Never a Lack of Ideas

French Not Required Right next to the French Metro stop at the Palace of Versailles is a McDonald's that gets tons of traffic from visitors around the world. We stopped in and I loved what I saw: six self-serve kiosks at which customers can place their orders in any one of five different languages. That's brilliant. Managers at the restaurant have clearly identified that customers in the restaurant come from all over the world , they may not speak French, and they may not be familiar with all of the items McDonald's offers in France. So they give customers the ability to take their time and read about menu items in their language of choice, place their order with a credit card, and then pick up their food when it's ready . I love innovations in fast food, so I had to take a little video of us using the digital ordering system. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed filming it. Add This to Your To-Do List If McDonald's can innovate its order...

Best Brands in the Land Happy Halloween! In what will hopefully become an annual tradition, I present to you my list of the top ten brands in the United States. To create this list, I relied heavily upon my opinion of the general perception of each brand versus its competitors, and how much of a premium the brand can charge because of that perception. I didn't get hung up on revenue data or market share numbers — I just went with what I see and hear every day and threw in my own opinion from a marketer's point of view. Here's my list, starting with the best brand in the land: Victoria's Secret — The brand became a household name by charging a premium for products that very few people see when worn; and then turned that brand equity into a complete line of clothing. Google — Do you use any other search engine? I'll bet you've even used the word "Google" as a verb. Apple — The iPod, iTunes, and iPhone have defined their categories. Facebook — The d...