Carlsberg hopes to kickstart drinkers’ enthusiasm for Euro 2004 with a £10m marketing support package. The investment includes a heavyweight television advertising push.
Mums with babies who are just learning to feed themselves have traditionally been faced with the choice of breadsticks or rusks. Plenty of foods are available for weaning babies and there is no shortage of meals for older babies, but little choice for the transitional period.

Foreign Focus
In the US, Gerber has launched a line of Bite-Size Finger Foods developed specifically for babies who are learning to feed themselves. The food is described as puffed grains, based on rice, oats and wheat, with added vegetable or fruit for flavour. Two varieties are available: Fruit Puffs, which include flavours such as banana, strawberry and apple, and Veggie Puffs, with varieties such as sweet potato.

The products come in small, shaped pieces that are easy for tiny fingers to grasp, and are designed to melt in the baby’s mouth. They are fat-free and sodium-free, and are fortified with iron, zinc and vitamin E.

A good deal of thought has gone into the product’s packaging too. Rather than a simple bag, the bite-size foods are packaged in resealable plastic cups, like those already used for on-the-go snacks in the US. The cups fit into a car cupholder and offer protection to the contents in a backpack or travel bag.

The 42g cups retail at US$1.99 and contain six servings, a reasonable price point given the product’s strong convenience positioning. They appear to fill a gap in the market for convenient, prepared finger-foods and will be imitated.

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