They show how you can turn your supply chain into a brand asset.

FORBES: Showcasing Supply Chains

Besides, a company might want to keep control of its supply chain to protect its brand and knowledge.

ECONOMIST: Re-engineering in real time

Businesses need to get a better handle on the reality that underlies their messages, because social media are more interested in your supply chain than how you brand it.

FORBES: Social Media Are More Interested in Your Supply Chain Than Your Marketing

They can be used for brand security and supply chain tracking of foods that normally can't be tagged with traditional bar codes.

FORBES: Magazine Article

For once, a major public company with a household-name brand took responsibility for its supply chain.

FORBES: The Parents Of CSR: Nike And Kathie Lee Gifford

Is your brand invisibly tied to supply-chain paths like roadways and retail outlets that are either deteriorating or undergoing drastic change?

FORBES: Wiring Your Brand To Infrastructure Hotspots

Yum added that it was in the process of reviewing its supply chain management and would also launch a "brand reputation" campaign to re-assure customers of "our high quality food".

BBC: Yum Brands profit dips amid food safety scare in China

Could Ralph Lauren -- the brand atop the long, integrated supply chain that takes apparel ideas from conception all the way to the consumer -- have forgone use of the Chinese factories that do most of the brand's cutting and sewing operations and, instead, contracted with U.S. factories for the Olympic uniform project?

CNN: Why NOT make Olympic uniforms in China?

Companies continue to increase the number of suppliers in their supply chain, consistent with the trend of product companies moving towards becoming brand owners and shedding captive manufacturing capacity.

FORBES: Manufacturing Forecast - Growth Expected in 2013