Marketing Memo: Search Marketing is a Growing and Key Part of the Marketing Arsenal; Offers Great Opportunity For Natural~Specialty Foods Companies

Yesterday we wrote about how using social media Web sites offers the perfect opportunity for natural and specialty foods suppliers, marketers and retailers to interactively market their brands to consumers by communicating their company and brand message through various means in an online social and conversational environment -- the online social media site such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others.

The Internet and Web offer players in all sectors of the natural and specialty foods industry additional opportunities along with the use of social media sites for communications and ultimately brand building uses.

Although it does require a small marketing budget because it is paid advertising, unlike social media sites, which have no cost to use, search marketing, using sites such as Google and Yahoo, also is an excellent means (and virtually untapped) for natural and specialty foods suppliers, marketers, brokers and retailers to create high impact, low cost marketing campaigns.

A chief advantage of search marketing is the ability to target your message using various search terms. It's niche marketing that reaches anybody who searches a topic related to your brand or product.

Big consumer packages goods companies like Coca-Cola, ConAgra and Kellogg have discovered the power of search, and each are using it extensively.

Coke, ConAgra and Kellogg all are players in the natural and specialty foods categories as well. Coke owns the Vitamin Water and related brands, ConAgra markets organic packaged goods products under different brands, and Kellogg is a major player in the natural breakfast cereal and snack categories.

The marketing publication Brandweek reports Coca-Cola has set up a marketing campaign on Google and Yahoo in which each time a user types in the search terms "Coke," Diet Coke," "Sprite," "Vitamin Water" or any other brand marketed by the beverage giant, the phrase "My Coke Rewards" comes up at the top of the search list as on of the options.

My Coke Rewards is the company's consumer loyalty marketing program. Coke's using it on the search engines makes thousands more consumers aware of the program compared to if the loyalty scheme was only advertised in traditional media and in-store.

This week Kellogg is using search to help kick off its new RiceKrispies.com Web site, which promotes the food company's Rice Krispies brand cereal.

Because Halloween (October 31) is such a big sales period for Rice Krispies (people make the famous Rice Krispies marshmallow snack treats for Halloween) Kellogg has bought search words like "Halloween" and "Recipe" on the Google and Yahoo search engines. When userers (read potential Rice Krispies' customers) types in these search terms and others, the RiceKrispies.com Web site comes to the top of the search answers list.

ConAgra has gotten into search marketing in a big way as well. The food company has bought up scores of search terms related to its brands and products, including "great tasting recipe" and "easy-to-prepare." Type those (and numerous others) search terms in Google.com and at or near the top of the results will be information about various ConAgra brands, recipes features the company's products and related brand information, according to Brandweek.

The use of search marketing by consumer packaged goods companies is expected to grow about 30% to $594 million by 2012, according to recent research by Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass.

Additionally, both Google and Yahoo say the use of search marketing by consumer packaged goods companies is one of their respective fastest growing categories.

Search marketing and the natural and specialty foods industry

Search marketing using Google or Yahoo or other search engines offers numerous pluses for natural and specialty foods companies.

First, the cost of entry is low. Companies can get into search using a few key search terms to start for very little money. It's far less of a cost than producing a four-color brochure, for example.

Additionally, make this comparison. Natural and specialty foods suppliers/marketers often use in-store food sampling demos as a major aspect of their marketing and promotional campaigns. Doing a demo at just one store can run $100 or more today. That means if you do demos at 20 stores the cost would be about $2,000-$3,000 If you reach 1,500 consumers at those 20 stores that's considered a pretty successful conclusion.

However, from the standpoint of return on investment (ROI) reaching 1,500 consumers with a brand message for $2,000-$3,000 isn't great. It's true their is a certain qualitative aspect to in-store demos in that you get your product tasted. However the ROI is low.

By comparison, for $2,000-$3,000 a company can get into search marketing in a substantial way to start, including buying numerous search words or terms. And instead of reaching just $1,500 consumers with the investment, tens of thousands of consumers can be reached.

We aren't suggesting search marketing as a substitute for in-store demos per se -- although in these lean times it isn't something we advocate much . Rather we are suggesting search marketing can leverage a brand message in terms of ROI far more than a promotional tactic such as an in-store demo can.

Second, search marketing has a very good return on investment (ROI), as we mentioned above In fact it offers one of the biggest bangs for the marketing bucks currently available.

This is true not only compared to in-store demos but compared to numerous other marketing tactics as well, especially within the paid advertising segment.

Lastly, Search is a trusted tool for consumers. And consumers are increasingly turning to sites like Google and Yahoo to look up recipes, types of foods and other related information. Embedding your brand message within search offers not just an advertising message but also an informational one. food products and search go together well.

For example, say a user is looking to make some treats for the kids' Halloween party. She goes to Google, types in "Halloween treat recipes," and among the thousands of search results that come up there's Kelloggs Rice Krispies Treats right at the top, including the recipe. She sees this result, thinks about how her mother always made the marshmallow treats for Halloween, and makes a note to do so herself, adding Rice Krispies to her grocery list.

Such can be the power of search for consumer packaged goods companies of all sizes.

Search marketing is perfect for companies producing and marketing natural and organic food products since so many consumers are using search sites to research healthier food options.

For example, "organic foods" is one of the top search terms on Google and Yahoo. So is "food allergies."

The same is the case in the specialty foods segment. Consumers increasingly are using search sites to look for recipes including premium ingredients and products.

For example, let's say you produce and market a unique product such as a Key Lime cookies. We bet there are thousands of Key Lime cookie lovers out there who actually use Google or Yahoo to search the term in order to find out what's out there in Key Lime cookie world. A company that makes the cookies can buy a dozen or so related search terms for very little money and get a major impact, which also is measurable, using Google or Yahoo search. It's a specialty advertising for a niche, specialty product.

For natural and specialty foods manufacturers, marketers and even retailers that aren't using search marketing we suggest you look into it. It's not only fast growing but also becoming among the most powerful ways to reach consumers with a targeted message. It's also a level playing field. You need not be a Coke, Kellogg or ConAgra to get into search marketing. It's cost of entry is low and it potential impact as a marketing tool is high.

Beverage Marketing Memo: High-Energy Jolt Soda is Back and Hitting the Streets of Southern California With A 'High-Energy' Gorilla Marketing Campaign

Carbonated energy-drink brand Jolt Soda wants to rev-up its brand power and product sales, and it's developed a high-energy, creative way to do so.

The energy-drink category brand is hitting the streets of Southern California with a multi-elemental gorilla marketing or street campaign designed to create fun and excitement around the Jolt Soda brand and line of high-energy beverages.

Using a vehicle that looks like it belongs to an urban police department's Swat tactical team, accept that it has the words ABSURD ENERGY in bold letters on the sides along with colorful pictures of Jolt Soda, the Jolt street team is visiting 125 high-traffic areas in the Southern California counties of Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino, between now through May.

The gorilla marketing street team (pictured at left in Hollywood) will give away more than 150,000 full-sized samples of Jolt Soda during the eight week campaign. Additionally, the street team is handing out thousands of retro-style Jolt branded free T-shirts and decals to people who come in contact with the Jolt Patrol roaming brand builders in their Swat Team-inspired vehicle.

The Jolt Patrol has numerous fun games and activities going on as part of its traveling marketing campaign, all designed to reintroduce the Jolt beverages to consumers using humor and irreverence. The result: Jolt hopes to start building an image as the irreverent or humorous energy drink brand.

One activity that's capturing the hearts--and hands--of consumers who encounter the Jolt patrol is called Grocery Cart Bowling. The Jolt Patrol marketers and funsters set up inflatable Jolt Soda cans and then let the consumers use shopping carts to bowl the makeshift bowling pins down.

The gorilla street marketing campaign is part of a more comprehensive relaunching of the Jolt brand by its owners, Wet Planet Beverages.

Another aspect of the brand relaunch and gorilla marketing campaign in Southern California is that Wet Planet has signed Jolt Soda up to be a sponsor of the Los Angeles division of the 11-team league World Adult Kickball Association. Yes, professional kickball.

Among the gorilla marketing activities Jolt will conduct, will be to have Jolt-branded coolers available to supply players at all the local kickball games with plenty of free high-energy soda.

Jolt brand ambassadors also will give free samples of the energy beverage to fans watching the kickball games, along with giving them store indicator cards that will list the names and addresses of stores within a two-mile range of where the games are being played, and a coupon for a discount on the drinks.

Jolt Soda has been around since 1985 when it was first launched. However, it's has some difficult times brand-wise, as well as getting a bit lost in all the clutter created by the dozens of new energy drinks introduced in the last decade.

But not anymore if the crative gorilla marketing campaign works. Jolt plans lots more activity like its gorilla marketing street patrol campaign and kickball team tie-in in Southern California.

Jolt also has launched a gorilla marketing campaign at numerous college and university campuses. The campaign hires students as Jolt Ambassadors. The student reps offer samples of the drink at various campus events as well as hold contests and giveaways of free Jolt brand items like the T-shirts and decals.

There currently are seven flavors of Jolt Soda: Power Cola, Cherry Bomb, Orange Blast, Blue Raspberry, Wild Grape, Passion Fruit, and one sugar-free variety called Ultra.

The goal is to re-energize the Jolt brand and do so in a way that grabs consumers' attention, offers them participation with the brand, makes them laugh and smile, and creates an edginess for the brand in the consumer's mind. After all, the drink's name is Jolt.

Wine & Spirits Memo: A 'Trump Vodka' In The Buff Promotion Puts "The Donald' in the Rough

Lesson number five in the art of business warfare courtesy of real estate, reality show, golf course, modeling agency, swimsuit pageant and premium vodka mogul Donald Trump: 'If all else fails, blame the naked girl.'

It seems 'The Donald,' who not too long ago added premium vodka brand marketer to his numerous business enterprises, threw a very big Superbowl party, with his Trump brand super-premium Vodka as the adult beverage of choice for the partygoers.

Not everyone attending Trump's premium vodka-infused Super Bowl party was an adult though. In fact, the one person it later turned out wasn't of age, stood out at the party as much or more so than the mogul's Vodka, which like all of his ventures has his last name attached to it.

And stand out in a big way she did. According to TMZ, which has verified the story with Trump's PR people and the vodka brands' marketer and distributor, a 17 year old girl was at the party walking around completely naked, except for Trump Vodka logos painted all over her body. She was serving samples of the premium vodka to Trump's guests, wearing just her birthday suit. Trump Vodka logos were body-painted on her in what we hear were "strategic" locations. Donald Trump was at the party and does not dispute he saw the nudegirl there.

Trump, through his representatives, tells TMZ he knew nothing about the nude girl's coming to his Super Bowl party, although he saw her there, sans her clothes. He says she is probably just "a publicity whore."

Trump's spokesperson told TMZ the naked party girl, Chanell Elain Hallet, crashed the party and just happened to have her body painted with Trump Vodka stickers. 'Given the circumstances, we can only guess that she crashed the event to seek publicity for herself," the Trump spokesman told TMZ. There was no mention however from the spokesperson as to how and why the nude party crasher was allowed to walk around and serve guests free samples of the vodka.

Here is the explanation form Trump's representative and Drinks Americas, the marketer and distributor of Trump Vodka. Trump has a licensing arrangement with the company. (Trump also licenses his name for a line of premium steaks and a line of men's suits.)

"Drinks Americas contracted with modeling agency, Professional Event Marketing of Scottsdale, Arizona, to hire three promotional models, all over the age of 21, to be opaquely painted with logos for this event. the three woman we contacted through the agency were to promote the brand throughout the evening. All three were in attendance. We do not know why Miss Hallett was there, but she was not there having been hired or working for us. Given the circumstances, we can only guess she crashed the event to get publicity for herself. We are appalled and always work hard to adhere to our social and civic responsibilities as a premium alcoholic beverage marketing company."

We only have one question for "The Donald' about the whole incident: Why didn't you just look the Trump Vodka logo-covered naked girl right in her eyes and say: "You're Fired?"

Monday Marketing Memo: Creative Campaigns

Tattoo Marketing: Food, grocery marketers and retailers can get a skin in this new game

An article in Friday's (November 30) Chicago Tribune (Corporate marketing schemes go skin deep) about how companies of all kinds are using tattoos as marketing vehicles, got us thinking about how food marketing companies and retailers could use body art to market their products and promote their stores.

First, a little about the Tribune piece. The article sights a Pew Research Center poll that says 36% of 18- to 25- year-olds have at least one tattoo, and two out of every five Americans aged 26 to 40 has one or more tattoos. That's a pretty high overall percentage of the general population in that age bracket--and 18- to- 40 is a pretty good demographic for marketers.

Tattoos originally were a sign of social nonconformity to a certain extent. Getting one was thought to make a person a bit more edgier than the average person. Once the mainstay of members of the military and biker gang members, tattoos have become near mainstream today. Soccer moms have them, as do teens, numerous business executives, academics, blue collar workers and others from nearly every social class and economic level. Tattoos are even called "body art" or "ink" more often today than they're called tattoos, reflecting the prevailing few that done tastefully they're socially exceptable.

This "mainstreaming" of tattoos has recently resulted in their adoption and use by marketers who sell everything from wine and energy drinks to shoes and tires, as a marketing and advertising medium. It appears the late Marshall Mcluhan was dead on when he said "The medium is the message." In the case of tattoo marketing and advertising, the medium couldn't be more human.

It's not just tattoo art directly on a person's body that marketers are using to advertise and promote their products and services. Creative companies also are using things like temporary tattoos as marketing tools to get their messages across in a imaginative, fun and interesting ways.

Convenience store retailer 7-Eleven has even created a tattoo-inspired energy drink called "Inked." Its target market are consumers who either have tattoos, want one, or like to think of themselves as what the chain calls "the tattoo type." That's edgy, hip, different, in other words. Among the many venues 7-Eleven plans to market the energy drink at are tattoo conventions and motorcycle rallies. (We suggest 7-Eleven get tattoo parlors and motorcycle dealerships to stock the drink for sale as well. We can see Inked" energy drink coolers, like those in health clubs for water and fresh juices, in these types of shops as we write this sentence.)

"We wanted to create a drink that appealed to men and woman, and the tattoo culture has really become popular with both genders," Michele Little, 7-Eleven's manager of non-carbonated beverages told the Chicago Tribune in explaining the genesis of the new private label energy drink brand. "The rite of tattoo passage isn't only limited to the young, but also to those who think and act young," Little added. (The "rite of tattoo passage." The phrase has a ring to it. Perhaps it should be added to the marketing lexicon.) She's right, as the tattoo demographics cited at the beginning of this piece demonstrate.

Marketers are finding that tattoo marketing is one of the many ways to sidestep the clutter of media advertising. "Marketers use tattoos both as a cultural icon and as the method to deliver the message," Kevin Lane Keller, a professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business who has studied the marketing strategy, told the Tribune. It's an attempt to do something different in a fresh way."

The Chicago Tribune piece sights Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and auto maker Volvo as two companies currently using tattoos in advertising and promotional campaigns.

For example, Goodyear offers a free set of tires to anybody who will get the company's flying D-logo tattooed somewhere on their body, according to the Tribune story. Thus far 98 people have taken the tire company up on its offer.

Volvo is taking a more elaborate approach with its tattoo marketing campaign. The car-maker has created a fictional character ("Tattoo man") who's tattoos spell out the coordinates of an undersea location of $50,000 in gold coins along with the keys to a new car. Linda Gangeri, Volvo's advertising manager, told the Tribune the "Tattoo Man" campaign is a way to get people to think about Volvo in a new way.

The use of temporary tattoos is becoming a popular marketing and promotional tool as well. Safeway Stores recently conducted a fresh produce for kids in-store promotion in which they gave away free fruit and vegetable temporary tattoos to kids shopping with their parents.

Fresh produce companies like Sunkist and others are providing temporary tattoos of fruits and vegetables to schools and other venues as a hip way to encourage kids to eat their fresh produce. And, according to the Tribune story, packaged goods company General Mills is selling Fruit Roll-Ups with tattoo-shaped cutouts that let children make temporary tongue tattoos.

We think tattoo marketing and advertising, in it's various forms, has the potential to be a low-cost and effective element of the marketing program mix for natural and specialty foods' manufacturers, marketers and retailers.

The chief reason we see it as having potential has primarily to do with the buzz, word-of-mouth advertising, and media attention marketers can get from what can be a relatively low-budget marketing element of an overall campaign. Word-of-mouth advertising has proven to be one of the most effective forms of advertising, as has viral marketing, it's online cousin. Further, marketers can generate a huge volume of press coverage do to the still fresh and unique aspect of using tattoos in their various forms as a marketing vehicle.

We don't think food marketers and retailers can get much marketing mileage out of programs similar to Good Year Tire's, in which the company offers consumer's something for free in return for getting their logo tattooed someplace on their body. This is more bark than bite--but it does generate media attention. We're writing about it. We also can imagine the potential legal liabilities if say an infection were to occur while a person is getting the Goodyear logo tattooed on their body. Additionally, what if a person decides to have it removed? Do they have to give the free tires back to Goodyear.

However, we do like the idea of a retailer, for example, picking a day in which all its stores offer shoppers 5% off their total grocery order in return for letting the clerk put a temporary tattoo of the grocer's logo on the back of their hand. These temporary tattoos last for two or three days, just enough time to create plenty of buzz and word-of-mouth advertising when people at the office, gym, mall or other venue ask the tattooed shopper "what's up" with the Whole Foods' or Safeway logo on the back of their hand. The 5% discount also helps build good will with customers--and might even get a few new ones in the door if its advertised ahead of time.

Another interesting use of temporary tattoos would be for packaged goods and fresh fruit and vegetable marketers to incorporate them into product promotions. For example, organic foods' for kids is an emerging market. Kids love playing with temporary tattoos and stickers of all kinds. Organic produce marketers could create characters, such a "Mini Carrot Man" or "Cedric the Celery Stalk," for example, and make temporary tattoos depicting these characters. The tattoo characters could then be included as a premium on packages of fresh fruits and vegetables and used in other promotional ways.

In a similar vain, organic packaged cereal manufacturers could create a character such as "Granola Man," a male, all-natural version of Dora the Explorer perhaps, and design a variety of temporary tattoos of the organic super hero. "Organic Granola Man" could have superpowers bestowed on him by virtue of the fact he eats brand X organic granola. The temporary tattoos could be placed inside each box of cereal and given out free to kids during in-store demos, among other uses. The only limit is the marketers imagination.

In terms of more elaborate forms of tattoo marketing, we think Volvo's campaign described earlier in this piece is a good one. As a brand, Volvo has traditionally been positioned as the "safe" car for middle-aged married couples with kids. The automaker wants to broaden its customer base to include more younger, single consumers. Their tattoo treasure hunt campaign featuring a hidden message somewhere on the body of "Tattoo Man," and the winning prize of $50,000 and a free car, shows a major effort by the automaker to try something new and risky as a way to reposition their brand. It reaches out to younger customers while at the same time not offending it's base.

Staid food brands could take a lesson from this campaign, especially for those marketers who want to broaden the demographic base of consumers who purchase their brands. The natural foods brand Health Valley is a good example. It's been around for decades and has a loyal following. However, it's also thought of as a brand for older people in the minds of natural foods consumers. It isn't hip. It's "your mother's" natural and organic foods brand.

A marketing campaign similar to Volvo's (no need to give away as big of a grand prize) could go a long way towards creating the type of buzz among younger consumers that's needed to make the brand more appealing to a larger demographic. In other words, a semi-edgy marketing campaign ("It's your brand now as well as your mother's") using some form of tattoo marketing, could create awareness among an entire new segment of natural foods consumers for the brand.

Tattoo marketing is just one of the many elements creative marketers and retailers are beginning to use to reach out beyond the clutter of media marketing and promotion to create buzz in the marketplace. It's also an attempt to reach younger consumers, who rather than spending the majority of their free time watching television or reading newspapers, are online or hanging out at cafes.

These younger consumers have found alternative ways to socialize, both online--MySpace and Facebook for example--and face-to-face--in mixed sex groups often rather than one-on-one dating. As a result, reaching them takes more effort on the part of marketers. Concepts like tattoo marketing speak their language and demonstrate that marketers are talking to them--not over them. It's a brave new world. Brave new marketers are needed to navigate it.

Green Memo: Retail Promotions

Barneys New York: Dreaming of a green Christmas

Upscale department store retailer Barneys New York has gone all out to create a slightly tongue-in-cheek but earnest green holiday promotion this year in its famous New York City store.

"The green movement can be earnest and preachy," Barneys creative director Simon Doonan told the hintmag.com fashion magazine today. In response, Doonan has created green-themed store window displays with a bit of fun to them. There's Rudolph the Recycling Reindeer, with (we presume) his nose so green he will recycle all your gifts tonight. There's nothing preachy about green-nosed Rudolph though. He gets his eco-message out with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek.

The (green) Twelve Days of Christmas also have a prominent spot in one of Barney's large display windows. These green days leading up to Christmas feature "three solar panels, two tons of tofu, and a Toyota Prius in a pear tree." says Doonan.

The promotion just began and will run through Christmas eve, December 24.

Barney's also has teamed up with some green-minded designers who are creating "eco-friendly" clothing products, accessories and other goods for sale at the store during the "green" holidays. Portions of the sale of each of these items will be donated to environmental charities and organizations, says Julie Gilhart of Barneys.

One of the main green designer product features is the limited edition Goyard (the designer) grocery shopping bag pictured at the top of the page. The bag is made of 100% recyclable canvas. It sells for a mere $310. However, a portion of that money goes to green charities. We expect the Goyard canvas grocery bag will be a big hit with Manhattan's green-conscious shoppers for the holidays. After all, it's tough to find a decent pair of stiletto high heels at Barneys for $310, the price of the Goyard bag. Therefore, Why not buy it instead and do some good?

The retailer also is selling a selection of limited edition green holiday gift cards. The cards have different green sayings on them such as Green is Groovy, Join The Green Revolution, Save The Planet and other pro-environmental slogans. The gift cards range in value from $50.00 to $1,000.00, and a portion of the sale of each card is donated to environmental charities, like Barneys is doing with the designer items and accessories.

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.