The first quarter of 2012 saw American consumers’ confidence in their personal finances beginning to return, according to Chicago-based SymphonyIRI Group’s most recent MarketPulse survey.
When it comes to category management, retail experts often agree that beverage manufacturers are on the leading edge of understanding assortment and placement of their products within retail outlets. Paul Weitzel, managing partner at Willard Bishop, Barrington, Ill., attributes part of the segment’s success to the direct store distribution (DSD) system used by many manufacturers.
The old adage goes that people drink to recognize both good and bad times. This, unfortunately for the beer, wine and spirits industry, is not the case. As with many other consumer packaged goods (CPG) segments, wine industry growth rates have dropped during the last three recessions (1991, 2001 and 2008-2009) and immediately after these recessions ended, industry growth resumed.
In a taste test of 10 full-calorie and light beers, Consumer Reports announced that Chicago-based MillerCoors’ Coors brand ranked No. 1 in terms of taste.
After receiving feedback from focus groups after the brand’s initial rollout, RealBeanz reworked its packaging, the shape of which was inspired by old milk bottles.
Conversion of stores to supercenters affects mass merchandise statistics. Once featuring large stores selling primarily hardlines with a dash of grocery, leading mass merchandise retailers, including Target, Wal-Mart and Kmart, have converted so many stores to supercenters that the traditional mass merchandise channel fell more than 5 percent...
Occasion-based need states are predicted to drive shopping habits in the future, finds Beverage Industry's Managing Editor Jenny Zegler. Consumers are choosing beverages less by category and more by occasion-based need states, according to trend presentations at...
Heineken’s portfolio of import beers grows following its acquisition of CCM. This year’s acquisition of Fomento Económico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V.’s (CCM) beer operations by Heineken N.V., Amsterdam, is described as a love story within a business context by John Nicolson, New York-based Heineken Americas’ regional president.
