Stores' Brand Identity Is In The Bag!

"For Walmart's identity, these bags make perfect sense--they are a great value, and they fit right in with the store's image of not wasting money," says Erin Read Ruddick, client services director for Creating Results, a strategic marketing company in Barrington, RI. "Not wasting things is just good Yankee thrift, and it goes to the core of the chain's identity."

Media Post

MMMMM. . . . Burrito . . . . MMMM . . . Long Lines

It appears that the greatest news in Downtown Cincinnati is that Chipotle (Owned by McDonalds) will be expanding their Burrito Empire to Fountain Square. I'm sure that many, many, many hours will be spent waiting in line if their Hyde Park location is any indication.



If though, you don't feel like standing in line at Chipotle you can try some of these Chipotle recipes at home.

By the way, if you want to pick me up something, I'll take a Chicken Bowl with tons of Chipotle Sauce.

Wrigley shareholders approve $23B sale to Mars

The Mars-Wrigley deal has ignited a wave of speculation in recent months of further consolidation in the confectionary business. The most recent, which popped up this week in Britain's Daily Telegraph, has Nestle angling to buy a stake in Hershey Co., the big U.S. chocolate candy maker.

Chicago Tribune

Good Earth Coffee Brews Pledge to Save Planet

At a time when Procter & Gamble and Kraft are fighting over plastic coffee container patents, Good Earth is trying to convince consumers to help save the earth by creating less waste.

BrandWeek

Junk Science

According to research firm Mintel, the market for functional foods jumped 42 percent, adjusted for inflation, between 2002 and 2007, driven in part by product introductions increasing tenfold during that time. American consumers are getting a crash course in what critics contend is the faux science of food marketing as they are bombarded by a dizzying range of food and beverages touting benefits from omega-3, probiotics, prebiotics, fiber and antioxidants. Some of the country's biggest marketers have seen their health benefits questioned, including Coca-Cola and Kraft with vitamin-enhanced drinks, Tropicana orange juice, Quaker Oats, Eggland's Best eggs and Sara Lee Whole Grain White Bread.

AdWeek

Another suit filed against Kraft in coffee container war

Procter & Gamble claims that a new four-pound plastic container for Maxwell House violates patents on Folgers' containers. Procter & Gamble filed a similar suit in federal court in August 2007 when Maxwell House was introduced in a 39-ounce plastic container.

Chicago Tribune

Economy May Be Rotten, but It's Ripe for Package Food

Campbell Soup's sales rose 13% in the most recent quarter, a phenomenon CEO Douglas Conant said was aided partly by strapped consumers embracing condensed soup as an inexpensive meal alternative. Kellogg Co.'s second-quarter sales climbed 11% to $3.3 billion, a rise CEO David Mackay told analysts was due to "a reduction [by consumers] in out-of-home consumption."

Ad Age

Folgers Markets a New Coffee to Cost-Cutting Home Brewers

Now Folgers, which is still the top-selling packaged coffee in the United States, is trying to lure customers with an approach to roasting that it calls “the biggest innovation since the launch of decaf.”

New York Times

Kraft to Replace A.I.G. in Dow Average

In a statement, Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, said A.I.G. would not be replaced in the 30-stock index by another financial company because of “extremely unsettled conditions.” Kraft was chosen because there is no food maker in the industrial average, said Mr. Thomson, who oversees the makeup of the index.

New York Times

Kellogg Buys Australian Cereal Company

It has acquired Specialty Cereals Pty Limited, a privately owned manufacturer of natural ready-to-eat cereals based in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1988, Specialty Cereals markets products under the Vogels, Wild Oats, and Cerevite brands.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. With Specialty Cereals' net sales of approximately $17 million for the 2007-08 Australian Financial Year, the transaction is not expected to have a material impact on Kellogg's 2008 operating profit, it said.

Marketing Daily

Tully's sells brand, business

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters will acquire the Tully's brand and the company's wholesale and supply chain businesses. Tully's shareholders will keep the Seattle company's retail business, which includes company-owned, franchised and licensed retail cafes. Tully's also will hang onto its growing international business, which includes retail stores and a recently established wholesale segment.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Ghirardelli Launches Super-Premium Baking Line

The company is promoting the ease of use of the new baking products, as well as their premium appeal. The gourmet line "offers consumers the highest-quality baking chocolate while maintaining ease of use for home bakers who are looking for unparalleled results," said Fabrizio Parini, Ghirardelli's senior VP of marketing.

Marketing Daily

Starbucks, Unilever Ink Ice Cream Deal

Expanding on its relationship with Unilever, Starbucks has signed an exclusive deal with the Dutch company to make and distribute Starbucks ice cream in the U.S. and Canada.

Marketing Daily

The Waffle

Who doesn't love breakfast at all parts of the day? Well, some hip people in California (go figure) opened The Waffle, with cool dishes like Cornmeal Jalepeno Waffles and Hamburger Waffles. What's next, a house for pancakes?

I call it "Pop," what do you call it?

Where do you fit in the map?

If you're a little interested on ancestry by country - you can cross reference with this map

PepsiCo CEO Adapts to Tough Climate

Ms. Nooyi: Brands go through ups and downs. Gatorade is an extremely strong brand. I think every five or seven years, you've got to change out the approach to the brand, because you need a new boost of energy to think about the next iteration. Brands never die. You only stop reinventing them.

Wall Street Journal

Wal-Mart aims small in San Diego

Wal-Mart is starting to explore alternative growth strategies in the US as the growth of its network of highly profitable Supercenters starts to approach saturation point. But the small store format also presents new challenges to its union-led opponents, who have regularly used public planning processes required by large stores to slow the retailer’s plans in California, as well as in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Financial Times

Cookie, Toothbrush Brands Invade Fashion Week

You won't see Kraft's Le Petit Ecolier school boy cookie doing his thing on the runway, but the food giant will offer complimentary samples of the sweet to visitors inside its LU Lounge during Fashion Week. Presented by the IMG Group in conjunction with title sponsor Mercedes-Benz, this season's event runs through Sept. 12, and Kraft, through its LU Biscuits brand, has partnered with celebrity designer Erin Fetherston.

BrandWeek

What is an ORAC? Not a Dr. Suess Character…

yet a way to measure antioxidants. Many food products are using antioxidants as a basis for new claims. In the beverage category, antioxidants are nearly a cost of entry these days. How do you tell which antioxidant drink is better than the other?

The answer is ORAC, which stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. If a food has a high ORAC level it means that the food is high in antioxidants. One particular drink that has a high ORAC level is FRUT A VIE.

Grand Marketer of the Year 2008: Cold Glory

England's openness to new ideas, especially on the packaging front, is one of the reasons that the Coors portfolio continues to succeed in a down economy and why England was named lead marketer for the MillerCoors juggernaut.

BrandWeek

Dunkin' to double U.S. stores in anti-Starbucks push

Dunkin' Donuts -- the East Coast coffee shop chain called by some the "anti-Starbucks", because of its core blue collar customer base, still plans to more than double its U.S. stores to 15,000 by 2020, as its bigger rival from Seattle retrenches.

Reuters

Campbell's Launches Latest V8 Extension: Soups

If successful, the soup line will be another example of Campbell's mastery of using V8's clearly defined brand mission--"To help more people get more vegetables, every day"--as the platform for a growing number of products bearing the familiar, trusted, 75-year-old V8 name.

Marketing Daily

Strange But True

Sick of going to those normal restaurants where people sit on chairs, the lights are turned on and there is a floor below you? Well, then you'll need to check out some of these out-of-the-box thinking restaurants.

Jamba Juice: Now In Handy-Dandy Plastic Bottles!

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Missing Behavioral Link Leads to Health, Wellness Misfires

"The ground is littered with high-profile efforts that have, to be kind, underperformed--McDonald's salads, Aquafina Essentials and Atkins Bars, to name a few," points out Jayne Eastman, managing director for strategic brand growth consultancy Henry Rak Consulting Partners.

What's going wrong? Many companies make the core error of taking a "generic" approach to launches and marketing that's based on broadly expressed consumer attitudes about health and wellness, rather than on providing a specific solution based on actual behaviors, according to Eastman.

Marketing Daily

3M Carjacks the Post-It Note Jaguar

3M Corporation is attempting to generate buzz for its sticky notes product with a user-generated content promotion about creative ways to use Post-it Notes. The displays promoting the contest — prominently displayed in Staples, Office Max, Office Depot and other office supply stores across the country — features a photo that might look familiar to people who spend time on Digg, YouTube and similar social sites.

All About Content

LU Hits a Winner

LU's chic little biscuit is sampled by the masses at the US Open.

Starbucks slims down breakfast choices to five

But this year marked a philosophical shift in the company menu. Instead of taking away fat and calories, Starbucks is adding nutrients such as protein and fiber. The shift started in July with Starbucks' Vivanno protein fruit smoothies and Berry Stella pastries, and continues with the breakfast options added Wednesday.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

ConAgra Cuts 1Q Earnings Forecast; Consumer Foods Sales Down

The maker of Chef Boyardee pasta and other products said profit in its largest segment was lower than a year earlier, with high-single-digit sales growth on essentially flat volume, but ingredient costs were higher than planned. Key areas of underperformance were cooking oils, tablespreads, Banquet frozen foods and popcorn.

The company said its supply chain and savings initiatives are on track toward full-year targets.

CNN Money

Is Parting Sweet for Cadbury?

Logically, it made Cadbury and Hershey potential merger partners. Indeed, Cadbury has had on-and-off merger talks with Hershey for more than a decade and even teamed with Nestlé in a failed $10.5 billion bid for Hershey in 2002. The latest talks occurred in 2007 between Stitzer and then Hershey CEO Richard Lenny. But Lenny was ousted from Hershey in an ugly shake-up later in the year. Hershey continues to stumble--most recently when it raised prices 10% in response to rising costs, a move that hit its stock hard.

Time Magazine

A-B Forms 9th Street Beverages

9th Street Beverages will operate separately from A-B's beer business and will focus exclusively on marketing and growing distribution of the company's no-alcohol products. The unit's name reflects its location within A-B's headquarters in St. Louis.

Brand Week

I hope there's venison on the menu. . .

I've never been into a Gander Mountain, but I've been to a Bass Pro Shop, and if this place is bigger then, wow, that's a big place. I guess with such a vast store you gotta feed the troops, so it was a nice move to open a restaurant inside - and everything about Tall Tales looks pretty awesome, from the menu, to the pizza box.

Check out some more of the Duffy & Partners handiwork for Gander Mountain.

via The Dieline