Microsoft on Monday introduced Windows Azure, which will make it possible for developers to easily build applications accessible in real-time over the Internet using existing Microsoft programming languages. The service marks a key shift for the company because its business traditionally has revolved around programs that run solely on a user's own device, such as a PC. Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, says pricing would be "competitive with the marketplace" -- and the company would charge based on how many "resources" the applications use, as well as for different associated services the company will provide. The market …

Wal-Mart is planning aggressive price cuts through the holidays, as well as a marketing campaign designed to address the economic hardships of families, analysts gathered at the retailer's annual investor meeting were told Monday. One of the new holiday spots shows a mother heartened by seeing her children get everything they want on Christmas morning, accompanied by the tagline "Christmas costs less at Walmart." The campaign will be coupled with in-store "gift destinations" featuring $5 and $10 items. ? Wal-Mart also plans to scale back on U.S. store growth and focus on improving existing stores and merchandise, Kimberly Morrison reports. …

If you haven't already concluded "not a whole lot," we're not on the same page. And kudos to USA Today, which continues to shorten the time necessary to grasp an issue.

Nearly 250 companies have licensed the logo for a campaign called Colombia es Pasión -- or "Colombia is Passion" -- that seeks to restore global confidence in the country as a trading partner, tourism destination and investment opportunity. After years of violence and corruption, Colombia's tough-minded president, Alvaro Uribe, has developed a close alliance with Washington and unleashed a military offensive that has guerrillas reeling. Marketing consultant David Lightle has worked with a public-private partnership in Colombia that operates two stores in Bogota offering hundreds of products featuring the campaign's heart-shaped logo. The logo also appears inside boxes …

Times' op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof wrote last week that an Obama victory "could change global perceptions of the United States, redefining the American 'brand' to be less about Guantánamo and more about equality." Few observers dispute that Brand America is not as highly regarded in other countries as it has been in the past. The debate is more likely to be about how much that matters to our national interests. Kristof argues that, if Obama wins, we may have an opportunity to "rebuild American political capital in the way that the Marshall Plan did in the 1950s …

In the same branding vein of nation building, Barry Silverstein writes about how eight elite Eastern colleges have turned a sportswriter's moniker from the '30s into a powerful marketing tool. But each individual school has its own challenges. Cornell, for example, faced an image problem -- it was widely perceived as a "country cousin" to its brethren -- by abandoning a modern logo and reverting to the traditional school crest. The Harvard Trademark program has six staff members and administers policies that are, Silverstein writes, "mind-numbingly comprehensive."

"When [George] Lois, born in 1931 to Greek immigrants, started plying his craft, the old-school (WASPy) advertising industry was rather staid and artless," writes Steven Heller in his positive review of George Lois On His Creation Of The Big Idea (Assouline, $50) in Sunday's New York Times Book Review. "Lois and his mentors, like Paul Rand and Reba Sochis, and colleagues like Helmut Krone, Gene Federico and Lou Dorfsman represented the first wave of 'ethnic' men and women -- mostly New Yorkers -- who joined agencies like William H. Weintraub and Doyle Dane Bernbach or started their own small …

The Journal is playing catch-up on this story, although it notes that McDonald's executives still maintain that the program is on track. We excerpted similar pieces from the Chicago Tribune in both February and May. The Journal story also reveals that customers have prompted McDonald's to test hot and cold drinks that are made with just chocolate, caramel and mint flavoring at some restaurants in the Detroit area.