Marketing Appetizers

• One of the last family-owned supermarket chains, Ukrop’s, is on the block. The chain has sent out a prospectus to Ahold, Supervalu and Harris Teeter among others looking to sell the company.

• The market for beauty foods has grown to over $1bn in 2008. Described as “nutricosmetics” or “cosmeceuticals.” beauty foods are any food, beverage or supplements that promises benefits to appearances, such as anti-aging. In 2003, the market was worth $579MM.

• Canadian grocer Loblaw has launched the President’s Choice private label brand, and is offering both a money-back guarantee and is handing out fliers comparing prices to name brands. As long as price is the only factor, Private Label will never be more than a stand-in, which is borne out by a new survey from Digital Research showing shoppers are purchasing private-label brands in record quantise, but also stocking up on sale items, using coupons and cutting spending on what they term “non-essentials.” And in a challenge to those who say consumers are eating less-healthy fare, those surveyed said they were still purchasing fruits and vegetables.

• More and more CPG houses and food marketers are extending their outreach to the Hispanic shopper, and Unilever is the latest with ViveMejor. Aimed at the female Latina, the aim is to interleave coupons for Unilever products with advice from experts, along with the usual media and pr initiatives on Spanish-language programming.

• The ASDA supermarket chain in the UK is touting how it keeps aspartame out of its private label products, calling it one of the "hidden nasties" found in the competition’s products.

• The World Society for the Preservation of Animals has found from surveying supermarket chains that 23% more products than last year mention at least one of the following on their label: free range, cage free, grass fed, pasture raised, USDA organic, American humane certified, animal welfare approved or certified humane. The society also cautioned about the use of labels claiming “no antibiotics used” or “no hormones,” pointing out the US government conducts no testing to verify such claims, and that “naturally raised” is a voluntary definition with no requirement that animals have freedom of movement or access to fresh air and sunlight.

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