Comag Marketing Group, LLC

White Plains, NY-based yogurt maker Dannon last fall assembled a “shelf-obsession team” to press its case for expanded display space at retail.  The special-operations-type unit supports existing sales teams with account-specific market research and merchandising concepts gleaned from Dannon’s global operations.  Sure to be among their oft-cited research is that the dairy category comprises 9% of grocery store sales, [...]

When the trucks go into service throughout the U.S. and Canada later this summer, Coca-Cola Enterprises will have the largest hybrid truck fleet in North America.  The per-vehicle cost is $85, 000 – higher than non-hybrid alternatives – but each one will produce 37 percent fewer emissions and use 32 percent less fuel than a standard delivery truck.  [...]

Although the industry’s sales, still going up, amounted to $16.8 billion in the U.S. last year, there is evidence that tap is the new chic in water.  Thrifty consumers are buying re-usable containers.  Nestle now produces half-liter bottles in an “eco-shape” that contains 30 percent less plastic than the average bottle.  And, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., the [...]

At an investment conference in New York yesterday, Hershey Co. ceo David West outlined the confectioner’s plans to take on the bohemoth that we arise from the combination of Mars Inc. and the Wm. Wrigley Co. in the coming months.  Some observers think that reinvigorated marketing may not be enough, and that Hershey’s scant international [...]

With a one-liter bottle of its beverages requiring 2.5 liters of water to produce, and with surging demand in developing countries with increasing awareness about water scarcity (like China), Coca-Cola has made becoming “water-neutral” a key “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) goal.  Time  (June 12, 2008)

U.S. consumer products manufacutures grew 10.6 percent this past year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, who conducts research on behalf of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “The Food, Beverage and Consumer Products Industry: Achieving Superior Financial Performance in a Challenging Economy 2008,” report “stated that even in a difficult economy with ever-increasing commodities prices, agile [...]

Besides garnering millions in free publicity (some of it courtesy of Diane Sawyer and Al Roker), the two-page spread for Welch’s Grape Juice featuring “Peel ‘n Taste” flavor strips that appeared in the February 18th People magazine is scoring well as an advertisement, itself.  A study by Starch Communications, commissioned by Time Inc., found that 70% [...]

Proctor & Gamble Co., which has seen a multibillion-dollar increase in energy and commodity pricing in recent years and which increased its retail prices on many of its products a few months back, is preparing for a fresh round of supply cost increases from Dow Chemical Co.  It will take some time for the effect [...]

Coca-Cola Enterprises, the world’s largest bottler of Coca-Cola, forcast a 10% drop in second quarter profits, largely as a result of the weak North American economy. Especially hurt: C-stores sales of 20-oz. bottles. The New York Times (May 29, 2008)

Beginning next month, chocolate lovers will be to order M&M’s personalized with their photograph and a custom message by visiting MyMMs.com.  The announcement may have been the biggest hit at the National Confectioners Association All Candy Expo in Chicago this week.  Brandweek  (May 22, 2008)