Kraft Earnings Take A Hit, Store Brands On The Rise

Kraft just reported a 72% drop in earnings during 2008 - the majority during the last quarter. Consumers are cutting back in a lot of ways and turning more to store brands to save money. However, Kraft still plans on increasing its marketing budget to 8% of its total budget (up from 7% last year).

Very smart move! The best way to counter store brand growth is to emphasize the value in the Kraft: Consumers have to believe that they get more value and better products if they spend the additional money. Brandweek reports that, "Kraft will rely on product innovations and value marketing to drive growth behind its brands.

Surprisingly Product Recalls Don't Change Eating Habits

In the wake of the ever-expanding peanut butter recalls I found this news surprising and a little troubling.

The Washington Post reports that, on the whole, Americans will alter their habits over the short term but revert to regular practises once the news swell has passed. Why? Psychologists theorize that "learned helplessness" is to blame.

"Few consumers, if any, had heard of the Peanut Corporation of America, the company responsible for the [current peanut butter] outbreak. Yet the Blakely, Ga.-based company sold its products to more than 70 name-brand firms that used them for foods including cookies, pet food, ice cream and cereal. With the possible spread of tainted product so wide, consumers tend to believe that they can't do anything about it and their response is not to try. When faced with a perceived helplessness consumers tend to carry on with regular behaviour despite the risks.

Trekaroo Helps Families With Kids Plan Vacations

Here's one for the kids (and parents with kids). Trekaroo is a travel planning site targeted specifically at parents with children. The site offers travel tips, top cities for families, kid-approved activities, in depth reviews and a chat option for parents to connect and discuss.

Mashable's take: "Although Trekaroo doesn’t marvel us with any spectacular new technology, we think that parents could really benefit from the knowledge base of an active community of family travelers." I agree! The chat feature helps get answers from a community of parents that have been there and done that.

Pasta Is Cheap Eats

Consumption of pasta is up across the board. Sales, volume and revenues all rose during 2008 as increasingly strapped consumers turned to the staple.

But Peter Smith, chief executive of Harrisburg, Pa.-based New World Pasta, which makes Ronzoni, said that the current economic situation has caused people to rediscover pasta. I know our family is eating more and more these days.

From the Houston Chronicle/AP

Whats In A Name... Your Last Name?

Something very cool for all the family history buffs out there. Dynastree allows you to more sense of your lineage, by tracing the roots of your surname. They have a new surname mapping feature that allows you to see the geographical dispersion of your last name across the country. Check out your surname map. Adams is #30 on the list of most frequent surname in the U.S. and there are folks with the name in all 50 states (Texas has the most). Very cool.

Thanks Mashable

Super Bowl Ads Step Up Their Digital Game

On Super Bowl Sunday viewers will huddle around their TVs to experience what has become the advertising industry's biggest day. This year, however, advertisers are looking to get their money's worth by leveraging new digital technologies designed to "make the most of the short exposure their ads will get on the Feb. 1 game broadcast."

The Wall Street Journal reports that several updated and new technologies will be on display. "Interactive TV ads, sophisticated search strategies, Web-only outtakes, mobile-phone applications and social-networking campaigns" will all have their 30 seconds in the sun. These new extensions and applications are advertiser's way of stretching their marketing dollars and using digital technologies to give their ads an audience before, during and (hopefully) long after the Super Bowl champ is crowned.

This year's philosophy can be summed up by Matt Ramella, manager of media and digital marketing for Anheuser-Busch InBev. "We're definitely trying to change our mind-set to use mass TV in a more efficient and effective way... Digital extensions pick up where mass media leaves off."

Personally, I'm pulling for the underdogs - successful digital extensions and the Arizona Cardinals!

Economy Slows Organic Food Growth

The economy is causing consumers to watch their budgets and question their commitment to organic food. The increased pressure on food budgets has slowed the growth of the organic food segment but it is still growing. Sales in December were up 5.6%, compared with 25.6% a year earlier.

Reuters reports that "most people who purchased organic foods were very committed" despite slowing growth in the sector. Tom Pirovano, director of The Nielsen Co. said, "I'm not convinced that we are going to see big declines in organics any time soon." I hope that the growth of the organic food is not a fad but the current economic will definitely put the viability of the segment to the test.