Brand names not only part of product game
Jul. 17--ConAgra Foods makes well-known grocery store brands like Chef Boyardee canned pasta, Healthy Choice frozen dinners, PAM cooking spray, Reddi-wip topping and Orville Redenbacher popcorn.
The company also makes less widely known, private-label products for grocery store chains, including trail mix, fruit snacks, granola bars, cereal and toaster pastries.
Just under $1 billion of ConAgra's nearly $11.6 billion in annual sales comes from private label items.
"We have about $1 billion worth of private label, and, frankly, have some pretty good margins," ConAgra Chief Executive Gary Rodkin told analysts earlier this year in New York as he mapped out the company's business strategy and priorities.
Dean Hollis, president of ConAgra's consumer foods division, said the company participates in store brand manufacturing with a two-pronged strategy.
ConAgra makes private label products where it has strong brands, such as frozen dinners, canned pasta, cooking spray and whipped topping, Hollis said.
At the same time, about 35 percent to 40 percent of ConAgra's private label manufacturing involves items in areas where ConAgra does not compete in brands, such as cereal, fruit snacks and trail mix. [ read full article ]
SUPER SALES Man of Steel a gold-plated merchandising brand
Jul. 9--'Superman Returns" grossed $84.2 million in its first five days at the box office.
There is even more money to be made from the Man of Steel on retail shelves with more than 20 companies offering Superman-themed products. The items include clothes, jewelry, edibles and toys.
Products Tie-ins are an old plot line for the 68-year-old superhero.
A "Superman Krypto Ray Gun" from 1940 is available on eBay for $900; an action figure from 1977 is priced at $150. Today's products are available in all price ranges, from simple action figures (there's even a Superman Barbie doll) to high-end collectible statues and a remote-controlled flying Superman.
"This is definitely the big movie toy release this summer," said Justin Aclin, senior editor at ToyFare magazine. "There's really a broad range of stuff from kids to collectors. There's a lot of product out there."
The action figures, for example, are the first official Superman movie toys ever done, Mr. Aclin said.
Allen Pilkington, store manager of Wal-Mart on Gunbarrel Road, said customers have responded well to the movie's merchandise so far. He said it compared favorably with products launches for other big movies such as the "Spider-Man" and "Star Wars" series. [ read full article ]
PERFORMANCE IS YOUR BRAND ON THE 'NET
Will the day ever come when you can get a mortgage by going to googlemortgage.com or yahoomortgage.com? Maybe so, maybe not - but if you try those URL addresses, you'll verify that nobody else is using them. Google and Yahoo retain plenty of lawyers to defend their brands in all markets.
Brand counts enormously on the Internet. "Google" has become a common verb coined to describe find information on the Web. If you don't remember who starred in "The Deer Hunter," for example, you just Google it. It takes a few seconds to verify that Robert DeNiro starred and Christopher Walken played the Russian roulette addict.
In the mortgage arena, LendingTree has cachet similar to Google's. If someone starts reciting the LendingTree slogan, "When banks compete," anyone within hearing distance is likely to chime in to finish it by mumbling "you win."
A company that gets a third of its mortgage leads from LendingTree is goodmortgage.com, currently licensed in just 13 states but hard at work branding itself to do business nationwide. "Marketing and getting customers to come your way has to be the secret sauce for mortgage websites," said goodmortgage.com founder and president Keith Luedeman. The Charlotte, N.C.-based Internet mortgage banker has the bona fides of a hard charger. A Deloitte Rising Star, it is listed among the North Carolina Technology Fast 50 and the Fast 500 Growth Companies in North America.
The company was founded in 1999 using the slogan "Internet Mortgage Lenders" to tout Web convenience for prospective borrowers. "Then we went through a rebranding process, starting with a new logo, a 'g' with a house inside it," he reports. goodmortgage.com has that logo on all the polo shirts, pot holders and mouse pads you'd expect an ambitious company to be spreading around. [ read full article ]