Coupon redemption in supermarkets, which command 65% of the overall market, rose 20% last year, according to a new report from Nielsen, but that didn't come close to the soaring 71% rise at dollar/discount/variety stores. Mass merchandisers saw a 26% uptick, and the convenience channel saw redemptions grow by 12%. Nielsen identifies coupon "enthusiasts" as driving a disproportionate amount of sales and sales growth. More than half of larger households (3 or more members) are "enthusiasts," while older users (age 65 and older) are also important "heavier" and "super" coupon users. "Manufacturers and retailers would do well …

The annual post-season football game played between teams from the Pacific-10 (PAC-10) and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) will be called the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl for at least the next three years, Barry Janoff reports. It had been known as the [Diamond] Emerald Bowl since its inception in 2002. Kraft says it is launching a broader hunger relief program in September in collaboration with Feeding America, a leading hunger-relief organization, "building upon a decades-long partnership to fight hunger." "Our strategic approach is to leverage these partnerships to connect our flagship brands to key audiences in …

Scotts Miracle-Gro senior vp-global marketing services Jan Valentic has been named senior vp-chief sustainability officer, a new position. She is charged with broadening Scotts' sustainability focus in areas such as employee involvement and consumer communication, which likely will involve education programs. Jack Neff writes that Valentic realizes that a company best known for marketing lawn chemicals may have an image challenge on the sustainability front, but she intends to reframe the issue. For example: "In many cases, I think chemical-based nitrogens in the soil as a way of feeding the plants and enabling grass to lengthen its root …

Ford executive chairman Bill Ford, an ardent and long-committed environmentalist, says "it appears that the biggest game-changer will be electric vehicles." He made the comment yesterday in a closing address to the SAE World Congress in Detroit. The need to deliver fuel-efficient vehicles that meet the challenges of diminishing oil reserves, global warming and a desire by customers to spend less money on gas is driving the change, Ford says, pointing out that electric cars have been around for a century or so "but they really haven't had mass-market appeal." Ford plans to introduce a Transit …

At the top of Bianca Male's list of recent rebranding disasters is the renaming of the SciFi Channel to the copyrightable, "syfy." The eminently textable name made the company "feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip," president David Howe told TVWeek. One problem, writes Male: "Syfy" is a slang term for syphilis. Also on the Top 10 list, which Male compiled after talking to branding agency Method, Inc. and branding "guru" Rob Frankel, are PepsiCo's redesign of the Tropicana carton; the "childish, ridiculous, ugly" logo for the London 2012 Olympic games; Capital One's …