Grand Cru face cream? So it seems. Perhaps he was inspired by Sarah Jessica Parker's enthusiasm for the grape seed oil in Garnier hair color when she talks about it in TV ads. Carlos Mondavi--of the Mondavi wine family--is entering the beauty arena with a line of luxury anti-aging skin care items infused with wine's beneficial ingredients. The key selling point of the line, called Davi, is an obvious one: it contains antioxidants found in grape seed oil and fermented grape extracts. The line will also be touted for extending the healthy properties of wine to skin care products. Davi is entering the luxury market, where a host of competing brands mix natural, edible, botanical and other "green" ingredients with a not-so-Birkenstock high-end sensibility. La Prairie, for example, started with one cream containing caviar, but now has a whole Caviar Collection said to address skin firmness and loss of elasticity. Givenchy offers its Skin Drink Essential Moisture Yogurt Cream exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue. Estee Lauder has in the last year expanded its ultra-lux standby Crème de La Mer with new products containing the brand's "Miracle Broth" made from sea kelp, vitamins and other healthy-sounding ingredients. Davi's special "anti-aging antioxidant complex" is a mixture of ingredients including grape leaf, fermented wine extracts, grape, green tea, black currant oils, olive, raspberry, rosemary and soybean. Mondavi's skin care line is intended for men and women, with both unisex products and items specifically geared to men. Carlos, who is only 26 years old, is the grandson of the first Mondavi winemaker, Robert. Davi will launch next month in Bergdorf Goodman, where it will be sold exclusively for one year. Mondavi's next plans international expansion into other retail locations, spas, and hotels. In addition, the Davi company plans to open destination spas next spring in New York and the Napa Valley, and will add a full line of body care products at that time. The Davi price range will start at $25 for the men's Reserve Shave Cream and will go up to $175 for the star of the brand, Le Grand Cru, an anti-aging cream. Two separate men's and women's lines consist of cleanser, face cream, and face lotion with SPF 30. Products to be added include facial scrubs, masks, and an eye gel for use as a morning-after hangover cure--something wine aficionados might want to buy by the case.
It's bad enough that retailers encroach on Halloween by putting up Christmas trees in October. Now the industry is sounding like Scrooge, too, with its early economic forecast for the season. The National Retail Federation predicts total holiday retail sales will rise just 5 percent from last year, with consumers spending $457.4 billion. The prior year's sales of $435.6 billion had been a much sturdier bump of 6.1 percent. Retail Forward, a market research firm, predicts a slightly more upbeat gain of 5.5 percent. While the growth is still respectable (the average gain over the last 10 years has been 4.6 percent, according to NRF), retailers were still hoping for more. The problem, says Richard Hastings, an analyst with Bernard Sands, "is that the residential housing market stinks." So although cooling weather and lower gasoline prices are likely to give back-to-school sales a second-half bounce, "holiday spending is more discretionary than back-to-school, and the housing market is wearing people down," says Hastings. He suspects that holiday sales may be even more modest than the NRF's predictions. "While housing prices affect consumer spending more slowly, the effect is more profound," Hastings says. No matter what the increase, it's a critical time for retailers: Consumers typically make 19.9 percent of retail purchases during the holiday season. Not depressed yet? You will be, considering your gift is a lot more likely to come from Sam's Club than Bergdorf Goodman. "The mass channels, particularly supercenters and warehouse clubs, should remain among the growth leaders while the softgoods channels will continue to lag, held back by conventional department stores in particular," predicts Retail Forward. Of course, there will be bright spots: Online spending, which reached $30.1 billion during the 2005 holiday season, according to a survey by Goldman Sachs, is expected to be robust again this year. And Best Buy has said it expects consumer demand and falling prices to create a continued stampede for flat-screen TVs, even as sales of MP3 players cool off. There's no doubt, however, that a certain Muppet of mystery will be having the last laugh come December. Yesterday, Mattel's Fisher-Price finally unveiled T.M.X. Elmo, which the company has said is the "most closely guarded secret in the history of plush toys." Ten years after his introduction, Elmo is still ticklish. But this year's model actually slaps his knee, falls to the ground, and pounds the floor. Insiders promise that "it will make you laugh 'til you cry."
It's getting easier to spot healthier foods in U.S. supermarkets. This fall, Unilever US is launching a food-labeling program it hopes will get picked up by marketers around the world, and cause its products to be picked up by more shoppers. Unilever is putting a bright blue "Choices" nutritional label on one-third of its food brands. The goal: to steer consumers toward food and drinks that meet U.S. dietary guidelines for today's "nutrients of concern"--trans fat, saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. The Choices logo includes a blue circle with a blue "tick" and a golden sun rising over it. The words "Eat Smart" or "Drink Smart" are printed above the logo, with "Based on U.S. Dietary Guidelines" on the bottom. Brands receiving the front-of-package logo will include Ragu, Slim-Fast Optima, Slim-Fast Optima Bonus, Promise, Take Control, Skippy, Lipton Tea, Hellmann's/Best Food, and Bertolli Olive Oil. In the U.S., Unilever is limiting the use of the Choices logo to products that have fewer than 60 mg of cholesterol per serving, to be consistent with Food & Drug Administration guidelines. The new design will begin this fall, and will continue to roll out next year. "Unilever recognizes consumers are looking for 'better-for-you' choices but are easily confused. With (the Choices label), we've taken the guidelines for healthy diets and translated them into product-specific benchmarks to help make the healthy choice an easy choice," says Doug Balentine, Director, Unilever Nutrition and Health North America. Last January, the FDA began requiring food marketers to include trans fat and cholesterol levels on product labels. Research indicates that American consumers are more aware of the dangers of trans fats in their diets, but are confused--or negligent--about how to control their intake of them. According to the NPD Group, 94 percent of American adults are aware of trans fats, and 73 percent are concerned about the ingredient. But the study found that many people still do not understand the basics of trans fats in foods.
General Motors hopes to counter its anti-environmentalist image with hydrogen vehicles. The company used a San Diego event this week to unveil a skateboard-like hydrogen fuel-cell prototype called Sequel, and to announce "Project Driveway," its plan to deliver 100 hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox SUVs to various individuals in New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles next year. While Honda, DaimlerChrysler and Toyota all have hydrogen fuel cell programs, GM hopes to beat them at producing the vehicles in volume. GM plans to have 1,000 such vehicles on the road by 2010. Jim Sanfilippo, an analyst with AMCI, Detroit, notes that GM has a huge share of the Chinese market. He says it is no coincidence that GM used a Chevrolet vehicle for the program. "Chevrolet is going to be GM's global brand, and China will be the world's first hydrogen economy," he sats. GM will also infuse next month's divisional ads for Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks with messages about the fact that the new trucks can run on either gasoline or a gasoline/ethanol blend called E85. Marketing for trucks will be particularly heavy this year. Toyota is preparing a $100 million fall marketing effort for its forthcoming 2007 Tundra pickup truck, and Nissan has a push planned next month for its 2007 Titan hauler. While pickup truck and SUV sales have plummeted this year, analysts say there is good news on the horizon, as lower gasoline prices give new life to the segment. "The ration of trucks to cars is up significantly this month. By and large we are seeing the beginnings of the tide shift," says Sanfilippo. Paul Taylor, chief economist of the National Automobile Dealers Association, concurs--noting that with prices at the pump settling at $2.50 a gallon, "the consumer is now thinking that gas prices are going to be from $2 to $3 per gallon, and not worried that they will continue to escalate." DaimlerChrysler on Tuesday said it is cutting production by 135,000 units in the second half to reduce its glut of unsold trucks and SUV models. The automaker's U.S. sales were even more dire than the overall industry's. DaimlerChrysler sales were down 8 percent in the first eight months of 2006, compared to an industrywide decline of 4 percent.
Good news is coming in smaller packages at fast-food restaurants. When Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's announced an August same-store sales increase of 3.5 percent, it attributed the rise in part to the introduction of a $1.29 chicken snack wrap. In contrast to oversized burgers topped with everything but the kitchen sink, the chicken snack wrap is a modest offering of chicken, cheese, lettuce and ranch sauce wrapped in a soft flour tortilla. Ads position it as an easy-to-hold, between-meal snack. A McDonald's spokeswoman wouldn't discuss whether the chain plans to extend the menu with another wrap, saying only: "We will continue to listen to customers and meet their needs." Still, the wrap's success shows that for restaurants, good news can come in small packages. McDonald's successful Dollar Menu is one example; another is Wendy's Super Value menu, introduced in 1989 and one of fast food's consistent success stories. The idea isn't limited to quick service. Full-service chains are subscribing to the less-is-more dictum as well. Last year, Houlihan's--the Kansas City, Mo.-based chain of 87 casual dining restaurants--rolled out three mini-desserts priced at $1.99 each. The six offerings, ranging from a crème brulee to a fruit cobbler to strawberry cheesecake, rejuvenated dessert sales and even added a few cents to the average check. And, if portions aren't small, prices can be. That's the story with T.G.I. Friday's new appetizers. In early August, Carrollton, Texas-based Friday's, which operates 948 restaurants, introduced three $4 starters: battered and fried green beans, Southwestern-flavored potato skins, and chicken wings with three dipping sauces. But customers need to hurry and get them while they're hot (and cheap): The limited-time offer will end Oct. 19.