Author Archives:

THE DAILY BEAST

June 22, 2010 – 4:04 pm

by Charlotte Beal I love food, but I hate my lifestage when it comes to food. I have a job, a picky preschooler, a Bjorn-saddled infant and a husband who doesn’t get home from work until late evening. The dinner ritual pretty much consists of me doctoring something in a mad dash, only to find […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Food/Beverage | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Consumers believe that Latinos face the most discrimination

June 21, 2010 – 9:03 am

by Rocio Zamora Arzola WHAT’S HAPPENING In an AP-Univisión-GfK poll, 61% of people said that Latinos face significant discrimination, compared with 52% who said blacks and 50% who said women (AP 5.21.10). 81% of Latinos said they confront a lot or some discrimination; 59% of non-Hispanics agreed that Latinos confront a lot of or some […]

Posted in Consumers, Latino | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

This ATM donates half its $2 fee to charity

June 18, 2010 – 1:32 pm

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING A new ATM machine may soon crop up in New York City with a unique transaction fee. The Choose Change ATM charges a relatively low $2 per withdrawal, but uses $1 of that to fund one of eight charities. ATM users can choose which charity they’d like half their transaction […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Money/Spending | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Chaos Cooking puts culinary mettle to the metal

June 17, 2010 – 7:30 pm

by Charlotte Beal WHAT’S HAPPENING As we documented in our “Iron (Chef) Age” trend, consumers are cultivating a competitive cooking spirit. The latest example is the “continuing social experiment” in New York known as Chaos Cooking (ChaosCooking.com 6.10). 45 people; 4 burners. The group gathers in a residential kitchen to simultaneously cook 1 recipe each […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Food/Beverage | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

Social nets help teens navigate the real world

June 16, 2010 – 3:51 pm

by Cree McCree WHAT’S HAPPENING Tweeting teens with their noses in Facebook may navigate the real world better than their less wired peers. According to a growing body of research, kids who spend the most time on social media sites tend to be the healthiest psychologically (Los Angeles Times 5.18.10). In one recent study of […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

GOOD MOOD RISING

June 16, 2010 – 1:06 pm

by Lisa Pierce While the Great Recession retreats at a funeral’s pace (let’s bury it already!), we’re seeing signs of happiness all around us as leading companies try to brighten consumers’ lives. Kraft Foods created a smiley logo for their new Hello Jell-O campaign and is putting it on special-edition boxes of the jiggly treat. […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Packaging | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Latinos and coupons: Going beyond clipping

June 15, 2010 – 6:10 am

by Rocio Zamora Arzola WHAT’S HAPPENING 6 out of 10 Latino households use coupons, so it’s no surprise that retailers and brands are pushing the cost-savings envelope in new ways (RelevantInsights.com 1.27.10). San Francisco’s Regalito Rosticeria, a small Mexican restaurant, uses Groop Swoop’s online coupons. Each of the restaurant’s four promotions has yielded about 50 […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Latino | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Building a better bond between urban and suburban communities

June 14, 2010 – 6:06 am

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING In May 2010, the Ford Foundation committed $200 million to a broad revitalization program. The idea is to integrate urban and suburban communities through improved public transit, regional land banks, and more affordable housing (NYTimes.com 5.18.10). Central to the project is recognizing that communities which relied heavily on private automobiles […]

Posted in Consumer Trend | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Hotel Vitale adds personal chef to amenities menu

June 11, 2010 – 6:02 am

by Stefania Revelli WHAT’S HAPPENING Dining options are more than just a matter of personal taste for guests staying at the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco. Guests can shop the local farmers’ market (across the street) escorted by chef Kory Stewart of the hotel’s Americano Restaurant, who will help them choose all the ingredients they […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Tagwhat puts friendly face on augmented reality space

June 10, 2010 – 3:03 pm

by Robert van Alstyne WHAT’S HAPPENING Location-based social networking receives an augmented reality boost courtesy of Tagwhat, which dubs itself “the world’s first augmented reality creation and distribution system.” Tagwhat users can create their own location-based content (including embedding multimedia content) from within the Tagwhat app. The content is then viewable on Tagwhat’s site via […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

(THE OTHER) FOOTBALL FEVER

June 10, 2010 – 8:39 am

by Becky Sun In January and February, my Facebook friends were abuzz over the Super Bowl. In March and April, it was all about the NCAA. Memorial Day brought talk of the Indy 500. But now that the quadrennial FIFA World Cup is just days away, I’m hearing … crickets. Perhaps it doesn’t help that […]

Posted in Consumer Trend | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Wedding planners helping couples merge cross-cultural traditions

June 9, 2010 – 4:05 pm

by Abelardo de la Peña Jr. WHAT’S HAPPENING A wedding is a special but stressful event. When the couple come from two different cultures, it’s challenging to incorporate both sets of traditions. A growing number of wedding planners are helping out. Berkeley, CA-based ZahZoom Weddings helped Rachel Carroll, of Jewish faith, and Trinidadian Michelle Matt […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Multicultural | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Will survival gardens replace victory gardens?

June 8, 2010 – 9:19 am

by Tory Davis WHAT’S HAPPENING Worried by the decreasing global oil supply, threats of terrorism and fear of climate change, suburbanites in Lafayette, NJ, have begun digging up their pristine expanses of lawn to sow survival gardens and become self-sustainable. Some locals are taking survival gardening classes taught by Linda Grinthal, a 55-year-old former financial […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Food/Beverage, Garden | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Moneyed Millennials crave old-school luxury brands

June 7, 2010 – 6:18 pm

by Cree McCree WHAT’S HAPPENING Chanel and BMW are sitting pretty with young lush lifers. The old-school luxury brands scored the top two spots in the first annual L2 Gen Y Prestige Brand Rankings, which surveyed high-earning Millennials from 45 countries (MarketingDaily 5.5.10). As you’d expect, cars drew the most male votes, snagging 8 of […]

Posted in Consumer Trend | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Plans for summer vacation are still on, if pruned

June 4, 2010 – 3:05 pm

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING Americans are still interested in making plans for summer vacation despite the economic malaise of the recession. A survey by American Express found that the average family plans to spend $1,000 per person on travel during the summer break (MarketWatch.com 5.1710). Another sign of how seriously we’re taking summer:  On […]

Posted in Consumer Trend, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 98 other followers