Kraft Food Group’s Crystal Light is open for business online as the brand launches its first e-commerce platform, Shop.CrystalLight.com. As more consumers shop online, niche brands like Crystal Light are establishing beachheads for easy access, mindshare and money.

"For years we have heard for some of our most loyal fans that they want easier access to the flavors they love, especially Crystal Light Pure," said Adam Butler, Senior Brand Manager for Crystal Light in a release. "This new e-commerce platform enables us to make a wide variety of unique flavors and varieties readily available to fans anywhere in the country."Continue reading...

Remember all that stuffy marketing from Kraft brands like Oreo, Trident and Tang? Well, once the newly named Mondelēz unit gets its freedom from Kraft in a spinoff of the company's fast-growing, internationally oriented snacks business, expect the marketing chiefs to push the envelope.

The brands to be deposited into Mondelēz — including the aforementioned Oreo, Trident and Tang — "tend to have a younger, vibrant appeal that allow us to push the edge of the marketing much further than some of the classic, traditional, more Midwestern-focused brands," said Mary Beth West, Kraft's chief marketing officer, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. "That's not a value judgment," she insisted.

But West herself does plan to leave "Midwest" parent company Kraft Foods — based in Northfield, Ill. — to join Mondelēz. And she will be taking Dana Anderson, Kraft Foods SVP of marketing strategy and communications to join Kraft Foods CEO Irene Rosenfeld, who is also decamping to Mondelēz.Continue reading...

Altria launches tobacco rights website.

Apple sees its devices dominate mobile ordering as brand plans books announcement and sets Red Friday sales event for Asia.

Avery Dennison sells office and consumer products business to 3M.

Axe woos young males with interactive comic book.

Bentley plans luxury SUV.

BMW sees 2012 premium growth.

BP sues Halliburton over Gulf spill, includes anti-BP protesters in new ad.

Bridgestone kicks off Super Bowl campaign at NHL Winter Classic.

Brisk ties into Star Wars 3D theatrical launch with mobile campaign.

Cadbury adopts vertical shelf-ready packaging.Continue reading...

It's tough to run a multinational CPG brand these days. There's tepid consumer spending in the U.S., Europe and even Asia, on top of that "new normal" thing that came out of the Great Recession. Regulators are pursuing food and beverage companies that aren't getting on the better-for-you train fast enough. And commodity prices and currency-exchange rates vacillate wildly.

In its just-released list of new products planned for 2012, Kraft Foods reflects many of these pressures — but also reveals a determination to use the strengths of the brand and the company to take advantage of developing opportunities. General Mills likewise provided a sampling of its new-product forays for the new year, in a conference call this week.

Whether it's transfering successful product ideas from one national market to another, or doggedly trying new ideas in nutritional products, Kraft has laid out an ambitious schedule of 70 new items for the new year.Continue reading...

The sensational trial of Casey Anthony, the mother accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, has become the biggest media courtroom circus since O.J. It's also proving to be the most brand-laden trial since O.J. Simpson modeled gloves.Continue reading...

Huge and privately held, Minnesota-based Cargill used to be one of the biggest companies you’d never heard of.

The $108-billion grain-processing giant has its finger in food commodities all over the world, It’s a huge presence in ingredients for better-for-you foods and beverages, and it occasionally ticks off environmentalists over sustainability issues. But Cargill wasn’t known for building consumer brands.

Until now. With some practice on its Coro Wise sterols that are an ingredient in cholesterol-lowering foods such as Minute Maid Heart Wise orange juice, Cargill has hit a brand-building home run as a rookie at the practice.

Its Truvia “natural” sweetener, made from the stevia bush native to South America, has surpassed venerable Sweet ‘N Low as the No. 2 sugar substitute in the country, according to AC Nielsen.Continue reading...

Google wants newspapers to profit from online ads. [AP]

The Facebook search feature gains ground. [Business Insider]

Stevia helps Crystal Light's new campaign. [Brandweek]

Nintendo loses appeal with its DSi XL. [Businessweek]

Toyota could end up paying another large fine. [Daily Finance]

7-Eleven promotes 'Iron Man 2' with cups. [BrandFreak]Continue reading...

A new campaign by Crystal Light highlights that it offers consumers more... water.

Yes, water.

Kraft will soon debut its latest Crystal Light commercial featuring svelte actresses enjoying different aquatic activities as a narrator says, “Our bodies crave water, and women who drink Crystal Light drink 20 percent more of it.”

The NY Times reports that the campaign's goal is to attract health-conscious, calorie-counting women who are looking for new ways to hydrate themselves.

“We make drinking water more enjoyable and therefore help women drink more of it,” said Roxanne Bernstein, director of marketing for powdered beverages at Kraft."Continue reading...