Dollar General posted a bigger-than-expected increase in quarterly profit and total sales in line with Wall Street expectations. But the chain said it remained cautious about the rest of the year, amid heightened pricing competition. The company said it plans to open approximately 635 stores in fiscal 2013, including some 20 Dollar General Market stores and 40 Dollar General Plus stores. The company also plans to remodel or relocate a total of approximately 550 stores.

Mini has a Psychic Roadster website that gives visitors personalized readings about their future adventures, which, of course, would include the Mini. They can share their psychic reading with friends via Twitter, Facebook and email. "This is the kind of ground-breaking work that the launch of the new Mini Roadster warrants, injecting excitement into the Mini brand and a true British heritage brand such as Mini could take us on," says Dale Gall, CEO of Profero, which developed the campaign.

Urban Outfitters' 2012 Christmas holiday catalog is full of naughtiness, including a $16 "It was f---ing awesome" photo album and a block candle that boldly spells out the f-word in wax. There's even an $18 "Let's f---ing reminisce" book. Besides online critique, the company is also getting kudos from brand and marketing gurus. "It's brilliant, explosive, short-term marketing that generates buzz," says Marian Salzman, a national trend-spotter and CEO of Havas PR. "It's the right voice for the teen market."

With every brand doing content marketing, have we saturated the market with content? Writer Patrick Murphy, CEO of SiliconCloud asks, rhetorically, if the same themes are being hashed over and over around, for instance, the Holidays. "Were the majority Christmas related? What about November, was every post centered on the election? Or Felix Baumgartner in October? The Olympics in July? Content marketing works by creating content that gets found, read and shared online. Creating content around topical ideas is logical. But if your content gets found because of the festive spin, rather than the practical marketing element, what kind of …

Nissan's all-electric Leaf is two years old today. It's launch was huge, set the tone for the brand, and was meant to embody Nissan's tech and green-forward trajectory. Since then Nissan North America Inc. has been working to bring that message east of its stronghold in California. The company has sold 45,000 of the vehicles globally, and has seen sales ebb and flow, but keeps honing its marketing strategy.

The success of Apple TV's November 2013 launch will differ by country. Sanford C. Bernstein senior U.S. media analyst Todd Juenger told an investor briefing that Apple will have a tough time disrupting the U.S. TV market. "All of the content that people care about most is in the hands of the US media companies ... None of them has really any discernible upside to gain from entering into any agreement to make that content available to Apple." He added that they actually have a lot to lose by doing that.

India's government announced an inquiry into lobbying practices by Walmart after a report that the big box had pressed U.S. lawmakers to help gain access to foreign markets. The company admitted to the U.S. Senate that it had paid $25 million over four years to lobby American lawmakers to help gain access to overseas markets, including India. Opposition lawmakers want an inquiry into whether any money was spent in India, even though the disclosure filing only referred to lobbying activities in the United States.

Delta and Virgin Atlantic are hooking up. Delta Air lines is paying $360 million for a 49% stake in the U.K. airline. The stake had been held by Singapore Airlines, which bought it in 2000 for about $967 million. Delta had wanted more New York to U.K. business, as it had just three flights a day. The new JV triples that.

Thanks to social media, several sponsors are touting their involvement in the Super Bowl. SodaStream and Lincoln disclosed that they would, for the first time, become Super Bowl advertisers, and a third, Mercedes-Benz, offered details about what its commercial would be like.

The Boy Scouts of America have lost another corporate sponsor that wants no part of the organization's stance on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Following in the footsteps of Intel and UPS, the Merck Foundation announced it would suspend all funding to the Boy Scouts until the ban on gay scouts and scout leaders is lifted.