PepsiCo today announced a multi-year relationship with the Pittsburgh Steelers to be the NFL team's exclusive "non-alcoholic beverage, salty snacks and sports fuel provider."

The deal marks the Steelers' first such partnership, and gives PepsiCo the rights to exclusive selling, dispensing and serving at Heinz Field; fixed stadium signage; venue and team sponsor assets; integration into the team's mobile, TV and digital assets; and local media and retail promotional opportunities.

The stadium conversion will be complete by the start of the Steelers' 2012 season. PepsiCo is also introducing a limited-edition commemorative Pepsi MAX can in honor of the Steelers' 80th anniversary, available throughout Pennsylvania beginning in the fall. That's not PepsiCo's only limited-edition commemorative can.

PepsiCo is preparing to roll out “a new malt-flavored version of its Mountain Dew soda” that will appear in select 7-Eleven and Kroger stores, according to CSPnet.com.

The gold-tinted premium version of Mountain Dew just received trademark approval to be called Mountain Dew Johnson City Gold and will appear in refrigerator cases in late August in a few Midwestern cities as well as Denver and Charlotte, N.C.Continue reading...

Private label products, also known as store brands, have never enjoyed so much popularity. Years ago, generic products were seen as inferior and dull, but today, economic conditions and a distinct improvement in product quality have given private labels a new desirability.

In the U.S., store brands are thriving. A recent study of 500 U.S. consumers conducted by the management consulting company Accenture shows that 64 percent of shoppers' grocery carts were at least half full of store brands — and 39 percent said they've bought more store brands in recent years.

That trend is not limited to the United States. A new report from IBISWorld, Australia's largest provider of industry-based research, notes that private labels will account for over 30 percent of supermarket sales in Australia by 2017-18.Continue reading...

A European beverage maker took on the folks at Red Bull and is now headed home with an empty glass and a sad story to tell.

Sun Mark produces an energy drink called Bullet that features the slogan “No bull in this can,” and that did not sit well with Austria’s 28-year-old Red Bull GMBH. After all, Red Bull produces a “Bullit” drink already. The pair locked horns legally and now Red Bull is walking away the victor after a hearing in a London High Court, according to the Independent.

The judge noted that consumers would likely be confused between the two products and the slogan took “unfair advantage of the repute of Red Bull," the paper reports. (Bullet's US website reads, "Move over Red Bull!")Continue reading...

Breaking: consumers are not the most reliable source of what grabs their attention and influences their shopping choices. So marketers are using sophisticated eye-tracking technology to measure shopper response to different products and design.

That's why P&G, Kimberly-Clark, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever are just a few of the CPG giants using three-dimensional computer simulations of both designs and store layouts with the eye-tracking technology to deduce how to improve sales.

“Eye-tracking gives you the only valid way of measuring shelf visibility, because it’s fully a behavioral measure," Scott Young, president of Perception Research Services, told Packaging World. "If you ask consumers attitudinally what they saw on shelf, you’re not going to get accurate information, because recall is biased by brand familiarity. If a shopper sees a soda shelf, she will ‘remember’ seeing Coke and Pepsi, even if they weren’t actually on the shelf.”Continue reading...

Coca-Cola has been busy debunking a viral video hoax (above) that it was planning to roll out globally a biodegradable plastic bag packaging shaped like its iconic contour bottle now being tested with cash-conscious consumers in Central and South America. Sorry, folks — no such test, no such plans, at least that it would confirm.

Outlets including Beverage Daily reported and then corrected, fooled by a supposed statement from the company that the new bottle-shaped bag delivers "the full Coca-Cola brand experience, without costing the consumer a cent more. They get greater value from their purchase, and we recover our famous branding, keeping Coca-Cola distinguished from all the other drinks."

An actual statement from the company clarified that the video is hoax, noting: "The company currently distributes Coca-Cola in Central America countries in cans, plastic PET and glass. While Coca-Cola is always looking for new and better ways of satisfying customer demand, we do not comment on potential new ideas until a decision about their implementation is real."

One sustainable move it could confirm this week: a new system to purify and re-use industrial-process water that could improve the company's water-use efficiency by up to 35 percent, "contribute to growth and local economic development opportunities, further support local communities, and reduce its water footprint," as the company said in a press release.Continue reading...

According to an announcement by the U.S. Justice Department, "Global health care giant GlaxoSmithKline LLC (GSK) agreed to plead guilty and to pay $3 billion to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from the company’s unlawful promotion of certain prescription drugs, its failure to report certain safety data, and its civil liability for alleged false price reporting practices, the Justice Department announced today. The resolution is the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history and the largest payment ever by a drug company."

"Today’s multi-billion dollar settlement is unprecedented in both size and scope. It underscores this Administration’s firm commitment to protecting the American people and holding accountable those who commit health care fraud," stated U.S. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole at a press conference today on the settlement. "Health care fraud is an epidemic that touches every aspect of our lives. And yet, for far too long, we have heard that the pharmaceutical industry views these settlements merely as the cost of doing business. That is why this Administration is committed to using every available tool to defeat health care fraud," added his colleague, Acting Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery.

GSK stated that the charges stem from a "different era" for the company, and its corporate mission now centers on "putting patients first, acting transparently, respecting people inside and outside the organisation and displaying integrity in everything we do."Continue reading...

Discard those images of snobby wine sophisticates who, like the wines they drink, are ripened with age. These days, wine makers are seeking out a new youthful market: Millennials and Gen Xers who want to break with tradition and drink wine much as they might craft beer.

That explains the three new wine brands coming to the U.S. from Diageo: Stark Raving, Butterfly Kiss, and Rose'N'Blum. Each of the three brands has its own quirky positioning with the young drinker clearly in mind.

"We realize the younger wine drinkers are far less influenced by wine traditions and 'rules,' " says Greg Kryder, president of Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines.

"We have a large population of wine buyers that turned 21 after the Millennium, they grew up with wine as part of their families' lifestyle, and they are fearless in their selections. ... We aim to create wines that fire that enthusiasm and satisfy that curiosity."

Stark Raving is perhaps the edgiest of the three new brands, inspired by the idea of "going rogue," according to Diageo. The company says the line is based on the "belief that experimentation, unusual blends and sourcing, and a little touch of madness can lead to crazy good wines."Continue reading...

General Mills and Kellogg have been ruling the cold-cereal market for an eternity. Those two behemoths now own about 60 percent of a $9 billion U.S. market, but that doesn’t mean other companies aren’t finding some success cutting into their market. 

One in particular, the 93-year-old MOM Brands Co., which was recently renamed from Malt-O-Meal, is producing such cereals as Tootie Fruities and Honey Nut Scooters, which bear more than a passing resemblance to Froot Loops and Honey Nut Cheerios.Continue reading...