If I ran Toyota, I'd be marketing more aggressively than ever right now. With GM and Chrysler on the ropes, Toyota has the opportunity to grab market share by the handful. 

We hate to continue to beat up Starbucks. But, they continue to be a case study in poor strategic marketing. The latest: A branding campaign that tolls the virtues of buying fair-trade coffee beans and providing health care for part-time employees (no mention of the employee benefit cuts from last year). 

A look at IHOP's marketing provide's an entire semester's worth of education in a single glance. If you want to sell it tomorrow, market it today: When you have a waiting list for several consecutive hours during this economy (even on a weekend morning), you're either giving it away or you are getting a return on yesterday's investment.

As relevant as television is to popular culture, marketing, and society, the four major networks that have long been responsible for the direction of the medium will find themselves irrelevant in just a few short years.

A few weeks ago, Sonic Drive-ins introduced a value menu. I follow what Sonic does to a certain extent because they're headquartered in my hometown. So, I sometimes note analyst's opinions on the company as well. Wall Street doesn't appear to like the new value menu very much. 

Earlier in the year, we hammered Starbucks pretty hard for abusing, and ultimately losing, their market position as the exclusive ‘club' that everyone wanted to belong to. Too many stores, too many products, and a suggestion of mass retailer. Obviously, they paid for their mistakes - hardly turning a profit last quarter.

I live in Big 12 country. Which is also Dr. Pepper country. I watch a lot of sports. Due to the fact that Dr. Pepper sponsors Big 12 sports, I am exposed to their ads quite often. Or should I say ad? The ad with Julius Erving (aka Dr. J.) shooting an ice cube into a glass. I must have seen this ad at least 50 times in the past year. My guess is that many of you have similar habits and have seen it too many times as well.

It’s hard to resist the urge to lower the prices of your retail products or services during these times, but you must realize that if you do so, you are taking a risk.

At first glance, Yoplait’s pink lid collection drive is pretty clever. Buy the product with the pink lids (only the pink ones), send them in to Yoplait and they will make a 10 cent donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for each one they receive. They will donate between $500,000 and $1.5 million to Komen, depending on how many are turned in.

Flown lately? If so, you probably paid about $15 for checking a bag. If you paid $320 for your flight, wouldn't you rather have paid $335 when you booked it and been done with it? Instead of delaying your check-in and being forced to pay again? I realize that Internet travel sites sort by lowest price. 

So, Time Warner is going to shed AOL from its portfolio of media properties. Big news in the media world and Wall Street alike. Like so many other companies in 2000, TW over-estimated the value of convergence as we knew it and subsequently took about $100 billion in write-downs. Ouch.

During a recent conversation with a guy I know, he revealed to me that he knows exactly what will motivate prospects to try his brand and how to keep them once he has them. Basically, this marketer used some sort of internal matrix to figure out what drove his best customers to his door and what made them stay.