Sunday, February 06, 2000
TIPSHEET
Viagra ads to be tied to Valentine's
The company that played a key role in ending Procter & Gamble Co.'s recent bid to acquire two major drug companies is pulling a page from the Cincinnati packaged-goods giant's marketing playbook — just in time for Valentine's Day.
P&G has a long history of tying ad campaigns to national holidays or events that reflect the brand image the company wants to portray for particular products.
Following in P&G's footsteps, drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has launched a national television campaign for Viagra — the little blue pill that reportedly packs a big punch for men suffering from erectile dysfunction.
Pfizer — close to acquiring rival Warner-Lambert after vowing to fight P&G's proposed $140 billion takeover of Warner-Lambert and American Home Products last month — says Viagra has as much brand recognition as some of P&G's top-selling products, without the same ad support.
And Pfizer hopes to raise sales and consumer awareness with its Valentine's Day promotion, which touts Viagra as the official sponsor of the holiday.
The television campaign comes in advance of a separate national print campaign to be launched in March.
Both campaigns will target users 40 and older, Pfizer said. — Randy Tucker
"Time' irks Chiquita
Chiquita Brands International Inc. was predictably outraged by last week's Time magazine report on the political contributions of Chiquita Chairman Carl Lindner.
Officials there claim that the Time reporters, who made Mr. Lindner a centerpiece of the first campaign-finance story after a 10-month investigation, never called Mr. Lindner's office directly and called Chiquita only last week.
The resulting nine-page story tried to make the case that Mr. Lindner's political contributions bought a U.S. investigation — and subsequent economic sanctions — against European banana quotas.
“This story is old news and full of inaccuracies,” a spokeswoman said. — Cliff Peale
How CEOs rate at golf
Forget stock prices, earnings multiples and market capitalization, what really counts in the boardroom is an executive's golf handicap.
Golf Digest's survey of the golf handicaps of CEOs on the 1999 Fortune 500 ranked Federated Department Stores' James Zimmerman tops among Cincinnati-area CEOs, with a handicap of 12.9. That ranked him 78th among the top 200 CEOs.
Cinergy's James Rogers was 13Oth on the Golf Digest list with a handicap index of 16.8.
Jerry Grundhofer of Firstar came in at 185, tied with his brother, John, at U.S. Bancorp, who had a handicap of 20.3.
Failing to make the Top 200 with a handicap of 22.2 or better was P&G's Durk Jager, who ranked 219th with a handicap of 26.
Tops on the Golf Digest list was SunMicrosystems CEO Scott McNealy with a handicap of 3.3. GE's Jack Welch slipped from second to 16th on the list with a handicap of 7.1.
— Mike Boyer
Kroger dumps Chiquita
Kroger's one-year relationship with Chiquita bananas has ended locally. The supermarket chain in January replaced the bananas with Dole at Cincinnati and Dayton stores.
It's not the first time Kroger has favored Dole over locally based Chiquita. The chain's different divisions negotiate their banana contracts annually, based on quality, price, promotional opportunities and volume.
Kroger's Cincinnati-Dayton division has switched back and forth between Dole and Chiquita over the years, said Steve Jagers, Kroger spokesman.
“It's just one of those situations where Dole's offer was better for our customers than Chiquita,” he said.
Both have great bananas, Mr. Jagers said, so the decision boiled down to what's best for shoppers.
Last year, Kroger's local division ended a four-year run with Dole and selected Chiquita. Locally, Mr. Jagers said, Chiquita has been in the stores longer than Dole. — Lisa Biank Fasig
Items for Tipsheet are gathered by Enquirer business reporters and compiled by Lisa Biank Fasig.
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