Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has started selling a Blu-ray disc player for what is probably the lowest retail price you can find one at: $229. I've said many times in the past that this new format will not catch on with consumers until retail prices routinely get to less than $200, so this new price from Target is nearing that mark. Of course, panicked U.S. consumers probably won't be buying any Blu-ray players the remainder of this year as they watch what wealth they did have evaporate in the markets.

The Target model is an Olevia brand player (yes, that's an off-brand), which marks a $70 reduction from a recent Sony Blu-ray player that is being sold alongside the Olevia player for $299. Still, unless there is some breakthrough difference that Blu-ray manufacturers and retailers can market correctly, most U.S. consumers will stay with their progressive-scan DVD players that sell for $75 or less and have a perfectly fine picture (although not true high-definition).

So, perhaps sometime in late 2009 -- roughly a year from now -- the market will see $99 Blu-ray players and regular consumers may finally feel the urge to buy one and start re-purchasing their movie libraries in yet another format. That is, until super-duper, high-fidelity Purple-ray players hit the market sometime in 2014 and the cycle repeats yet again. Perhaps by then, we'll all be out of this economic funk and won't be protecting our cash hoards, however little they may be by then.

If you're a Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) user, you probably enjoy the relatively high quality of the company's products at t cost of -- zero. How does Google give all this away for free, you ask? It's the same as any other company on the web that features quality products at no cost. The cost is your privacy. You are paying, and paying big.

Do you mind? It's hard to say what kind of personal, financial and psychological profile Google has on millions of its customers, but you can believe that this massive marketing database exists. How Google manages this will be the most important decision in the company's young, decade-old existence, but the question remains: do many of us sell our souls for freebies? Every time you sign up for something free but fill out a complete demographic profile to get it, you're selling out. Google is doing nothing different -- but its scale is so huge that all this data controlled by one entity does cause for concern among the informed consumer inside us all. It should, anyway.

Google, like anyone in business who is savvy, knows that giving away products or services for "free" on the front end is made up for on the back end. In other words, would you rather pay for every single product or service you use and not have any entity know how to market to you -- or would you rather get a good majority of your products and services at no cost but with the attached condition that there are many entities out there that know you better than you know yourself?

More importantly, they know how to push your exact buttons to have you behaving like a robotic consumer or a slot machine junkie? With the U.S. consumer responsible for two-thirds of economic activity (as little as that is at the moment), the harnessing of this kind of power becomes clear. Okay, I'm off to perform a Google search...

It's being reported that Playboy's (NYSE: PLA) Hugh Hefner's relationship with Holly Madison is over. Madison, as you probably know, was Hefner's head girlfriend, but he has two others as well: Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquadt. The four of them star in a reality show called The Girls Next Door, which runs on the E! channel. It's a pretty fun show, although it does make me maddeningly envious of Hef's lifestyle. That aside, it seems to be a decent brand ambassador for the Playboy image. Unfortunately, the popularity of the show hasn't been enough to offset losses at the media company. Playboy's stock currently sits below $3 a share. It is the exact opposite of one of Hef's playmates: downright depressingly ugly.

Well, I can't really comment as to how the Hefner/Madison affair will turn out. Will she go back with him? Is this just a publicity stunt? I simply don't know. However, I would imagine that, with Playboy's stock in the dumps, a breakup might be an event that could be exploited to help out the company. Let's face it: the whole three-girlfriend thing is pretty much an orchestrated machine anyway. So, if Madison truly does feel like she's ready to move on with her career, I think Hef should clean house and get rid of the other two girls as well. Then, he could go on a search for three new girls next door (or maybe he should search for more, why stop at just three?). It could be an integrated media campaign spanning the magazine, the website, and a new reality show.

Google, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube continues to take the lion's share of the online video market. Although startup Hulu.com -- which will broadcast the U.S. Presidential candidate debate live tonight -- has come on strong, YouTube has it. Everyone from teens with $69 digital cameras to professional videographers are uploading video footage to the site.

Google announced recently that it was upping the file size of uploaded video to the site as well -- by a factor of 10. Going from 100 Megabytes to 1 Gigabyte per uploaded video is amazing in and of itself, but this will make YouTube all the more attractive to those who want to take rather exhaustive video and upload it for all to see while not being constrained.

For example, five minutes of video on a standard digital camera (just an average, of course) will easily eat up 100 Megabytes of storage. Since we're not all video compression experts, Google -- with this change -- has just allowed its online video universe to expand in a huge way.

In addition to the video file size increase, YouTube's new uploader will allow multiple file uploads at the same time. This is also a rather large change from the "upload and wait" scenario of the past. Although Google surely wants to make more money from the massive amount of video viewed every minute on YouTube, giving regular customers the ability to have larger videos (and several at one) uploaded should just push it that much further in front of the online video pack. What it needs now is to lift the 10-minute limitation for non-partners. But then again, that would invite a whole new universe of copyright piracy. Maybe.

Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is ditching the warehouse-blue store format that it's grown famous for. Well, not really -- but in some newer stores in Denver, that cheery blue is being supplemented by earth tones and skylights as the largest consumer electronics chain in the U.S. sets its sights on the female demographic. That's right -- the anti-gadget crowd who rolls both eyes when guys start salivating over that 50-inch flat screen television.

Women do have a huge (indirect) impact on consumer electronics sales, although the merchandising most retailers push definitely fits the male buying persona. So, instead of the gray, techie feel where those large flat-panel displays generally reside, Best Buy will be placing some (if not all) of those televisions into staged rooms that look like a set from a typical home. What a better way to visualize that new purchase than by seeing how it looks in the real world, right? Ever sold a home and staged it to sell? Same thing.

Best Buy even asked 40 local female customers to work with its employees to help them form ideas. In other words, merchandise your products in a way that makes them comfortable to be around and use, not as cold hard hunks of steel, plastic and chrome. Serving the needs of women shoppers better is a perfect way to grow sales in this economic state (if that's even doable) -- Best Buy certainly has the right idea here. There's nothing better than involving your customers in decisions that affect how they purchase, right?

Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares hit another multi-year low, trading down to $15.54, off by more than half from its 52-week high of $34.08. That high was driven by a buyout offer from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), but Yahoo! now trades well below the level where it changed hands before Redmond came calling.

Yahoo!'s market cap is below $22 billion. By some estimates its ownership of Yahoo! Japan and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba are worth $10 billion. That means that Yahoo!'s core business trades at only two times sales, a remarkably low figure.

Two fears have pushed Yahoo! down. The most obvious is that its share of the search market in the U.S. has fallen to about 20% and continues to drop. It may form a partnership with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to push up its revenue in this arena, but the deal is being challenged by antitrust authorities.

The major reason behind Yahoo!'s drop is one that would tend to push the shares down more over time. Wall Street has believed that internet display advertising, Yahoo!'s key revenue business, would continue to grow at rates of more than 20% for the next several years. Recent evidence is that many marketers do not consider online display ads to be very effective, maybe even less effective than TV. Some large internet firms have watched their growth rates drop to single digits.

Yahoo! may be up against a problem that has no easy solution.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Not a day goes by that the market is not obsessed with the latest move or product launch at Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Most recently, the media has been all over the company's energy initiatives and its Android smartphone launch. To a large extent, the coverage takes attention away from the fact that the recession is slowing the company's size growth. But very few people seem to spend a lot of news cycles on that.

Google is currently having an internal debate about whether it should spend money to advertise its own brand and products. It is probably a waste of money because the company is already in a number of businesses that drive up its expenses without bringing in a dime.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "The search giant has recently held discussions with several Madison Avenue agencies, including Wieden + Kennedy and the boutique firm Taxi New York, about new efforts to promote some products, according to people familiar with the matter."

The question is what does Google have worth promoting? It already owns the search business, so marketing that product would seem to be a waste of money. Its other major products for searching images, news and maps don't bring in any revenue, so advertising them would appear to be burning money.

A lot of corporate advertising is meant to make management feel good. Google does not need name recognition and it is hard to see why the search company would want to promote one of the most famous brands in the world or any of its free offerings.

But Google does have cash to spare, and that usually drives a temptation to spend it.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

No wonder Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) is losing customers fast. The third-largest wireless provider in the U.S. announced a new "MyMoneyManager" program last Thursday that sounds like the nicest thing for your Sprint phone since sliced bread. The only problem is this: the new downloadable application meant for your Sprint handset lists compatible Sprint cellphones that looks like the "who's who" of the Sprint handset lineup from sometime in 2007. Umm, Sprint: it's October 2008.

This is the kind of thing that not only makes Sprint subscribers confused and angry, but gives a terrible PR black eye to a wireless company that has lost hundreds of thousands of customers in the recent year. Sprint should work hard to announce new applications that actually are meant for and usable by its current product lineup -- not from outdated models that are not even for sale any longer.

The reason customers have not embraced using applications on their cellphones is due to the "works there/doesn't work there" framework that the wireless industry just can't seem to figure out. Unless it's universal across a product line, why even bother? Sure, there are several wireless phone manufacturers and models, all of which are different. Add to that the protectionist tendencies wireless providers have and it's no wonder why consumers find it hard or impossible to do things on these technologically-advanced phones that marketing departments want them to. With examples like this, it'll never happen. Can you hear me? Good.

Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) wants to educate its patrons. No, it's not going to be offering history lessons to go along with its personal pizzas, fried chicken and burritos. It just wants to make sure you know exactly how many calories are in the stuff you eat at its restaurants. The information will be posted at company-owned locations over the next few years. Management is hoping that franchise locations will also participate in the initiative (I'm sure most eventually will).

Personally, I think this is a great idea. How could anybody be opposed? After all, if I'm in a Pizza Hut, I want to know how much damage I'm doing to myself. Yes, I am one of those people who actually checks out the nutrition pages on the sites of fast-food joints such as McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Burger King (NYSE: BKC) and Wendy's Arby's Group (NYSE: WEN).

But yes, there is a downside for shareholders when this type of information is made available. Indeed, the more I've learned about the health effects of a bad diet, the more conservative I've been about going to a KFC or a McDonald's. No doubt Yum! will see some challenges from people scaling back on buying the junk food it sells. Will there be a significant effect? Will Yum! and its various chains disappear as a result of this decision? No. Management will simply adjust, if it becomes necessary, and will try to offer healthier selections.

Billboard announced last week that Best Buy Stores, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is rumored to be the exclusive retailer for the continuously pending Guns n' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, by the end of 2008. For anyone who does not know about this album, it is likely to be one of the longest produced and most expensive in the history of the music business; it went into production in the mid-1990s.

Helping to fuel this rumor is the band's new management, Irving Azoff's Front Line Management, which has a history of releasing new albums exclusively through single retailers. Front Line released the Eagles return album Long Road Out of Eden through Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) a year ago with massive success. The "new" Guns n' Roses album would predictably see similar success when and if it is ever released, and Best Buy is smart to be grasping at the exclusivity if it is more than a rumor.

But will the album's release recoup the amount of money spent producing it? This is one of the major reasons the album is continuously unreleased, despite rumors of release dates and its appearances on release schedules. A March 2005 article by the New York Times stated that production costs had reached $13 million, a figure that could only have increased in the following three and a half years. These high figures raise the question of whether the album will truly be worth release financially, even if it is critically or popularly successful.

Science-fiction has proffered worlds where advertising is instantaneously and specifically delivered to individuals, sometimes through such wondrous devices as brain implants. As we move along the timeline, it's interesting to see how much of that isn't actually fiction anymore, but indeed, science. Take the following article, for example. It discusses a cafe that has screens next to cash registers that attempt to increase sales by displaying images of appropriate add-on items. One of the examples given was of a pastry suddenly appearing on the screen upon the order of a coffee.

That doesn't sound so bad, but what about the following? The article mentions that an Israeli business, YCD Multimedia, has a technology that can scan the faces of customers and then utilize algorithms to reveal demographical information about them, such as gender and a rough idea about age. The rest becomes obvious: advertising can then be matched to the demographic, yielding the ultimate in instantaneous targeted marketing. There apparently are some trials underway in this country, but they seem to be on the lowdown.

Now, we all know the problem here. Do you really want to walk into a retail store and be scanned? Do you want a piece of software converting you into zeroes and ones for the sole purpose of extracting money from you in the form of promotional advertising and/or offers? Maybe a big needle should extend out of the cash register and poke you in the finger so that a DNA sample can be taken and analyzed so that, a nanosecond later, it'll know exactly what your likes and dislikes are and go from there. Actually, I'm just being funny on that last one, I put that in a short sci-fi story I wrote a while ago about the dark side of retail and customer service.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is stepping into the consumer-created advertising content kingdom. It announced today that it will run a national ad featuring a short film that recently won an online competition.

This is the secret that many companies are just now learning: your customers are your best advertising asset. When it comes to something as passionate about talking about the 2010 Ford Mustang, you definitely want to get out of your customer's way, right?

This reminds me of Tide's "Talking Stain" ad during the last Super Bowl. The ad was more than a pitch for the product; it also sent viewers to Tide's website where they could send in their own "Talking Stain" video entries. Prizes were available and everything. The commercial was fairly low-budget, but the message and the strategy were brilliant. Perhaps Ford is trying to latch onto some of that effort. It's about time.

The advertising industry's "same old, same old" tack on strategic consumer messaging is tired, no matter how innovative the ad glitz is. Engaging consumers by encouraging a two-way line of communication is where it's at for a whole new crop of consumers.

This is the first in a weekly series about the car business. The auto industry plays an important role in the global economy, but record-high oil prices and a global slowdown have created a crisis in the sector. This column will highlight some of the interesting stories that emerge as that crisis plays out.

Sure, the economy is in the tank and the stock market is teetering on the edge of a very steep cliff. But the severity of the situation really hit home with shocking news about a beloved secular American feast day: General Motors (NYSE:GM) announced this week that it will not buy ad time during the 2009 Super Bowl (that's Super Bowl XLIII for all you Roman numeral lovers).

It seems that it was just yesterday that GM was promoting the new 2007 Cadillac Escalade at Super Bowl XL. Sales of the Escalade -- perhaps the most over-the-top of the gigantic SUVs that so many Americans fell in love with -- had been falling, and GM hoped to recapture consumers' bling-addled imaginations with a shiny new model displayed, appropriately enough, on a fashion runway. It was not to be, though, as Escalade sales continued to fall.

And who can forget GM's adorable suicide robot ad from Super Bowl XLI? Some stick-in-the-muds found it a bit insensitive, but it did get people talking. It did not, however, help GM increase its sales.

And that's the basic problem. Critics have long argued that GM relies too heavily on cheap redesigns and flashy advertising to sell cars, rather than focusing on good engineering and construction. The fact that GM is bailing out on the biggest advertising day in the media calendar suggests just how desperate it is. Maybe it has learned the lesson that you can't sell cars no one wants, no matter how much you spend on advertising. Let's hope that the money saved on Super Bowl ads is spent on making cars that can compete with Toyota (NYSE:TM) and Honda (NYSE: HMC).

Wednesday afternoon following the market close, Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) will be reporting its fiscal first quarter earnings, and analysts are looking to see the company show earnings for the quarter of 92 cents per share.

The last time that the company reported was back on June 25, when it was able to beat out Wall Street estimates by two pennies, with a reported 98 cents per share for its fiscal fourth quarter, mostly a result of strong international demand, which was able to overcome weak consumer spending that hurt the company at home in the U.S. In fact, to find the last time that the company reported quarterly figures under Wall Street estimates, you would have to go all the way back to its fiscal fourth quarter 2006 when it missed by a penny, with a reported 70 cents per share.

On a year over year basis, should Nike come in with 92 cents per share, it would be a 16.9% drop from the $1.12 that it was able to earn during the first quarter of 2007.

Parents rejoice: Bratz dolls are going the way of the hula hoop!

The sexed up Barbies on collagen injections that have been the subject of a 9-figure lawsuit involving Mattel (NYSE: MAT) and MGA Entertainment are not expected to be the hit this holiday season that they have been in recent years.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that Target (NYSE: TGT) will be slashing Bratz-devoted shelf space by 50%, and annual sales of the dolls are expected to fall 25% to $300 million. Wal-Mart (NSYE: WMT) has also slashed its Bratz orders and many retailers are offering steep discounts on the dolls, indicative of an inventory glut.

The decline of Bratz is bad news for Mattel, which is locked in litigation over rights to a brand that appears to be rapidly declining in value.

In addition, Bratz's risque image is causing problems for the company. Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL) has pulled Bratz books from its roster after parents and psychologists complained that the dolls modeled "precocious sexuality."