Chrysler minivans will carry lower prices but more features when they hit showrooms in August and September. Chrysler Group says it hopes to price its minivans closer to what they actually sell for and to use fewer incentives on the vehicles, which are among its top sellers. The suggested retail price on the base model Dodge Grand Caravan will be about $2,000 less than the current model, and the base Chrysler Town & Country will be $3,585 less. Chrysler sold about 360,000 minivans last year in the United States, where about 1 million minivans were sold. Chrysler says it …

Wesley R. Card, who had been CFO of Jones Apparel Group, was named CEO yesterday following the resignation of Peter Boneparth after a stormy five-year reign. The appointment heightened speculation that the Jones board is ultimately looking to sell the company, either whole or piecemeal. Card is said to be more in sync with the board than Boneparth, who was seen as a polarizing figure. While some industry observers felt he did a good job with his restructuring and streamlining strategies, others said he clashed with the Jones board and his unorthodox personality and blunt demeanor was a strained …

Wally Amos, who created the Famous Amos cookie empire three decades ago but eventually lost the rights to use the catchy name, is now a muffin mogul and the proprietor of Chip & Cookie in Kailua, Hawaii. The store sells five varieties of bite-sized cookies similar to the ones he first sold at the Famous Amos store in Hollywood 30 years ago. Uncle Wally's Muffin Co. was originally founded as Uncle Noname Cookie Co. in 1992, a few years after Amos lost Famous Amos. Uncle Noname, however, foundered because of debt and problems with its contracted manufacturers. Some …

Although the Internet can be a dangerous place for CEOs with opinions, more top executives are venturing online--mostly with signed blogs, or personal Web pages. Top-level corporate bloggers include J.W. "Bill" Marriott Jr., chairman and CEO of Marriott International, Michael Critelli, executive chairman of Pitney Bowes, and Robert Lutz, a vice chairman of General Motors. Blogs offer CEOs a way to communicate with investors, employees and customers, and to defend themselves when under fire. Done well, "a blog is an extremely effective way of articulating a vision," says Debbie Weil, a corporate-blogging consultant and author of "The Corporate Blogging …

Former Vice President Al Gore says that the best way to reach hearts and minds about the global warming crises is through the time-tested medium of advertising, so he is sponsoring a competition to create a series of television and Internet ads to raise awareness on the issue of climate change. Through the Alliance for Climate Protection, Gore has sent invitations to ad agencies to submit 15-, 30- and 60-second "ecospots" explaining the global warming phenomenon and urging action to address it. The alliance is soliciting entries from anyone with a camera or video-editing capabilities. Submissions are due …

Liz Claiborne CEO William L. McComb's spelled out his ambitious turnaround plan for the company Wednesday, saying he would "strategically review" 16 small brands, while focusing on growing Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand, Kate Spade and Mexx, predicting growth from $2.2 billion today to around $3 billion by 2010. Claiborne plans to spend 3% to 5% of the "power brand" sales on marketing (up from about 1%), totaling more than $20 million per power brand, plus make a $500 million capital investment. It also wants to create "best-in-class retail capability" and to make "fashion faster" by innovating the supply chain. …

Only about 15% of the dog and cat foods that were recalled nearly four months ago are back on the shelves at Petco, the nation's No. 2 pet-food chain, but it expects to stock 50% by the end of July. Dog and cat food sales are below pre-recall levels, says chief merchandising officer Dave Bolen, but ahead of last year. The recall, announced mid-March, affected about 100 brands from Wal-Mart's Ol' Roy to higher-end Iams and Nutro. Most were canned products. The recall has spurred more people to buy premium, natural, organic and raw products. That was happening before …

In an effort to jump-start anemic sales of mobile devices, Best Buy late last year tied up with Carphone Warehouse Group PLC--Europe's largest independent retailer of mobile phones--to offer 90 cell phone handsets across eight carriers in 13 of its stores. It previously sold a small selection of phones with subscription plans from just four carriers. Best Buy also beefed up training of its staff, with the added time focused on mobile devices. Best Buy now plans to roll out the format across 180 stores in 12 states by February. With carriers' voice plans becoming increasingly similar, independent retailers …

Trying to attract a younger customer, the consumer care division of Bayer HealthCare is starting an online game today for Aleve Liquid Gels. By visiting www.aleviator.com, Internet users will be able to follow a fictional storyline that leads them through a series of clues, taking them in and out of social networking sites, wikis and blogs. For each person who clicks through to the end of the game--which takes at least a minute--Bayer will make a donation of $5 to $10 to the Conservation Fund, an environmental nonprofit group. The campaign does not tell people that a donation will …

Using an alias, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey posted messages for years on a Yahoo financial forum in which he praised his own company and predicted a bleak future for Wild Oats Markets, the rival it has since sought to acquire. "The end game is now underway for [Wild Oats] ... Whole Foods is systematically destroying their viability as a business--market by market, city by city," Mackey wrote in a March 28 2006 post using the pseudonym "rahodeb" -- the name of his wife, Deborah, spelled backwards. The disclosure came in a court document filed by the …