Marketing Memo: Global Food & Grocery Company-Brand Marketer CEO's Speaking Out Much More During These Bad Economic Times; Have Your Noticed?

The big, global food, grocery and consumer packaged goods companies and brand marketers are fairing better than similar global companies in other business sectors in the current recession and financial-credit crisis. In part this is because people do have to eat. But it's also because such companies have tended to follow business fundamentals much better than say global financial service firms, the auto industry and a few other sectors. Such fundamentals include not building up too much debt and, most importantly, focusing on being consumer-centric marketers, something the U.S. auto industry has failed to do, for example, but something most big consumer food and grocery companies-brand marketers focus on closely and do well at.

And although people have to eat, they don't have to buy (and eat) your brands, even if you are Nestle, Kraft, or Campbell Soup. Of course having the huge brand portfolios these three global consumer packaged goods marketers do have -- in categories ranging from the most basic food and grocery items on up to niche natural, organic and specialty brands, as well as being the global market leaders in most of those food, grocery and beverage categories -- does help.

And in this serious global recession, which finds consumers trading down and looking for the best price they can find for food and grocery products, even these big food marketers are having to adapt -- searching for ways to lower their cost of goods, reducing expenses, and spending more money on things like price promotion.

We've also noticed another way the CEO's of these big, global food and grocery companies have been dealing with the global recession of late is that they are speaking out much more in to the media (especially the financial press) about what they and the companies they lead are doing to maintain and increase sales and profits in these difficult economic times. We been noticing a significant increase in interviews and the like from food and grocery company CEO's in the last couple months. And not just before earnings report time.

And it's no secret that the big consumer packaged goods marketers are communicating more so because the companies they lead are publicly traded ones. In this economic climate (check the stock market this week), communicating what a company is doing to the stock analysts who follow the companies and the investors, both institutional and individual, who invest in them is paramount -- particularly in relation to what initiatives these CEO's and their teams are taking to keep the company growing during the recession, along with the cost-cutting measures that are being made. Wall Street loves cost-cutting almost as much as it does sales and profit growth.

Communicating more frequently in these bad economic times also is important for these global food and grocery companies in terms of speaking to the food and grocery retailing trade. Grocers and other format retailers are increasing their store brand portfolios -- and devoting more shelf space, shelf space often previously devoted to manufacturers' brands -- as a way to offer lower prices overall in their stores to shoppers. And shoppers are buying more private label brands in-turn in order to save on their grocery bills. Every time a consumer buys a store brand that means a lost sale for a manufacturers' brand -- be it canned milk or pet food (Nestle), canned or packaged soup (Campbell Soup), or salad dressing and marshmallows (Kraft).

These big, global consumer packaged goods marketers therefore want the trade to know about the initiatives they are undertaking to create more value for their brands, even though the respective company sales forces or broker reps communicate such messages one-on-one to the retail buyers.

By speaking out more frequently -- as the CEO's of Nestle, Kraft and Campbell have been doing of late -- they can reach the top of the food retailing chain, CEO's, senior executives, ect. -- as well as consumers. It's part of a multi-communications paradigm. But those stock analysts and investors are at the top of the multi-audience pyramid.

Below are three features from today about each of these major global food and grocery companies -- Nestle, Kraft and Campbell Soup.

~Nestle. Forbes.com: Nestle Feels Confident About 2009.
~Campbell Soup. Rueters: Campbell ready to shop.
~Kraft. PBS-Nightly Biz Report: Kraft CEO talks recession strategies.

A few comments. First, notice that basically all three of these leading global consumer packaged goods companies are planning to grow despite (or perhaps because of) the recession. Second, notice the stress on value -- not just price but value. That's major adaptation from just over a year ago, when value wasn't a real hot button in consumer packaged goods marketing -- or for that matter with consumers. As that old saying goes: "What a difference a year makes." Particularly when the bottom falls out of the credit markets and major world economies.

Third, notice the focus on markets other than the U.S. It's a big world out there. Many people, such as the Chinese, have yet to become big buyers and consumers of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup or Kraft Salad Dressing. Imagine the sales growth if they do? Lastly, when reading the three pieces, think about the various audiences the food and grocery marketers are trying to reach -- and why. Doing so makes the reading much more interesting, particularly from a marketing perspective.

Marketing Memo: How Persuasive is the Case For Your Brand?

Brand marketing in trying economic times

Hard evidence is critically important to any brand case, and an evidentiary overlay can be a tremendous asset in building and communicating a uniquely compelling brand position, according to Tony Barr and Gary Kopervas, the authors of a paper, "How Persuasive is the Case for Your Brand?

An "Evidentiary Brand" structures its case on a set of distinguishing truths that project a brand's virtues in a meaningful way and play to the emotions of the jury—the target audience—thereby improving the odds of a favorable brand verdict, the authors write in the current (Fall 2008) edition of Brandchannel.com.

Their paper demonstrates how success in winning the hearts and minds of skeptical consumers can be improved by taking a closer look at what it takes a trial lawyer to win the hearts and minds of a jury, the authors argue in the interesting and practical paper.

The information and arguments in the white paper are useful ones for food marketers of all sorts, regardless if they're a brand marketer for a huge global consumer packaged goods company or a medium to small natural or specialty foods company.

You can download and read the interesting, informative and useful brand marketing white paper at the Brandchannel.com Web site here.

Marketing Memo: Food and Beverage Marketers, and Others, Hoping to Cash in On Obama Family Brand and Product Preferences

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is a big fan of Honest Tea's Black Forest Berry organic tea. Honest Tea CEO Seth Goldman says the next President's enjoyment of the drink "raises the profile of our brand and all organic products," adding: "We'd love for it to be the official drink of the new administration." We bet he would.

USA: Election 2008 Special Report

Current President George W. Bush is known to be a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and not much of a lover of organic or specialty foods. He's also known to love pretzels. But word is after he had that mysterious incident a few years ago where he almost chocked on a pretzel, he has cut back a bit on the snack food.

However, First Lady Laura Bush is known to prefer healthier foods, including natural and organic products.

And daughter Jenna Bush, who went to college in Austin, Texas while mom and dad lived in the White House in Washington, D.C., was known to be a regular Whole Foods Market shopper in that city, where the chain also happens to be headquartered.

Bill Clinton loved junk food, especially McDonald's, which perhaps led to his massive heart attack a couple years ago.

And of course, we all remember how former President George Bush Sr., the current President's father, famously said how much he hated Broccoli, only to then reverse his opinion of the healthy vegetable after America's Broccoli growers went ballistic.

Then there was former two-term President Ronald Reagan, who's love of jelly beans (and the Jelly Belly brand in particular) sent sales of the little sugar bites soaring for the California based confections company, which made sure Reagan was supplied with free Jelly Belly jelly beans during his two terms in office. The late President even kept a jar of the Jelly Belly beans on his desk in the oval office. You can't buy that kind of advertising.

But what about the family of new U.S. President-elect Barack Obama?

We know a few things because we're intrepid reporters.

First, it's a fact First Lady-elect Michelle Obama likes to shop at the Whole Foods Market store not far from the families home in Chicago, Illinois, as well as at a couple other more upscale supermarkets in the big city. We also know both she and the next President tend to eat healthy, including being consumers of natural and organic food and grocery products. And, they better be "green," as in buying environmentally-friendly products.

But thanks to USA Today staff writer Bruce Horovitz, we can now learn some specifics in terms of what the next American First Family likes to eat, including some of the food and beverage brands and particular items they purchase. You knew it was coming.

Hint: They like organic and premium...but also conventional.

OK, a real hint: Below is a sampling of a couple of the products the Obama family buys and eats, as reported by Bruce Horovitz in this morning's USA Today:

•Snacks. Obama tries to snack healthy. He likes Planters Trail Mix: Nuts, Seeds and Raisins. Planters has White House links dating to former president (and peanut farmer) Carter, as a sponsor of the Plains, Ga., Peanut Festival, says Laurie Guzzinati, a Kraft Foods spokeswoman.

•Drinks. Obama is a fan of Black Forest Berry Honest Tea. "It raises the profile of our brand and all organic products," says Seth Goldman, CEO of Honest Tea. "We'd love for it to be the official drink of the new administration."

Want to know more?

Click here to read the piece in today's USA Today. In it Horovitz also discusses other brands and products the Obama family likes and owns, such as attire and the family automobile. He also talks about what food, beverage and other industry marketers are hoping to do to make hay on the brand and product preferences of America's next First Family.

Packaging & POP Memo: Lights, Sound, Video - On Packaging and In-Store Point-of-Purchase Displays

From the Natural~Specialty Foods Memo Editor's Desk: High technology is making its way to product packaging and in-store point-of purchase displays. Specifically, according to a report in the marketing and advertising publication Advertising Age, lights, sounds and streaming video are beginning to show up on product packages and in-store point-of purchase (POP) displays.

Perhaps in today's 24/7 electronic, plugged-in world, packaging and in-store displays are the next logical extension of technologies such as streaming video? On the other hand, do consumers really care, especially when it comes to packaging? And will the added costs of such packaging enhancements really lead to increased sales for the brands and products that use the electronic elements on the product packages?

Perhaps in the case of in-store point-of-purchase displays, features like electronic lights, video and sound can help draw attention to the displays and thus lead to increased sales. After all, various types of interactive POP displays have been around for many years. They just aren't as sophisticated as the ones mentioned in the Ad Age piece.

When it comes to product packaging we are skeptical. In some special cases, depending on the nature of the product, such technology might have some merit. And in the case of new product introductions it might be interesting to create a limited run say of the new products' labels featuring electronic ink or some form of streaming video for promotional purposes.

But in the case of the majority of food, grocery and health and beauty care-general merchandise items we are hard-pressed to think at this point in time consumers will be drawn to such bells and whistles on the outside of the product -- it's labels.

Rather, we think brand building the good old fashion way will still be what's key. Quality, value, price, an attractive package or label, marketed to generate trial and then to build brand isn't going to be replaced by technology applied to packaging in the vast majority of cases.

We are far from Luddites though, so we welcome the innovation, especially for in-store POP displays, and in those particular product packaging cases like we describe above for product packaging. Generally, the more options the better.

And we like enjoy the "Gee Whiz" factor at times as much as anybody.

Of course there is the "green factor" as well. Such as since the packaging will be electronic, won't it have to be disposed of in special ways like most electronic waste is. That could be a real kettle of worms. It's also something it appears to us the developers and users of this new packaging have yet to take into serious consideration.

Read the report from the October 20, 2008 issue of Advertising Age below:

Soon, Your Mayonnaise Label May Have Sight, Sound, Video
Electric Ink Could Be Low-Cost, Energy-Efficient Option for Advertising
By Jack Neff
October 20, 2008

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- In-store displays and product packaging are getting a whole lot flashier -- literally, with lights and streaming video.

Henkel's Right Guard is testing use of printed electronics to power flashing lights in corrugated in-store displays at Walgreens stores in the Chicago area, a first step for a technology from Arizona start-up company Nth Degree that could eventually bring low-cost streaming video to printed displays, packaging, direct mail or magazine inserts.

Other tests are in the works involving other marketers and formats, according to people familiar with the matter, including one expected next year involving printed electronics on packaging for a Procter & Gamble Co. brand, believed to be a tissue-towel brand. P&G declined to comment on the project.

Anil Selby, VP-business development for Nth Degree, declined to comment on tests involving marketers, though he said the company has been in discussions with P&G, General Mills, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo, among others.

Even for hardened marketers, it's hard to get past the gee-whiz factor. "It's just incredible what they're doing," said Tom Owen, director of in-store merchandising for Henkel of America (formerly known as Dial Corp.), when Nth Degree executives showed him an 8½-by-11-inch sheet of paper running a video snippet from the original "Star Trek" series. (Moving newspaper photographs in Harry Potter movies come to mind.)

Limited rollout

Henkel is taking a disciplined approach to evaluating the technology's commercial potential, which it's been testing in 27 Chicago-area stores, compared with a control group using the same basketball-themed display without the electronic enhancements in 27 other Chicago stores.

"When it comes to investing in something nationwide, cost will be a factor," said Mr. Owen, who has been working with the Alliance in-store marketing unit of corrugated display maker Rock-Tenn Co.

Nth Degree, based in Tempe, Ariz., near Henkel's Scottsdale headquarters, uses "wafer printing," employing conventional presses to print layers of ink that act like circuit boards.

The Right Guard displays use battery packs, but Mr. Selby said it's also possible to affix a wafer-thin power source directly onto paper or a package. He said he sees printed streaming video as part of a second phase of the technology's rollout.

The wafer-based inks are 90% more efficient than fluorescent lighting, environmentally friendly and can be powered using solar collectors, Mr. Selby said. The technology can be mass-produced cost effectively for as little as 20¢ per unit, he added, though initial installations are in the $3 to $10 range. That's one reason the company has targeted store displays that can reach hundreds or thousands of people at once.

Scale, individual attention

Mr. Selby ultimately sees the technology being used for outdoor ads, or as a cost-effective replacement for LED video displays in retail. Nth Degree can make displays individually addressable, allowing different messages in different stores.

Magazines also have been taking a look at electronic-ink technologies, most notably in the case of Esquire, which used it on the cover of its 75th- anniversary issue. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how that cover was put together in a 3 Minute Ad Age.

Marketing Memo: Store Brands 2.0: Better Store Brands and Brand and Shopper-Marketing Changing How Food Retailers Sell Their Own Brands

From the Natural~Specialty Foods Memo Editor's Desk: On August 6 we wrote about Safeway Stores, Inc.'s plans and initial strategy to market its O' Organics and Eating Right organic and healthy food and grocery (store) brands to competing retailers in the U.S. and to retailers throughout the world: Marketing Memo: Safeway's Challenge: Going From Store Brand Marketer to Consumer Brand Marketer With its O' Organics and Eating Right Brands.

Both brands have been so successful for Safeway that it is that success (above expectations) which provided the idea for the grocery chain to take the brands beyond the walls of the retailer's own stores and market them to its U.S. competitors and to food and grocery retailers throughout the globe.

Safeway is part of a growing trend among food retailers to go from being "private label" sellers to "store brand" marketers with their own-brand food and grocery products.

Traditionally, especially among American supermarket chains and mass merchandisers, private label was viewed primarily as a retailer's price and value store brand. The product quality was generally good but not outstanding, the packaging utilitarian, and the marketing focus strictly price and shelf placement. More sales promotion really rather than marketing.

This private label emphasis started to change slightly in the late 1980's when supermarkets like Loblaws introduced its more upscale Presidents Choice brand, which the Canadian food retailer eventually marketed to supermarket chains in the United states, as well as using it as its higher end store brand in its Canadian stores.

By the mid -to- late 1990's numerous other supermarket chains were starting to create better quality and looking store brands, along with using beginning to use some classical brand marketing strategies to create different levels (and brand names) of store branded products: super value, value, premium, natural, organic and the like.

About five years ago retailer branding started getting kicked up a notch with Safeway Stores, Inc. creating O' Organics, Kroger improving its store brands and developing its own natural and organic store brands, regional supermarket chains like Wegmans and Publix doing the same, as well as mass merchants target and Wal-Mart greatly upscaling their store brands.

Natural foods retailers Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats (now part of Whole Foods), along with specialty grocer Trader Joe's and the Costco and B.J's Wholesale club chains, were a major influence on these supermarket chains in terms of developing the higher quality and more niche oriented store brands like O' Organics. All of these retailers were leaders in the creation and marketing of these store brand 2.0 lines.

Along with this development, food and grocery retailers started putting much more emphasis on store or shopper-marketing of their store brands, developing and using numerous marketing-oriented ways to build the brands besides the past reliance and traditional emphasis on price and display building in-store only.

The marriage of higher quality store brands and shopper marketing is in full bloom today. Food and grocery and discount chains led by Safeway, Kroger, Wal-Mart (which right now is developing an upscale food and grocery store brand), Target, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Costco, BJ's (and others) and numerous regional players, are beginning to view their store branding operations in more classical brand marketing terms rather than as merely an extension of the procurement department, which is how private label was handled for decades.

Jim Lucas, who is the executive vice president of the shopper marketing division for DraftFCB, a marketing and advertising agency in Chicago, writes about what we call store brands 2.0 and shopper marketing in an article in tomorrow's (August 25, 2008) Advertising Age. Mr. Lucas' piece is informative theoretically but also extremely applicable and hands on. That's why we wanted to bring it to Natural~Specialty Foods Memo readers. Below is the piece and by Jim Lucas.

The Newest Brands? Open for Business
Retailers Have Switched Gears, Marketing Their Stores and Labels and Strengthening Bonds With Shoppers
By Jim Lucas: August 25, 2008

Many marketers are rapidly becoming more concerned with how retailers think. They want to know their concerns, objectives, equities and images and how they go about creating bonds with shoppers.

That's because today's retailers are evolving far beyond their historical role as simple points of distribution for selling national brands. They have changed their approach, marketing their stores as their own brands and systematically building better, stronger relationships with shoppers.

As a result, on behalf of our clients, we must now help the retailer build its business.

Think about it: With the average U.S. household making 150 to 200 store visits a year, it seems reasonable that while shoppers might make several trips to their local stores each week, they may not purchase the same branded products each time. Thus, shoppers generally have more contact and experience with their local retailers than with the majority of national brands.

Going their own way

Clearly, the nature of retailers' value creation has dramatically changed. And rather than just establishing loyalty to branded products, retailers want voices of their own. They are seeking to establish their own brands, and they are doing so by tailoring their customer experiences, differentiating them from their competitors' and creating better, ongoing relationships with shoppers.

Today's retailers have made huge inroads in fortifying their relationships with shoppers. Research by "Private Label Strategy" authors Nirmalya Kumar and Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp clearly suggests that the nature of shopper loyalty is changing. While many shoppers are still loyal to brands, a significant portion increasingly are loyal to stores. This may be largely a function of convenience, but at the very least, retail brands are becoming more established in the minds of shoppers.

For example, Aldi, the European hard-discounter extraordinaire, has done a good job making its customers feel like smart shoppers. It has been aggressive in driving down prices on branded consumer package goods through strongly negotiated deals with manufacturers. It has created a wide range of store-brand products that also keep the price of the average shopping basket down. Its small, Spartan store formats help make the shopping experience more efficient. It has also developed a number of near-legendary promotions featuring "hot-priced" items ranging from well-known brands of wine to laptops specifically designed for and sold through Aldi stores, which are known as a place to "treasure hunt."

Believing that their long-term growth is tied to shopper loyalty, retailers increasingly want to develop their own shoppers. And because it is easier to get additional shopping trips, and increased purchases per trip, from shoppers who like your store, retailers are consistently using organized, data-driven, shopper-insight approaches. Retailers as diverse as Best Buy, H&M, Zara, Tesco, Tchibo, Kroger and Safeway are creating better touch points and shopping experiences to build stronger, more-loyal shoppers. This is largely the result of the creation of their own voices -- their retail brands.

U.S. supermarket chain Kroger is a prominent example of such a makeover. While working hard to become more efficient in its operations, Kroger also has negotiated sharper prices for its shoppers, has developed its store brands and is experimenting with new formats (for example, Kroger Right Now, a convenience, vending-machine format at gas stations). Kroger also is leading retailers in its investment in a shopper-loyalty program (with Dunhumby, the same firm that was instrumental in establishing Tesco's successful shopper program), the kind of strategic investment that provides an advantage in developing shopper insights and the ability to uniquely tailor the shopping experience to reach core shoppers.

Fresh focus

Safeway, another U.S. food retailer, recently has aligned itself with freshness and quality. Its lifestyle-store format has remade perishable areas such as produce, ready-to-eat meals, bakery and salad bar while creating new category/aisle descriptors (for example, Poetry in Bloom for floral). Its "Ingredients for Life" campaign extends the freshness/quality focus beyond the store. Moreover, its creation of store-brand product lines Eating Right and O Organics is designed to meet shoppers' needs. Such store-brand product lines are not simply about price points but are in sync with customers' lifestyles -- and unique to Safeway. It will be interesting to see how the marketplace reacts to Safeway's announced rollout of its house brands to competitive grocery chains. Will the availability of those brands at other stores cannibalize Safeway trips and sales?

It's an intriguing move because there does not seem to be a clear historical precedent. For example, Canadian-based Loblaw sold its President's Choice products to other retailers, typically in the U.S., so increased sales were generated from the additional distribution. But typically only one retailer or store banner carried the President's Choice items in a given market; thus there was really no competition for shopper loyalty or trips.

These supermarket examples, which similarly exist in other retail categories, indicate a fundamental change in how retailers are now approaching profitability. While efficiency is important, it's a "greens fee." Whether they be Whole Foods Market (natural/organic), H&M (celebrity design) or Zara (fresh fashion), retailers see long-term profitability as linked to their ability to provide unique shopping experiences that create loyal shoppers.

This shift in perspective suggests that the brand-marketing discipline many grew up with -- and the marketing-mix tools previously used -- have evolved. Retailer brands are now about connecting with shoppers' lives to build bonds and differentiate one retail experience from another.

Complex brands

Retailers are focused on positioning themselves through alignment with shoppers' lifestyles, and these positionings are less about marketing platforms than strategic cultural ideas.

It is also worth noting that retailer brands are generally complex, with many more dimensions than a traditional CPG brand, demanding that retailers turn to a new and growing set of marketing-mix tools to create the voices of their multidimensional brands.

The new marketing mix being used to create and maintain these retail brands is a far cry from the traditional one. Store ambience, layout, category organization, food theater, store-brand product lines, shopper programs, design, assortment and websites are just a few of the tools being used.

Today's retailers are first and foremost "meaning managers" or "choice editors" aligned with the needs and lifestyles of their shoppers. Retailers and manufacturers together must align with shopper needs to create unique shopping experiences and programs that help shoppers choose one store over another.

Working together

It is also important for retailers and manufacturers to align business goals, including driving traffic to the store or a specific destination in the store; creating larger sales receipts, better conversion rates, solution selling and cross-selling; and improving the total shopping experience -- for example, making it easier or more engaging, entertaining, educational or inspirational to shop.

Manufacturer brands must provide solutions that align with and help build and leverage retailers' equities, are tailored to retailers' needs and objectives, and are consistent with the positions the retailers are trying to establish and maintain.

Today's challenge for brand marketers is to help leverage retailers' marketing-mix tools (the shelf, category organization, in-store media or loyalty programs) or co-create new tools (new media, unique offerings, tailored products or packaging) to help retailers build stronger, better brands.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Lucas is exec VP-director of the shopper-marketing division of DraftFCB in Chicago. He previously served as director of strategic planning and research at Draft, Chicago.

Marketing Memo: Safeway's Challenge: Going From Store Brand Marketer to Consumer Brand Marketer With its O' Organics and Eating Right Brands

Pleasanton, California USA-based Safeway Stores, Inc. is preparing to roll out its popular O' Organics organic foods and Eating Right healthy foods store brands to a wider audience-- competing food retailers in the U.S.--along with to grocers globally, as we reported and wrote about in this April 28 piece: Marketing Memo: Safeway Stores, Inc. to Market its 'O' Organics' and 'Eating Right' Organic and Healthy Brands to Other Retailers in U.S. and Globally.

The supermarket retailer's target date to begin selling the brands (they won't be store brands anymore) to other U.S. food retailers and wholesalers is sometime this fall, just a few short months away.

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo was the first publication of any kind to report in this piece in December, 2007 and in others that Safeway Stores, Inc. was already selling some items in its O' Organics organic food and grocery product brand in Asia and South America through a distribution deal with the giant French supermarket chain Carrefour, which is the second largest retailer in the world after Wal-Mart, Inc.

Safeway plans to extend international sales of both its O' Organics and Eating Right brands to other international retailers and to other parts of the world. Plans call for the increased international marketing also to begin this fall in conjunction with the launch to various U.S. supermarket chains and wholesalers at home.

Today's Advertising Age, the trade publication for the marketing and advertising industry in the U.S., has a story about Safeway's plans to launch the two brands into the stores of many of its competitors this fall, as we've previously detailed in Natural~Specialty Foods Memo.

Safeway's O' Organics brand--which currently consists of an impressive 300 items in over 30 product categories, including dry grocery, perishables, fresh meats, dairy and fresh produce--did about $150 million in gross sales in its first year, 2005. Last year the brand did about $300 million in annual sales. Safeway is projecting sales of $400 million for the brand this year in its 1,750 stores in the U.S. and Canada. That's impressive by any score card.

Safeway CEO Steve Burd told Natural~Specialty Foods Memo earlier this year that the Eating Right healthy foods brand was on track to do even more the O' Organics' $150 million in its first year, which won't be until a bit later this year. Safeway is projecting annual sales of about $200 million for Eating Right this year. That would surpass first year sales of the O' Organics brand by about $50 million. Even more impressive.

In our earlier pieces we've projected that with the rollout to competing retailers in the U.S. beginning this fall, along with the expanded international marketing program, O' Organics and Eating Right have the potential to become the leading brands/product lines in their respective categories--organics and healthy foods--in the U.S. By this we mean not the leading store brands--but the leading brands period in those respective categories.

Safeway is banking on this as well, as it makes its unique for a U.S. supermarket chain transition from store brand marketer to consumer brand marketer.

In fact, in today's Ad Age article, James White, president of Safeway's Lucerne Foods division, which is handling the marketing for the two brands, and Safeway corporate vice president for consumer brands, says he believes the organic food and grocery market particularly is strong enough in the U.S. and internationally that Safeway will neither see a drop in sales in its own stores, or have a problem gaining distribution and sales to its competitors, with the O' Organics brand.

The O' Organics brand is "democratizing the organics market by making organics available for everyone." He (James White) said both lines represent a "great-tasting, highest-quality, more-affordable option [than established organic brands], which allows for the mainstreaming of market," White is quoted as saying in the Ad Age story.

Further, the Ad Age piece quotes Mr. White as saying: "The economy isn't affecting the organic segment's pricing power. "There is a significant consumer market for organics, and I don't think that will slow down."

We disagree with Mr. White on these two counts, despite being fans of both O' Organics and Eating Right, as well as being very impressed with the two brands' performance.

First, in terms of O' Organics' democratizing the organics category, we think that's yet to be seen. In fact, when it comes to price, O' Organics products are far from being all that reasonably priced. For example, in its current weekly advertising circular, Safeway is promoting O' Organics Boneless,-Skinless Chicken Breasts for $8.99 pound in its California, Nevada and Arizona stores. Natural~Specialty Foods Memo has seen independent natural foods stores selling organic boneless-skinless chicken breasts for $2 less per pound everyday.

This pricing scenario plays itself out on many of the O' Organics brand products vis-a-vis other supermarkets' and natural and specialty foods retailer's house brands. For example, overall Trader Joe's, Kroger divisions, Costco and Tesco's new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores in California and elsewhere in the Western USA have considerably lower everyday and promoted prices on organics than Safeway offers with its O' Organics brand.

Safeway does offer some good deals on a variety of O' Organics brand items--but its far from a pricing policy one could call a democratizing of the organics category in our analysis. The Safeway O' Organics' marketers' pricing pencils need to be sharpened a bit to achieve that.

It will be very interesting to see the retails on the O' Organics brand items in competing retailers' stores, since they should be higher priced than what they currently are selling for in Safeway stores since the company has to take a margin on the items as a brand marketer and distributor, along with building some margin into the cost of goods to retailers and wholesalers for marketing and promotional brand building expenses.

Further, if Safeway doesn't sell the O' Organics brand items for less than competitors' stores do, it could lose substantial sales in the brand. Conversely, if Safeway sells the brand's items for too much less than its competitor's are, it will create a disincentive for those retailers to carry the brand. A fine balancing act it will be indeed.

We happen to know Safeway makes a very healthy gross margin, based on its current retails, on the O' Organics brand items. Therefore, it has some room to get more value-centered with the brand in its stores if it wants to--and might have to because of the current poor U.S. economy--and lower the retail prices across the brand.

Safeway itself is seeing its customers move from higher priced national brands to value-based store brands like its Safeway, Lucerne and other economy branded food and grocery product lines, as company CEO Steve Burd himself said in this April 28 story in the blog. Within the store brand organics category this has helped O' Organics in part since Safeway makes sure the items in the brand are about 10 -to-15% cheaper overall than similar national and regional organic branded items in its stores, thus tapping into the consumer store brand trend within the organic category to take sales away from those national and regional brands and drive shoppers to buy O' Organics over the national and regional brands.

But in this poor U.S. economy, average consumers just can't afford $8.99 per-pound organic chicken breasts or $7 per gallon organic milk. Not when they can buy conventionally-raised boneless-skinless chicken breasts at the very same Safeway store on sale for $2.19 pound; or Lucerne non-organic milk for less than half the price of the O' Organics organic milk next to it in the dairy case. For most shoppers the discretionary money for organics just isn't there right now.

Whole Foods Market, Inc's poor quarterly sales performance this week demonstrates how even organic-loving shoppers are trading down in the poor U.S. economy out of need rather than choice.

Safeway shoppers are no different, nor are customers of those competitor stores Safeway plans to sell O' Organics to. We are going to see organics take a considerable sales hit until the U.S. economy turns around. Retailer scan data already is showing lower organic category sales across the U.S. Sales numbers for 2008 category sales don't come out until next year--and we bet they show a drop in overall category sales.

It's also important to note that once O' Organics is marketed by Safeway to competing retailers, it no longer becomes a store brand. This means no favored shelf placement, no special treatment by those retailers in terms of end-cap display space, no "free" weekly ad circular feature ad placement, and the like. The brand will have to be marketed as and compete equally without the advantages Safeway is able to give it as a store brand. Those home court advantages after all are part of the reasons we call them store brands.

As a result, Safeway will have to compete with its organics brand just like all of the national and regional organic products' brand marketers are in this down economy--along with suffering the lower sales fate most category marketers are currently suffering ,which has as a key feature soaring food price inflation--because the average (and many above average) U.S. consumers just can't afford to buy that $8.99 pound organic chicken, even if the breasts are boneless and skinless. Just ask the Whole Foods guys. They are seeing organic category sales dropping across the board--from fresh produce and meats to dry grocery.

However, while we disagree with Mr. White regarding his view that the poor U.S. economy won't hurt organic sales in general and O' Organics' sales specifically, we understand and appreciate his marketers' optimism. We also think the O' Organics and Eating Right brands have the potential to do very well at competing supermarkets, as well as continue to sell well and grow in Safeway's stores.

One important note is that sales of the O' Organics brand in Asia have been at best mediocre. A regular reader who lives on the island of Taiwan has reported to use that since our piece about the brand being sold in Carrefour stores there, she has seen many of the O' Organics brand items discontinued in the Carrefour hypermarts on the island. She has been told by store managers it is for lack of sales performance. (Well, that's what happens to non store brands.)

Of course that's Taiwan, not the U.S. or Western Europe. But it does illustrate that Safeway will need to market the brand in ways other than just using price promotions--which has been the case in the Carrefour stores--if it hopes to build the brand in stores other than those owned by Safeway.

Food and grocery retailers can use push marketing to build a store brand and grow sales in their own stores, using the techniques we mentioned above, but it's much more difficult to do so in competitor's stores when its just a brand and not that particular retailer's store brand.

Despite these concerns, we see a bright future inside of and outside Safeway stores for O' Organics and Eating Right. Of course, in the competitors' stores it will all come down to distribution, marketing, merchandising and promotion, along with allocating the budget to achieve all four.

And, of course, Safeway will get a taste of being on the other end of those slotting fee, ad space and display space fees in its role as a consumer brands marketer. Our advice: Better build in plenty of extra margin on the O' Organics items as brand marketers have learned to do with the brands they sell to Safeway Stores, Inc.

Marketing Memo: Safeway Stores, Inc. to Market its 'O' Organics' and 'Eating Right' Organic and Healthy Brands to Other Retailers in U.S. and Globally

Safeway Stores, Inc. has formed the "Better Living Brands Alliance," a marketing consortium that will market its O' Organics organic food and grocery brand and its Eating Right health and wellness category brand across all retail channels in the U.S. beginning this year.

Through the "Better Living Brands Alliance," Safeway will market the two natural and organic food and grocery brands to various U.S. retailers, including supermarket chains, mass merchandisers and independent grocers through grocery wholesale houses.

Safeway also will expand its international distribution of the O' Organics brand and include it's Eating Right brand in its expanded international marketing and distribution program.

As we reported in December, 2007, Safeway signed a deal with international retailer Carrefour to distribute the O' Organics brand in its stores in Asia and South America. Carrefour, which is based in France, is the world's second-largest retailer after number one Wal-Mart, Inc.

We've learned Carrefour will not only expand the number of its stores in Asia and Latin America which currently carry the O' Organics brand, but will probably add the Eating Right healthy food and grocery products brand in those stores as well.

Safeway also plans to go beyond its relationship with Carrefour in Asia and Latin America and market both natural and organic foods' brands in Europe and elsewhere around the globe.

Back in the U.S., Safeway has put together a strategic alliance of manufacturing, marketing and distribution firms as the brand licensees in its "Better Living Brands Alliance." Among those partners will be the food and grocery brokerage firm Crossmark, which will handle new item introductions, headquarters' sales calls and retail merchandising for the brand nationally and internationally for Safeway.

EMAK Worldwide will handle U.S. and global consumer marketing and communications for the O' Organics and Eating Right brands for Safeway.

Safeway Stores, Inc.'s Lucerne Foods Inc. subsidiary, which already markets Safeway products to external customers, will manage the overall licensing of the O' Organics and Eating Right brands and is a key member of the "Better Living Brands Alliance."

As we reported before in Natural~Specialty Foods Memo, Safeway's O' Organics brand is a major success story for the retailer. Although the brand has only been in Safeway's 1,740 stores in U.S. and Canada for less than two years, it's already the number one organic food and grocery products brand by total sales volume in the U.S. Sales of the O' Organics brand in the U.S. last year was over $300 million dollars, and that's with distribution in just the 1,740 Safeway-owned supermarkets.

The health and wellness category Eating Right brand has only been in Safeway stores for about a year. However, last December Safeway CEO Steve Burd told analysts that the brand's first year sales were poised to be even higher than the first year sales for the popular O' Organics brand were.

Safeway has been extending both brands throughout all categories, from the dry grocery, perishable and frozen categories, to fresh meat and poultry, fresh produce, prepared foods and deli categories.

In addition to marketing the two brands to food, grocery and other retail formats in the U.S. and internationally, Safeway also will sell items under both brands in the foodservice class of trade domestically and globally through it's "Better Living Brands Alliance," Safeway spokesman Brian Dowling told Natural~Specialty Foods Memo.

We've learned that a number of major U.S. supermarket chains are interested in selling the O' O' Organics and Eating Right brands in their stores. This is particularly the case in those regions in the U.S. where Safeway doesn't operate its supermarkets.

We've also been told numerous large wholesale grocers who distribute to regional chains and independents will take on both the O' Organics and Eating Right brands for distribution to their retailer customers.

Internationally, look for both brands to appear in European supermarkets for the first time before the year is over.

Safeway operates stores in California, Oregon, Washington State, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado in the Western USA. The retailer also operates stores in parts of the Midwestern USA, in Alaska, Texas, the East Coast, and in the Washington D.C/Baltimore/Virginia tri-state area, as well as in Canada.

We expect this U.S. and international mass-marketing of the O' Organics and Eating Right organic and healthy category brands to easily double sales of both brands in the next year.

In terms of the O' Organics brand, the increased number of new skus Safeway has been creating, combined with growing sales and aggressive promotion in its stores, plus the initial international marketing agreement with Carrefour, has led some analysts to predict sales growth in the 30-40% range by the end of this fiscal year compared to last for the organic products' brand.

We knew this move--the mass marketing in the U.S. and globally-- was coming based on the fact we were the first industry publication in the U.S. to report on the Carrefour international licensing deal last year.

Our analysis is that with increased new product development, more aggressive in-store promotions at Safeway stores--both which are coming for both brands--combined with the new U.S. and international mass-market program through the "Better Living Brands Alliance," it's likely that by the end of this year combined sales for the O' Organics and Eating Right brands could easily reach $1 billion in gross sales.

By taking the two proprietary brands national and international and marketing them to competitors--something that's almost unheard of in the U.S. supermarket industry--Safeway is proving its a creative and nimble marketer, which is something we've been arguing is the case for the past nine months or so.

For example, Safeway has built its own in-house natural and specialty foods department over the last few years, the result of which is bringing the retailer gross margins of 50% and higher on category items sold in its stores.

Additionally, Safeway has grown its Blackhawk gift card business into the largest marketer of gift cards to other retailers in the U.S. The business started out a few years ago as an in-house venture designed to market third-party gift cards to Safeway's stores. It's now grown into a full-fledged business far beyond an in-house operation.

Now, Safeway is becoming a brand marketer with its creation of "The Better Living Brands Alliance," which will take its O' Organics and Eating Right brands nationally to various classes of trades and retail formats in the U.S. and internationally.

We also expect to see a couple other Safeway proprietary brands join the alliance down the road a bit. In particular, might be some of the new fresh, prepared foods' brands Safeway is currently working on and testing at a restaurant it owns called Citrine in Redwood City, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area's Silicon Valley region.

If you think about it, Safeway has the perfect national test market for a brand marketer--1,740 supermarkets located across the U.S. If a brand--like O' Organics has done--does well in its stores after a year or two, Safeway can then make it a candidate for the alliance and national and international distribution to other food and grocery retailers and wholesalers.

Some will suggest Safeway could lose its competitive advantage by selling the two brands to other retailers. After all, they might say, that's why they are called proprietary brands, to give a retailer that competitive advantage.

However, we disagree. Number one, Safeway will still maintain a competitive advantage in that it can choose which retailers to license and market the brands to. Number two, Safeway still will be able to sell the branded products for less than other retailers can in its own stores, while also making a higher gross margin while doing so because it's the producer and marketer of the products.

Lastly, we tend to belong to the rising tides lift all brands' boats' school. In other words, the stronger the O' Organics and Eating Right brands become in the marketplace, the more we think Safeway will actually sell in its own stores--not to mention the more of the branded products it will sell to other retailers.

It all about leverage at that point. For example, does Safeway sell less Clorox bleach or Best Foods mayonnaise just because every supermarket, drug store and mass merchandiser in America also sells it? We don't believe that's the case.

While the bulk of Safeway's retail sales will likely always come from it's supermarkets, the company's diversification into also becoming a major third-party gift card marketer and now and organic and health and wellness food and grocery products category brand marketer, is a smart and savvy move in our analysis.

Doing so helps the grocer diversify beyond the volatile food and grocery retailing space. It also gives Safeway synergies which complement its grocery retailing base.

Marketing Memo: Mega-Food Marketer Kellogg Co. is Launching a Line of Hip, Urban Streetwear as a Way To Earn Some 'Street Cred' From Younger Consumers

Mega-food company and breakfast cereal brand king Kellogg Co. isn't historically known as a hip and edgy brand marketer.

In fact, for decades since it's founding as the conservative food company from Battle Creek, Michigan which specializes in iconic breakfast cereal brands like Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Frosty Flakes, Fruit Loops and Rice Krispies, along with 22 other varieties, it has been a generally conservative and mainstream food product marketer.

However, Kellogg Co. did start moving into the natural foods segment a few years ago. First it acquired the natural foods brands Worthington and Loma Linda, which it still owns. Both are all natural brands of canned and frozen all-natural, vegetarian healthy foods products. Kellogg's has expanded both brands to include additional varieties of both canned vegetarian items and healthy frozen entrees.

A little later Kellogg's acquired the Morningstar Farms brand of healthy and vegetarian frozen and refrigerated entrees, side dishes and breakfast items, which it has grown considerably in the last few years.

The mega-food marketer then followed these acquisitions up by buying the Kashi natural foods brand, which at the time was primarily a line of all-natural and organic cereals with a couple other items like cereal bars under the Kashi brand name.

Kellogg's currently markets six different varieties of Kashi brand cereal, ranging from the original Golean variety to the newer Heart-to-Heart heart-healthy line. There also are energy and breakfast bars and snacks under the Kashi brand, as well as frozen foods items.

Most recently, the $11 billion a year food company acquired two strong natural foods brands: natural and organic Bare Naked Granola, a line of granola-based cereals and Garden Burger, the healthy soy-based line of burgers and related items. Both acquisitions fit perfectly with Kellogg's core natural and organic foods business, which is breakfast cereals and related items and healthy and vegetarian-based meals and breakfast foods.

In many ways the Battle Creek food and cereal maker and marketers' move into the natural foods sector shouldn't be a surprise. Not only is it a smart marketer that has spotted the huge potential of the natural and organic categories, but Kellogg's actually has its roots in making and selling healthy cereal such as All Bran and the original Kellogg's Corn Flakes, which contained no sugar or other artificial sweeteners.

Of course, it then got into sugar-sweet cereals like all of the other major cereal marketers because frankly that was--and to a large degree still is--hot. The company's best-selling cereal brands remain its sugar-filled cereals such as Frost Flakes, Fruit Loops, Frosted Mini Wheats, Apple Jacks and others.

However, even with its key brands the company has been coming out with reduced sugar varieties, as well as bulking up the cereals with more whole grains and fiber in recognition of the healthy eating trend.

Kellogg Co. also is a major maker and marketer of crackers and cookies, including mainstream brands like Keebler, Sunshine and Austin, specialty brands like Carrs and Famous Amos, and natural brands under the Kashi label.

The company also markets high sugar content snack items like Kellogg's Pop Tarts and Kellogg's Rice Krispy Treats, but also offers health snack items like Kashi granola and cereal bars and Stretch Island Fruit Leathers, which is another natural foods company it acquired.

Lastly, Kellogg's has extended its brands into a mainstream line of products it calls its specialty channel offerings. These items include Kellogg's Graham Cracker Pie Crust, Keebler Ice Cream Cones and a handful of other items.

Kellogg's gets hip with new line of urban streetwear

The purpose of the brief history above of Kellogg Co., from conservative mainstream food product and breakfast cereal marketer to a more diversified food company which is increasingly looking to the natural and organic foods categories for new growth and sales, is simply to show an evolution in the development of the mega food company, including growth in the natural channel via acquisitions.

With that diversification, as well as general changes in the culture and spirit of the times over the years, Kellogg's has decided it needs to create a bit more edgy and hip image for its brands.

As a way to do this, the company has launched a line of Kellogg-branded "urban design" apparel in partnership with the popular urban clothing design company Under the Hood. "Under the Hood" is one of the hottest new lines of clothing to hit the market, and has an urban streetwear, hip-hop style to its designs.

The Kellogg's-branded items in the line include: Kellogg's Corn Flakes-logo hip T-Shirts and pants; Fruit Loops-branded pants with the famous Fruit Loops' parrot logo on the pants' pockets, along with Fruit Loop T-shirts; Tony the Tiger Kellogg's Frosted Flakes emblazoned T-shirts, jackets and sweat pants; Honey Smacks cereal Jeans and Shirts; Jackets, pants and shirts featuring the famous Keebler Elves and other branded clothing items. Items also include shoes and "hoodies," the trendy and popular light jackets worn by young men and woman.

The Kellogg's-branded urban wear apparel line created and produced by Under the Hood is designed to appeal to young, hip kids and young adults. And, since that is the super-popular "Under the Hood" clothing companies target market--the line should do very well.

The hip street wear also is designed to strengthen sales of Kellogg's cereal and other food products among the younger demographic, as well as to help create a more hip and edgy image withing this target market for the brands.

Since the urban-style and hip hop scene which goes with it appeals to young people of all races, along with the fact that suburban youth love it as much as urban residents, the Kellogg's-branded apparel should reach a wide target audience.

The idea is to mesh a person's lifestyle with what one eats. It's sociographics mixed with psychographics, along with identity marketing.

We expect the hip streetwear line to do well because of the association with Under the Hood, which is such a hot clothing company and line right now many of its items are back ordered by consumers.

We also expect to see lots of cross-marketing by Kellogg's of its cereals and the branded urban streetwear clothing items. For example, offers on the back of cereal and snack foods item packages, in-store point-of-sale displays, giveaways and media advertising in hip publications targeted to the same demographic as Under the Hood's clothes are.

In terms of the quality of the Kellogg's-branded streetwear from Under the Hood, we recently talked to a 16 year old who bought a Tony the Tiger T-shirt, Jacket and pair of black sweat pants with Tony embossed on all three items of clothing. His comment when we asked how he liked the three items of Kellogg's-branded streetwear? He said, mimicking Tony the Tiger..."There Grrreat!

Friday Feature: Brand Marketing

Staid brand Maxwell House Coffee reinvigorating itself with premium quality coffee beans and a hip, creative, new-age multi-media marketing and field promotional campaign

Kraft Foods has decided to join the flight among coffee brands to quality, ditching its cheap multi-blend coffee bean formula for its Maxwell House coffee brand for 100% Arabica beans, and creating a hip, new-age web and event marketing and promotional campaign to reposition the brand to consumers.

The advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather New York has created the "Brew Some Good" campaign for the coffee brand. The multi-media advertising and event-based marketing campaign will feature a smart and creative field promotion which begins next Wednesday, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. Starting next Wednesday, and continuing for two weeks, Kraft will pay the highway and bridge tolls for some lucky drivers throughout the U.S., passing out samples of the reformulated, 100% Aribica bean Maxwell House coffee at the same time.

On Wednesday, a busy Thanksgiving travel day, at least 100,000 drivers in eight U.S. markets will get to pass through toll booths without having to reach into their purses or wallets to pay their toll. Instead, their tolls will be on the house--on Maxwell House that is. The toll stations in these eight markets will have signs greeting the drivers saying, "Your toll is on the house (Maxwell House). Each driver also will be given another freebie along with getting their toll paid--a package of new Maxwell House coffee to take home and brew for Thanksgiving.

Along with doing good by paying the tolls of the drivers, Kraft also is doing some good by making a donation to America's Second Harvest Food Banks. The donation is based on the 100,000 free tolls the company is paying. Maxwell House brand will give the food bank system one dollar for every toll it pays on Wednesday, for a total donation of $100,000. Second Harvest is the largest hunger-relief charity in the U.S. It operates over 200 food banks in the country, and provides food to many more local food pantries.

Kraft's creative field promotions and web-based campaign follow on the heels of its recently released TV and print advertising campaign. The broadcast and print ads feature images of adults and children working, playing and cooperating with each other in early morning settings. The voice over (broadcast ads) and text (print ads) says, "Let's celebrate the optimists--the ones who always see the cup half full." The ad's tagline says, "The naysayers, the second-guessers--let them sleep in. It's a new morning. Let's brew some good."

The message of the broadcast and print ads is clear: It's a new morning in America, and the new Maxwell House is for all you optimistic, hard working and hard playing Americans who make this country great.

It isn't just drivers who will get a freebie on Thanksgiving eve. From 7-9 a.m Wednesday morning Kraft field representatives will hand out free metro cards, coffee samples and literature about the "new" Maxwell House coffee to riders of the New York City subway system. Kraft reps will be at five subway stations in New York City's five borough's surprising riders and, as the campaign theme says, "Brewing Some Good."

Kraft will follow up this pre-Thanksgiving day promotional activity beginning next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, by handing out over 1 million free cups of coffee to mall shoppers in 14 U.S. Cities. The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the kickoff of the Christmas shopping season, and U.S. malls are packed with early-bird shoppers looking for deals. The free cups of coffee promotion will continue throughout that weekend.

Kraft is tying these field promotional events, and others, in with a new website titled http://www.brewsomegood.com/, which Maxwell House will launch on November 30. The interactive site will encourage users to post videos, upload photos, and share uplifting stories from their lives and from those around them. The site also has a webcam feature, where users can smile into it and in return get coupons good for discounts on Maxwell House coffee. The positioning of the site is that Maxwell House is the coffee for hard working, positive and optimistic people, just like the broadcast and print ads--and the strategy of the field promotions. It's a fun, light-hearted site with a message.

We see the "Brew Something Good" campaign as a very well integrated brand and product marketing program. And the fact that Kraft has improved the quality of the Maxwell House brand (we tasted it. It's much improved) demonstrates an understanding that consumers want a quality product to go along with a new marketing campaign.

Traditional coffee brands like Maxwell House, Folgers and others have been losing sales to higher-quality coffee companies like Starbucks, Eight O' Clock Coffee, Peet's, Newman's Own, Dunkin' Doughnuts and others. Perhaps improvements like Maxwell House moving to 100% Araciba beans and its launching of a clever integrated marketing campaign to tout the message will bring back some of that lost market share for Kraft.

The quality upgrade and hip, creative campaign makes it clear to us that Kraft realizes it has to go after the natural-specialty foods crowd. These are consumers of all ages (primarily younger rather than older though) who want quality, and who get there information (including advertising) on the web more often than on TV.

The field promotional element should create good will and positive emotions for the brand. Think about it. What's better than having your highway toll paid after sitting in crowded, pre-Thanksgiving holiday traffic for hours. Further, a free hot cup of coffee is a nice treat for shoppers, up before dawn, hitting the mall for a full day of contact shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

Food, beverage and consumer packaged goods companies of all sizes can learn much we believe from the integrated and creative nature of the Maxwell House marketing campaign. It draws attention, while not being blatant. It offers a strong emotional message in its TV and print ads, but a lighter message on its website. And the field promotions get out there and touch consumers where they live, doing something good for them and not asking for anything in return--except for taking the free sample of Maxwell House coffee. In the end though, consumers have to like the coffee.