In challenging economic times it is imperative for marketers to act on the truism that when the available market share decreases, your marketing plan needs to increase. Increasing your plan does not mean spending more, it means that your plan must get much more cost-efficient, making the same budget work harder. Is your plan due for a tune-up?

Corporate apologies are piling up. Mattel CEO Robert Eckert apologized before a Senate subcommittee for lead paint found in millions of the company's toys. TD Ameritrade CEO Joe Moglia apologized for a database breach that compromised customer addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Apple CEO Steve Jobs apologized for cutting the price of the high-end iPhone to $399 just weeks after die-hard customers waited in long lines to pay $599. And the list goes on. Crisis management is nothing new, but new tools and strategies are emerging according to Knowledge @ Wharton, the business school's online journal.

America's business elite - senior executives, CEOs and other C-suite officers from mid- to large-size companies, including many from the Fortune 500 - have a ferocious appetite for quality business information, according to the new BE:USA 2007 survey carried out by Ipsos Media.

Gossip is more powerful than truth, according to a recent study by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggesting that people believe what they hear through the grapevine even if they have direct evidence to the contrary.