Supply-Side Memo: Giant Nestle is on the Prowl for Natural, Nutritional, Health and Wellness Food Companies to Acquire

The world's largest food company, Nestle, will soon have $11 billion dollars of cash on hand from its planned sale of 25% of its 77% stake in the U.S. eye care company Alcon, to drug company Novartis. Nestle announced the sale today.

Further, not too long after that, Novartis will acquire the remaining 52% of Nestle's original 77% stake (23% of Alcon isn't owned by Nestle in other words) for a fixed price of $28 billion, making the total purchase price of Nestle's (77%) stake in the U.S. eye care company by Novaris a whopping $39 billion.

Even more interesting to those in the natural products industry is the fact Nestle plans on using a big chuck of those new billions to acquire companies in the natural, healthy, nutritional and wellness food and product's sectors, we've learned.

This acquisition strategy fits well with the food giant's strategic positioning and strategy to become the dominant global corporate force in natural and nutritional foods. In fact, Nestle could use as much as half of the $39 billion, nearly $20 billion, to acquire natural, nutritional and healthy product food companies, we've learned.

In fact, one of our sources who is close to Nestle and thus needs to remain anonymous, told us on Monday Nestle executives have already identified a number of natural and nutritional foods companies which they plan on making acquisition offers to.

Switzerland-based Nestle has positioned itself into the world's foremost nutritional, health and wellness foods company, with top brands in these categories across the board. But it is far from finished. The world's "most admired" food company, as named by Fortune magazine, wants to dominate the nutritional and health and wellness categories globally because it's in these sectors where the company's leaders believe the most future growth will com.

Nestle makes and markets far more than just nutritional, health and wellness category food products of course. [Take a look at the company's brand portfolio here.] However, nutrition, health and wellness are the giant global food and beverage companies fastest-growing categories and where its going in terms of its overall global positioning, as we mentioned above.

Overall, Nestle controls food, grocery and beverage brands, and markets products in the following categories: bottled water (number one globally); baby foods; dairy products (including Hispanic and Asian specialty products); breakfast cereals (including partnering with General Mills outside of North America); and beverages (Nescafe coffee, Libby's fruit juices, Nestea and more, as well as a complete line of Hispanic coffee products).

Other categories include: ice cream (including marketing the frozen treat in China and the Middle East, among other places in the world), chocolate and confectionery (everything from basic chocolate bars to gourmet treats), prepared foods (everything from packaged soups and pasta sauces, to shelf-stable dinner entrees and frozen foods, including numerous specialty, ethnic, gourmet and natural/organic brands), and pet foods and pet care (the Carnation brand and Ralston-Purina brand, along with others.

Lastly, is the nutrition, health and wellness category, which Nestle is growing the fastest of all the above sectors in its consumer packaged goods and beverage group, and plans to use a major portion of the $39 billion from the sale of its 77% stake in Alcon eye care to Novartis to grow even faster by acquiring numerous companies in these categories, which are all related.

Nestle also has a huge global foodservice operation called Nestle Professional, as well as owning 30% of the cosmetics firm L' Oreal.

Look to Nestle for multiple acquisitions of natural, nutritional and health and wellness-oriented food companies in the U.S. as well as globally before 2008 is over.

Despite the global economic slowdown, Nestle believes there's no better time than the present to make major acquisitions to continue growing its nutritional sector. That's the primary reason, along with wanting to pay down some debt, the comapny is selling its 77% stake in eye care company Alcon.

Nestle's acquisition search is going to shake up the scene

There hasn't been much acquisition activity in the natural, health and nutritional foods manufacturing and marketing sector in the last year. With billions in its acquisition bank, Nestle is going to stir things up quite a bit and shake up the currently static M&A scene.

For example, there a number of successful, large and middle-sized natural and nutritional foods companies in the U.S. that are looking to be acquired or merged as they're in need of additional capital in order to get to the next level.

However, since there hasn't been a "big foods guy" like Kraft, General Mills, Heinz or Nestle (all which have made major acquisitions in the sector in the past) out there for a couple years, there's a pent-up demand so to speak in the natural, health and nutrition industry for suitors, in our analysis. Nestle could be that suitor many of these companies are looking for. Stay tuned.

Reader Memo: Former Sam Walton Protege, Wal-Mart Executive and Renowed Wal-Mart Expert Michael Bergdahl Gives NSFM Props For Our 'Marketside' Work

Michael "Bird Dog" Bergdahl is the former corporate director of people for Wal-Mart, Inc. in Bentonville, Arkansas. Mr. Bergdahl, who was given the nickname "Bird Dog" by Sam Walton himself, worked side-by-side with the late Wal-Mart founder for years.

These days, Mike "Bird Dog" Bergdahl is a professional business consultant, international speaker, author and authority on Wal-Mart, Inc. and its competitive practices.

His books include, "What I learned from Sam Walton: How to Compete and Thrive in a Wal-Mart World," and, 'The 10 Rules of Sam Walton: Success Secrets for Remarkable Results."

Mr. Bergdahl speaks to audiences at corporations, business associations, non-profit organizations, universities, and in numerous other venues, throughout the world about Wal-Mart and its competitive process and culture. He also speaks about numerous other aspects of business, competition and human resources.

The "Bird Dog," as Sam Walton generally called him on a daily basis, has appreared on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and numerous other broadcast media outlets, providing insight and expertise about Wal-Mart and its competitors.

Last week, we recieved a note from Michael Bergdahl, who we've never met--not before or since we received his note via email.

The former Wal-Mart executive apparently was doing some research about Wal-Mart's new Marketside small-format grocery store project, which we were one of the first publications to report on some months ago, and have followed up about with a number of analysis pieces--as well as breaking additional news about.

As we reported some months ago, the first four or five Marketside "Small Marts" are scheduled to open this summer in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan region. [You can read some of our pieces about Wal-Mart's Marketside format here.]

Here is what Mr. Bergdahl had to say in his note to Natural~Specialty Foods Memo last week:

I needed information on "Marketside" and your site provided a tremendous education for me on the small mart battle!

Thanks!

Michael Bergdahl

International Speaker / Author / Wal-Mart Competition Authority 412-635-2638

www.michaelbergdahl.net

We coined the term "Small Mart" back in August, 2007 to describe Wal-Mart's small-format Marketside stores specifically and what we have called (and written extensively about) the small-format grocery store revolution currently going on in America generally.

Your welcome Michael. It's good to be read; and even better to be useful. Now...about that Wal-Mart smiley face... Never mind :)

Retail Memo: Wal-Mart, Target, Drug Chains Further Blur the Natural~Specialty Foods' Retail Class of Trade Lines

Stuffed into yesterday's Sunday newspaper editions in newspapers located throughout the U.S. were the weekly advertising circulars from major mass merchandisers Wal-Mart and Target, and national drug chains Walgreens and Longs.

The advertising circulars from these retailers were chalk-full of natural, specialty and premium food and grocery products offered at promotional prices, which demonstrates how these retailers are continuing to blur the class of trade distinctions between retail format sellers of products in these categories.

The nature of these advertising circulars (they are far from the first ones we've seen by the way) also further demonstrates what we've written about before in Natural~Specialty Foods Memo (NSFM), and observed continually over the last couple years, which is that these "alternative format" retailers continue to add a more extensive assortment and wider variety of natural, specialty and premium food and grocery brands and items to there store product mixes, along with figuring out promoting the category items is good for their business.

below is an overview of the natural, specialty and premium food and grocery products each of these four retailers are promoting in this week's advertising circulars, which were to distributed to millions of American consumers yesterday in their Sunday newspapers, as well as been direct mailed to many homes:

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart's weekly advertising circular is one of the biggest (24 pages) we've seen the retailer distribute in years. Being "the peoples retailer" the brawny big box retailer from Bentonville's promotional circular for this week includes everything from basic grocery products like toiler paper, laundry detergent and Hamburger Helper, to television sets, patio furniture and kids toys.

The 24-page advertising peice is part of Wal-Mart's month-long April Earth Month campaign. You can read more about it here and here.

However, the retailer devotes at least one-fourth of its 24 page advertising circular (the most we have every seen it do) to natural, organic, sustainable "green" products--including food, groceries, beverages and even clothing. Here's a look:

The Wal-Mart weekly advertising flier devotes almost an entire page to promoting Clorox Co.'s new line of Green Works all-natural cleaning products, which include bathroom cleaners, toilet bowl cleaner, window cleaner and other cleaning items. The entire "green" cleaning products line, which Wal-Mart was the first U.S. retailer to merchandise and sell per an agreement with Clorox, is promotionally-priced at 2 for $5, which is about 25% off the items in the line's everyday prices.

Additionally, Wal-Mart is introducing its new line of Sam's Choice brand of Fair Trade, organic, premium whole bean coffee in this weeks advertising circular. The line, which has has six varieties, is USDA certified organic, Fair Trade certified and endorsed by the Rainforest Alliance environmental group.

The 10-12oz whole bean coffee items are being promoted at a price of $5.88 for a 10-12oz bag. The graphics on the package connote both sustainability and premium quality, with a background of a lush green coffee field, the certified organic and Fair Trade organization logos on the front of the package, and text which evokes premium quality.

In its current 24 page advertising flier, Wal-Mart also is promoting its own reusable shopping bags at $1 each, PUR brand home water filters as an alternative to bottled water (and reusable metal water bottles as well), and a limited addition offering (at 60 cents each) of "Earth Day," green and white labeled (instead of the traditional red and white) Campbell's condensed soup.

The "Earth Day" Campbell's soup is touted as "green" for two reasons: the cans are 100% recyclable and source reduction, do to the fact that condensed soup which must be mixed with water results in much smaller cans than ready-to-heat canned soup. As a result, far less tin is used per-can than is the case with ready-to-heat canned soups, which Campbell's also sells by the way.

There are additional "green" food and grocery items promoted in the advertising circular. Further, Wal-Mart devotes nearly an entire page in the thick promotional flier to "transitional organic cotton T-shirts for men, woman and boys and girls. Transitional organic cotton that comes from fields in which farmers are just beginning to transition from conventional production to organic methods.

In the ad circular Wal-Mart says its buying products produced with transitional cotton as a way to encourage further transformation by farmers to organic growing methods for their cotton production Further, it suggests in the promotion that by buying the "transitional organic cotton-produced" T-shirts, consumers can join in with Wal-Mart to encourage farmers to make the transition from tradition to organic cotton production.

Lastly, the Wal-Mart advertising circular devotes a half-page to two natural, new-age beverage lines: the Vitamin Water line (now owned by beverage giant Coca-Cola) at $1 a bottle, and a new line of cranberry juice and green tea drinks called Cranergy from cranberry juice-maker Ocean Spray. The Ocean Spray line looks like it comes from a small, natural beverage company.

Finally, Wal-Mart sets off all the natural, organic and sustainable products in its weekly promotional circular using its green "Save Money Live Better" logo, which has become its trade mark for "green" or sustainable marketing.

Target

This week's Target advertising promotional circular, which just happens to be 24 pages like Wal-Mart's, features a mix of its Archer Farms corporate brand natural, specialty and premium food and grocery products on the front of the circular, setting the tone for the promotional publication, which is health and wellness.

On the front cover, with full-sized color pictures of each item, Target is promoting a variety of Archer Farms' brand natural and premium products.

For example, there's Archer Farms' brand premium whole bean coffee in numerous varieties. The coffee is promotionally-priced at two 12oz packages for $11.00. The front page of the circular also features Archer Farms' all-natural, premium frozen pizza's at 2 for $7, Archer Farms' baked natural potato snack crisps priced at $1.88 per bag, Archer Farms' yogurt-drizzled all-natural Fruit & Oat snack bars (2 for $5), and a line of Archer Farms' brand premium, all natural ready-to-drink flavored green tea in flavors like Pomegranate.

This week Target also is promoting its entire line of Archer Farms' brand natural, organic and premium/specialty food and grocery products in all its stores for 15% off, which it flags in a circle on the advertising circular's front cover.

Inside the 24 page circular, Target also is promoting Vitamin Water at $1 each, as well as a number of other natural and specialty items. And, being a "peoples retailer" as well, albeit a more upscale one, the 24 page target circular also promotes everything from Nabisco Ritz Crackers and Coca-Cola, to computer printers, inexpensive upscale furniture, trendy Dyson brand vacuum cleaners, cell phones and more.

Perhaps most interesting in terms of natural and specialty products' retail channel blurring has been what drug chains like Walgreens, Longs and others have been doing recently. These retailers have been increasing the variety and quantity of natural, organic, specialty and premium food and grocery products (as well as natural cosmetics and garden supplies) in their stores for the past few years. It's been in just the last year though that we've seen these drug chains increase their offerings in these categories substantially, along with promoting the items regularly in their weekly advertising circulars.

Let's take a look at Long's advertising circular for this week, which came out yesterday in most of the U.S.:

Longs Drugs

Longs' 16 page advertising circular for this week has numerous natural, specialty and premium food, grocery and beverage items in it at promotional prices. For example, there's Starbuck's Frappucino iced coffee drinks at $5.49 per four-pack, Dannon Frusion Yogurt drinks at 2 for $3 and a number of promotionally-priced premium wines.

In the specialty and gourmet products' category, Longs' is promoted imported Nutella Hazelnut Spread, extra virgin olive oils, Ghirardelli premium dark chocolates, Bigelow, Stash and Lipton specialty teas, and a number of natural and organic grocery items and beverages under its own Walnut Grove label, which is a private label the drug chain created about two years ago--and has been expanded--devoted to natural, organic and specialty products.

Not to be left out among the natural and specialty foods category class of trade blurring party is mega-drug chain Walgreen's. While Longs' has long sold a strong selection of basic grocery products in its drug stores, and started adding natural and specialty foods in a small way nearly 10 years ago, Walgreen's came a bit later to the party--but that's changing.

Even though Walgreens' operates fairly small-format drug stores, the retailer has been increasing the quantity and variety of food and grocery products it stocks in its stores, including adding natural and specialty items, and promoting them in its weekly advertising circular on a near-weekly basis.

Let's take a look at Walgreens' weekly advertising circular for this week:

Walgreens

While not quite a extensive and broad-based in natural and specialty category items it's promoting in its circular this week compared to competitor Long's, Walgreen's still offers numerous items, especially for a mainline drug chain.

Among these natural, specialty and premium food, grocery and beverage items include: ZeroCalorie brand Vitamin-Enhanced Water, which looks much like the Vitamin Water brand which Coca-Cola acquired from Glaceau for billions last year. Walgreens' promotional price on the product is a buck-a-bottle, the same as Wal-Mart and Target are selling the "big brand" for this week

Walgreens' also gets into the premium coffee promotional game, advertising Starbucks premium whole bean and ground coffee at $7 per 12 oz package.

The national drug chain also is promoting Dreyer's most-premium variety of ice cream, Lindt and Ghirardelli premium quality milk and dark chocolate items, and a new line of its own Walgreeng brand premium nuts (cashews, pistachios, almonds) packaged in very upscale-looking stand-up-style packages.

The drug chain also has Blue Diamond brand's line of premium nuts in this weeks advertising circular, along with a number of natural nutritional supplement items and vitamins. There's also organic potting soil and garden mulch advertised in the promotional flier.

The natural~specialty channel blurring continues

As we've discussed in NSFM before, there's been a continual blurring in the natural, organic, specialty and premium foods categories in the U.S. over the last ten years, with the class of trade blurring trend being particularly strong in just the last three years.

This isn't to say mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart (in its discount stores not Supercenters) and target (its regular Target stores not SuperTarget which have full supermarkets in them like Wal-Mart Supercenters) and drug chains like Long's and Walgreens' are going to compete head-to-head with such natural and specialty foods grocers like Whole Foods Market, Safeway Lifestyle and the numerous regional chain's and multi-store independent supermarkets and natural foods stores in the U.S. that specialize in natural, specialty and premium food and beverage sales. That's not the case--or the issue.

Rather, the point is these "alternative format" retailers are doing two things: First, by expanding their store selection in the respective categories they are broadening the popularity of natural, organic, specialty and premium products. This is a good thing for the industries. They also are exerting more price competition in the categories by promoting the items, which results in upscale supermarkets and supernatural and natural foods retailers having to get more price competitive in their retail pricing strategies.

However, on the retail side of the ledger, it's a fact these alternative retail channels are taking away some sales from the above mentioned format grocers. After all, every jar of gourmet or imported jam, each bag of organic coffee, each quart of organic milk, and every bar of premium dark chocolate that's purchased by consumers at a mass merchandiser or drug chain, means these items aren't being purchased at Whole Foods, SuperValu's upscale Bristol Farms in Southern California, Wegmans in New York and scores of other specialty and natural products merchandising-oriented and positioned grocery chains located throughout the U.S.

The retail class of trade blurring in these respective categories is an interesting phenomenon to observe and analyze. It also should be of particular interest to natural and specialty food and grocery manufacturers and marketers. Many of these folks know little about what's going on in these alternative channels. Those manufacturer's and marketers who are participating and selling to many of these retailers are seeing benefits and added sales.

We suggest those marketers and sellers who aren't involved in selling to mass merchandisers, drug chains, online retailers and others, check it out. Done properly, selling to these channels can increase top line sales without hurting bottom-line profits considerably. It also can be a great way for national and regional sales managers to make bonus towards the end of the year. But that's a completely different story, right?

Weekend Marketing Memo: Meet Richard Lee, A 'Budding' Entrepreneur in What Some Are Calling 'The Other Natural Products Industry'

Like the now-famous marketing tag line says: "Pork: It's The Other White Meat (besides chicken)." And, Just like pork, "The Other White Meat," there's what many are calling "The Other Natural Products Industry": the legal, regulated medical cannabis business. Well, at least in California it's a legal, regulated and legit industry.

Just like in the "real" natural products industry--know for its organic, sustainable, healthy and premium quality products, the medical marijuana industry in California has a product hierarchy: cannabis plants grown organically sell for much more than those grown using pesticides and synthetic herbicides and fertilizer.

Additionally, a premium or quality product criteria exists--the more "premium" the cultivated weed is, the more it sells for. There are even brand names for the product, which consumers who regularly purchase the medical marijuana are familiar with. [We've also heard that many folks who don't procure the pot on a legit basis are very familiar with the brand and quality hierarchy as well.]

Enter Richard Lee of Oakland, California.

Mr. Lee is a "budding" entrepreneur in California's "growing" medical cannabis industry. Lee, 45, is the founder and president of the only known University in the U.S.--and according to the school's president just the second one in the world besides 30 year-old Cannabis College in Amsterdam, which was the entrepreneur's "big idea" inspiration for his Oaksterdam University in Oakland--which has a curriculum devoted exclusively to the cultivation, processing, marketing and distribution of marijuana.

Lee's Oaksterdam (a combination of Oakland and Amsterdam if you aren't paying attention) is located in the heart of Oakland, between the city's downtown and iconic Lake Merritt. The campus, more of a storefront really, is in an area that's become prime real estate during the last 10 years during which the city has been undergoing a massive urban renewal movement. For example, the New Whole Foods' European market-style superstore is only a few minutes drive from Oaksterdam U. And one of the two new Trader Joe's specialty grocery stores which opened in Oakland during the same week late last year is just a roach clip's toss away from the campus of "higher" cannabis education.

Mr. Lee, who nearly 20 years ago suffered a spinal-cord injury which put him in a wheelchair and says he smokes cannabis both medically and "as an adult,", started Oaksterdam University after returning home to Oakland from a 2006 trip to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

His motivation for starting and nurturing Oaksterdam U, which Mr. Lee recently told the San Francisco Chronicle has spawned nearly a dozen cannabis-related businesses thus far since its founding, was because when he returned home to Oakland after seeing how marijuana was treated as a legal but regulated substance in Amsterdam, he felt a similar thing would be good for California, which had recently passed a law legalizing medical cannabis for people who could obtain a prescription for the weed from an approved physician.

Lee says he realized there aren't "enough good people in California who want to work in the legal cannabis industry in a professional way, who want to pay taxes and obey regulations and help improve their community."

As a result, Oakland Oaksterdam University was born.

Lee says the school of "higher" cannabis education is not just an educational institution devoted to studies of the weed, but also a political and applied or entrepreneurial one as well. It's mission--in addition to offering courses which range from the $150 " basic course" module which includes an overview of the political and legal issues surrounding the trade, along with an introductory course in horticulture and "bud tending," which is the art of picking and choosing the cannabis plants' buds, to advanced courses like "Retail (cannabis) Management" "Starting a Business" and "Packaging and Distribution"--is to legitimize the industry and eventually make cannabis legal in the U.S.

Oaksterdam U held its first classes in November, 2007. Mr. Lee says the school had 22 students for those first classes. Beginning in February of this year however he says enrollment started to skyrocket. According to the school's founder and president, the February and March classes were sold out--standing room only--and this month (April) is fully-booked. We're tempted to say business is "growing like a weed."

Things also seem to be "buzzing" along with Oaksterdam U's private sector business offspring. Directly across the street from the school of "higher" cannabis education is the Oaksterdam gift shop, which among other things sells Oaksterdam University T-shirts, jackets and other apparel, all emblazoned with the Oaksterdam University crest. The gift shop also sells an assortment of other cannabis-related items--all legal. Mr. Lee says the shop is currently bringing in a "few thousands dollars in gross sales each month."

Mr. Lee says he owns the gift shop as well as the university but plans to turn them all over to a non-profit foundation--or create one--soon.

He also tells us, based on his research, that the numerous medical cannabis clubs located in Oakland, which are the only types of retail outlets that can legally sell medical marijuana in California, are generating income for the city. He says the various clubs pay about $5 million a year to the city of Oakland and to the state of California in taxes and fees. Further, Mr. Lee estimates the numerous cannabis club retail outlets, which are regulated by both the city and state, have a combined payroll in the city of Oakland of nearly $5 million.

Richard Lee was a major force behind getting Measure Z passed in the East Bay Area city of about 400,000 residents. The measure, which calls on the city of Oakland to tax and regulate cannabis for all adult residents of the city, not just those with medical permission, and makes the private sale and cultivation of cannabis the lowest priority for law enforcement and prosecution, passed with a whopping 65% of the vote in a 2004 city election. Six other California cities have passed similar city ordinances since Oakland's law passed four years ago.

Oakland's police force and DA's office seems to be all for the measure. The city, which has one of the highest per-capita violent and serious crime rates in the U.S., currently has a police force that's understaffed by at least 100 officers, according to the police chef and now even the city's Major Ron Dellums who has been slow to act on the problem since getting elected over a year ago. Further, the DA's office has such a backlog of serious and violent cases to deal with that the last thing it wants to do is spend its time prosecuting cannabis smokers, and even sellers for that matter.

Asked what his motivation is besides the fact he's used medical cannabis for years because of the pain from his spinal-cord injury as well as the fact he had his Oaksterdam U epiphany while visiting the original college of "higher" cannabis education, Cannabis College in Amsterdam, Mr. Lee tells a story about being carjacked in Houston, Texas in 1991.

In a wheelchair at the time because of his spinal cord injury, Richard Lee says he was carjacked and left flat on his back by the thugs who did it, his wheelchair turned on its side and tossed off in a distance. It took the police 45 minutes to arrive as he lay flat on his back on the street, according to Mr. Lee. After they arrived, nobody called an ambulance he says. Lee said he asked the police officers if they could give him a ride home. The police officers told him they couldn't, that they weren't a taxing service, and had to get on to their next call, according to Mr. Lee's version of the story.

He said that incident made him mad and made him an advocate of sorts for better police protection for citizens. Further, he says he in part blames the laws making cannabis use illegal and thus forcing police to deal with pot users rather than having the time to protect citizens from violent crimes. It's a problem with the law, not the police, he says.

So, through his Oaksterdam University cannabis college of "higher" learning, his political action to make cannabis legal, and the entrepreneurial offshoots of Oaksterdam U such as the giftshop, Richard Lee has set his sights on eventually getting state governments--and ultimately the U.S. federal government--to see the light and legalize the natural-growing weed.

It looks like Richard Lee, the founder and president of the only known University in the U.S. to have a curriculum devoted exclusively to cannabis studies--or as he likes to say, "Quality Training for the Cannabis Industry"--is at the helm of a major growth industry in Oakland.

The first two or three classes of Oksterdam University have already graduated. Students receive a diploma if they complete all their classes with a passing grade and pass a final test. The diploma's don't look much different than those given to graduates of the two, nearby prestigiuous Universitys--U.C. Berkeley and Stanford. Well...except for the cannabis leaf on the Oaksterdam U diplomas, that is.

The future of Oaksterdam U: We speculate; tongue planted firmly in cheek

In fact, with things booming and "buzzing" so much at the Oakland-based college of "higher" cannabis knowledge, we're wondering what the future holds for the school.

Perhaps, like its sister Bay Area Universities Stanford and U.C. Berkeley Oaksterdam U might want to start its own football and basketball teams? There are plenty of ideas for team names, that's for sure. Perhaps the "Oaksterdam Tokers" for the football team? If nothing else, the name would sure confuse competing teams.

And, what about a name for the school's basketball team? Perhaps the "Oaksterdam Buzz?" It's got a nice ring to it, and a number of professional basketball teams use similar sounding single- syllable names after all. There's "The Kings" (Sacramento) and "The Jazz" (Utah) just to name two. We also think the "Oaksterdam Buzz" basketball team could give a whole new meaning to the popular "high five" hand slap which is so popular in the sport of basketball.

Of course, a University football and basketball team must also have a pep band and cheerleading squad For example, U.C. Berkeley's "Cal Marching Band" and Stanford's "Cardinal Marching Band" are nearly as popular as each respective school's football and basketball teams are.

However, as all good marketers know, a University sports team pep band and its cheerleading squad needs to fit the format of the school. And since Oksterdam is a specialized University, unlike nearby Stanford and U.C. Berkeley which are "multi-University's, its pep band and cheeleading squad needs to fit the school format and specialized curriculum like a hemp-based fabric glove.

As such, we suggest rather than having a traditional marching band like nearly all Universities and colleges do, Oksterdam U should go with a six-person rock band, one that plays retro 1960's songs from such bands as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and The Cream, all of which were Bay Area-based rock bands by the way.

We're thinking three electric guitar players--a lead guitarist, a bass player and a rhythm guitarist--along with a drummer, keyboard player, and a combination lead singer/tambourine player would be the winning formula for Oaksterdam U and its sports teams. Additionally, tie-tied T-shirts, faded blue jeans, long hair on the guys and even longer hair for the woman, would be the uniform dejur for the cannabis college of "higher" knowledge's 1960's-style rock group school team pep band.

In terms of the cheerleading squad, it too like the pep band has to fit the school's culture and curriculum. Think integrated marketing.

We're thinking rather than having the conventional college cheerleading squad paradigm--which is generally lots of woman and a couple men on a squad, the woman dressed in short plaid skirts, knee-high socks and sweaters with the school letter on the front, and the male cheerleaders dressed in funny looking pants and a similar sweater--Oaksterdam U should turn that traditional model on its head. After all, it is a "head-changing" institution of higher learning.

Therefore, we're thinking an all-male cheerleading team--with a major twist of course. Instead of the six-man Oaksterdam U cheerleading squad being merely an all-male version of the traditional majority female, minority male cheerleading team which is the norm at nearly every college and university in America, we would give that conventional concept a hip and cool 1960's twist for the Oakland college of "higher" cannabis knowledge. Our scheme also is integrated well into the rock group-style pep band concept.

As they say in marketing, here's the pitch: Oaksterdam University's cheerleading squad would not only be all male, each member would be required to sport a full beard and at a minimum shoulder-length hair. The uniform: blue jeans, T-shirt and brown tweed sport jacket. Smoking pipes (for tobacco only) can be optional for home games, but mandatory for away games so as to create the proper integrated school marketing message.

Additionally, instead of doing the traditional, peppy cheers common among all university cheerleading squads in America, the cannabis college's cheerleading team would instead resight poems and verse written and made famous by such famous 1960's beatniks and poets as Allen (A Coney Island of the Mind) Ginsburg, Jack (On the Road) Kerouak and local San Franciscan Lawrence (City Lights) Ferlinghetti.

In fact, we think if asked properly, Mr Ferlinghetti who owns the famous City Lights Bookstore just across the Bay Bridge from Oakland in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood and is the only remaining one of the three still alive, might even agree to be an advisor to the beat era-oriented Oaksterdam U "cheerleading" squad.

We can hear it now:

(Football): "Go Tokes...Get-Um Tokes...Smoke 'Um Up Then Exhale 'Um-Out Tokes....Show Those Boys You Mean it Tokes; Its Time to Stop 'Um 'Cold Turkey' Tokes...Go Oaksterdam Tokes!"

(Basketball): "We Are the Buzz...The Oaksterdam Buzz...Try as you might; run as fast as you can...But you'll never catch...A Buzz...Like Our Guys Can!"

The Serious (and big dollar) side of the cannabis industry

All kidding aside, here are some facts on cannabis or marijuana production in the U.S. from a study conducted in 2006 by Jon Gettman, Ph. D:

>Marijuana is the largest cash crop in the United States. Using conservative estimates, Dr. Gettman estimates the dollar value of cannabis production in the U.S. at 35.8 billion. That's just the United States mind you, which isn't even the largest producer of marijuana in the world. That's more than America's total corn crop ($23,299,601) and vegetable crops ($11,080,733) combined in 2006.

>The top ten cannabis producing states in the U.S. are (in order): California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii, Washington State, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, West Virginia and Oregon.

>Despite tens of millions of dollars in government spending to irradicate domestic marijuana production in the United States over the last 25 years, cannabis production has increased from 1,000 metric tons (2.2 million pounds) in 1981, to 22 million punds in 2006, according to U.S. federal government estimates.

>Marijuana is the top cash crop in 12 U.S. states; in the top three cash crops in 30 states; and in the top five of cash crops in 39 states. In California, the number one cannabis-producing state, marijuana production is larger than cotton, grapes, vegetables and hay combined in terms of total dollar amount.

You can read Dr. Jon Gettman's research paper, "Marijuana Production in the United States (2006)" here. It's the second entry from the top at the link.

Based on your reading the four bullet points listed above on cannabis production in the U.S. (let alone getting into the dollar totals of global production), you can probably see clearly why we called cannabis production and the industry "The other natural products industry."

This seems like lots of potential tax revenue going untapped perhaps. Maybe if cannabis was legalized, regulated and taxed like booze and cigarettes, the revenue could help pay for the war in Iraq. Help pay down the nation's massive debt even? Or, maybe even used to fund social programs. Perhaps?

On the other hand, do we want to legalize another "drug" and place a sin tax on it like we do cigarettes and alcohol? Both are legal in the U.S. despite the fact that as many or more scientists and researchers than not say both of the two "drugs"--nicotine and alcohol--contained in the respective products are likely worse for human beings' health and wellness than marijuana is. But so what, does that mean we merely add another substance to the list so we can generate tax revenue from it? Maybe? Or, Maybe not?

What do you think? Feel free to comment in the comments box below.

Food & Politics Memo: Billionaire Supermarket Industry Investor Ron Burkle Makes Millions For The Clinton's Post-Presidency

Ron Burkle (on the right in the picture above), the billionaire supermarket industry investor, founder and chairman of the Southern California-based Yucaipa Companies investment firm, has provided former two-term President Bill Clinton, who's wife New York Senator Hillary Clinton is running for the Democratic Party nomination for President, with a healthy source of income during his post-Presidential years, according to a batch of Clinton family income tax returns the couple just released. The tax returns are interesting reading indeed.

The former President and his wife Senator Hillary Clinton released eight years' worth of income tax returns on Friday. The period covers the Clinton's last couple years in the White House to the present.

The Clinton's jointly-earned a whopping $109 million during this eight year period, the vast majority of which was brought in beginning in 2001, which was the former President's first year out of office after completing his second and final term. In fact, when Bill and Hillary Clinton left the White House in 2001, they were $12 million in debt do to extensive legal bills accumulated over the legal investigations of the Whitewater land deal, the Monica Lewinsky scandal and related impeachment proceedings, and other legal challenges.

President Clinton earned nearly half of that $109 million as a speaker, traveling all over the world between 2001 and 2006 giving speeches to corporations, business groups and other organizations for hefty per-speech fees. The tax returns don't list who he earned the speaking fees from, which would be most interesting to know.

Another big source of income for "brand Clinton" were book royalties. The former President and Mrs. Clinton brought in about $30 million between 2001 and 2006 for their best selling books; two books for Bill and two books for Hillary during this period.

But giving speeches and writing best selling books were far from the only major sources of income for former President Clinton.

In fact, one multi-million dollar source (and name) of income for the former President stands out large to us in reading through the tax returns which were posted online. That name is billionaire supermarket industry investor Ron Burkle, who is a long time Bill Clinton friend and supporter--and currently one of the most generous donors to Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign.

Not long after the former President left office in 2001, Burkle hired Mr. Clinton as an advisor for his Yucaipa Companies investment firm. Additionally, Burkle made Clinton a partner in a number of his investment funds. Further, a bit later Burkle put the former President on Yucaipa's board of directors as well.

The tax returns show Bill Clinton's partnership with Burkle in various Yucaipa investment vehicles earning the former President and Mrs. Clinton an annual income of about $1 million a year starting in 2003. In 2005, Bill Clinton grossed $5 million from his investments with Burkle, according to the tax returns. Further, the returns show the former President earning an additional $2.5 million in each of the past two years.

All told, Bill Clinton has brought in almost $8 million dollars in income in the last five years from his involvement in and partnership with Ron Burkle and his Yucaipa investment arms. Not a bad pay day.

According to Yucaipa, Burkle hired the former President to be a senior advisor to the firm, which has included helping Burkle meet global businessman and world leaders, land new investors for his funds and identify global investment opportunities. Clinton also has served in a policy role as a member of Yucaipa's board of directors.

As we reported in this piece we wrote on January 30, the former President is in the process of ending his business relationship with Burkle and Yucaipa. It's estimated by a number of sources including the Wall Street Journal that Bill Clinton could walk away with as much as a $20 million final payout when he concludes his partnership interests in the various Yucaipa-controlled investment funds and vehicles. That's on top of the nearly $8 million earned to date.

Burkle made his name as a supermarket industry investor in the 1980's by acquiring and putting together a number of major supermarket chains into a retail grocery company he called Ralph's/Food-4-Less, and then ultimately selling the huge supermarket company for billions.

Among the chains he acquired and bundled together were Los Angeles-based Ralph's Grocery Co., Fred Meyer, Inc. (Oregon), Boy's Markets (Los Angeles), Falley's Food-4-Less (Kansas City, Mo.), Arizona-based Smitty's, Dominick's of Chicago and a few others. [Read our January 30 piece here for more details.]

Burkle, who got his start in the supermarket business as a bagboy for Stater Bros. supermarkets in Southern California where he later became a VP, operated the company with a team for about eight years, building it up, cutting costs and the like. He then broke Dominick's off from Ralph's/Food-4-Less and sold it to Safeway Stores, Inc. for nearly $2 billion dollars.

Following that profitable sale, Burkle improved sales and operations at Ralph's/Food-4-Less even further and then made the BIG sale: Kroger Co. agreed to buy the supermarket company from Burkle for $8 billion. This was the acquisition that put Kroger in the number one spot among grocery retailers in the U.S., where it remains today.

Burkle latest BIG grocery retailing deal was last year's acquisition of natural foods retailer Wild Oats Markets, Inc. by Whole Foods Market, Inc.

A little background: In the 2005-2006 time period, Burkle acquired about 5% ownership in Wild Oats Markets, Inc., making him the retailer's largest individual outside shareholder. Not long after acquiring his 5% stake, Burkle helped engineer the ousting of the grocery retailing company's then CEO, who many felt was responsible for Wild Oats' underperformance at the time. Burkle also took a seat on the fledgling natural foods' chain's board of directors.

In 2007, Burkle was a major behind the scenes force in helping to engineer the acquisition of Wild Oats by Whole Foods Market, Inc., which netted him and his Yucaipa investment firm a healthy payout. Whole Foods announced it was acquiring Wild Oats in September, 2007, with the full support of Wild Oats Markets, Inc.'s board and investors.

Burkle hasn't made a major supermarket industry investment play since last year's Whole Foods/Wild Oats acquisition-merger. However, through his various Yucaipa investment funds, he has stakes in companies of all types throughout the world (including grocery industry) as well as in the U.S.

In this piece we wrote on January 30, we said Burkle was taking a close look at SuperValu, Inc. in terms of possibly making a major investment in what many believe is an undervalued company. We learned this from a source close to both Yucaipa and SuperValu.

To date, Burkle hasn't made major investment in SuperValu that we are aware of , and it's likely he won't, since some fundamentals both at SuperValu and in the U.S. economy have changed since January, 2008. However, don't rule it completely out either--we aren't.

In fact, Burkle's deal tend to be good for the supermarket industry in our analysis. When he bundled up all the regional chains in the 1980's some were tired, smaller operations in need of shaking up Others, like Ralph's and Fred Meyer, were full of potential but just operating in a rather mediocre manner. Burkle bundled all these somewhat disperate chains together and created value--and in our view provided what at the time was some much needed "creative destruction" in the supermarket industry.

His move regarding Wild Oats is the same in our opinion. Before Burkle took his 5% stake in the natural products retailer, it was in big trouble. Whole Foods' was eating its lunch, as were many independent natural foods stores. There was nothing Wild about Wild Oats at that time--and nobody in the grocer's senior management team was even close to feeling his or her "Oats" over the natural grocery chains sales and operating performance.

Many people cry (and even cry fowl) about the Whole Foods acquisition, but it was the best thing to happen to Wild Oats--and the natural foods retailing sector. Burkle shook it up--and likely saved Wild Oats in the process, in our analysis and opinion. Whole Foods had a hand in the saving as well of course.

Meanwhile, Burkle has been very good to former President Clinton. Of course, that's a two-way street. Burkle has been a close personal friend, as well as a financial angel, to Bill Clinton since his first run for the Presidency in 1990, which he won, followed by winning a second term. It's likely that friendship has paid a handsome dividend or two for Mr. Burkle.

Ron Burkle also has extended his personal, political and financial relationship to the former First Lady and Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, in her run for the Democratic nomination for President. According to campaign disclosure statements as well as a recent report in the New York Times, Burkle is one of Senator Clintons "Hillraisers," a title given to those key supporters who raise more than $100,000 for her Presidential campaign.

Burkle has done that--and much more. In addition to giving the maximum amount an individual can give to a Presidential candidate--which is about $5,000 ($2,500 during the primary campaign and another $2,500 for the general election)--and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for her, including holding a lavish fundraiser at his Beverly Hills estate for the Senator from New York, Burkle also has made a six figure donation on top of all this to Emily's List, which is a women-run independent political action group that's a big supporter of Hillary Clinton for President.

Who would have thought the grocery industry would end up being such a cash cow for a former U.S. President. We bet Bill Clinton, who says one of the things he loves about no longer being President is that he gets to do some of his own grocery shopping, grins from ear-to-ear each time the supermarket clerk at the checkstand asks him if he wants paper or plastic (bags) for his grocery purchases.

Economy, Labor & Society Memo: Why Dr. King Was in Memphis 40 Years Ago Today

Put on my blue suede shoes

And I boarded the plane

Touched down in the land of the delta blues

In the middle of the puring rain

W.C. Handy--won't you look down over me

Yeah I got a first class ticket

But I'm as blue as a boy can be

Then I'm walking in Memphis

Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale

Walking in Memphis

But do I really feel the way I feel.

--From the song: Walking in Memphis; by Marc Cohn

"They felt a garbage man wasn't nothing. And they figured they could treat us any way they wanted to treat us. ... Make you feel bad, 'cause you know you wasn't no garbage. You supposed to be a man."

--Elmore Nickelberry, a still-working 76 year old Sanitation worker in Memphis, Tennessee, who was on the picket line during the 1968 "I Am A Man" labor protest. Mr. Nickelberry is the man in the picture at the top of the story holding the sign in front of the Lorraine hotel.

'Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything! I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"

--Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 3, 1968 at the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ headquarters in Memphis, the evening before he was killed by a sniper's bullet on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The quote is from what is called his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.

Forty years ago today, civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed by a sniper's bullet as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, bantering and kibbitzing with his top aids in the parking lot below.

King had come to Memphis to make a quick speech about civil rights and economic justice, and planned to leave the Southern U.S. city that same day.

However, the climate in Memphis was tense. Black sanitation workers, fed-up with racial discrimination and abuse from their white bosses, were talking strike, something that not only was a foreign concept to African American laborers at the time, but frightening as well.

This was a difficult time in Dr. King's life. He was in the process of broadening his non-violent civil rights advocacy from race relations to include economic and labor fairness and justice issues. King also had recently made what for him was a personally agonizing decision to come out publicly against the U.S. war in Vietnam.

The reason it was an agonizing decision for Dr. King was because it meant going against President Lyndon Johnson in calling for an end to the war. Vietnam was LJB's war, and the anti-war climate and demonstrations in 1968 were tormenting the "guns and butter" President.

Johnson, the first U.S. President to push for and sign a real, comprehensive equal and civil rights bill outlawing discrimination for blacks and others, also knew that if Dr. King came out against the war publicly, it was likely the end for his Presidency.

King worked closely with LBJ to pass the landmark civil rights legislation, and felt he owed him much for keeping his word to the civil rights leader that as President he would make it happen.

Against the backdrop of the sanitation workers strike in Memphis, which had started by the time Dr. King arrived, others had moved into Memphis to march and protest in support of the workers--and for equal rights in general. Things were turning violent and the anti-violent King was worried.

Dr. King announced his support for the sanitation workers the day he arrived in Memphis, as well as announcing it was time for not just racial justice, but for economic justice in America as well. This was what came to be called the Poor Peoples' Campaign.

In the midst of all this activity, Dr. King extended his stay in Memphis. On the night of April 3, 1968, he gave the speech quoted above. It seemed as if that night he already knew what was to happen the following day. That very next day, Martin Luther King Jr., just one-year shy of his 40th birthday, was shot and killed by a sniper as he relaxed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, playfully bantering with his aids below in the parking lot.

Most people alive today probably have no idea what Dr. King was doing in Memphis on that rainy day 40 years ago when he was shot and killed in the prime of his life by a sniper named James Earl Ray.

This is just a sample of what Dr. King, who was 39 when he was shot and killed, achieved in his short adulthood: A bachelor's degree in sociology from Morehouse college in Atlanta, Georgia at age 19; A second bachelor's degree, in theology, from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania two years later; and a Ph. D in philosophy from Boston University in 1955.

Dr. King was the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama; an award-winning author (books: Stride Toward Freedom, Letters from a Birmingham Jail, Why We Can't Wait); Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1964 (the first African American to receive the honor), the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (in 1964); an advisor to President's Kennedy and Johnson; husband and father of four; and of course, the leading civil and economic rights leader America has ever produced.

Most unfortunately, as historian Michael K. Honey, author of the book "Going Down Jerico Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign," says in an essay written by (McClatchy-owned) Miami Herald newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. and published in numerous McClatchy Co. newspapers in the United States this morning, on April 4, 1968 America lost "the one man who was able to speak to rabbis and working men and preachers and militants alike, to communicate across almost all the barriers and boundaries of the 1960's."

Read Leonard Pitts' full essay here. You also can view archival videos and photographs of Dr. King and the Memphis Sanitation workers strike here.

Retail Marketing & Public Relations Memo: What Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market 'Should' Be Doing Now

Last week, Tesco Neighborhood Market chief marketing officer Simon Uwins posted in his corporate blog on the Fresh & Easy website that the small-format, convenience-oriented neighborhood grocery chain was taking a "pause" in its new store opening blitz, which has found Fresh & Easy opening 59 grocery stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada since November, 2007. [Read about the Fresh & Easy new store "pause" or "breather" here.]

Blogs such as Fresh & Easy Buzz were the first to report on Uwins' announcement, followed by a number of UK newspapers. The U.S. business press picked-up the story starting on Monday. And yesterday and today numerous major newspapers and news services like the

Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and many others are running stories on the retailer's three month new store opening "pause." Blogs of all sorts are writing about the three month new store opening moratorium and store sales' underperformance issue as well.

Most of these news stories and features (and likely those to come the rest of this week) aren't positive for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market retail venture in the USA. The new store opening "pause" is the story news peg in all of the pieces, along with reports like those we offered months ago that the 59 Fresh & Easy grocery markets opened to date are seriously underperforming in sales as compared to Tesco's internal sales targets.

Uwins and company should have better prepared for this fact, which any experienced U.S. marketer or PR professional should have known would happen. It can happen to anybody though.

The reason any professional with experience with the U.S. business press should have known how the news cycle would have played out is because of the nature of today's media. First, because the newspaper business in the U.S. is doing so poorly, newsroom budgets and staffing has been lean for the last five years or so. As a result, today's U.S. business and popular press is a reactive rather than investigative enterprise in the main.

Business reporters at America's newspapers--with some exceptions of course--tend to report and write stories based on press releases issued by corporations, or based often times on news reports they find in blogs and other alternative media sources.

For example, the business section reporters who are reporting on the Fresh & Easy "pause" yesterday and today didn't read it on Mr. Uwins' corporate blog--even though it was there for blogs like Fresh & Easy Buzz to find, which reported it last Saturday. Rather, they either discovered the news from that blog, or from the British newspapers which started reporting the story on Sunday and Monday.

As a result though, Mr. Uwins' corporate blog post--which we think was a good idea but not complete as we will explain shortly--offered a news peg for the U.S. business press to generate stories about Fresh & Easy, which hadn't been much in the news in the last month. Since the "news" is that Fresh & Easy is taking this new store opening breather, originally reported by the grocery chain's marketing chief, and that the stores have been underperforming for sometime, based on numerous reports, put the two together and you've got the news peg the publications' went with; and rightly so--it's what is news, especially in the absence of any follow-up prepared by Fresh & Easy.

Mr. Uwins and the Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market team should have been prepared for this news cycle however--and even used it to the grocery chains marketing advantage. And, based on the responses from a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market spokesman to the reporters in many of these stories, there hasn't been much preparation. His quotes to date have been on the order of: 'Things are going well, the stores aren't underperforming, we don't know where this data (the sales estimates) is coming from.'

Not good. Too boilerplate. Non-responsive. Sounds too much like spin. It's not the spokesman's fault either. He can only go with what he's provided with. It's not an easy roll.

What Uwins and company should have done before publishing the "pause" news in the corporate blog (a communication we agree with) was to be ready for the media before the post was made.

What do we mean by ready?

We suggest Uwins and company should have had three stories (news pegs) prepared and locked-and-loaded for the post "pause" announcement. Remember, today's business press, and even many bloggers, are a reactive lot in most ways.

We would have prepared three "news pegs" in the following areas:

First, we would have had one concrete change to be implemented in the Fresh & Easy stores. For example, a common complaint (which happens to be true) about the stores is that they aren't localized and customized enough to the demographics and character of the neighborhoods they are located in. We would have used this post-pause announcement period to announce a major initiative in which Fresh & Easy plans to start in May bringing in a substantial number of more local food and grocery products into its stores. Neighborhood-oriented merchandising.

For example, bringing in more Southern California-produced fresh produce and specialty products for its stores in that region. There are tons of such goods produced and marketed in the region. Additionally, how about a similar initiative for the Arizona Fresh & Easy grocery stores? An announcement that the grocer will stock many more Southwestern-style food and grocery products, produced in Arizona and New Mexico, in its stores. There are lots of those available as well.

Lastly, for both regions, and Nevada, an announcement that the small-format "neighborhood" grocery chain would be increasing the amount and variety of ethnic foods it merchandises in all 59 stores--Hispanic, Asian and other ethnic foods--based on the specific demographics of a given neighborhood. It's needed.

Such an announcement, say yesterday, would have generated lots of press, which in many cases would mean positive stories along with the more negative new store opening "pause" pieces. In some cases, such an announcement (local foods are big news in the U.S. right now) would have cut-short the "pause" story news cycle for the new "local foods initiative" cycle of stories.

But, if we were in charge we wouldn't have stopped there in our pre-publishing of the "pause" strategy, for the post-pause news cycle period.

April 22, just two weeks away, is Earth Day. Numerous grocery retailers, manufacturers and marketers are planning major Earth Day green marketing or green retailing promotions and activities for the day which celebrates the earth, conservation and environmental stewardship.

We haven't heard of any plans for Earth Day from Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

Our second, "locked-and-loaded" post-pause corporate blog post news peg would have been tied to Earth Day. For example, why not an announcement from Fresh & Easy that it plans to give away thousands of free reusable, canvass grocery tote bags at its 59 stores on Earth Day. Further, that as part of this give-away promotion, it will give one dollar for every free tote bag it gives away to shoppers to local environmental groups and charities in its market areas.

Green or environmental news from retailers is big news right now.

Or, the grocery chain could even go bolder. It could follow in the footsteps of Whole Foods Market, Inc.--which beginning on April 22 (Earth Day) will no longer offer single-use, free plastic grocery bags in its 270-plus stores in the U.S., Canada and England.

Fresh & Easy could announce it's decided to offer only paper grocery bags produced from 100% post-consumer recycled paper, along with reusable grocery tote bags in its U.S. stores. In fact, such an announcement would be even more powerful if it was done in conjunction with the free reusable tote bag scheme suggested earlier.

Either way, just doing one or both, we guarantee there would be a significant batch of news stories generated on the announcement in the U.S. media. [Just Google or Yahoo Search Whole Foods plastic grocery bags to get a flavor for what we are suggesting in terms of news coverage. Also, just wait until a few days before Earth Day for the Whole Foods plastic bag self-ban stories to come flowing in.]

Just as we mentioned above about the "local foods initiative" story, one or both of these Earth Day news pegs would result in considerable positive news coverage, along with the more negative "pause" and store sales underperformance stories currently all over the pages of newspaper business sections and in online editions. Further, just as with the "local food" news peg--and even more so because both that announcement and the Earth day one would be timed to be released fairly shortly apart--the "pause" and sales underperformance story news cycle would be shortened in our analysis, experience and opinion.

Lastly, we would have one more bullet in our "pre-pause" corporate blog post/"post-pause" post-publication strategic media arsenal. We might or we might not use it right away depending on the results of our above news pegs, by the way.

This third and last strategy would be to have Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason and his new, soon to be number two man, U.S.-born Jeff Adams who currently is the CEO of Tesco's Tesco Lotus retail division in Thailand, issue a joint-statement saying the retailer recognizes there are some sales underperformance and other format, operations, marketing and merchandising problems with the Fresh & Easy stores, which is why as CEO Mr. Mason ordered the new store opening "pause." [Mason hasn't issued a statement or said a word on the "pause" to date. Not a good communications strategy. Further, believe it or not, the press loves it when a CEO comes out and walks-the-walk and takes charge. It hurts a little at first. But starts to feel real good soon after.]

Further, in the statement, we would have CEO Mason state that in part this is why Adams, a U.S. native, has joined the senior executive team. That he's coming in, from his highly successful run as CEO of Tesco-Lotus, to provide a fresh mind (one that was formed in the U.S.) and a new set of eyes as Fresh & Easy enters a new phase, after the amazing task of opening 59 of the small-format basic grocery and fresh foods markets in a mere 150 or so days.

Further, in the statement Adams would offer his two-cents worth, not to mention talking about how happy he is to be returning to the USA, land of his birth, to be involved with what might just be one of the most interesting grocery grocery retailing ventures in the U.S. in the last five decades, which it is. This isn't spin, it's all factual--and real.

There's an old saying in politics and political campaigning: 'If you have a problem...hang a lantern on it.' We all know the converse: most corporations and politicians (and others) get in trouble not because they address an issue or mistake head-on, but rather because they deny it or even attempt to cover it up. Like its often said about Richard Nixon's Watergate fiasco: 'It wasn't the third-rate burglary that lost Nixon the Presidency; it was the cover-up.'

We aren't suggesting Tesco is covering anything up about Fresh & Easy. Nor are we naive enough to think or suggest any corporation should fully disclose its operational difficulties (first it has to know them though) completely if it chooses not to.

What we are suggesting though is two-fold: First, as we write this, Tesco's Fresh & Easy appears to have absolutely no strategy for dealing with the mostly negative stories that are appearing mostly in the business sections of U.S. and UK newspapers this week. As we have outlined above, there exists a strategy for doing so; one that should have been in place already.

Second, Tesco's Fresh & Easy has not just an image problem, but a real retail format, operations, marketing and merchandising one. But these aren't end of the world problems. They're "fixable," especially by one of the world's most innovative and successful retailers, which Tesco is. However, to fix these problems, those in charge first have to discover them; and do so despite personal pride or hubris. The suggestions we offer are part of hanging that lantern on these problems, as well as thinking strategically when it comes to marketing and media relations.

The story, of course, is still developing. Stay tuned. By the way, with some fast-moving and nimble work, Fresh & Easy could still launch a campaign like we describe above before the week is out.