People discuss about a dozen brands each day, according to new research from Keller Fay Group--and the ones they like to chat about most are media and entertainment products like movies, TV shows, and publications. But many people also discuss food products, travel brands, and stores. Target, K-Mart, Sears, J.C. Penney, Gap, Victoria's Secret and Wal-Mart rank among the retailers most frequently mentioned. Word-of-mouth marketing has grown in popularity in recent years. But most of it focuses on generating buzz among consumers--often by distributing free products. Keller Fay aims to understand what customers are saying on their own. …

In an effort to bring sticker prices closer to what consumers eventually end up paying, Ford Motor Co. will employ "clear pricing" on all Ford, Mercury and Lincoln vehicles by 2008. Speaking at a Bank of America auto conference, Ford brand General Marketing Manager John Felice says the move will allow the automaker to "step away from the heavy incentives" that continue to plague the industry, while also helping to raise resale values. Detroit's dependence on incentives has led to lower vehicle profitability and lower resale values for a good portion of its cars. Ford has been gradually shifting …

Saying it will focus intently on the growing crossover segment, General Motors Corp. announced Wednesday that it was reversing previously announced plans to develop a new family of minivans based on its front-wheel-drive architecture. The company's new crossovers, which are based on a car-like chassis but are designed to look like SUVs, will directly compete with the shrinking minivan segment. While GM now sells minivans under various brands, sales of those models are on the decline, and the vehicles are scheduled to be phased out later in the decade. The company had been working on a plan to …

The nation's wireless-service providers are getting ready to roll out a new targeting tool for marketers that will identify consumers not only by demographics but behavior. The Navy, AOL and Major League Baseball are among a dozen or so marketers who will experiment with Sprint Nextel's offer of ad placement on its "deck"--the landing page for customers accessing the Internet from cellphones. The deck lists Web sites that users can click to. Mobile carriers had balked at opening up their decks to marketing messages, but with fierce competition driving down carriers' revenue, carriers are looking to advertising to …

VH1 has turned its logo red for 24 hours and occasionally adds a red wash over its content as a precursor to a media roadblock at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving that will include a 90-second commercial explaining the concept of Red--Bono and Bobby Shriver's campaign for AIDS awareness--across several MTV properties. The ad explains the Red mission, how it works to help buy and distribute anti-viral medications to AIDS victims in Africa, and urges consumers to "Choose Red." It features portraits of everyday people reciting a manifesto that appears on the Red Web site. "As first-world consumers, we …

The United States Potato Board is the latest marketer to open a temporary store that consumers can visit for only a limited time--a trend known as pop-up retailing. At the Healthy Mr. Potato Head Store, which has been open since Monday in Manhattan's Chelsea Market, consumers are treated to displays, exhibits, cooking demonstrations, visits from the Healthy Mr. Potato Head character and an activity area called the Potato Power Patch. The shop will close at the end of business on Friday. The retail experience coincides with the appearance of a Healthy Mr. Potato Head balloon in the Macy's …

Sam's Club is breaking a new TV campaign that reaches out to everyday consumers rather than its core small-business customers. The ads will also highlight the fact that the warehouse club began accepting Master Card earlier this month. The 570-store chain with 47 million members is trying for a bigger share of the sales momentum in the $110 billion club and warehouse store segment, which continues to outpace growth rates in the rest of the retail industry by about 20% annually. "We've focused too much on small business and not enough on the general consumer," says …

Pontiac is sponsoring a contest to find an unsigned band that will appear on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and play on the Pontiac Garage in Times Square during this year's New Year's Eve celebration. Entrants upload an MP3 track to www.countdownto1.com and submit a short essay describing why they should be selected. A panel of judges from Pontiac and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" will pick the winner. At the site, consumers can rate the contestant's music and video submissions or view Jimmy Kimmel's daily personal selection of Top 10 videos and tracks called New Music of the Day. …

For the third time in less than a decade, Kodak is reinventing its core business model by trying to do for photos what Apple does for music: help people to organize and manage their personal libraries of images. Led by CEO Antonio M. Perez, Kodak is developing a slew of new digital photo services that he expects to yield higher returns. They include everything from online photo sharing to a rapid-fire scanning system--called Scan the World--that takes shoe boxes full of yellowed snapshots and converts them into crisp digital images organized by the date originally printed. …

Confused, stressed and downright helpless chefs have turned to Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line for help in preparing their frozen bird for the past 20 years. Although ConAgra Foods sold the iconic brand and its turkey business to privately held Carolina Turkeys in October for $325 million, callers will hear the same 50 Midwestern voices that for years have answered the phones in Naperville, Ill. Butterball's brand name commands a higher price in stores, and the company is now called Butterball LLC. After selling only to restaurants and grocery stores for decades, it no longer has to worry about developing …