Christopher Laird Simmons

FOOD MARKETING: Greenbar Distillery, one of California's original craft distilleries and home of the world's largest portfolio of handcrafted, organic spirits, recently announced that it has unified its seven core spirits lines under a new heart brand that evokes the company's origins as a love story between the two founders, Litty Mathew and Melkon Khosrovian. In sharp contrast to how most distilleries design their packages to stand out within categories, such as vodka or whiskey, Greenbar Distillery's new look echoes the maker-focused branding of craft brewers.

AGENCY NEWS: This week, Sokal Media Group announced signing of McKinney Dodge RAM Chrysler Jeep & McKinney Mazda. McKinney has been an enterprising automotive influence over the past 18 years, serving the South Carolina Upstate area. Over the years the group has grown to offer 6 major brands including Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, Jeep, and Mazda.

NEWS: Palm Beach Business Connection is hosting a free presentation and workshop from Loren Weisman on Thursday, April 13, 2017 at 10 a.m. at Spoto’s Oyster Bar in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. This one hour talk is titled “Creating Content to Engage Your Three Audiences Simultaneously” and will be presented by Brand Precision Marketing Strategist and Counselor, Loren Weisman.

MARKET STUDY: What types of advertising media, such as radio, television, and online ads, rose or fell in popularity in 2017? What are the main demographics advertisers target? Which moods and inflections are most sought after for resonance and persuasive power? To answer these questions, Voices.com has released their look at the media and advertising trends that will dominate over the next year.

COLUMN: For those of you who use Google News (the news portal that is a subset of the megalith that is the Google content...

COLUMN: While the subject of contextual branding against other company's trademarks will not be a new issue to some people, and I had been aware of the problem from the past couple of years of litigation between major companies and search portals like Google and Yahoo!, nevertheless I was a bit surprised when my brand was targeted by an upstart competitor.

CHICAGO, Ill. -- Stephen Monaco, an accomplished executive with 20 years of senior management experience in the technology sector, will begin publishing state-specific content on MidwestBusiness.com spanning the Missouri and neighboring technology landscape.

COLUMN: After seeing one of Sony's debut TV spots for their new PlayStation(r), I'm sure I was not the only one slightly freaked out by the toy baby who comes to life, starts to cry, then laugh maniacally before flashing demon red eyes... all while pawing the air toward the floating black slab of a PlayStation 3 (PS3).

COLUMN: Companies need to do a better job of policing themselves when signing up new customers on the Internet and through mail campaigns, otherwise they risk contributing to an already serious epidemic of personal and business identity theft. Certain companies are making it a little easier for crooks to get a foot in the door due to a lack of safeguards and common sense. And guess what? It just happened to my company.

eBay announced this week that they will be discontinuing the eBay Keywords program at the end of September. The program allowed eBay sellers to bid for keywords for text ad placements.