Captivating Connections.

give me tide or give me death.

"Fascinating, counterintuitive data coming out of a year-long consumer behavior study finds that Kraft, Coca-Cola and Tide are the three brands least likely to be traded for store brands. The study should worry name brand owners, since 'only 37% of consumers say name brands are more reliable, and 39% believe name brands are better quality products.'

The data are edifying. Age breakdowns show consumers growing less brand loyal (and more price-conscious) as they get older. The huge numbers who are turning to private labels find Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Target to be the stores with the best selections.

An executive for the Integer Group, the conductor of the study, summarized the dilemma for many nationally advertised brands: 'With this many shoppers doing price-comparison, name brands need to act now in order to keep consumers - and beyond the recession, entice consumers to return.'

Of three strongest brands, Coke has long been seen as a brand consumers would be unwilling to trade on, despite the numerous cheaper alternatives. Coke drinkers can immediately discern a taste difference.

Kraft may share some of Coke's loyalty characteristics, based on product as well as brand identity, though it was unclear whether the study included Kraft sub-brands as drawing the most loyalty, or just Kraft-branded products (a stable that may expand soon if Kraft acquires Cadbury and adds its brand.)

Tide is certainly a head-scratcher. Given the bevy of private label laundry detergents on offer from almost every large retailer (including Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Target), and the difficulty of distinguishing Tide's cleaning properties from that of a private label (like a Pepsi 'taste test'), the brand's string performance should leave brand owners scrambling to break down Tide's brand characteristics and aspriational qualities in a quest to adopt them as their own."

fda looking at labeling.

"The Food and Drug Administration has announced that it is analyzing nutritional information systems developed by food manufacturers 'that appear to be misleading.'

In its 'guidance for industry' letter about front-of-package (FOP) labeling, the FDA also said that it is developing a proposed regulation that would define the nutritional criteria that would have to be met by manufacturers making FOP or shelf-label claims about the nutritional quality of a food, whether the claim is made in text or with symbols.

'FDA's intent is to provide standardized, science-based criteria on which FOP nutrition labeling must be based,' wrote Barbara O. Schneeman, director of the Office of Nutrition, Labeling and Dietary Supplements of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition."

you can still win against private label (an example).

See? It's still possible to sell products in a world seemingly dominated by private label (and win!):

"Private label is on the attack as never before this recession, particularly in over-the-counter drugs, so why is Procter & Gamble Co.'s Pepto-Bismol gaining share?

Procter & Gamble Co.'s 108-year-old standby has added 0.7 share points in its original stomach remedy liquid and 2.5 share points in stomach remedy tablets in the 52 weeks ended Sept. 6.

That's despite the fact that the products are priced roughly 60% more than private label in an over-the-counter drug business that's been hardest hit in all of package goods by those lower-priced rivals. An IRI report earlier this month found private-label shares in healthcare products overall are up 1.5 points across all channels in the past year.

What's behind that success seems to mystify even Pepto Brand Manager Nathan Fox somewhat, but he largely credits an ad campaign from Publicis Worldwide, New York, that took flight into the worst headwinds of the recession last fall. The recession itself may have helped, too, he said, as consumers turned to a relatively cost-effective multipurpose product at a time when a plummeting economy was literally making some of them sick.

Mr. Fox believes the 'Coverage' TV campaign that launched last fall has made a difference. One reason to believe: It's the best-scoring Pepto campaign on copy tests since P&G acquired the brand 28 years ago."

the most-recalled in-program product placements this summer.

Nielsen has released their list of the most-recalled in-program product placements.

"The Nielsen IAG Top 10 Most Recalled In-Program Placements focuses on brand/product placements occurring in summer series on the broadcast networks during the July 13 to August 16 period.

The Recall Score is the percentage of television viewers who can recall within 24 hours the brand/product of an In-Program placement they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing reality shows. These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all placements occurring in this genre during the time period (Recall Index). 100 equals average."

So, who ranked?

Rank	Brand	In-Program Placement Description	Program Airing Info	Recall Index
1	Coinstar	Contestants use a coin counting machine in a challenge	Big Brother 11 (CBS, Jul 21)	228
2	Kodak	Host and winner mention that they are in the Kodak Theatre	So You Think You Can Dance (Fox, Aug 6)	201
3	AT&T	Sponsor of phone and text voting for contestants	America's Got Talent (NBC, Aug 11)	177
4	Orville Redenbacher's	Sponsor of "Orville Lounge" showing backstage footage of contestants	America's Got Talent (NBC, Aug 5)	176
5	Orville Redenbacher's	Sponsor of "Orville Lounge" showing backstage footage of contestants	America's Got Talent (NBC, Aug 12)	173
6	Ginsu	Show producer mentions a knife, and the name is seen in subtitle	I Survived a Japanese Game Show (ABC, Jul 15)	173
7	Blackberry	Pete Peterkin as President Obama pretends to take call from Snoop Dogg	America's Got Talent (NBC, Aug 12)	170
8	AT&T	Sponsor of phone and text voting for contestants	America's Got Talent (NBC, Aug 4)	158
9	Hot Tamales	Candy box appears on a sign in the audience for Kayla	So You Think You Can Dance (Fox, Jul 29)	140
10	MySpace	Social network site is credited throughout the episode as the audition sponsor	America's Got Talent (NBC, Jul 21)	136

can online really help cpg?

Apparently, yes!

"Online advertising raises retail sales of consumer packaged-goods by 9% -- one percentage point more than TV ads, according to comScore and DunnhumbyUSA, which monitored the online behavior and CPG purchases of 200,000 consumers (out of comScore's total panel of 2 million).

comScore and Dunnhumby USA collected data on each panelist's purchase behavior via supermarket loyalty cards. Data on purchase decisions can be matched anonymously to data about online behavior through supermarket loyalty cards, which typically identify the holder with a unique number corresponding to a bar code.

The research companies claim this methodology allows them to correlate CPG purchase decisions with exposure to online ad campaigns by comparing the behavior of consumers exposed to CPG ads versus those who didn't. Product categories included cereal, cookie mixes, pizza, juice drinks, snack bars, pasta, tea, deodorants and toothpaste. The brands and products in question were advertised with both static and 'rich media' online display ads."

is bigger better (or the new norm)?

As people cut back, packaging has grown.

"The so-called grocery shrink ray -- which made thousands of products smaller in recent years without lowering their prices -- has started to reverse, as more marketers deal back savings on commodity costs in the form of bigger packages or bonus products at the same price.

The shift is sure to fuel some cynicism, as it gives the appearance marketers are simply adding back what they took away in the first place. But so far only one marketer -- Mission Foods -- has been publicly called out.

And it's unclear many have made or will make direct or permanent reversals -- tempting as it might be to return those 1.5-quart ice-cream tubs to the original half gallon and bill the addition as '33% more free!'

Marketers in household products are generally making packages temporarily bigger as part of limited-time promotions. And some products are simply responding to competition. Procter & Gamble Co.'s Pringles Super Stacks are clearly bigger than they've ever been, in a reaction to rival Frito-Lay offering '20% more free' across its lineup.

recession sets some food categories on fire.

Wondering how food is being impacted by the recession?

"It turns out there's no recession in eating, though consumers keep looking for more bang for their buck by attempting to produce restaurant-quality results at home.

As a result, several long-languishing categories -- such as baking and grocery coffee -- have begun to rebuild share, and marketers are rushing to keep that going with new products, introducing items such as gluten-free cake and whole-grain muffin mixes. Left-for-dead brands such as Maxwell House and Folgers have also begun to gain share, thanks to new marketing and more-cautious consumers.

Other premium grocery sectors have remained unfazed by consumer trade-down. One is specialty frozen pizza, an area where some scrimping might be expected, but which continues to boom."

ads sans product.

Coke is known for not having their cans prevalant in their ads. Their new ones, though, take it to a whole new level:

"In the global advertising campaign called Open Happiness that was introduced in January, the Coca Cola Company takes the game to a logical last step by omitting any reference to the brand in a catchy song it created and sold last winter.

With the title 'Open Happiness,' the song is an advertisement by association.

Coca-Cola signed a crew of well-known band members and performers to record the single. It also produced several different language versions for other countries.

On Thursday morning, the song will take another promotional step forward when MTV is expected to show the premiere of the music video for 'Open Happiness.' Coca-Cola said it did not pay MTV for the showing.

As is the case with the song, viewers of the video will be hard-pressed to spot the Coca-Cola brand. 'I studied the video like the Zapruder film,' said a Coke spokesman, Petro Kacur, and the Coke reference 'is so super-fast that you really have to be looking for it.'

Umut Ozaydinli, the global music marketing manager for the Coca-Cola Company, said the upbeat song pulled consumers into the Open Happiness campaign, rather than pushing it on them like traditional advertising.

'Coca-Cola is such a strong and magical brand that we can come out with something with no branding or very little branding,' he said in a telephone interview from Turkey on Wednesday, where the company plans to release a Turkish-language version of the song. 'All the communications we are doing around the song enable consumers to connect the song with the brand.'"

finding value in food brands.

The NYTimes has another article refering to the new consumer value equation, looking at how it is playing out among food marketers...

"Kraft and Nestlé, which make those products, are among the growing ranks of marketers playing up the perceived value of packaged foods. They are seeking to capitalize on the opportunity presented by consumers’ dining out less.

But shoppers eager to save money are trading down from full-price, brand-name fare to cheaper private labels and store brands. That means advertisers concerned about losing market share must make persuasive arguments about the value propositions of their wares.

The list of value-mongers is to grow on Monday when Reckitt Benckiser begins a campaign for French’s condiments, promoting larger packages to be sold at lower prices. For instance, a 20-ounce bottle of French’s Classic Yellow mustard will cost less than a 14-ounce bottle.

'The consumer is telling you something: ‘I want to see value. I want you to demonstrate value,’' said Elliott Penner, president at the French’s food division of Reckitt Benckiser in Parsippany, N.J."

are consumers sparing brands of blame?

The recession is impacting a lot of things, but, it seems, some, like the value of many brands, are left unscathed (for now, at least):

"One thing this recession hasn't knocked out is the power of brands.

Despite the pounding global business is taking, the $2 trillion value of the top 100 brands has held steady, according to Millward Brown's annual BrandZ report. 'Consumers are blaming companies and leaders for the current troubles, not the brands,' said Joanna Seddon, exec VP at Millward Brown, the WPP-owned research company. 'Brands are emotional bonds created with consumers, and overall, brands have sustained value.'

Google continued its reign as the world's most powerful brand, followed by Microsoft, Coca-Cola, IBM, McDonald's and Apple. Among the top 10 brands, General Electric lost the most ground, falling six places to No. 8, and Vodafone cracked the top 10, ending up at No. 9.

All told, the value of the top 100 brands, which ranges from the ubiquitous search engine at the top to Lowes at the bottom, was about $2 trillion and didn't suffer the decline one might expect in a recessionary environment."