On Black Friday last year, Syntax-Brillian of Ontario, Calif., slashed the price of its 32-inch Olevia brand liquid-crystal display TV sets selling at Circuit City to $475--almost half the regular price. While they lasted, the Olevias outsold Sony and other brands and forced the premium brands to lower their prices throughout the holiday season. The Olevias almost certainly lost money for Syntax-Brillian. But chairman and CEO Vincent F. Sollitto Jr.--a 21-year veteran of I.B.M. who later worked at a succession of other high-tech companies--predicts that Olevia will become a top-tier brand. Jonathan Dorsheimer, vice president of equity research …

Payless ShoeSource--the bargain shoe retailer that's seen its fortunes flag in recent year under pressure from Wal-Mart and other discount rivals--is undergoing a makeover. Long known for cluttered, warehouse-like stores, CEO Matthew E. Rubel believes stylish products and spruced-up stores will lure young, hip consumers. Payless is offering trendier products, such as Lucite platform wedges and patent-leather zippered boots by fashion designer Laura Poretzky. Most of its shoes are still inexpensive, but it is also testing pairs that cost $40 or even $60. The company is opening a design office in New York this summer to focus on …

TNS Media Intelligence data shows a falloff in General Motors ad spending for the first 11 months of the year, from $2.65 billion in '05 to $2.03 billion in '06--a stunning drop of 24%. GM, however, says the cut was closer to 10%, or a reduction of nearly $300 million. But TNS stands by its methodology, which it says was the same in '06 as it was in '05. Bottom line: the country's second-largest advertiser is demonstrating a shift toward channels such as direct marketing, Web sites, online video, event marketing, branded entertainment and Internet advertising, which are harder …

Octagon Marketing North America has signed a deal with the National High School Athletic Coaches Association that could put product samples in the hands of 50,000 coaches in 18,000 U.S. schools to distribute to their players--a combined 5 million students in all. "Given the influence student-athletes enjoy among their peers, programs directed to them have the potential to reach a larger segment of the student body," says Octagon vice president Janet Nicolini. Norwalk, Conn.-based Octagon recently began sampling Playtex Sport tampons through women's athletics programs in high schools and colleges. An accompanying on-line promotion awards student scholarships and …

Apple, which has lagged behind its competitors in hard-core gaming software, recently introduced titles for its iPod digital-music players. Most of the titles have lush graphics and multiple game-play options and work intuitively with the iPod's scroll wheel. And just like song files, the games can be downloaded from Apple's iTunes store for $4.99 each. The target is aficionados of casual games, often played in short duration on mobile phones and other handheld devices. Apple is mum on gaming plans for the iPhone or Apple TV, but Stan Ng, senior director of iPod Product Marketing, says his company is …

The Walt Disney Co. is thinking about creating smaller theme parks, as well as stand-alone hotels, retail, dining and entertainment centers in urban areas where families already travel. The ideas are "blue sky concepts" that will not be executed unless the new businesses could achieve a high return on invested capital, says Jay Rasulo, chairman of Disney's Parks and Resorts. Disney could locate versions of its Downtown Disneyland--a high-end retail, dining and entertainment district--in urban areas far from its parks. They would give Disney the chance to reach out to parents who feel their children are still too young …

The rejuvenated Care Bears--a concept of the Eighties that has racked up $1.8 billion in worldwide sales since being relaunched by American Greetings Properties in 2001--are being redesigned. The bears, with their motto of caring and sharing, are targeted to 3-to-5-year-olds. The new look will be unveiled Monday at the American International Toy Fair in New York. The main goal of the redesign is to differentiate the bears from one another. After two decades of looking like androgynous clones, the core characters--Cheer, Share, Funshine, Grumpy and the newbie Oopsy Bear--will differ in more than their signature "belly badges" …

Daniel M. Snyder--a self-made millionaire at 19 who then created and sold an advertising company that made him even wealthier--will announce today that his RedZone Capital private equity firm is acquiring the Johnny Rockets restaurant chain. Johnny Rockets provides an opportunity for Snyder to leverage his marketing prowess and expand the chain across the nation, if not beyond. He has ambitious plans, anticipating opening 1,000 new restaurants in the next five years. One of the first steps will be establishing a series of smaller restaurants, called Johnny Rockets Express, in airports, malls and urban areas. The chain--which was …

Marketers say that the most surprising media innovation in 2006 was the rush to advertise in the Second Life virtual community, with 77% of those polled by the American Advertising Federation admitting they didn't see that trend coming. The second biggest surprise was the rise of YouTube. Third was the popularization of "mash-ups," or Web content that originated with more than one source. Marketers now earmark on average 15% of their media budgets for nontraditional outlets, according to the survey of about 1,000 ad industry leaders. 73% of those responding said they now allocate up to 20% …

New Internet services are allowing marketers to select scenes from commercial films and customize campaigns with a few clicks of the mouse and little human interaction, often for a low flat fee. In some cases, the sites also offer ad-placement services that advertisers can use to more tightly focus their mark. National advertisers, mainly in the retail, real estate and auto industries, are using the systems to make their messages more relevant on the local level. They can automatically add names of local sales agents or dealership addresses, and they can change the content of the ad to …