Q&As

CVS Corp., the pharmacy chain, has acquired Caremark Rx Inc., for about $21 billion in stock.

Kellogg is putting music in 20 million boxes of Pop-Tarts in an effort to court teens.

Wal-Mart Stores has signed on to Project Apollo to study its own in-store media network and its $600 million in traditional advertising.

Cosmetics brand M-A-C and Barbie are partnering for an “adult targeted” project set to launch in spring 2007.

When it comes to what’s most important for consumer goods companies, it’s all about whether product is on the shelves and selling. Since enormous marketing investments are made in product-specific promotional campaigns, the ability to accurately ascertain a campaign’s resulting up-lift is critical.

If you Google the term “customer value” you will get back 156 MILLION hits (to put that into perspective, the term ‘customer relationship management’ has 36 million.) It is one hot topic in marketing these days.

Blockbuster and Burger King, among others, are backing the upcoming release of Warner Bros. Pictures’ animated feature Happy Feet with a host of promotions, including sweepstakes and movie-themed premiums.

Campbell’s Soup Co. is e-mailing more than 700,000 holiday hostesses, inviting them to enter a sweepstakes the company has cooked up with brands such as Whirlpool, CorningWare, Pepperidge Farm and French’s.

The hubbub early last month over Google

We’re content providers, Richard D. Beckman, president of Cond Nast Media Group, told The New York Times in August. Mr. Beckman essentially was saying