Customers who now stop at Dunkin' Donuts for coffee to go won't have to go any farther than their kitchen. This month, retailers including Wal-Mart, Kroger and CVS began selling packaged Dunkin' coffee. Dunkin' Donuts, via a retail distribution deal with Proctor & Gamble Co., will sell its packaged coffee at 40,000 grocery and other retailers nationwide. The retail distribution deal is about more than just getting existing restaurant customers to buy the packaged version while grocery shopping. It's about introducing the New England-bred brand to new customers in the West and South, where Dunkin' is expanding, with …

Some big U.S. brands are expected to hit the market in the months ahead as large marketers give up battling for a share in slower-growing U.S. categories. Those at risk including Procter & Gamble's Duracell batteries and Kraft Foods' Maxwell House. A perfect storm of global market factors and investor sentiment could push multinational marketers aside in these categories in favor of more locally focused players, orphan-brand roll-ups or private-equity investors. The reason? Investors clearly are pushing harder for top-line growth from big marketers than in the past, analysts said. Even brands such as Folgers, Maxwell House …

Video Web sites have spent the past year trying to find a way to present online ads that consumers won't click off and advertisers will still like. What's at issue is finding a replacement for the preroll, the video ads that users are forced to watch before viewing a clip. Advertisers liked prerolls because they could use commercials already produced for TV in the spots, and Web publishers loved the high prices they commanded. But users grew annoyed by the intrusion, and Google's YouTube and other video-sharing newcomers rose to popularity partly by ditching the format. The sites …

Imagine a time before the VCR, when TV-watchers had no choice but to sit through commercials. Enter Time Warner Cable. The company soon will offer customers a free recording feature for their televisions -- one that will not allow them to zap through the commercials. The service, called Look Back, will let cable customers watch certain shows later on that they missed, just the way a digital video recorder does, but without an extra monthly fee. The fast-forwarding function will be turned off, however, and consumers will be limited to watching programs later on during the day they …

The King may be gone, but his brand lives on. Thursday marks the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, but in many ways, the keepers of his estate are only starting to take care of business. Get ready for a Cirque du Soleil show featuring Elvis's music in Las Vegas; the prospect of Presley hotels and casinos opening around the world; and a $250 million overhaul of Graceland and its environs in Memphis. Until recently, Elvis Presley Enterprises, the Memphis-based company that oversees all things Elvis, promoted the rock-and-roll icon primarily by opening his modest …

Consumer goods companies, which once saw packages largely as containers for shipping their products, are now using them more as 3-D ads to grab shoppers' attention. The shift is mostly because of the rise of the Internet and hundreds of TV channels, which mean marketers can no longer count on people seeing their commercials. In the last 100 years, Pepsi had changed the look of its can, and before that its bottles, only 10 times. This year, the soft-drink maker will switch designs every few weeks. Coors Light bottles now have labels that turn blue when the beer is …

Vonage announced yesterday that it had narrowed its loses in the second quarter by trimming spending, but heavy cuts to the marketing budget of the Internet calling business took a toll on new subscribers. The company cut its marketing expense to $68 million from $90 million a year earlier. Vonage added 57,000 net new customers in the period, bringing its total base to 2.5 million. It added 166,000 net new customers in the first quarter, which was considered a disappointment. A jury's finding that Vonage infringed key Verizon patents related to Internet calling has raised fears …

General Motors has signed a deal with A123 Systems to develop nanophosphate lithium-ion batteries--which are currently used in cordless power tools--for use in its automobiles. The agreement could propel it ahead of Toyota in the race to bring plug-in hybrid and electric cars to market, says GM vice chairman Bob Lutz. Problems with lithium-ion technology has forced Toyota to back away from plans to roll out the vehicles between 2008 and 2010. Lutz says the lithium-ion battery being discussed by GM is safer and manages heat better than the technology Toyota was using. He also hopes to be first …

Japan's Fast Retailing Co. dropped out of the bidding for the specialty retailer Barneys' yesterday, leaving Dubai-based investment fund Istithmar as the new owner. It will pay Jones Apparel Group, Barneys' parent, $942.3 million in cash when the deal closes in the third quarter. While many analysts believe Istithmar wants to expand Barneys internationally, David Jackson, CEO of Istithmar, says that at least for the moment, the real growth is in the U.S. Barneys is about ready to launch its flagship in San Francisco, with a Las Vegas flagship set to open a few months later. …

The Federal Trade Commission has issued subpoenas to 44 food and beverage companies seeking detailed information on spending and strategies targeting kids and teenagers across virtually all measured media, including TV, radio and the Internet. Specifics on targeting by age, gender, ethnicity and other factors are required. Burger King, Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Dole, Kellogg, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Wendy's, McDonald's, Kraft and Mars, among others, were called to disclose how much they spend to reach young people. The companies must comply by Nov. 1 for a report the FTC is preparing for Congress. The subpoenas were widely …