The Old Family Tea Business Gets a New-Media Spin

I’ve always called consumers personally if they had a problem. So using the new media is an extension of a philosophy we already knew — take care of your customers, talk to them. I create videos for YouTube and young people respond with their own. I watch a few every week and laugh. It’s so great to see a 23-year-old from the middle of the country holding up her box of Bigelow Tea. How great is it to be able to see all kinds of people, with their own styles, wanting to talk about Bigelow Tea on the Internet?

New York Times

Kool-Aid Retooled for Healthier Times

Kraft Foods Inc. has reformulated several of its Kool-Aid drinks and launched a new Kool-Aid water beverage to revitalize the brand and bring it more in line with Kraft's nutritional guidelines.

AOL Money

NEW Starbucks Chocolate

Hydrox Cookies Back for a Limited Time

Kellogg is resurrecting the 100-year-old Hydrox cookie in response to a consumer campaign that involved more than 1,300 phone calls, 1,000 petition signatures and "countless online message board postings."

Ad Age

Chip + Caffeine = Engobi

engobi.com

Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookie Ad

Beyond Madison Avenue

Cookbook Publishers Try to Think Small

“It’s not like the books didn’t exist five years ago, but they were very introductory, very dessert driven, or very one-size-fits-all,” said Melanie Rhodes, a children’s book buyer for Borders, where sales of children’s cookbooks have jumped by a third in the past year. “What we’re seeing now are publishers who are a little more tuned into the real food audience.”

New York Times

Kraft, Kellogg Beat Analyst Expectations

In the face of rising commodity costs and cautious consumers, most brand-name food manufacturers are continuing to increase marketing investment. Kraft and Kellogg, which both reported earnings this morning, credited advertising and marketing with the strength of the companies' respective brand portfolios. Both marketers saw profits drop and simultaneously beat analyst expectations.

Ad Age