What's one change the federal government should implement quickly to increase revenue and also end a needless subsidy? Increase mail rates for business.

Investors know it's the fall season - a time when students return to school and Americans get back to work. But it's also catalogue season – catalogues that consumers often have a hard time convincing companies to remove them from their lists, despite not having considered a purchase from them in eons.

By any historical standard, it's been a horrible recession. Just surviving has been a big accomplishment.

However, this "survivor mentality" can be a problem. If anything, it can prevent your business from eventually growing.

Growing? Yes, that's right. Taking a look at the recent economic indicators, it does look like the economy is on the mend.

Across the country, college classes are starting. In each of these classrooms, students are struggling with calculus, trudging through Candide, and wondering just what the hell they're going to do with their degrees upon graduation. The last of these is characteristic of every college student, especially those of us, with the foresight fortitude recklessness zeal to major in liberal arts fields (in my case, Philosophy).

The anxiety is a bit higher this year, given a high rate of unemployment, the likelihood of a "jobless recovery" and the fact that it could take years for destroyed value to be recovered.

In a move to bring profitability to its popular video sharing site YouTube, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has inked a deal with Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: TWX) to show clips of the company's television shows and movies.

When Google announced back in 2006 that it would be paying $1.65 billion for the popular video sharing site, a lot of critics questioned whether or not the company would be able to turn a profit from the site, which at the time had around 46% of the online video market share.

Tomorrow morning before the bell, The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) will have its chance to impress Wall Street when it reports its fourth quarter numbers.

Going into tomorrow's announcement, analysts are expecting the company to show earnings on the quarter of $8.17 per share. Should the company hit this estimate, it would be a decline of 16.5% from its reported $9.79 during its fourth quarter 2007.

Even during good times, marketing is not easy. You need to find the right message and medium. And, especially for traditional marketing channels, it can be tough to measure success.

But, with the treacherous economy, things are even more challenging. For example, what is the right way to message your company – especially when many people are losing their jobs?

Well, let's take a look at some ideas:

Be sensitive to the mood: In the current environment, your marketing message must not be frivolous. "The marketing you do should address your audience in a way that acknowledges they are making difficult choices about how they spend their money," said Adam Toren, who is the cofounder of YoungEntrepreneur.com.

In today's sports culture, there is a word that almost always piques the interest of the die-hard fan and the sports pop culture enthusiast as well. That word? Throwbacks. You know, when the New York Jets come out in the navy and gold of the New York Titans; the Cleveland Cavaliers ditch their current unis to wear the orange and blue made popular in the late 80s, the Cincinnati Reds ditch their current uni for the double knits of the Big Red Machine, it happens all over the sporting world. However, one place where I never thought I would hear of throwbacks is in the beverage world. Yes, the beverage world.

In the ultimate example of an advertising campaign that's ripe for the internet, Burger King Holdings (NYSE: BKC) started selling Flame, a $3.99 perfume for men that smells like -- wait for it -- a flame-broiled hamburger. And an informal Boston Herald survey reveals that the scent of a burger appeals to some people.

Burger King, which sells Flame through Rickey's, a New York City retailer, and at firemeetsdesire.com, bills Flame as "a new men's body spray: the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat." Unbelievably, some who have sniffed this concoction find it appealing.

Here are two favorable quotes from the Herald:

• Alyse Hawco, 14, said, "It smells like cinnamon. I'd buy it for my brother."
• Salami Caushi, 55, said, "It's very nice," and after spraying Flame on his wrist and then taking a long sniff, he remarked, "Yes, nice."

For Citigroup (NYSE: C) to regain the confidence of Wall Street it will have to start doing a few things right. Firing 53,000 people probably does not qualify. After that news, Citi hit another 52-week low at $7.80, down from a 52-week high of $35.29.

More losses won't help. Some bank analysts believe that Citi's consumer credit portfolio and derivative assets will cause negative earnings right through 2009.

Now, the big bank gave investors another reason to turn their backs as it closed one more of its hedge funds, which lost 53% of its value in a month. Taking the value of assets down that much in such a short period probably requires as much skill as showing an increase of a similar size. In other words, it is extraordinary.

According to the FT, "Citigroup is liquidating its Corporate Special Opportunities hedge fund after it lost 53 per cent of its value last month, marking the ninth time in recent months that the bank has had to close or rescue a fund." At its peak, the fund had over $4 billion in assets.

The point in this is not only that Citi keeps making mistakes. In addition, the bank might as well fire its entire public relations and corporate communications staff. They are of no use to the firm as long as it keeps cutting its own throat in front of the press and shareholders. Dispensing with the PR group could be part of the big, planned layoff. No one would miss them

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

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.

According to Moneyweb, software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is hooking up with Jerry Seinfeld. No, they're not trying to revive the comedian's sitcom career (although that would be cool). It seems Microsoft is feeling a bit blah about its brand equity, so it's looking to initiate a hip advertising campaign that will tout the company's image and its powerful Windows Vista technology.

No doubt, the advertising campaign from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) that makes fun of the PC-Windows platform has a lot to do with it. I love those commercials, and I think it's about time Microsoft came to its senses and decided to do something serious to answer them. A campaign with Seinfeld, if done with a maximum amount of creative wit, will work wonders. But of course, that's the point -- it has to be done right. Seinfeld is a big name, and his presence carries a lot of weight with consumers.

Still, I have reservations about using him in an ad campaign. Am I the only one who wasn't impressed by his American Express commercials? I liked Seinfeld in his famous television show, but seeing him pitch charge cards didn't make me want to apply for one. I thought he was boring in the format.

Apparently, ad firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky will be doing the ads featuring Seinfeld, and they were the creative force behind the Burger King commercials with the creepy King mascot. Those commercials rock. It would be nice if the firm could do something as edgy with Seinfeld and Microsoft, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm not sure that kind of lightning could strike twice.

Advertising revenue at big media companies is being beat up by the economy. Traditional media like newspapers are losing boat loads of money to the internet.

With most large TV network companies showing flat revenue and newspaper chains struggling with double-digit losses, the falloff in auto advertising is likely to make the second half much worse.

According to The New York Times, "In the first quarter alone, the auto industry spent $414 million less on advertising than in last year's first quarter, according to TNS Media Intelligence."

What can media companies do? For one thing, give money-losing companies a discount. For a newspaper or magazine to print extra pages adds only modest expense. Putting extra banners on internet sites costs next to nothing. The same is true with TV ads. They cost money to produce but not to run. In other words, cut-rate car ads are better than no car ads. Media companies may have lower margins, but at least their revenue does not have to drop of a cliff.

From a media standpoint call it the "auto company preservation act.". Detroit may not make it out of its current dilemma alive. Any help it gets increases it chances to become healthy again. If the domestic auto business can recover, so will its marketing spending.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

In this series, we take a look at the 25 stocks on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that have turned in the worst performance during the past decade -- what went wrong, and what happens next.

New York-based Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG) is a marketing services firm, but they're not your average PR hucksters. Flip through IPG's resume, and you'll find that they were once tapped as the "brand steward" for Coca-Cola Classic. Is there a more solemn task in the world of marketing? Perhaps -- Coke also handed IPG the reins on Cherry Coke, but jealously guarded its Sprite brand from the mega-marketer's grasp.

What went wrong? At number 22 on our list of SPX underperformers, IPG lost 72% of its value from June 30, 1998 through June 30, 2008. The worst of the stock's woes occurred during the first several years after the turn of the millennium. A broad economic slowdown led many clients to trim their spending on advertising, and -- as one of four "megacompanies" that essentially ruled Madison Avenue -- IPG couldn't help but feel the pinch.

Even as the marketing behemoth faced down this fundamental challenge, an accounting fiasco caused the company to restate six years' worth of financial results. Interpublic soon found itself facing a formal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, along with an IRS audit over the small matter of $41.5 million in unpaid taxes.

Hershey (NYSE: HSY) is having growth problems. Not only is it tough just navigating this high-inflationary period, but it's difficult keeping up with the competition. Consumers have a lot of candy choices, and even though Hershey is a big brand name in confections, it thinks it can do better in the marketing department. According to this Wall Street Journal (subscription required) piece, Hershey intends on implementing a 20% increase in spending for promotions.

This double-digit jump in marketing is a smart move, but it won't be easy to digest. With the aforementioned inflationary pressures on the rise, Hershey is going to be sufficiently challenged to push growth while balancing the upward trends in input costs. But is there really a choice here? When you have a super brand like Hershey running into trouble, the thing you need to do is get out there and prop up the inherent equity of the product portfolio.

Yet, there's a bit of a conundrum here, I think. Hershey needs to get people to buy its delicious candies (I'm certainly a fan of the awesome Reese's Peanut Butter Cup). Which demographic loves sweets? Younger kids. They would have represented a great group for growth opportunities, but Hershey has to be careful about marketing too much to this demo since the country has, rightly so, been focusing on healthy alternatives to fatty foods. Even though Hershey has been trying to make some of its portfolio healthier, the flagship brands will always be, one assumes, sugary and full of empty calories. In fact, Hershey is more than aware of this issue, as this corporate link demonstrates.

A few days ago, something -- I don't remember what -- reminded me of one of best parts of going back to school when I was a youngster in the early to mid-1990s: the Trapper Keeper.

I hadn't seen one in years, but a quick internet search revealed that while Mead discontinued the product, it reintroduced a new version of the Trapper Keeper in 2007. I might have to get one. So that got me thinking about old brands that I miss and I wondered: Companies spend millions to develop brands into household names only to discontinue them after a rough patch or merger. Might there be some value in the brands -- even years after they've been removed from shelves.

Turns out I'm not as creative as I thought. A cool company called River West Brands does nothing but acquire, incubate and launch long-dead brands. The current portfolio includes Coleco, Salon Selectives, and Brim coffee. The company also acquired -- and has since relaunched and sold -- other brands including Nuprin and Structure.

Rob Walker's feature story for The New York Times Magazine takes a look at River West, and it's one of the best business stories I've read this year. It's a fascinating look at reviving brands, marketing, and the tricks our minds play on us that make us remember products we've never seen before fondly.