last week that it will have to ration its Eggo shipments well into next year. Considering the brand claims nearly 70% of the frozen-waffle industry, the shortage has been called a national calamity, further proof of global warming's reach, a sign of the apocalypse, evidence of a corporate conspiracy and a good opportunity to cash in. (Witness the Katy, Texas, resident who posted a "rationed" box of Blueberry Eggos on eBay - "toaster not included...
...Eventually, waffle irons engraved with coats of arms, religious symbols and the familiar honeycomb pattern (said to resemble interlocking crosses) were used to brand the baked treats. In medieval France, an entire guild was established in 1270 to train the vendors who sold waffles on the street. Because the simplest version only called for flour and water, it soon became a staple of country cooking, though wealthier peasants would add honey, eggs and aromatized wine. The delicacy, according to Geoffrey Chaucer, made for an excellent means of seduction. "He sent her sweetened wine and well-spiced ale/ And waffles piping...
...reporting in the journal ZooKeys, Sereno's team has announced the discovery of fossils from three brand-new species and new fossils from two known species. Along with SuperCroc, they add up to a virtual menagerie of ancient crocodiles that inhabited a range of ecological niches - species nicknamed BoarCroc, RatCroc, PancakeCroc, DuckCroc and DogCroc. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries...