Toy makers and retailers are filling shelves with new tech devices for children ages 3 and up, and sometimes even down. They say they are catering to junior consumers who want to emulate their parents and are not satisfied with fake gadgets. Jim Silver, editor of Toy Wishes magazine, says there has been "a huge jump in the last 12 months" in toys that involve looking at a screen. Six of the nine best-selling toys for 5- to 7-year-olds on Amazon.com yesterday were tech gadgets. For all of 2006, three of the top nine toys for that age …

The Army's core product--military service--is a tough sell right now, so its new marketing strategy will be to win over "influencers" of potential recruits with a pitch that offers up to $40,000 toward the purchase of a home or the creation of a business. "If you want to get a soldier, you have to go through mom, and moms want to know what kind of future their children will have when they leave the Army," says Lt. Col. Jeff Sterling, the program's architect. The new recruitment program, dubbed the "Army Advantage Fund," is meant to show …

Almost one-third of shoppers bought electronics based on an offer or promotion--the most popular being rebates and sale prices--according to a new survey from Omnicom's Dallas-based Integer Group. Also, most of the buyers (75%) browsed on the Web before purchasing--going online an average of more than three times to do research before buying. It was "not uncommon" for the shoppers to make 10 or more Internet visits. "When they actually get ready to buy, they do go to retail in part because they want that immediate gratification," says Kim Menier, Integer senior vice president-director of account planning. They …

More technology addicts across the country are flooding electronic retailers to for repairs, not purchases. The number of in-store users in America has not been counted, but our growing gadget obsession -- especially among teens and young adults -- might spark an epidemic, experts say. And more stores are condoning the habit by letting consumers experiment freely. Apple stores set the trend by sprawling its desired devices--iPods, iPhones and Macs--across display tables. "They have shown the world that this model has legs," says James Damian, Best Buy vice president of store design. It works because the more …

Procter & Gamble will sell Align, a dietary supplement for abdominal maladies, in Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS and Meijer stores in Cincinnati, Dallas and St. Louis. It has marketed the pill for two years via a Web site and a toll-free number, as well as through doctors who specialize in stomach ailments. The move to store shelves is part of an experiment that taught P&G a lesson in how to launch new products by going directly to the consumer, rather than starting at retail. "This is a different way than P&G is used to launching" a product, says Kristin Harper, …

Stung by ongoing doping scandals in professional cycling, T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom of Germany, has decided to abandon its sponsorship of the sport after 16 years. In announcing the decision to end its contract two years early, Deutsche Telekom made it clear that cycling teams had become a marketing nightmare. It will also end its sponsorship of races. With an estimated budget of nearly $18 million this year, T-Mobile was by far the biggest operation in cycling. Deutsche Telekom first sponsored the team, under different management, in 1991. The announcement follows the collapse of the Discovery …

Moving the U.S. wireless industry a step closer to the model in much of the rest of the world, Verizon says it will soon allow its customers to use a wide array of phones and mobile devices bought elsewhere. Right now, Verizon Wireless customers have to go to its retail stores, or those of its partners, and choose from whatever phones are offered by the carrier. In the short term, the impact of the shift may be limited. But the change, which will take effect by the middle of next year, is a big shift for the nation's …