Entrepreneur magazine has released its annual list of the top 500 franchises, and 7-11 tops the list for the first time in 2008. That’s a position Subway has held for seven years, but 7-11’s conversion over the past two years from company-owned stores to franchises is being noticed and recognized as a positive transition. This new accolade should translate to positive boost to the 7-11 brand. I’m sure the company will promote their top franchise ranking heavily in 2008.

Old Navy has done an excellent job of developing and communicating its brand as young, fun and creative.  That brand image is now evident on their product packaging as well.  Old Navy launched new packaging for its basic men’s and boy’s products, and Jason Rosenberg, Senior Packaging Designer for Old Navy, led the 5-month creative effort.
Last week, Andrew Gibbs from TheDieLine.com (one of my favorite packaging blogs) published an interview he did with Jason about the new Old Navy packaging, and it’s a great read.  Jason describes the unique challenges of developing packaging for approximately 80 SKUs and 900 stores, …read more

In keeping with its strategic focus to revamp its stores, Toys R Us has also revamped its logo.  The new logo drops the quotation marks around the backwards R and moves the star graphic from it previous prominent position surrounding the R to a more subtle location within the R.  The letters have also changed slightly in size, spacing and color. Here are the old and new logos for comparison: