Mark Scott, Kimberly-Clark's vp of shopper marketing and sales planning, tells Elaine Wong that it has been offering consumers various incentives to boost loyalty, such as a nationwide sampling effort for its Kleenex facial tissue with lotion. Meanwhile, over in Adweek, Mark Dolliver reports that while most shoppers admit that they habitually buy the same brands (69%), 46% "actively look through stores for products that are new and different." And 54% agree (16% "completely") that "if a brand is on sale, I will purchase it over the name-brand I regularly use."

Barry Janoff reports that the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council says nearly 22 million hot dogs will be served this baseball season. Fans at Boston's Fenway Park can probably look forward to the stuff-your-face title (about 1.5 million wieners bought and eaten), if nothing else of import come this autumn (but that's not Barry reporting, that's me opining).

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission says Coca-Cola could have misled consumers with ads saying its products won't make them fat or rot their teeth. Corrective ads titled "Setting The Record Straight" will run Saturday in major Australian newspapers.

JWT is working with Microsoft on an $80-100 million campaign for its new search engine -- dubbed Kumo or Project Kiev or Live Search, depending on who's talking about it -- that reportedly positions it as a re-imagined product that yields fewer but more-focused results than Yahoo or Google. The proposed strategy of not competing directly against the big boys of search "is probably a good -- if not the only -- way to go," write Abbey Klaassen and Rupal Parekh. Microsoft's search engine has languished in third place and its share of the category dropped almost 15% …

Borders Group plans to scale back its multimedia inventory -- including CDs and DVDs -- and will focus on book sales, offering more children's, cooking and biography titles. The return to its roots as an outlet for serious readers is part of an effort to revitalize sales following another year of losses, Jaclyn Trop reports. The company will concentrate on customer outreach "to regain our status as a bookseller for serious readers," new CEO Ron Marshall said Wednesday during a conference call. Over the years, the store's focus expanded beyond books and magazines to include music, gifts and stationery, …

Consumer advocates say that AT&T is trying to handicap a direct competitor by restricting the new Skype Internet calling feature on the iPhone to Wi-Fi and not allowing it on its cellular or 3G network, Leslie Cauley reports. Chris Murray, senior counsel to Consumers Union, says that the arrangement "highlights the urgent need for Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to clarify that the wireless Internet will be open just like the regular Internet." Jim Cicconi, AT&T's top public policy executive, says AT&T has "every right" not to promote the services of a wireless rival. Technically, the limitation on …

Ryan Kim reports that BlackBerry has opened Mobile App World, a new mobile storefront for BlackBerry programs that will compete head to head with Apple's App Store. Nokia throws open the doors to its Ovi Store next month, while Palm will begin selling apps with the release of the Palm Pre sometime in the first half of this year. Microsoft plans to start Marketplace for Mobile with apps for Windows phones later this year. And Google started selling applications in February at its Android Market. Catching Apple will be a challenge. Since opening in July, its iPhone App Store …