Brand Noise

Brand Revivals Call for Careful Orchestration

“West Side Story” is alive and well being performed in prisons and gang-ridden neighborhoods, where it is used as therapy, and in summer-stock productions, where it leaps off the stage. In the New Yorker, David Denby wishes for a Broadway revival but ironically the musical plea for ethnic tolerance has now become difficult to revive in New York.

Read more.

Democrats brand via soccer to reach Hispanics

Some scenarioDNA press this weekend in the Los Angeles Times on Democrats branding via soccer in Las Vegas.

Sponsored by the Nevada Democratic Party and co-captained by Kihuen — a 27-year-old former standout youth player who once harbored professional ambitions — Los Democratas includes some of the top amateur soccer players in Las Vegas. The plan: to dominate the Azteca soccer league, the elite division of the city's 10,000-player Ligas Unidas.

"We want the community to hear the name of the party," said Andres Ramirez, the Democrats' state outreach director. "It's branding. We want to brand the party name."

Success on the field — and developing a reputation for fair and competitive play — could help bolster the party's image among Latino fans, said Marie Lena Tupot, research director for scenarioDNA Inc., a New York firm that specializes in branding.

"It's not whether they win or lose. The Democrats have more to prove in showing how they care about the sport and ultimately the community," she said. "It's an opportunity for them to take a leadership role. Sports are unpredictable. The Democrats need to demonstrate how they can ride its unpredictable nature."

Read more (LA Times - subscription req.)

Using What's Familiar to Explain

The Nielsen Company launched their summer Hispanic consumer engagement initiative with the premiere of their "telenovela", an approach to informing consumers about the Nielsen Local People Meter technology at the Fiestas Puertorriquenas event in Humboldt Park, Illinois.

A 20 x 20 traditional outdoor booth was transformed into a domestic tableau. A living room set was the backdrop for local actors to perform and play the role of a randomly selected Latino household receiving a visit from a Nielsen representative. Staying true to telenovela-style, the melodramatic performances engaged the audiences throughout the two-day festival. The Nielsen telenovela will next be featured in the upcoming Fiestas Patrias event in September.

Latino households represent 9.8 percent of the Chicago DMA and constitute 10.5 percent of the Nielsen sample.

mDive Mobile Polling Reaches Elusive Markets

We announced our new mobile polling solution, mDive today.  We believe there is definitely room for innovation in how research is conducted under the new rules of consumer markets.  We have been working hard with our alliances to keep up with these shifts by developing solutions that are more flexible and offer deeper insights into the whole consumer in context.  Here is the release:

mDive Mobile Polling Reaches Elusive Markets
scenarioDNA and Mobile Transit Authority, LLC (MTA) announced today that they have extended their strategic partnership and launched a new mobile opinion solution called mDive. mDive is a turnkey mobile-based market research solution that engages consumers on their cell phones. mDive provides a timely and enhanced method of understanding critical marketing nuances. It employs MTA’s mobile platform utilizing text messaging (SMS), WAP (mobile internet) and IVR surveys to target and query hard-to-reach consumers who are always on the go. scenarioDNA’s expert analysis, interpretation and recommendations give marketers unique insight into emerging behavioral patterns from these elusive consumers.

Three Generations: One Roof

A NY Times article talks about evolving households:

In a society where the most common type of household is led by those who live alone and where the scattered family is almost a cultural institution, many grandparents, adult children and grandchildren are gathering to live under the same roof.

The last census showed these "multigenerational households" — defined as those of three or more generations — growing faster than any other type of housing arrangement.

The number of multigenerational households is still relatively small: 4.2 million, or 4 percent of all types. But they grew by 38 percent from 1990 to 2000, and professionals in real estate and the building industry say the trend has accelerated since then.

Architects, developers and others in the industry are responding with home designs and planned communities that offer features suited for the different generations.

But fancy, multimillion-dollar homes are not the norm when generations choose to live together. Census officials say multigenerational families are most common in states like California, where the high cost of housing forces families to double up, and in states where high rates of out-of-wedlock childbearing lead to home sharing by the mother, her children and her parents.

A variety of cultural factors also draw and keep relatives together. Multigenerational living, especially those in which grandparents care for their grandchildren, have long been common in Asian and Hispanic countries, and the arrangement is popular among immigrants from those nations. Also driving the trend are — who else? — active baby boomers who want to be involved in the lives of their offspring and who see little appeal in flying off to a Sun Belt retirement in isolation.

Custom T Sites Respond to Markets

Custom t-shirt site Spreadshirt.com just launched Spreadshirt Latino. The site encourages consumers to open their own free online shops, where anyone can become an online artist or entrepreneur simply by sharing their Latin-inspired designs, photos or sayings with the world.
Founded in 2002 in Leipzig Germany, Spreadshirt is a privately held company with offices in the United States, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Spreadshirt is the leading provider of custom, online apparel in Europe and is growing rapidly in the United States.
Spreadshirt.com builds community via blogs and online forums.

In November, CafePress.com offered its community the tools and online training needed to begin designing black t-shirts.

"We faced three major obstacles with our new printing process for black garments. First, the new printing process had to be perfected in order to maintain the vibrancy and longevity of an image on black fabric. Second, we needed to develop a way for our users to prepare images for this new type of printing," says Mahesh Jain Co-founder and VP of Business Development. "Lastly, we needed a process that could handle the volume our community demands. Now that we have jumped these hurdles we are going to step back and watch as our community amazes us with their continued drive to design new items. This is a true example of the spirit behind the CafePress.com community."

These sites need to be quick in their response to customers. Within hours of the recent Cheney incident, CafePress Shopkeepers had already uploaded the first designs expressing their views, and shoppers had already begun searching for Cheney/Shooting related products. By Monday morning 48 designs had been added to the CafePress Marketplace to create 714 unique new products.

MTV Serving Ethnic Audiences

MTV World will produce an exclusive live performance special featuring Korean pop superstar Rain on Friday, February 3 at MTV's Studios in Times Square. "MTV Presents: Rain - Live In New York" marks the first live music production for MTV World. MTV World operates television networks designed to super-serve ethnic populations in the United States, with Chinese-American focused MTV Chi and South-Asian- centric MTV Desi available on DIRECTV and MTV K, a 24-hour music channel catering to Korean-Americans, scheduled to launch later this year.

Read the NY Times profile on Rain and the K-Pop scene.

Hispanic Food Ad Gets Sophisticated

In a huge departure from CMPB's long-running "Familia, Amor y Leche" campaign, which squarely linked milk to traditional themes of home, abuela (the family matron) and cooking, new Spanish-language TV ads from the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB) set out to position milk as a wonder tonic with muscle, hair and teeth building qualities.

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The new campaign developed by Long Beach-based Grupo Gallegos -- consisting of three 30: second TV spots: 'Contortionist,' 'Amazon Hair Goddess' and 'Teeth Town' -- will introduce CMPB's new "Drink Milk/Toma Leche" tagline.

"We recognize that Hispanic audiences are increasingly sophisticated and that our advertising needs to keep up," says CMPB Chairman Steve James. "Here we're using a quirky kind of humor to remind families of the importance of drinking milk."

'Contortionist' opens on a circus ring with two acrobats twisting, crumbling and folding their bodies in half. Cut to a young girl, member of the contortionist family featured, explaining that contortionism is not a job, but an everyday occurrence that's possible thanks to milk's muscle-building properties. In similar fashion, 'Amazon Hair Goddess' features a gorgeous Amazon-like woman, with a sculptured body and strong, voluminous long tresses who attributes her beautiful, strong hair to the white wonder tonic. 'Teeth Town' spotlights a town where people use their teeth to do everyday things like picking up a baby or opening a can of food. At the end, audiences are reminded that milk helps keep teeth strong and prevent cavities.

Cosmetic Procedures Increase Among Ethnic Minorities

According to statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) racial and ethnic minorities accounted for 20 percent of all cosmetic procedures performed last year, an increase from 14 percent in 2000. Hispanics again led minority racial and ethnic groups in the number of procedures at 8.5% followed by African-Americans, 6.2 percent; Asians, 4.6 percent; and other non-Caucasians, 1.1 percent.

Ethnicity has prevented some people from seeking plastic surgery for years, many fearing that their features would look "too white”. However, “Many are realizing that plastic surgery can be done without feeling like you're trying to change your ethnicity," says Julius Few, MD, FACS, assistant professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "New procedures and specific training in treating ethnic populations have opened new avenues for patients who previously were afraid to try many procedures. For example, scarring is an area of concern among darker-skinned patients; we now have new techniques to help minimize unwanted outcomes," says Dr. Few.

Expertise in treating skin of color involves more than knowing how a certain laser or injectable might affect a Hispanic or Brazilian patient. A doctor's cultural sensitivity can also improve a patient's outlook. Renato Saltz, MD, of Salt Lake City, UT, believes that, “One size does not fit all – not only are techniques different for certain minority populations but the concept of what is beautiful is as well” he said. “For example, South American women typically want smaller breasts and larger buttocks than the average white American female."

Where the Boys Are

This month's Business 2.0 features an interesting article on the smart ways some marketers are cultivating market opportunities in the pursuit of the young male consumer.

Advertisers are desperately trying to stay in contact with the migrating herd of young men, but that's more easily said than done. Their efforts have contributed in part to the rise in online ad spending -- up 23 percent this year to $14.7 billion. And, more significantly, a handful of media companies are beginning to figure out how to target the ad-resistant demographic.

They aren't advertisers; think of them as wranglers who are drawing guys together in large numbers, which advertisers can then pepper with highly targeted pitches (some of which, by the way, might not be allowed on network TV). What follows is a look at four upstarts -- Action Media's custom-car show Hot Import Nights, gaming network Xfire, online video venue Heavy, and blog newsfeed advertiser Pheedo -- that are helping big-name brands develop new strategies that reach young men.

These four companies are also surprisingly smart about keeping costs low, so each stands a solid chance of making money; two, in fact, are already profitable. More important, they're all pioneering new forms of marketing that could alter mainstream media. "Videogames, cell phones, stuff like that is all still in the testing stage for advertising," says Steve Sternberg, executive vice president and director of audience analysis at Magna Global Media Research. "But it's very real, and it's going to explode."  Read more (Business 2.0)