Hewlett-Packard is repositioning itself as not just the maker of printers for office and home documents, but also for commercial printing--wine labels, books, newsletters and advertisements that stick onto buildings and cars. H-P also is reducing its emphasis on market share of printers sold, while increasing focus on the percentage of total printed pages that come out of its machines. Yesterday, H-P announced plans to acquire large-format printer NUR Macroprinters for $117.5 million. In the past few years, it has shelled out more than $1 billion to acquire high-end press maker Indigo NV and large-format printer makers Scitex Corp.'s …

Although it is the largest handset maker in the world--with 39% of the global market--Nokia has languished in U.S., hurt by its refusal to adapt its strategy to the idiosyncrasies of the American market. Nokia acknowledges criticism that it has pushed its own technology and design. "We felt we could teach the U.S. market how we do business elsewhere, and frankly, that failed," says CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. As it sets out to regain its footing in the U.S., Apple and Google are going after Nokia's franchise. But in doing so, they are shaking up the wireless industry in a …

Staid old supermarket staples--once scoffed at as laggards in digital media--have grown twice as fast as the U.S. Internet population in the past year. Unique visitors to package-goods brand Web sites soared 10% compared with a year ago in the third quarter to 66.4 million, according to ComScore. That's double the 5% rise in users. The traffic increase appears to come primarily from a surge in online display advertising from package-goods players, which, while relatively late to embrace the medium, are now coming on strong. Mars' Uncle Ben's site, for example, which cracked the industry's top 10 last …

Marketers seeking to expand their companies' global reach long have focused on tailoring products to fit the tastes of consumers in different countries. As the world shrinks--especially for young, Internet-savvy consumers--they must now also cater to particular subcultures of customers who share very similar outlooks, styles and aspirations despite their different nationalities and languages. "We're seeing global tribes forming around the world that are more and more interconnected through technology," says Melanie Healey, president, Global Health and Feminine Care at Procter & Gamble. Among these tribes: teenagers from every continent who socialize on the Internet and like the …

Chief Marketing Officers are more prepared than ever to move up the corporate ladder because they are required to oversee or respond to much broader business strategies in the course of their marketing work, according to "The Evolved CMO," a joint study by Forrester Research's CMO Group and executive recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles. In fact, 34% of CMOs aspire to become CEOs. The study, being released this week, was conducted online this fall among 132 CMOs who oversee marketing strategy at companies with more than $100 million in annual revenues. When asked to identify the top …

Several promising developments for TiVo--which accounts for about 4 million of the more than 20 million digital video recorders in American homes--underscore its new emphasis on subscriptions and media services rather than hardware. It recently announced partnerships with NBC Universal and Carat to provide second-by-second viewership data and demographic ratings information collected from a sample of 20,000 TiVo subscribers. It is also helping networks and advertisers overcome its technology by offering interactive banner ads that make sponsors' names visible as their ads are being fast-forwarded. "When I got to this company two years ago, TiVo was very …