Consumer packaged goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble is among the top 5 companies in terms of leadership and innovation, according to the Best Companies for Leadership Study and Top 20 list released by management consulting firm Hay Group. Topped by General Electric, the list recognizes the best companies in creating workplaces and processes that promote innovation, with all of the Top 20 companies indicating that their managers often highlight innovation, while only 49 percent of other companies do. Also, 90 percent of the Top 20 companies said employees with innovative ideas can bypass the chain of command.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s @WalmartLabs business unit has created applications for the retailer's social media and mobile marketing and online shopping operations. @WalmartLabs started with Kosmix, a technology startup acquired by Wal-Mart in 2011 mainly for its "social genome" technology. Social genome gathers consumer data from social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, and performs semantic analysis, which interprets consumers' actions on social media platforms, such as status updates and posts. Using social genome, @WalmartLabs created the Shopycat, a Facebook application for finding gifts, as well as iPad and iPhone apps.

Kroger has invested in a range of point-of-sale technology to keep its promise to make customers spend as little time as possible in line when checking out their purchases. Kroger's front-end POS relies on a technology from IBM — ACE software running on 4690 operating system-powered SurePOS 700 terminals, which allows it to test self-checkout services. Most of the company's IT investments, however, focus on improving its conventional checkout lanes; for example, Kroger installed in 2011 Irisys' QueVision system, which monitors the number of shoppers and alerts management to open more checkouts to deal with them.

UK-based retailer Tesco's Thailand unit, Tesco Lotus, will launch its Internet shopping business in 2012 as part of the company's strategy to expand its retail operations in the country. Its online shopping platform will enable customers to purchase dry and fresh-food products easily, according to Tesco Lotus, which has invested more than 130 billion baht in Thailand and provided business opportunities to over 9,000 Thai suppliers and 14,000 small and medium-sized companies that sell their products in malls operated by the company.

Cargill and Horizon Milling will display some healthier food prototypes at a Canadian Bakery Showcase in the first week of May in Toronto. Company representatives will also be on hand to discuss the wheat market and “solutions available to manage commodity driven risk”. Prototype foods on display will include: a lower sodium chocolate cookie made with the SaltWise sodium reduction system, a breakfast cookie made with Iliggo-Fiber inulin fiber, and a shelf stable vanilla cookie made with an omega-3 shortening. Products with cleaner labels will also be featured, including unfrosted layer cakes made with a cake base that used no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

The third most-visited Web site – after Facebook and Twitter – is a newbie known as Pinterest, where visitors “pin” photos and Internet info onto virtual boards. The ranking, reported by Experian, is based on the total U.S. visitors in March, not including mobile users. Pinterest’s founder Ben Silbermann says the key to the eye-popping success since its launch in March 2010 – and especially in the last six months – is the fact that people “pin photos of products they'd like to buy and other interesting bits of info they find while trolling the Internet.” He says the site is about helping people find things they didn’t know they wanted. Experian says the majority of visitors (60 percent) are women, and President Obama recently joined.

Leading beauty brands adhering to principles of sustainability and social responsibility are not only using naturally-sourced ingredients in their products, they have successfully adopted eco-friendly packaging, according to market researcher Euromonitor. The trend is perhaps the most significant innovation in personal care and beauty, and is driven by technological advances in packaging. For example, Procter & Gamble is now using a sugarcane-based bottles for its Pantene’s Pro-V Nature Fusion line and CoverGirl and Max Factor brands. Sugar cane replaces petroleum, and is not only sustainable, it's is cheaper. Euromonitor says sustainability, social responsibility and environmental integrity have become major components of the operations of beauty companies, and will remain so.

Amazon.com has begun to ramp up its online advertising program targeting  consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies in hopes of attracting some of the billions of dollars spent annually on online ads in that sector. According to an Internet market research firm, spending by CPG companies on online ads will double by 2015 to $5 billion. The head of Amazon’s global ad sales called the CPG advertising market a “huge opportunity” in a recent speech, noting that only four percent of its customers purchase CPG products.

L'Oréal inaugurated its Global Hair Research Centre in Paris, France, as the headquarters for its six regional research centers around the world. Representing a total investment of €100 million, the research center uses advanced automation and modeling tools to conduct its research and innovation programs, which are focused on hair coloring, hair care, styling, and services, such as perms and straightening. The research center employs 500 researchers, including chemists, opticians, and metrologists.

Marketing executives optimistic about the economy predict significant increases in spending overall and particularly in online efforts, a survey has found. Marketing budgets are expected to grow by as much as 8.1 percent in the next year, with much of that growth coming from online spending. The survey found that companies planned to earmark 7.4 percent of marketing budgets on social media campaigns in the next 12 months and expect that number to nearly triple in the next five years. Still, the survey found, nearly one in five execs say their companies have not yet integrated social media into marketing strategies.

Cargill’s Truvia brand has launched a low-calorie stevia/sugar blend for use in baking. According to the company, Truvia Baking Blend bakes and browns like sugar, but has 75 percent fewer calories per serving than sugar. For baking recipes, sugar amounts can be replaced with half as much Truvia. A 1.5 pound, $6.99 bag of Truvia Baking Blend has the equivalent sweetness of three pounds of sugar (about seven cups). Half a cup of Truvia Baking Blend has 190 calories and provides the same sweetness as a cup of sugar with 760 calories.

A survey of 2,000 American adults by researcher Packaged Facts finds that the word “antioxidant” on cosmetics product labels attracts greater attention from female shoppers. Forty-four percent of women purchase skin care products that tout antioxidant content. According to Packaged Facts, retail sales of antioxidant cosmetics products reached $3.9 billion, and about $2.2 billion of that comprised skin care products. Top antioxidant ingredients in hair and skin products include cocoa, green tea, and pomegranate. The researcher said that “innumerable” cosmetics and personal care  products contain antioxidants, but the more appealing ones feature the term prominently on labels.

Murray Lender’s major innovation in bagel baking – slicing, freezing and shipping nationally – was kept a secret for two years in his native New Haven, Conn., Jewish community “until an accidental delivery of frozen bagels exposed them.” Though the jig was up, Lender, who died in March, was onto a good thing: a way to smooth out the peaks and valleys of bagel demand (and supply) while putting his product – albeit a mediocre one – on the shelves of American supermarkets. As food writer Matthew Yglesias notes, it was only a matter of time before new customers discovered the convenience of frozen bagels “and the bagel became a nationally available foodstuff.” Unfortunately, he says, the bagels available so conveniently in supermarkets are “much too big and lacking the textural contrast produced by poaching the dough before baking.”

An oat-based nutritional beverage developed by Finnish émigrés and unveiled a year ago in the U.S. was recognized by the National Restaurant Association for its innovative all-natural  ingredient profile. Simpli OatShake offers “a perfect alternative to soy, rice, and dairy products,” the company says, because it contains no dairy, eggs, wheat, nuts, soy or artificial ingredients, is vegan-certified and free of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). The product -- available in three flavors: coffee, chocolate and tropical fruit – contains no added colors, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup. Simpli is marketing the creamy shakes as nondairy alternatives to sugary drinks, especially for children.

Method launched its new Method Laundry & Dish Refill Pouch (with Spine), which comes in a packaging from Innovative Packaging Solutions, Inc., winner of the Gold prize at the Flexible Packaging Association for Technical Innovation's 2012 Flexible Packaging Achievements Awards. The Refill Spine Pouch was designed by Method's director of packaging Rudi Becker to be convenient to handle and look better on store shelves than conventional refill pouches.

Fulfilling a late-night craving for a cupcake is no longer an impossibility, thanks to a technological advance in food vending. The high-tech ATM-like machine developed by California’s Sprinkles Cupcakes accepts credit cards for the purchase of $4.00 packaged, freshly-baked “haute” cupcakes that are instantly dispensed, 24 hours a day. The company’s success with the cupcake ATM -- it may not dispense cash but is definitely a cash cow -- is driving expansion of the technology to its nine locations across the country, including New York, D.C., and Chicago.

The beauty industry is rapidly adapting advanced interactive technologies such as QR (quick response ) codes, USB ports, embedded sound and video in its product packaging and point-of-sale sites to more fully engage shoppers. Researcher Mintel says the new interactive technologies targeted at smartphone users are one of the hottest trends in the cosmetics industry in 2012. Also on the rise are the use of tablets and screens that personalize the POS buying experience. A Mintel researcher says this “blurring of the online and offline space” allows brands to get closer than ever to consumers. 

A baker in California claims that his Chocolate Chip Nookie cookie contains an ingredient that increases sexual “vitality” in men and women. The “active” ingredient is a root called maca, which is considered Peru’s all-natural Viagra because it boosts strength, energy, stamina, libido, and sexual function. The innovative functional cookie was recently exhibited at the Natural Products Expo West, along with baker Akiva Resnikoff’s brain-boosting and hangover relief cookies.

The fast-emerging market that is transforming cellphones into payment devices – a trend so far driven by Google and big cellphone companies – has left retail chains in the dust. In an effort to get some sort of competitive advantage about two dozen retailers, including Walmart and Target, are collaborating on creation of their own mobile-payments system. Already involved in the fray are banks, credit-card networks, telecom firms and technology companies, all scrambling to meet the demand among younger consumers for a simpler, faster way to use mobile devices to shop. Skeptics warn that all of this technology competition may  only confuse, rather than satisfy, consumers.

Unilever re-launched the Rexona for Women line of deodorant, with Motionsense technology and featuring an award-winning ergonomic design, in Europe, Canada, and the United States. First introduced in 2011, Motionsense is a technology for incorporating the fragrance into minute packages that open gradually during the day, releasing odor-fighting fragrance whenever the consumer moves.

After eight years of developing and testing with more than 6,000 consumers, Procter & Gamble Co. launched the Tide Pods, small, dissolvable packets that cost about 25% more per load than regular liquid. As competitors launch similar products, P&G aims to convince consumers to buy Tide Pods by emphasizing the convenience factor. P&G expects Tide Pods to generate $300 million in the first year and the pod category to reach 30% in a decade.

Procter & Gamble is addressing market perceptions that the company is losing its edge in innovation, which investors and analysts believe is causing the declines in the packaged goods manufacturer's revenue, market share, and product launches. P&G has increased by 60 percent its research and development spending to more than $2 billion and expanded efforts to develop brands and categories.

Consumers can buy Unilever's products, including those from the Dove, Tresemme, and Nexus personal care brands, using mobile bar codes included in ads in Glamour magazine. The ads include snaptags, developed by SpyderLynk, which let consumers download Glamour's Friends & Fans application or access a mobile Web page to purchase the products online.

Target and other large retailers now use predictive analytics to collect and analyze customers' personal and purchasing-related data and in the process develop effective and targeted marketing strategies that enable retailers to target consumers with uncanny accuracy. Companies' ability to understand and predict consumers' shopping habits is made possible by academic and corporate researchers' focus on habit formation as a neurology and psychology subject.

Underscoring its emphasis on digital marketing, Procter & Gamble worked with Google to make use of online and mobile marketing to help increase its online and in-store sales. P&G also partnered with Walmart, and Google to market Febreze Home Collection brand of candles and scented products by geo-targeting people conducting online searches to provide “news” about the collection.

Euromonitor research has found that while fine fabric detergent sales in Germany and Italy slid by 2.5 percent  in 2011, spending in those two countries still remains above the Western European average. The main reasons seem to be the high disposable incomes and continued popularity of designer label clothing. Fine fabric detergents accounted for nine percent (Germany) and 11 percent (Italy) of total laundry value spend in 2011. The Western European average is only six percent. Looking to the future, Euromonitor said fine fabric detergent providers should be paying close attention to the market opportunities emerging in rapidly-growing economies like China and India.

Supermarket Guru sees food prices continuing to rise in 2012, thanks to greater demand for exports and global weather and other environmental conditions, plus higher fuel, feeds, packaging and food safety costs. A growing sense of community, perhaps driven by food blogs and ubiquity of mobile devices, is fueling a trend toward group food experiences. Aand aging baby boomers – all 76 million of them – are driving the popularity of healthy foods and beverages. A few more of the 10 key trends for 2012: rising consumer interest in the origins of their food supply, increased use of mobile devices to obtain food information and bargain offers, and the rise of ethnic food trucks as a replacement for gourmet and specialty stores.

Procter & Gamble says it is partnering with mobeam inc. to bring a fully mobile electronic couponing solution to market. Mobeam makes electronic coupons presented on a phone or other mobile device scannable so shoppers can use phones or handhelds at check out instead of paper coupons. Couponing has become a huge business – $3.7 billion in North America alone – as consumers search for greater value and savings. Smartphone coupon use has not been possible, however, because screen barcodes cannot be read by laser scanners. Mobeam technology converts the barcode data into readable light beams. The P&G partnership will test efficient methods for consumers to redeem – and retailers to accept – POS coupons.

L’Oréal says it will build a research and innovation center on Bom Jesus Island in Rio de Janeiro. The L’Oréal Group, which has been operating in Brazil for 50 years, is hiring local specialized talent and scientific partnerships with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro to pursue the work. The company will invest €30 million ($39 million) in building the center, and expects to create 150 direct jobs by 2015. A memorandum of understanding with the city of Rio is to acquire land with a total surface area of over 28,000 square meters. According to the company, the center will serve to accelerate the growth of innovative products tailored for the Brazilian and Latin American markets.

Use of sophisticated technology to track customer shopping and purchasing behaviors has been a tool of online marketers for many years. But now brick-and-mortar retailers are getting into the act, putting security cameras and mobile phone tracking to work to gain consumer shopping intelligence. The sophisticated technologies give retail store – from discount chains to luxury stores – the ability to analyze collected data and adjust marketing strategies on the fly. A brand manager for premium pen maker Montblanc says such intelligence led his company to deploy more salespeople to a particular department or moving high-margin merchandise to high-traffic areas in a store. The tactics seem to be working. Brick-and-mortar retailers have been able to boost sales and retain market share.

A Vanderbilt University management professor says successful innovation comes from the mastering of the basic constraints that can work against entrepreneurs and other innovators. Noting that constraints are “the parameters within which you must work,” David Owens says those parameters are “actually a blessing” for a creative person. Knowing which constraints are at play in a situation can foster innovation instead of dampening it. The six major constraints include the failure to communicate innovative ideas, a destructive group dynamic, and the lack of: organization innovation strategy, market acceptance, or technological feasibility.

Marketing Week provides numerous examples of how companies are applying interactive technology to outdoor marketing campaigns to boost and extend consumer awareness of brands through “experiential” activity. Smart outdoor media lengthens “dwell time” for brands such as Heineken, Lynx, Green Giant and British Airways by persuading consumers to interact with, for example, digital out-of-home (OOH) screens and other displays. According to Marketing Week, revenues tied to digital OOH reached £101 million ($156 million) in 2010. About 16 percent of the outdoor marketing expenditures last year were focused on OOH. A growing number of consumers – 60 percent according to a recent survey – want more interaction with digital OOH screens. Forty-seven percent are eager to download discount vouchers from OOH screens to their mobile phones.

Researchers in Spain have developed a technology that can reduce the amount of salt in already desalted cod by as much as 50 percent while preserving sensory qualities. The desalted cod is especially appropriate for persons with high blood pressure. According to the researchers, the new method involves replacing some of the sodium in the fish with potassium after the original desalting process. The fish retains its flavor and texture and contains enough salt that it can be stored under refrigeration for as long as necessary.

Consumer Reports has introduced an app for smartphones and other mobile devices that tells consumers which green product labels are verifiably meaningful and truthful. The new Eco-Label app, available on iTunes, provides reviews of label terms like “hypoallergenic,” “natural,” and “organic”. The Eco-Label App lets consumers search for information by alphabetical label index or by product, including foods, cleaners, and personal care products. The app also provides a label "report card," which offers clear guidance on which labels make truthful and meaningful claims, and which do not. The app costs $.99 and is located under the Utilities category in the App Store, according to Consumer Reports.

Walmart has launched a campaign on Facebook that allows users to nominate nonprofit organizations from local communities to receive a slice of a $1.5 million grant pie during the holiday season. The "12 Days of Giving" campaign will accept submissions of local organizations that are providing basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing and baby supplies. For the campaign, which runs through November 30, Facebook users need to provide a 200-word description, with photos, of a local nonprofit that describes the organization’s impact on the community. Winners of the grant money will be announced on Facebook daily from December 12-23.

Dairy product producer Dean Foods announced a 50/50 joint venture with Swiss-based Hero Group, producer of fruit and infant nutrition brands Hero and Beech-Nut. Dubbed Hero/WhiteWave, the new venture will take Dean's WhiteWave business into the jam and chilled fruits business for the first time. Hero has had success with chilled-fruit products in Europe, and believes that North American consumers will be receptive to the products. According to reports, the two companies will develop new healthful products, while sharing technology, manufacturing and distribution capabilities. Dean also announced healthy financial results for the third quarter, with earnings per diluted share on an adjusted basis doubling to $0.28 from a year ago.

Though sustainability has grown steadily over the past five years as a driver of innovation in packaging, momentum appears to have slowed, according to a study by Packaging Digest. “Slippage on key questions,” editorial director John Kalkowski says, doesn’t mean packagers no longer feel sustainability is important. The emphasis is growing, but at a slower pace. Respondents who say they are moderately familiar with sustainability issues slipped to 80 percent from 83 percent last year. But that’s much higher than the 52 percent at the same level in 2007. Forty-one percent said the emphasis on sustainability remained the same, and 55 percent said it had grown in their companies. Respondents cited economic conditions as a major reason why some businesses had scaled back their activities in sustainable packaging.

Henkel appears for the first time on Newsweek's Green Rankings, ranked at 65 and scoring 61.7 percent on the Global 500 list of leading companies. Henkel ranked fifth among consumer goods companies. Newsweek's Green Rankings assess the environmental performance of the world's largest publicly traded companies. The rankings are based on a company's actual environmental footprint, management of that footprint, and sustainability communications. The rankings, which provide a cross-industry framework for comparing environmental commitment and performance, were developed with the help of two environmental research organizations, Trucost and Sustainalytics.

A research scientist at Norway’s SINTEF Technology and Society says a lot of the Western world’s food supply is wasted by food producers, consumers and restaurants who believe that food has run out of shelf life, when in fact “it is perfectly OK.” According to Jan Ola Strandhagen, a third of the world’s supply of food could be saved using advanced technology – and a change in attitude – before it reaches the waste bin. Information from the retail food sector about consumer buying habits, and how much food ends up in store trash bins, would allow “surgical precision” in the production of food. That kind of information would influence the logistics of food distribution: “when and where, and in what quantities, individual products are delivered to retail outlets.”

A study by Cornell University scientists shows that children are more likely to eat fruit in a cafeteria setting if the fruit is displayed in colorful bowls. Moving the fruit increased sales by 104 percent, and is just one of many simple, cheap, and effective tools that lead schoolchildren to choose healthier food. The research was conducted as part of the Smarter Lunchrooms Movement at Cornell’s Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs (BEN). With the White House, BEN created the Chef’s Move to Schools program as part of the national fight against childhood obesity. The BEN center has analyzed many school lunchrooms, finding layouts and designs that hindered student's selection of nutritious foods. The lunchrooms were revamped with easy, low-cost/no-cost environmental changes that resulted in an increase in healthy food choices.

P&G CEO Bob McDonald told a Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the Cincinnati, Ohio, area lags in business start-ups and patents issued on a per capita basis and needs to ramp up spending on innovation. Business, financial and economic growth depends on investment in innovation by businesses and organizations, he said, and there’s no better time to invest than during economic downturns. He suggested several ways the region could foster innovation, including: speeding up start-up activity at research institutions, supporting collaborations with “pillar” companies, working together to strengthen support infrastructure, recruiting new talent, aligning public policy with an industry cluster strategy, and boosting investment in local start-ups. “It’s time to make Greater Cincinnati a leader … when it comes to innovation,” he said.

To encourage risk taking and innovation some companies are moving to reward failure where they see ideas that failed but that had potential. The advertising agency Grey, for instance, has a "Heroic Failure” award that is given to an employee who demonstrated edgy risk. Companies are also trying to create cultures more conducive to innovation and experimentation. P&G has set up a separate division called FutureWorks to partner with vendors in an atmosphere supposedly that will encourage bolder innovation; Grey New York has a "no meeting zone" every Thursday morning; others have mediation or nap rooms. As author Judy Estrin says "Failure, and how companies deal with failure, is a very big part of innovation."

Nestlé announced that it is enlarging its U.K.-based Product Technology Centre, where new confectionery products are developed and existing ones are reformulated. According to the company, the Technology Centre is also charged with deploying newly-developed technologies to Nestlé’s global operations so that confectionery products are produced safely and effectively while meeting the consumer needs. Centre Director Stefan Palzer says the expansion of the facility will allow the company to “accelerate and intensify confectionery product development” using sustainable and high quality raw materials, advanced manufacturing processes, and reliable equipment.

National Starch has come up with a unique set of words, including some newly-coined ones, to better describe the consumer food texture experience. The new Texicon food texture language was created to “translate the consumer texture experience into measurable scientific terms,” according to National Starch. By using the new language, National Starch customers can quickly target and achieve the right texture in their products. Among the new words being used are “crinchy,” which describe food that is between crunchy and crispy, and “flumpy,” which describes mayonnaise as it comes from the jar. The Texicon language applies to a range of low- and high-moisture systems, such as baked snacks, creamy dressings, barbecue sauces, yogurt, sour cream, etc.

Cargill has introduced a customizable functional stabilizer system that allows yogurt makers to keep raw material costs down while providing the creamy products consumers expect. According to the company, Vitex AYS stabilizers feature modified food starch and hydrocolloids that create “a cost-effective alternative to gelatin” while maintaining yogurt flavor and texture. A Vitex AYS product manager said the rising cost of gelatin and starch was the motivating force behind development of the stabilizers. 

U.S. researchers have come up with an eco-friendly way to extract the antioxidants left behind when the skins, stems and seeds are filtered away during grape juice and wine production. About half of the beneficial antioxidants are left behind during the filtering process. By reclaiming the nutrients from the waste material – about 15 million tons are generated annually in the U.S. – the researchers believe they could benefit the health product industry. The new technology – known as subcritical water processing – uses pressurized water to extract the antioxidants, rather than expensive and potentially toxic organic solvents. The extraction method is not only more efficient, and “greener,” the resulting antioxidant compounds are smaller and more effectively adsorbed by the body.