How does a marketer with a product that's already the category leader improve its position? Cut a deal with another marketer that has a category leader and find a way to connect the two, that's how. Bose speakers were already doing well when, in 2004, the company hooked up with Apple to collaborate on the $299 SoundDock Digital Music System for Apple's digital music player. "They pioneered the all-in-one premium iPod speaker system," says Ross Rubin, an analyst at market researcher NPD Group. The speakers turned out to be the best-selling category among iPod accessories, a fast-growing $5 billion market. …

Motorola Inc. is the latest major marketer to sign onto rock star Bono's "Product Red" campaign to fight AIDS and other health problems in developing countries. Bono, lead singer for supergroup U2, and Bobby Shriver, a record producer, a member of the Kennedy family and a city councilman in Santa Monica, Calif., launched Product Red in January. The idea is for marketers who join the initiative to offer a red-colored product with a portion of sales earmarked for charity. Motorola, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker, will offer a red version of its Slvr, a model fashioned after its popular …

Procter & Gamble without Ivory soap? Say it ain't so! Well, it might be, if company CEO A.G. Lafley keeps eliminating brands as part of a new strategy to focus on essential categories. "We are going to sort through our smaller brands," Lafley told investors last week. "We are going to divest the ones that don't have a strategic role or cannot deliver strategic growth or financial performance." Analysts say Ivory soap, which traces its P&G roots back to 1879, is among the prime product candidates to be cut. "There are no sentimental attachments to any of the brands at …

ConAgra Foods is turning to sports and entertainment sponsorships as a way to promote several of its key brands this summer. For example, the marketer's Banquet brand will be linked to three separate NASCAR events while Orville Redenbacher popcorn, Hunt's Snack Pack, and Hunt's Ketchup will be tied to the company's Six Flags sponsorship. Meanwhile, Hebrew National Franks extends its baseball stadium concession reach with an in-stadium and in-store campaign pitching Hebrew National as a step above other ballpark fare. "By integrating our products into high-impact sports, entertainment and lifestyle properties and programs, we can turn the passion of these …

Movie studios have always relied heavily on television advertising to market their films, usually running commercials on popular Thursday night TV shows the day before the films open in theaters. Now the studios are turning to an even smaller screen to promote their wares, as traditional advertising methods begin to lose their impact. Internet, video podcast and mobile marketing campaigns are becoming more popular, especially for the summer films, like "Superman Returns," "Poseidon" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," that hope to attract younger audiences. "People aren't quite as influenced by mass-media campaigns anymore," says Ian Schafer, CEO …

A major packaged goods marketer has decided to avoid the annual TV network media buying frenzy known as the upfront in a move that is representative of the shifting balance of power in the advertising game. The company, Johnson & Johnson, which markets popular brands such as Tylenol and Neutrogena, says it wants to buy TV time on its own schedule, not that of the TV networks, and will wait to purchase spots until late summer when it fits the company's business-planning process. "What we found is, if we can synchronize our business-planning cycle [with buying media time] it …

General Motors Corp. has cut a new deal with CBS and Comcast that makes it the first major advertiser to fully sponsor an on-demand prime-time broadcast of a network TV show. Under the deal, GM will be the sole sponsor of the finale of CBS's "Survivor," and "Survivor Reunion," which Comcast subscribers in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia, will be able to order for free through Comcast's video-on-demand platform. The shows will air with only three commercials--one before, one at the midpoint and one at the conclusion of the program. The programs will be available on VOD from May 15, …

Beverage marketer Cadbury Schweppes is in a skirmish with a watchdog group over just exactly what the word "natural" means when it comes to describing food products. The argument began after Cadbury began promoting its 7Up lemon-lime carbonated soda brand as being "100 percent natural," a claim that was disputed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which said the claim is misleading. The Center says the drink contains fructose corn syrup, which is artificially made by extracting starch from corn and altering it with enzymes or acids. But Cadbury counters that 7-Up is in fact natural, because …

Major marketers are stepping up their efforts to attract consumer to their own Web sites with flashy new programming and slick promotions. The move is seen as a threat to sites like Google and Yahoo!, which rely on companies for advertising dollars. "Everyone has the same nut to crack," says Ted Page, CCO of the online ad agency Captains of Industry. "How do you keep people entertained in the age of the Internet and TiVO?" The list of marketers joining the trend includes Dunkin' Donuts, Anheuser-Busch, McDonald's and Pepsi-Cola. Dunkin' Donuts has a feature on its site that allows users …

The deodorant wars between powerhouse consumer product players Procter & Gamble and Unilever are heating up, with Unilever claiming to have taken a lead with its Axe brand. The company launched Axe only four years ago into a mature market--a daunting challenge for any marketer. New brands taking or even vying for leadership of established categories in developed markets is highly unusual, especially in just a four-year span. But Unilever says ACNielsen data measuring dollar sales in all retail outlets gives it a 13.3 percent dollar share in overall deodorants (men and women's) for the 52 weeks ended March 25, …