We've been working with the News America team for more than 20 years now. If you are considering a promotional program chances are one of these suppliers will be invaluable as you'll need to leverage their services to activate your marketing materials.

News America provides an entire portfolio of products that are designed to reach consumers at every possible point of decision—at home, in store and online.

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Their product portfolio is designed to provide marketers with the ability to reach consumers at every point of decision at a fraction of the cost of traditional media like television and magazine advertising. Whether it is home-delivered media, in-store advertising or promotion or online marketing, we have a creative solution to your marketing challenges.

Some merchandising advice:

1. Answer the shopper with what's in it for them. Savings, New, Larger Size, something that's unique or different in the eyes of the consumer.
2. Is it on strategy?  Make sure you communicate the strategic priorities to your team or agency.
3. Shoppers have enough to think about. Stay focused on the message and don't overdo it.
4. Type sizes make a difference. Ask yourself if the type size will help consumers make a purchase decision.
5. Make an accurate decision by viewing your materials in full size. On-screen proofs are deceiving.

Grocery stores, like consumers' food budgets, are shrinking. This month Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opened four pilot Marketplace stores in Arizona that are half the size of a traditional supermarket.

Supervalu-owned Jewel-Osco is testing its own small-format store in Chicago known as Urban Fresh. Safeway trialed its version in Southern California. And Whole Foods has said it is scaling down the size of its new stores.

This week The Economic Times published a story on this oft-quoted statistic based on the OgilvyAction study, The Study of Purchase Dynamics released earlier this fall. This study delivers metrics that dig deeper than the industry standard, 75% of consumers choose at the shelf statistic.

The receipt of permission-based email from a consumer packaged goods company positively influences consumers' offline purchasing decisions, enhances the company's reputation and generates loyalty to its brands, according to the latest research from Dallas-based marketing services firm Epsilon.

"Consumer packaged goods companies face a challenge when incorporating e-mail communications into their multichannel marketing mix," said Kevin Mabley, SVP, Epsilon Strategic Services. "They need to engage consumers and find a way to allow them to interact with brands and products both online and offline. The research shows that the benefits of e-mail marketing campaigns for consumer packaged goods companies extend far beyond the Internet and into stores and homes."

In Trial at Supermarket, Cellphones Will Be the Medium for Discount Offers

Seeking to marry a ubiquitous device with a time-tested marketing technique in a sour economy, Unilever plans to begin a trial run Sunday of a new technology that lets consumers redeem digital coupons by having a supermarket cashier scan their cellphones.

The test, being conducted at a ShopRite store in Hillsborough, N.J., will include discount offers for some of the Anglo-Dutch packaged-goods company's most popular brands, including Breyers ice cream, Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Lipton tea. Samplesaint, a Chicago mobile-technology firm, developed the system.

BRADFORD, England -- The global recession is spoiling the summer for a lot of industries, but not the U.K.'s supermarkets. They're loving it. With an estimated five million Britons staying home this summer instead of traveling, the country's leading grocers are slugging it out for shoppers' time and money. They're slashing prices, launching new budget brands and taunting the price claims of rivals in advertising.

Source: PMA

Marketing tactics come and go, but no matter what business you’re in, one thing remains a constant: Customers love coupons. Thanks to the increase in the number of Americans online (more than 70 percent of the population), consumers are embracing online coupons as a quick and easy alternative to spending an entire Sunday clipping them from the newspaper.

Value programs and other strategies revealed.

A report from Nielsen Consumer Insight suggests that by October 2008, one-third of all U.S. consumers in a survey said they didn't feel secure in their jobs, while half believed they were worse off financially than a year ago. As a result, consumers are taking steps to cut back spending, particularly on major purchases for the: