Whole Foods Market is on a mission to revise its gold-plated image as consumers pull back on discretionary spending. Its sales growth was cooling even before the economy turned; the company is now offering deeper discounts, adding lower-priced store brands, emphasizing value in its advertising, and is even inviting customers to show up for budget-focused store tours. The budget claims are no easy sell at a store that earned the nickname Whole Paycheck. Co-president Walter Robb acknowledges that Whole Foods is fighting strong consumer perceptions about the chain's prices, adding that some of it is deserved. But he says …

Though capitalism has been a fact of life in China for years, no brand category has been captured the way, say, Wal-Mart dominates the U.S. retail market. Olympic sponsors know they are staring at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage and snare the Chinese market, which counts 1.3 billion residents, more than any country on Earth. Do it right, and the payoff could be massive. According to Forbes.com, a survey by China's largest market research firm uncovered that more than two thirds of the respondents "consider Olympic sponsorship a stamp of approval with regard to the quality of a company's …

Pizza Hut is preparing a new pizza for health-conscious consumers called "the Natural" that will combine a multigrain crust, organic tomato sauce and preservative-free toppings. It will be introduced in Tampa and Dallas in coming weeks, and rolled out nationally later this year. The pie is a response to an emerging consumer need: the desire to eat pizza and still remain healthy, according to Brian Niccol, Pizza Hut's CMO. A campaign for the Natural includes national TV spots. Tagline: "So pure. So real. We had to call it the 'Natural.'" Pizza Hut will box the new pie --which …

U.S. networks have turned down steamy TV ads featuring Eva Mendes for Calvin Klein's new fragrance, Secret Obsession from Coty. The all-nude Mendes apparently shows a little too much up top, although the networks decline to comment on why they rejected the spots and Mendes' backside also makes an appearance. The ad "taps into the secrecy of a private moment -- where it's clear that Eva is having illicit thoughts," says Lori Singer, vp of global marketing for the brand at Coty Prestige. Mendes appears alone in the ads, say Singer and Catherine Walsh, svp of American fragrances for …

Procter & Gamble cut its U.S. media sending at a double-digit pace last quarter, and many of its biggest global rivals -- including Unilever, L'Oréal and Johnson & Johnson -- also sliced measured media expenditures, though not nearly as sharply or broadly, according to data from TNS Media Intelligence. Though the TNS database isn't complete for the quarter, those sections that are paint a particularly glum picture of rapidly decelerating spending for P&G throughout the last quarter, particularly for magazines, an area where the company had been rapidly increasing spending in recent years. TV spending appeared to follow a similar …

The iPhone is central to what AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson sees as an ongoing transformation of AT&T into a wireless goliath with global reach and intense customer loyalty. "The iPhone has repositioned AT&T as the premier wireless brand in the world," Stephenson says. Stephenson championed the idea of paying Apple about $300 per device, analysts estimate, to help hold down the retail cost of the 3G iPhone. At $199, it costs about the same as a high-end cell phone. The subsidy, which replaces another arrangement that gave Apple a portion of iPhone service revenue, will dilute earnings through …

In a cost-cutting move, Ford is consolidating sales and marketing for its Lincoln Mercury arm with the rest of the Ford Division and will align the staff by product type rather than by brand, according to two executives close to the automaker. Ford traditionally had an executive overseeing all three brands for North America, but maintained separate sales and marketing groups for Ford along with Lincoln Mercury. Ford reportedly announced new assignments and positions internally on Tuesday. The key moves are: Company veteran Brett Wheatley, who in February was named general marketing manager for Lincoln Mercury, moves to the …