These products on the end are usually loss-leaders.In a previous life I took some advanced courses on marketing. The only part I remember clearly was the layout of grocery stores. With their fluorescent lights and drab tile, grocery stores are marketers' dreams. Everything about a grocery store has been carefully planned to make shoppers buy more. Dairy is the most popular item so it's always in the back of the store, where you have to walk through other aisles with loss-leaders advertised on th
I don't prophesy doom too much, but if I had told you six months ago that Starbucks would be selling instant coffee, you would have given me one of those looks saved for Japanese game shows and street preachers.Well, start stockpiling gold bullion. Starbucks is selling instant coffee. As early as next month, it will introduce Via, which it's spinning as a "soluble-coffee" product. From Ad Age: "Starbucks declined to comment on the launch, which is said to be a long-term pet project of Chief Exec
Tropicana I'm beginning to suspect Tropicana is just trying to drum up free press at this point. One month after announcing its new packaging that did away with the classic straw-in-an-orange logo, it's bringing it back because of demand. The New York Times is calling this fiasco "Pepsi Co now has its own version of New Coke." Pepsi owns Tropicana. The idea to change the label falls at the feet of a major advertising firm called Arnell Group, which is based out of New York. (Close to becom
​Growing up, the scratch n' sniff concept was mind-blowing -- that just by rubbing a nail across the front of a printed sticker, we could smell chocolate. Well, today's kids are more sophisticated. So, Sunny D has introduced Peel n' Taste samples to help sell a new line of smoothies. Welcome to the world of "sensory marketing," where companies are hoping to influence purchasing decisions through consumers' sense of smell and taste. The strips are (thankfully or sadly, depending on your des
