Supermarkets' own brands filling more shopping carts

As budgets get tighter and food gets more expensive, American shoppers are increasingly switching to store brands -- even upper-income consumers who may not have been inclined to give them a try before.

LA Times

Kraft Tries to Get Its Mojo Back

Since taking the helm, she has revamped the marketing effort, something that stagnated under Altria's thumb. "Coming out of Altria, the problem was an under-investment in the brand," says Cliff Remily, associate portfolio manager of Thornburg Investment Income Builder fund. "Rosenfeld said that in order to realize value, you have to reinvest in marketing and improve brand equity."

Kiplinger.com

Tea Time

No longer just for grannies and stuffy Englishmen, tea is an important beverage to incorporate into a healthy lifestyle. In fact, after water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world—and it possesses a host of health benefits. If you haven't joined the crowd, here's what you need to know before pouring a cup: Tea is made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant, and the processing of the leaves results in different types of tea.

Men's Fitness

Recall Leads Whole Foods to a Change

Whole Foods Market said Monday it would tighten oversight of its suppliers to keep substandard products out of stores, after recalling ground beef that apparently sickened customers in two states.

NY Times

Supermarket Chains Narrow Their Sights

Some supermarket chains are allowing farmers’ markets to take over part of their parking lots on certain days; others have put a farmers’ market right inside the store.

But not all chains are there yet. “The whole commercial value of local is just now being appreciated by retail,” said Bill Bishop, chairman of Willard Bishop, retail marketing consultants in Barrington, Ill. “It’s a little bit behind the curve.”

New York Times

Mars Takes M&M’s Out of Their Shell

“Some of the first creative I saw was very serious and indulgent, and treated the product like this very rich new M&M thing,” Ms. Credle said.

But she believed that M&M’s candy was supposed to be fun. She revised the ads so that they parodied typical premium chocolate ads, and brought in a character — a sexy green M&M — that had been used in much of the traditional M&M’s advertising.



New York Times

Folgers Roasts a Smaller Can

P&G, however, assured that it's not a case of "package shrink"—meaning it reduced the size of the product but kept price the same. "We're not reducing the amount of coffee. We've enhanced the roasting process," said Becker. "Think of it like popcorn. There's air [in the can.] It's puffier . . . We preroasted it with just the right amount of heat." Becker added that "improving the technology of roasting" has been in the works for 10 years, and that the 11.3-oz. still yields 90 cups coffee, while the 33.9-oz. yields 270 cups, as before the packaging was reduced.


Brand Week

Starbucks' Savior?

The Coffee Fix: Can the $11,000 Clover Machine Save Starbucks?

It's 10 am on a Thursday, and the line at Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco snakes out the door. Inside, an espresso machine hisses like an angry tomcat as customers order their cappuccinos. But the real action is taking place a few steps away, where a scruffy barista stands at a stainless steel contraption, introducing the coffee he's about to serve to his rapt audience. "The Honduran is sweet," he says, "with a refined acidity and an excellent finish." He lets one perfectly measured scoop of fresh grounds shimmy deep into the machine, then goes to work, twiddling knobs, pushing buttons, and whirling a whisk in a chamber at the top of the silver box.

Wired

Safeway to Roll Out House Brands to Grocery Stores Nationwide

Early sales have been exceptionally strong. O Organics rung up an impressive $150 million in first-year receipts in 2005, well past the critical $100 million benchmark for new products. The product line, which consists of about 300 items in more than 30 categories, is expected to surpass $400 million in sales this year at Safeway's 1,700* locations alone. Eating Right products, engineered to provide specific health benefits, such as high fiber content, is expected to bring in about $200 million in Safeway sales this year.

Ad Age

Luther Burger Madness

One man. One burger. Two donuts. And a dream.




















Wikipedia

Eight O'Clock Coffee Wedding Friday; New Promo Launches

Eight O'Clock Coffee, which earlier this year pegged wedding a promotion around Friday's date, has launched a new program to ease the economic pain for coffee drinkers. "Accumul8 Rewards" is the first rewards program of its kind, per the company, for the brew-at-home category.

Marketing Daily

Doritos Collisions -- The battle for your tastebuds is on

Nutraceuticals May Be Nearing Tipping Point In U.S.

Nutraceuticals -- food and beverages that claim to enhance appearance, revive mental acuity and increase resistance to disease - have reached a tipping point in North America, according to new research from the Center for Culinary Development (CCD) and Packaged Facts.

Marketing Daily

MILLER (/Coors Logo) TIME

Pentagram has created the new Miller/Coors logo.

Pentagram

via Logo Design Love

Some Fake Coffee With Your Real News

Oooooooh, they’re calling out your name.

Two cups of McDonald’s iced coffee (BUY!) sit on the Fox 5 TV news desk, a punch-you-in-the-face product placement (BUY!) to chase down your morning news.

They’ve been on the Las Vegas station set for about two weeks, following the lead of a few TV stations across the country, and they’re still looking every bit as frosty and tantalizing (BUY!) as they were the first day you laid your eyes on them.

But wait, here’s the best part: They’re not real. . . .

via Las Vegas Sun

Good Food Podcast from KCRW

Your weekly treat from Evan Kleiman. By tuning in to Good Food, you can discover great restaurants that you've never heard of, the politics of consumption, explorations of cultures through their food customs and some of the most interesting people who devote their lives to various elements of the food supply.

Good Food Podcasts

Carcinogens to Be Reduced in Chips, Fries

California sued H.J. Heinz Co., Frito-Lay, Kettle Foods Inc., and Lance Inc. in 2005, alleging they violated a state requirement that companies post warning labels on products with carcinogens.

The companies avoided trial by agreeing to pay a combined $3 million in fines and reduce the levels of acrylamide in their products over three years, officials said.

Associated Press

Whole Foods Looks for a Fresh Image in Lean Times

Whole Foods Market is on a mission to revise its gold-plated image as consumers pull back on discretionary spending in a troubled economy. The company was once a Wall Street darling, but its sales growth was cooling even before the economy turned. Since peaking at the beginning of 2006, its stock has dropped more than 70 percent.

New York Times

Hershey's 'Pure' Campaign Aims to Melt Hearts

The current spot is the work of Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman Animations. It takes viewers inside a Hershey's candy bar that melts into an animated scene of a girl on a swing, which morphs into another scene showing the girl and her boyfriend driving in a chocolate convertible. Chocolate bunnies chase the couple as they ride into the sunset and "I Melt With You" by Modern English provides background music. A female voiceover asks: "What Makes a Hershey's bar pure?" She then answers: "pure simplicity," "pure happiness," "pure delicious."

Brand Week

How Whole Is Whole Grain?

The dispute points up the growing popularity of whole-grain breads and cereals. The whole-grains drumbeat started in the U.S. after 2001, when concerns over increasing obesity rates grew, and dieticians and nutritionists began looking for ways to improve Americans' diets. In 2003, an Agriculture Dept. analysis found that Americans were consuming an average of 10 servings of grain a day, but just a little over one serving of that was whole grain.

Business Week

In bad taste. . .

Commercial Innovation

A new buzz

San Franciscans have been serious about coffee before. But these are heady times for the cast and castaways of a growing subculture—the artists and eccentrics, addicts and obsessives—that populates the specialty-coffee business. And they are curious times for the rest of us, who wonder not only who these oddballs are, but also whether their coffee is worth the fuss.

“It’s subjective, clearly,” says James Freeman, owner of Blue Bottle Coffee Company. “Does coffee brewed from single-origin beans in a siphon or a Clover taste more yummy than, say, Folgers from a percolator? I believe it does. But it would be hubris to suggest that we’re making better coffee than anyone ever has. My feeling is, there are already enough places where you can get a cinnamon latte and a muffin wrapped in plastic. Why would I want to build another one of those?”

San Francisco Online

Tug of War in Food Marketing to Children

The F.T.C. seemed to applaud the progress that the coalition had made. “The committee’s primary recommendation is all food and beverage companies adopt and adhere to” nutritional standards for products marketed to children, said Lydia Parnes, director of the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, at a news conference in Washington. She said that joining the coalition would be “a useful first step” for companies.

But critics of the self-regulatory approach said they were troubled by the lack of industrywide definitions on what advertising to children entailed and on what “better” food meant.

New York Times

Pricier Products Pump Up Kraft's Profit

It was an appetizing quarter for Kraft. The maker of food products ranging from Oreo cookies to A1 barbecue sauce announced a jump in sales and earnings Monday, thanks to increased prices and a weak dollar.

Forbes

Slam dunk for Starbucks?

In the latest twist in New England's coffee wars, Quincy grocery chain Stop & Shop will drop Dunkin' Donuts stores from inside 130 supermarkets next year and likely replace them with rival java giant Starbucks, according to a Dunkin' franchise executive and a supermarket union official.

boston.com

SBUX Goes All BFY

starbucks.com

Health trend continues as obesity rates rise

Jonathan Thomas, principal market analyst for Leatherhead Food International, told FoodNavigator-USA.com that food manufacturers are capitalizing on the continued growth in demand for healthier products.

FoodUSANavigator.com

Hershey 2Q profit, sales up after price increase

A price increase and streamlined production lines helped Hershey to a dramatically higher second-quarter sales and profit, the company said Wednesday, as the nation's largest candy maker absorbs spiraling commodity costs and puts new emphasis on marketing muscle.

Yahoo Finance

A Maize Maze for the Golden Arches

Adweek

A Corner Deli With International Appeal

“Places like Zingerman’s are important for two reasons: they become arbiters of taste in America’s booming artisanal food industry simply by what they choose to put in their stores; and second, they are fundamental middlemen between the artisan producer and the consumer,” Mr. Ruhlman said. “There’s not a lot the consumer can do, really, to get Iberian ham, but Ari can.”

NY Times