I do hope Disney knows what it is doing. In a complete turnaround from the absurd princess mania that has taken over their Disney themeparks, Mickey is going rogue.  That’s right. Mickey is about to go postal in an attempt to improve his relevancy.  (more…)

If you work for a CPG company, then you have taken notice of an uninvited guest at the home and at the table. Recent research on a number of fronts all point in one direction: difficult economic times have bolstered the rollout and expansion of many retailers’ private label lines — including c-store. According to The NPD Group’s “Private Label Perceptions, Usage Patterns and Intentions,” 24 percent of all food and beverages served in American homes last year were store brands, up from 18 percent in 1999. Today, 97 percent of all households consume private label foods on a regular basis. ”There is no question that private label foods have become an integral part of American life,” said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst at NPD. He added: “Furthermore, we do not hide private label foods as an ingredient or as an additive to another dish. Today over half of all store brand food eatings are the end dish.”  (more…)

Pizza Hut’s recent branding debacle highlights exactly what can go wrong when a company spews too much marketing corporatese. Most humans don’t speak that language and are easily confused by it. This time, many of them came away believing that Pizza Hut was changing its name. Apparently, it’s not. I think.  (more…)

The U.S. recession is taking a bite out of national brand loyalty in products ranging from Advil pain reliever and Green Giant frozen vegetables to Jif peanut butter, according to a study released today. Just four out of 10 brands held on to at least half of their highly loyal customers from 2007 to 2008, according to the study from Catalina Marketing Corp’s CHKHDC.UL Pointer Media Network, which gathers purchasing data at 23,000 stores nationwide. What’s different about this recession? This time around, retailers such as Kroger, Safeway and Wal-Mart are aggressively expanding their own private labels. (more…)

The sole of Nike’s new Air Jordan is made with ground-up bits of old Nike sneakers. But the company isn’t selling it as an eco-friendly shoe: That might not be good for business. Nike has an unusual problem. Like many companies, it is trying to make its supply chain and products greener, which brings obvious environmental benefits and, just as important these days, financial ones, too. But while executives at General Electric and Wal-Mart eagerly advertise the eco-conscious changes they’re making, those at Nike choose to play down sustainability initiatives. Nike customers buy shoes to make them feel fast, slick, and hip; they don’t care much about being eco-chic. “Nike has always been about winning,” says Dean Crutchfield, an independent branding consultant in New York. “How is sustainability relevant to its brand?” The lesson for Nike was that its green innovations should continue, but its customers shouldn’t be able to tell. “We want to do more and say less,” is the way Lorrie Vogel, who oversees Nike’s green business practices, puts it.  (more…)

As proof that every humble product will eventually get its upscale rebranding, Café Bustelo is in the midst of a makeover. As with Pabst Blue Ribbon and Hush Puppies before it, Bustelo’s appeal to the hipster demographic is being seized upon by a company eager to exploit its every last drop of cool. For the last two years, Bustelo has been a fixture at parties and giveaway suites from the Winter Music Conference to Sundance to the Oscars, and the company behind it has been sending truckloads of it to 50 Cent and Perez Hilton. Whenever there is coolsploitation, however, there is potential trouble, and marketing experts say that Café Bustelo’s reboot will not be easy. For one, it has a loyal Hispanic customer base that it can’t afford to alienate. It also faces competition for that urbanite coffee dollar from Goliaths like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. And then there is the danger that Bustelo might not be as hip as its purveyor thinks it is. “Every company tries to be a lifestyle brand now,” said Jonah Disend, the founder of Redscout, a brand strategy firm in New York. “Everybody comes in and goes to the cool places and thinks it will just work. But it can come off as very hollow.” Still, the authenticity of Cafe Bustelo is in its’ favor and I for one am rooting for the brand to chip away at brands with less soul.  (more….)

At the entrance to almost every shopping mall in the country, you will find a directory that, if you are spatially coordinated, will give you an approximate lay of the land. But you will be no closer to discerning what drives the modern youth from one store to the next; what differentiates one’s frayed cargo shorts from another’s; or why one of them, Abercrombie, is facing a consumer revolt, while others are paradoxically upbeat. A clue: It has to do with price.  (more…)

The PepsiCo Americas Beverages division of PepsiCo is bowing to public demand and scrapping the changes made to a flagship product, Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice. Redesigned packaging that was introduced in early January is being discontinued, executives plan to announce on Monday, and the previous version will be brought back in the next month. (more…)

Package-goods brands face their greatest crisis and strongest threat from private label since at least the early 1990s. All in all, private-label market shares grew 0.8 percentage points to 21.9% of volume and 0.7 points to 17.1% of dollars in all package-goods categories and retail channels last year including Walmart, according to Information Resources Inc. More troubling for marketers, the pace accelerated over the course of the year and reached all income ranges. For example, private-label grew only 0.1 point in the first quarter but 1.3 points in the fourth quarter among households earning more than $100,000 annually, according to IRI. Clearly, the marketing and pricing decisions marketers make now could go a long way toward shaping how their brands fare for the balance of a difficult recession. “One thing you don’t want to do is create a consumer who shifted to private label and then have to spend a lot to get them back,” said Kimberly-Clark Corp. Chairman-CEO Tom Falk at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York last week. Some major marketers are finding ways to work with — rather than against — private-label products, with store displays that showcase their offerings side by side. (more…)

In the single worse labeling redesign I have ever seen, Tropicana has taken an easily identifiable and branded carton and turned it into something that looks generic and past its’ best buy date. It’s all part of a plan to turn around sales in the OJ category. “Tropicana is looking forward to helping people re-discover the functional and emotional ‘squeeze’ they get from drinking an 8-ounce glass of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice every morning,” said Neil Campbell, president of Tropicana, in a statement. “Our consumers trust the Tropicana brand to bring them a healthy all-natural, great-tasting product and we’re confident the new marketing campaign and new packaging will really get their juices going.” Well that is all fine and good but now you can’t find Tropicana on the shelf. Good luck with that. (more…)