Food Makers Eye Convenience, Soy As Retailers Look Warily at Web - comprehensive review of Food Marketing Institute conference

Brandweek, May 14, 2001 by Sonia Reyes, Barry Janoff

Ferrero USA, whose product lines include Nutella hazelnut spread and TicTac breath mints, will use its Nutella site for several planned promotions, fronted by basketball star Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, over the next two years.

The NBA all-star's image will grace a limited-edition Nutella mouse pad being used as a promo tie-in with product labels that are being redesigned to include Bryant's face.

"He really uses the product. It's in the Lakers' locker room at Staples Center," said Gary Dees, a sales and marketing exec at Ferrero. Because of that, "his six-figure endorsement didn't cost us as much as other companies are paying him," said Dees.

Far fewer pure-play food-related dot-companies had a significant presence than in previous years. Nonetheless, such e-grocery businesses as meals.com, mywebgrocer.com and iwebgrocer.com were hawking the virtues of online shopping.

"The next phase of online grocery shopping is going to be dominated by multi-channel retailers. We are working with them to help brand their companies among online consumers," said Samantha Goldstein, project director for New York-based mywebgrocer.com.

SuperTechMart, a 10,000-square-foot exhibitors' section within the FMI Show, housed such companies as NCR, KhiMetrics, Agribuys, Tomax and Catalina Marketing, which presented strategical in-store and e-fulfillment tactics.

"Traditional and multi-channel retailers have to get serious about using applications to increase sales, optimize prices and meet enterprise goals," said Tim Manning, vice president of marketing for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Khi-Metrics. "That goes right to the heart of building, branding and marketing your business."

Representatives from several prominent supermarket chains were seen huddling with Starbucks executives. Starbucks, which believes that consumers can never get too much of their product, currently has locations within the Safeway and Albertson's supermarket chains, and is interested in expanding that co-branded agreement to other major grocery companies as well as within independent food stores.

"Mom and Pop grocery stores find that a Starbucks coffeehouse brings in traffic," said Megan Behrbaum, Starbucks public relations program manager.

The company also plans to complete a coast-to-coast link that will put a Starbucks in every state. At present, there are locations in 41 states plus Washington, D.C.

More Morsels: Kraft will launch its single-serve Breakstone/Knudsen Cottage Doubles line in Blueberry and Raspberry; it features a combo of cottage cheese and fruit for snacking... Perdue is repackaging its Rotisserie Chickens with a handle design that wraps and locks around the package to prevent leakage and reduces consumers' safety concerns of handling the hot dome trays. It also is adding pouched Simply Saute Seasoned Chicken Strips, pre-seasoned, uncooked poultry, for easy stove-top cooking; TV supports ... Kellogg is rolling out Pop Tarts in Chocolate Chip in June ... Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Skillet Sensations is adding Chicken Alfredo and Chicken Teriyaki flavors to its top-selling line.