The key element of Ford's new marketing campaign breaking in March or April aims to "restore the trust" of consumers in the automaker's products, according to Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president of marketing and communications. Ford has made great strides in improving vehicle quality, but it still fights a perception among consumers who remember bad experiences. Farley says that dealers will be the key spokespersons for the campaign, which is nearing completion. Without going into specifics, Farley says the company must restore trust on issues such as resale value, safety, quality, advanced technology and using new products. …

Chrysler may cut the number of models it sells by half as it also moves aggressively to slim down its dealer network, according to people briefed on the plans. The Auburn Hills automaker has been working under its so-called Project Alpha to get more of its dealers to sell all three of its brands--Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep--under one roof. But Chrysler, purchased last year by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, is replacing Alpha with Project Genesis to eliminate duplication in its product lineup and to be more aggressive about dealer consolidation. A year ago, industry analyst and advisor …

Ads that showed what happened at two Burger King outlets in Nevada when--in a hoax filmed by hidden cameras--customers were told the Whopper had been taken off the menu helped boost sales in the quarter that ended in December by a double-digit percentage. The "Whopper Freakout" ads started running Dec. 9. The videotaped hoax was a twist on a market research technique called "deprivation research," in which marketers measure how loyal consumers are to a brand by taking it away from them. Experts say it's rare for the method to be used in actual consumer advertising. Burger …

Nintendo's winter marketing plan includes a slate of baseball, golf and monster-truck sponsorships and events that tie in the Wii and DS with real-life sporting events. Besides conducting hands-on demonstrations and interactive play at PGA tournaments and Major League Baseball training camps, the company is also building on its "Nintendo Fan Network," which launched at the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field. The system allows fans with DS devices to download software that allows them to get stats and player info, watch extra videos, order food and drinks and interact with each other during games. Other stadiums have approached Nintendo …

Insiders at New York Fashion Week--a biannual ritual of luxury and excess--are mixed on how to handle dour predictions about the economy. While some have focused on go-anywhere basics and investment-worthy outerwear, others are working extra hard to find look-at-me trends or small bits of understated luxury that women might find worthy of their limited pocket money. Luxury has had a subdued presence in feather adornments, a little bit of fur, and beading or metallics added to knits and tweeds. There seems to be a effort to present more daywear instead of evening gowns, and colors are subdued, with …

A new study by researchers from four universities finds that people who feel sad spend more freely--especially when their sadness triggers greater "self-focus." That response was measured by counting how frequently study participants used references to "I," "me," "my" and "myself" in writing an essay about how a sad situation such as the one portrayed in a sadness-inducing video clip would affect them personally. They offered to pay nearly four times as much money to buy a water bottle than a group that watched an emotionally neutral clip, according to the study by researchers from Harvard, …