New ConAgra President-CEO Gary Rodkin is wasting no time reorganizing the food products company, and one of his first steps will be to hire a new chief marketing officer. The company is actively seeking a CMO for its retail foods unit, which remains intact following a restructuring that consolidated its foodservice and food ingredients divisions to form ConAgra Foods Commercial. For the past few years, the retail unit's marketing has been handled by Atlanta-based consultant Sergio Zyman, but that's about to change. "Marketing and sales are at the heart of our business," said Rodkin, who took over at ConAgra on …

One of the oldest trademarks in the world, dating back to 1875, is getting dressed up for the New Year. The brand is Bass, first brewed in 1777, which will henceforth be known as Bass Pale Ale beginning in January. Plans also call for the brew's familiar red triangle logo to be edged in gold and be seen in advertising, packaging, POP, merchandise, wearables, glassware and online. Marketed here by InBev USA, Bass was granted England's first trademark in 1875 and the red triangle lays some claim to being the world's first registered trademark. Victor Melendez, InBev's director of European …

Masterfoods is using guerilla marketing tactics to energize the image of its Snickers brand among the 16- to 29-year-old market in Germany. The strategy called for the effort to be centered in an event--a competition dubbed "Snickers Wildkartrs" that offered participants an opportunity to race karts under the Reichstag in Berlin. The campaign was handled by MediaCom and included guerrilla activity emphasizing the underground nature of the contest. These included promotional teams climbing out of manhole covers to distribute information while billboards were altered so that it looked as if they were rising out of the ground. In areas dense …

Gillette will kick off the $200 million launch of its new Fusion shaving system with a spot on the upcoming Super Bowl XL, marking the beginning of one of the company's largest new product introductions ever. Some experts even say the launch could determine whether the $57 billion acquisition of Gillette by Procter & Gamble pays off. Fusion has a five-bladed surface on one side and a single trimming blade on the back. Gillette is simultaneously launching battery-operated, vibrating and non-vibrating versions of the razor as well as a line of Fusion shave creams and gels.Products are scheduled to hit …

Marketers could be girding for a price fight with media companies as a result of Nielsen Media Research's plans to begin measuring viewers who record TV programs. Ad rates for TV shows have traditionally been based on ratings from Nielsen that measure the number of people who watch a TV show when it is broadcast. But the widespread adoption of digital video recorders, or DVRs, and video-on-demand services--along with the delivery of shows via computer, cell phone or iPod--is rendering Nielsen's tracking method obsolete. Now, Nielsen says it will also measure DVR viewers. The new ratings data sets up a …

A growing number of major marketers are spending increasing amounts of their advertising budgets to promote environmental issues. The goal, of course, is to be viewed as a company that takes environmentalism seriously in order to reap the potential benefits that come with being "green." The list of marketers embarking on this strategy is a long one and includes General Electric, BP (formerly British Petroleum), Ford Motor Co., and even Exxon Mobil, which has made environmental issues the cornerstone of the "advertorial" columns it pays to run on newspaper op-ed pages even though it is still plagued by references to …

After two years of development, the Walt Disney Co., is now offering its customers the opportunity to design products themselves using Disney images on the company's online shopping site. The company partnered with online customization site Zazzle.com, which allows users to personalize T-shirts, greeting cards and postage stamps using thousands of images from dozens of sources, including Disney archives. Disney aggressively protects its copyrights and entered the new project cautiously. "Disney very much wanted to create the Disney experience and insure [that] products we ultimately sell to consumers protect the brand and reinforce a lot of what it stands for," …

A new survey says B2B e-mail marketers should pay more attention to the information they put into the preview pane of their messages. The survey, conducted by Email Labs, revealed that almost 70 percent of B2B e-mail newsletter subscribers have a preview pane in their e-mail program and always or frequently use it. About 50 percent use the preview pane as intended, reading a few lines to determine whether they want to open the e-mail, while one-third read the entire message in the pane. About 15 percent take a middle road and read as much as they can in the …

The Marlboro Man is coming to China. Under a new agreement between Philip Morris International and the Chinese government, Marlboros will be produced and distributed by the Chinese national tobacco company's affiliated factories beginning in the first half of next year. Both sides also agreed to form a 50-50 joint venture based in Switzerland to market Chinese cigarettes abroad. The Marlboro brand is widely known in China through counterfeits and imports. But imports have high tariffs that make them largely too expensive for most Chinese buyers, who prefer cheaper local brands. Locally produced Marlboros won't have import tariffs. The Chinese …

Marketers who rely on magazine advertising can now make their ads come alive thanks to technology that is giving new life into what most advertisers perceive as a static media. The primary company behind the movement is Americhip, a Torrance, Calif.-based firm whose new techniques bring sight and sound to the printed page. For example, ads for the ABC reality competition "Dancing With the Stars" will soon appear in People and Entertainment Weekly where a dancer will pop up and twirl. And in January, Rolling Stone will use sales brochures that will include a sound clip of the classic song …