Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

Celebrity chef, Vintner and specialty foods pioneer Michael Chiarello and Americas cookie queen Debbi Fields, with branding expert Chris Cornyn serve as mentors for aspiring home chefs competing to win product placement on supermarket shelves nationwide.

Philips partners with Indiegogo to host crowd funded campaigns; Philips to award $100,000 plus mentoring to the top ideas.

As we enter the second half of the year, the editors of CGT revisited the headiness that you read most. What do they tell us? You love a good list, especially if it predicts consumer trends OR ranks competitive products. Let us know what you think of these articles in retrospect. Did market predictions made ring true? Do the leading products still lead? Did key consumer trends take off or taper off? And what do you expect in the second half of 2013?

A whopping 52 percent of U.S. consumers are buying directly online from brands they trust, proving that CPG companies now have far greater opportunities to walk alongside shoppers. Experts from Hershey, GMA and PwC weigh in on how digital channels, mobile adoption and D2C are rewriting the rules of retailing and CPG manufacturing.

With the growing competition from Amazon.com across all sectors in which it competes, brands like Target, Best Buy, Walmart and others are looking to understand how to better compete against this ubiquitous retailer. Results from a new study show that many retailers have a way to go; specifically, for most brands measured, the local store outperforms its online counterpart.

Breakthrough innovators in the consumer goods industry challenge convention and triumph by expanding or transforming categories. They possess the rare ability to pursue, shape, develop and activate insights that deliver what consumers want. Heres a look at 14 of the more distinctive, relevant new product launches that will stand the test of time.

In just a month since launch, Unilever's Dove Real Beauty Sketches film became the No. 1 viewed online video advertisement of all time. It has also been uploaded in 25 languages to 33 Dove YouTube Channels and has been viewed in more than 110 countries. Find out why and how the campaign evoked an unmatched emotional reaction in millions of consumers worldwide.

Despite being far more tech-savvy than previous generations, Generation Y, the 80-million strong cohort of Americans between the ages of 18 and 35, has not forsaken shopping in stores for online purchasing. Even more surprising are some of the brands they love best, including Walmart, Target and Kmart for groceries.