Every now and again a topic stirs up a quick flurry of debate across the Millward Brown email network. This week it was the old chestnut about 70 percent of brand decisions being made in-store. Prompted by a link to this article in BrandWeek, my colleague Gordon Pincott responded, “My point of view is that 100 percent of decisions are made in store.” And, of course, he is right.

In her article, Barbara Grondin Francella reviews data from a survey conducted by Miller Zell and reports this key finding:

While Professor Joe Plummer and I may not see eye to eye on everything (see my post on the definition of engagement), there is one thing we definitely agree on: an enterprise can achieve optimal results only when its business and its brand are aligned to work in synergy. When business and brand are out of synch (as happens all too often), the return to the company and shareholders is compromised.

Joe and I participated in a panel discussion on global branding at the NY AMA’s session last week. The third panelist was Trena Blair, vice president at American Express. The session was hosted by Randall Ringer, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Verse Group, whose coverage of the event can be found here.

In the lead article in today’s AdAge, Jeff Goodby, creative genius of Goodby, Berlin Silverstein, called for Cannes judges to take into account the sheer “famousness” of a piece of work when they make their determinations. In the process of making his case he stated that entries should not be judged on “whether the stuff worked — we are all quite good at making entry videos that make that case.” What was he thinking?

Is your vinegar made from petroleum?  H.J. Heinz Co. is running print ads to draw attention to U.S. federal regulations that allow certain vinegar-making processes to include petroleum. (Click here to read the article in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.) The article admits it is not clear how many vinegars on supermarket shelves do actually contain ethyl alcohol derived from petroleum, but this lack of clarity is not unusual. Most consumers are blissfully unaware of what ingredients are used to make the brands they buy. However, the Internet is helping to change that, and the ramifications for brands could be far-reaching.

A couple of days ago, I received an email pointing me to a news story announcing that the Spanish banking giant Santander is about to rebrand three well-known British banks. The person who sent the email suggested that this move would be a “monumental mistake.” So is this move a branding blunder or business as usual?