With smaller screens, narrower keyboards, less computing power and a price tag of under $500, netbooks are expanding the laptop market by making it more affordable for families to own multiple computers, analysts say.

Good, hard, actionable marketing news has been hard to come by all week. The business pages have been dominated by (poor) earning results, (dire) forecasts, (glum) predictions and (rueful) confessionals, such as Alan Greenspan's Thursday that he was "wrong on regulation ." That doesn't mean you haven't been busy out there, of course. This morning's advertising columns in the Times and Journal take a similar tack -- which they (surprisingly) seldom do -- by rounding up a bunch of campaigns that appeal to the consumer's inner penny pincher. "An Old Buzzword Is Back: …

If you talked to 25,142 consumers from January to August this year, as the researchers for Keller Fay Group did, the brand name you'd have heard dropped most often is not exactly a whippersnapper in the marketplace such as Apple or Google or Yahoo or Wii, which seem to overpopulate the headlines. It's good, ol' Coca-Cola, reports Elaine Wong. "We're actively and consistently fueling buzz through innovative efforts like the nearly 11 million-household My Coke Rewards program ... top-rated Super Bowl and Internet advertising, and an Olympic program that connected the world over a …

So reads the headline on the MSNBC/AP story. But the headline in the Detroit Free Press ' version offers a different angle: "Ford Called Most Reliable Of U.S.-Brand Cars, Trucks." The key paragraph is the fourth: "Despite Ford's strong performance, Consumer Reports, which is based in Yonkers, N.Y., said the top 10 most-reliable brands sold in America are all owned by Asian automakers." The Detroit News also plays up Ford's domestic triumph: "Ford Builds Most Reliable American Cars, Consumer Reports Magazine Says"

Young people are having an increasing influence on the food that is eaten at mealtimes in the home and a Mintel survey shows that teens in particular are receptive to healthy eating messages. "Companies need to find ways to reinvent home-based meals and energize healthy snacking, so today's youth can see the benefits of better nutrition and take action," says Chris Haack, senior analyst at Mintel. When asked why they eat what they eat, Mintel found that 42% of kids and teens reach for foods that give them more energy. Also 35% purposefully eat foods that are rich …

How's this for a teaser? A Journal email news alert for a "Heard on the Street" piece steals James Simms' lede: "Sony's executives might want to think of other jobs that match their skill set: Promising the sky and failing to deliver." It turns out that the company cut its full-year earnings forecast for the second time this year. Japan's Nikkei was down more than 9% following the announcement, and the banter on my local news radio station this morning partially blamed negative trading in futures on Sony's poor results. We are grateful we …