P&G not yet seeing a return on its beauty investment

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January 26, 2011 News for the food, beverage and consumer packaged goods industry   Company Watch    P&G is not yet seeing a return on its beauty investment Procter & Gamble has not seen a strong return on an investment made in beauty products. The company changed structure in 2009, combining ad budgets and product launches for beauty brands, and has invested about $80 billion in the past 20 years, including $57 billion to purchase Gillette and $11 billion for Clairol and Wella. However, beauty sales increased 1.5% in fiscal 2009 and 3% in fiscal 2010, outpaced by other divisions. The Wall Street Journal (1/26) Mars expects no disruption from Ivory Coast ban Mars said its chocolate production won't be disrupted in the short term by the Ivory Coast's temporary ban on cocoa exports. Ivory Coast, which supplies about one-third of global cocoa, has stopped exports for a month amid political unrest. Mars said, "We are certain that in the short term this will not impact our ability to manufacture the chocolate products that our consumers desire." The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires (1/25) Seattle's Best intros ready-to-drink lattes Seattle's Best is rolling out ready-to-drink lattes in cans as part of its "Anywhere Great Coffee is Needed" strategy. The drinks, to be sold in grocery, convenience and other retail stores, are made with Seattle's Best coffee and are offered in Iced Latte, Iced Vanilla Latte and Iced Mocha Latte varieties. QSRMagazine.com (1/25) , Drug Store News (1/25) Global media exec at Unilever to step down Laura Klauberg, who joined Unilever in 1987 and is senior vice president for global media, announced she will leave the company March 31 to pursue other interests. She is currently based in London, where she oversaw some $2 billion in ad placements as of 2007. Brandweek (1/25) Private Label Food and Non-Alcoholic Drink Trends explores the consumer, product and market trends in food and non-alcoholic beverage private label brand purchases. Click here now to find out more.   Trends    Days of stagnant food prices are over, USDA says After a year of food-price inflation that was less than 1%, the Department of Agriculture predicted that food prices will increase this year between 2% and 3%. Meat prices are expected to rise significantly. Last month, beef was up 6.1% and pork 11.2% compared with December 2009. Los Angeles Times/Money & Company blog (1/25) Increase daily productivity with comprehensive modern software. Consistently dependable office tools from Microsoft Online Services can reduce employee downtime on-premises and in the cloud. Learn more about implementing IT strategies with reduced operational costs in this free whitepaper.   Advertising & Marketing    New Facebook ads are based on what users "like," post A Facebook user's "likes" and check-ins can be used by marketers in "sponsored story" ads. Ad clients also may tap users who sign up for one of their applications or who post something about their company in their feed. Facebook users can say no to having their "likes" used for marketing purposes. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (1/25) Companies today face a 21st century information challenge — one that doesn't fit into the rows and columns of a relational database. View this one-hour webinar featuring Forrester Research, RDBMS Alternatives: NoSQL, XML, and Other Game Changers, to learn why RDBMS is being pushed out of the mainstream.   Retail Spotlight  Schnucks cuts prices on the most popular items Schnucks is introducing "Peace of Mind Pricing," reducing prices on 1,700 items that are purchased most often. The program follows a survey asking customers what the chain can do to best meet their needs, and it includes such staples as milk, eggs, yogurt and coffee. Progressive Grocer (1/25)   Featured Content    How to Avoid Getting Burned by Daily Discount Sites Shira Levine Great Leaders are Great Storytellers John Jantsch Customer Ideas to Ignore Julie Rains The Shoestring MBA Elaine Pofeldt Why Focus on Packaging Design? STEFAN BOUBLIL   Science & Technology  Mushroom-growing kits cultivate a following Kits that allow users to grow mushrooms indoors or out are becoming popular for people seeking local food sources or even science projects for their children. Mushrooms grow well indoors, but if they are not harvested on time they will produce millions of spores that can cover household surfaces. The Wall Street Journal (1/26)   Health & Wellness  Children prefer flavor-added over natural food, study finds A study published in the journal Appetite found that children on average are more likely to say they prefer flavor-added food over natural food. The preference is especially true for children whose parents who said their children like food that is high in fat, salt and sugar. Los Angeles Times/Booster Shots blog (1/25) The Buzz(CORPORATE ANNOUNCEMENTS) New Ingredients & Technologies are at SupplyExpo Manufacturers connect with leading suppliers to discover the latest ingredients & services for the health & nutrition industry plus education at SupplyExpo, March 11-13, 2011. Qualifying Manufacturers Attend FREE with code 2011AD, Register NOW www.supplyexpo.com. Co-located with Expo West & Nutracon. In the Chex Party Mix Recipe Contest, Spice is Nice Not Once, but Twice Interested in learning more about advertising in GMA SmartBrief? Contact Chris Warne at (212) 450-7970 or cwarne@smartbrief.com.    GMA News  Learn more about Nutrition Keys via conference call or webinar To familiarize GMA members with the Nutrition Keys program and to answer questions regarding next steps, GMA is hosting two conference calls: 1 p.m. EST, Jan. 28 and Feb. 1. These calls are for GMA members only. To participate, please e-mail frontofpack@gmaonline.org to receive the dial-in number and code. Learn more about GMA -> Home  |  Join GMA  |  Public Policy  |  Industry Affairs  |  Publications  |  Events   Government & Food Safety  FDA testing plan meets resistance from the dairy industry The Food and Drug Administration put on hold a plan to test milk for antibiotics after dairy farmers protested, saying they would be forced to dump milk while waiting for test results. The plan calls for testing milk from farms that sent cows with an illegal antibiotics level to slaughter, but the FDA said it will work with the dairy industry before proceeding. The New York Times (free registration) (1/25) Quality Systems Manager Furmano Foods Northumberland, PA Director of Food Service Sales – Mid West Richelieu Foods, Inc. Chicago, IL Chief Executive Officer Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank Grand Rapids, MI Director of Shopper Marketing Meijer Grand Rapids, MI Space Management Specialist Boston Beer Company Boston, MA   SmartQuote  Identity is not found the way Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. Identity is built." --Margaret Halsey, American writer     This SmartBrief was created for cpgbrokers.data@blogger.com   Subscriber Tools       Update account information | Change e-mail address | Unsubscribe | Print friendly format | Web version | Search past news | Archive | Privacy policy Advertise Associate Publisher, Food Service:  Chris Warne (212) 450-7970 Download Media Kit Job Board:  Celia Rothschild (202) 470-1159   Read more at SmartBrief.com A powerful website for SmartBrief readers including: Breaking News Industry Home Readers' Choice Press Releases Search Archive Who's Hiring? 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