The Pulse -- October 2005

P&G Taps Physicians to tout Kid's Pepto
Procter & Gamble (P&G) recently announced the launch of Children's Pepto antacid as an alternative to the thick, pink liquid Pepto-Bismol product for adults. The new product will debut on store shelves beginning Fall 2005, just in time for the holiday season when kids are known to overindulge. Rather than take traditional marketing approach such as TV and direct mail, P&G will use a promotional technique called Influencer Marketing to drive growth for the brand. In doing so, P&G plans to convince pediatricians of the products effectiveness in hopes they will recommend it to consumers/patients. According to the Cincinnati Business Courier, P&G is investing three times the amount of money on Influencer Marketing for Children's Pepto than it has on the rest of the Pepto-Bismol brand. The campaign involves advertisements in physician's trade magazines, clinical data and individual samples for distribution by doctors. So far, consumer data reports 97 percent to 98 percent of consumers say Children's Pepto -- available in Bubble Gum and Watermelon flavors -- either met or exceeded their expectations.

Intermec and Symbol Resolve RFID Dispute
Intermec Technologies and Symbol Technologies agree to settle their RFID intellectual property (IP) legal battle. Under the agreement, Symbol joins Intermec's Rapid Start RFID intellectual property licensing program. "While it is good news that Symbol and Intermec have settled their dispute...[we] do not believe that it will have a major impact on the adoption rate of RFID technology," says Michael Witty, program director, demand management strategies for Manufacturing Insights, an IDC Company. "While this announcement eliminates the perceived IP barrier from the decision process for many of companies considering RFID, the overriding question about the value proposition for RFID remains. Companies will ask about the impact royalty payments will have on the cost of RFID equipment and how these costs impact the value proposition of an RFID investment."

The New Dockers Lifestyle
The Dockers brand -- known almost exclusively for its "Nice Pants" for men -- enters into a next phase of business with the introduction of "Dockers Dress to Live". The launch of this brand positioning campaign marks the extension of the Dockers brand beyond men's casual clothing into a head-to-toe lifestyle brand for both men and women. "Dockers Dress to Live is a very exciting evolution for the brand, and we're supporting the launch with a comprehensive integrated [360-degree] marketing campaign," says Bill Stewart, vice president, Dockers brand marketing.

Annin & Co. Predicts Savings using SAP RFID
To meet Wal-Mart's RFID requirement by January 2006, Annin & Co., the manufacturer of more than 10,000 different flags and flag accessories, implements the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology within the SAP NetWeaver platform. "The RFID capabilities provided by SAP NetWeaver will enable us to ship more accurately. As a result, we expect to reduce retailer charge backs for shortages by 50 percent when fully deployed. That alone will pay for our project," says Carter Beard, vice president of manufacturing and business systems, Annin. The integration of SAP RFID technology and the pre-existing SAP IT infrastructure means information captured from the RFID tags for the more than 500,000 master cartons shipped annually can be accessed directly in the enterprise SAP system. Retailers can track and report on the movement of Annin's inventory tagged with RFID through warehouses and stores. By creating this real-world aware network, Annin lays the groundwork for shipping items using RFID and developing an integrated and scalable approach to the technology, providing benefits beyond merely meeting the Wal-Mart requirement.

Henkel Builds Framework for Global Expansion
Following its 2004 acquisition of the Dial Corporation, The Henkel Group -- which ranks third in worldwide laundry/homecare sales -- selects CAS' CPWerx as its worldwide standard for Trade Promotion Management (TPM). In addition, Dial will implement CPWerx as part of a company-wide ERP implementation and integration with Henkel's business processes and information technology platform. "With CAS, we have a best-of-breed, industry-specific CRM platform that will integrate with our existing systems and deliver a closed-loop solution for promotional planning, funds management, payments and trade analysis," says Paul Cunningham, vice president of information technology for Dial. CPWerx will be integrated into Henkel's SAP platform to help provide information to sales, marketing and management teams, which can then leverage data to reduce promotional expenses by intelligently controlling the allocation of trade promotion funds.