If there's one thing that American CPG brands and retailers have learned over the last three years, it's that there definitely is a new normal when it comes to the attitudes of US consumers about their pocketbooks. The economy may be slowly coming back, but there doesn't appear to be much change in the recession-borne dedication of grocery shoppers to getting the absolute most out of their supermarket dollars.

That's the bottom line being addressed by food-industry brands in various ways these days. Kroger's latest move has been to open a stream of stores, mostly around the Midwest, under a new discount brand called Ruler Foods.

Part of JayC Food Stores, which Kroger purchased in 1999, Ruler Foods now has 18 locations under a test concept for the Cincinnati-based grocery giant, according to the Commercial News in Danville, Ill. Rulers sells Kroger brand food and a limited assortment of other national-brand items.Continue reading...

It’s the authentic, organic kind of success story that makes everybody happy. Annie’s, maker of organic food and snacks, marketed under the tagline, “We make good,” just joined the ranks of digital marketers with a social media campaign true to the core of their brand message.

“Part of our corporate philosophy is doing well and doing good at the same time,” comments Sarah Bird, Annie’s SVP marketing and “chief mom officer.” “We’re hoping to seed a conversation about doing good.”

The video, which can be viewed on Annie's Facebook, shows a woman encouraged to tweet hashtag #sharegood to “get something good.” Post-tweet, (spoiler alert) a series of surprising events begins, such as a man in a bunny suit jumps out with a bowl of Annie’s mac and cheese for the woman to eat. Upon eating, a group of magicians appear and perform street theater while the woman is encouraged to shout “Something Good!” which triggers a musical performance from the back of a truck. 

The macro message, “Share something good to get something good,” starts with sharing the video on Facebook or Twitter, which generates a "thank you" and a stream of cute bunny videos, because hey—who doens't like bunnies? Continue reading...

Hostess brands reportedly attract bids from Walmart and Kroger.

LinkedIn gains job-recruiting edge over Monster, reveals most-liked brands of 2012.

Nissan begins turning out Leaf batteries at new U.S. plant.

Apple dominates tablet-purchase intent, survey says, but loses patent case to licensing firm.

Build-A-Bear considers change at top.

Fox News leads cable segment while CNN dips.

GM revamps MyLink system.

Jaguar drops plan to build supercar.Continue reading...

In a world that is constantly shoving the idea of a woman only being beautiful if she looks like Kate Upton or Kate Hudson or … well, whoever the latest aesthetic ideal is, it can be hard for a preteen girl to figure out how to own the fact that she’s beautiful, too, no matter how different her body is from the supermodel du jour.

Along with most of American society, Unilever’s Dove soap has girls becoming more anxious, instead of more confident. And rather than prey on that lack of confidence by offering beauty "solutions" and use that info to their marketing advantage, Dove is actually trying to get at the root of the problem and boost girls' confidence and self-esteem.

For three years, Dove has been hosting events for preteen girls across the globe to help them feel better about themselves, according to Cincinatti.com. The aim is to reach 15 million young women globally by 2015, thanks to Dove's Self-Esteem Fund, with an empowering message that takes the brand's highly praised Real Beauty campaign to a critical age.Continue reading...

TiVo settles patent lawsuit vs Verizon for $250.4M; Verizon will license TiVo technology.

McDonald's brings back annual Monopoly game contest for 20th edition across U.S.

Yahoo's Mayer will lay out vision at all-hands company meeting this week.

Kroger rolls out Simple Truth™ and Simple Truth Organic® private label in-store brands.

Lay's Potato Chips issues last call for consumers to submit next great potato chip flavor idea for a shot at $1 million payout.

Madame Tussauds Hollywood launches first-ever social media contest for 2013 figure.

Neiman Marcus reaches out to fashion bloggers.Continue reading...

Airbus sees demand in Asia driving future airliner market.

Apple sees rivals rush to make news before introduction of new iPhone.

Asia Pulp & Paper tries to improve green image against skepticism.

Baidu launches mobile web browser.

Bloomingdale's woos woos men with BMW cross-promotion.

Burt's Bees relies on consumer insights from "Burt's Buzz" community panel.

Chrysler posts 14-percent gain in August sales, leading parade of today's industry sales reports.Continue reading...

K-Cups are everywhere in the news now that Starbucks is rolling them out from coast to coast. Yet in the grocery aisle, those little "K-Cups" designed for single serving Keurig brewing machines are highlighting the battle between store brands (private labels) with name brand consumer packaged goods for shelf space.

Both Kroger and Safeway, two major U.S. grocery chains, are launching private label "coffee pods" for the Keurig machine. Safeway announced it will bring to market five types of Keurig-compatible filtered coffee pods. The chain already makes three store brand instant products for the machine.

The move by Safeway and Kroger caused shares of Green Mountain, the company that sells K-Cups along with Keurig brewing machines, to plummet. Since September, in fact, its stock has dropped 82 percent, according to Reuters. Two of the patents that cover the K-Cup design will expire in September 2012, which means other companies, not just Green Mountain, could manufacture Keurig-compatible cups.Continue reading...

Annie's Homegrown has a new headquarters in Berkeley, Calif., in the old headquarters of another better-for-you food brand, Clif Bar. But fresh off its successful IPO, the organic-foods pioneer is more concerned about another type of real estate: shelf space at mainstream supermarkets.

Although Annie's grew to as $135-million company mainly by plying its trademark all-natural and organic macaroni-and-cheese and fruit Bunny snacks at the likes of Whole Foods Markets and other natural-food stores, CEO John Foraker believes that Annie's can be instrumental in making such fare generally appealing to U.S. consumers.Continue reading...