Posted by Elena del Valle on June 22, 2012
Chef Carlos Rodriguez with Margarita Martinez, host of Neighborhood Kitchens, at Orinoco, a restaurant in Boston’s South End
Photo: WGBH
Last Sunday viewers of WGBH, a PBS station in Boston, had a chance to see the premier of Neighborhood Kitchens, the television content producer’s new 30-minute program about well known neighborhood eateries in the Massachusetts area. The season will have 12 episodes, each one profiling one restaurant in Boston and Cambridge, which will air for six weeks and resume with new episodes from September through October 2012. Producers hope to eventually find private sector sponsors and expand the geographic scope of the program to most of New England.
Filming began March 2012 and is scheduled to continue throughout the summer. The series initial season will feature a heavy Latin theme with cuisine from Venezuela, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Peru as well as an Italian restaurant and a New American restaurant with menus heavily influenced by Latino executive chefs.
For inclusion, restaurants are “considered by their overall excellence in food and service, as well as having a significant tie to the neighborhoods they reside in. The restaurants featured are all established eateries, with very strong reputations in their communities; (they) are all excellent in the cuisine they present, as well as being part of the fabric of the neighborhoods they reside in; every restaurant chosen is really beloved by the residents in their neighborhoods,” according to a station spokesperson who indicated that suggestions for restaurants may be sent to the station.
The first restaurant featured was Orinoco, a popular Nuevo Latino Cuisine style restaurant with Venezuelan roots and three locations in Boston. During the 27-minute program, Chef Carlos Rodriguez demonstrates for viewers and the program’s host how three of his dishes are prepared: a portobello arepa (a Venezuelan style cornmeal dish) with Latin truffle (a corn fungus infused) cream, a salmon marinated in panela raw sugar and a torta fluida molten chocolate cake.
Bronx born Margarita Martinez, a trained actress and graduate from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, hosts the series. Patricia Alvarado Nuñez is the series producer and has the final word on restaurant selection.
Neighborhood Kitchens can be seen on WGBH in Massachusetts, and parts of New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Viewers can also see the episodes online at wgbh.org/neighborhoodkitchens after the primary broadcast play. The first episode is already available at wgbh.org/programs/Neighborhood-Kitchens-1859/episodes/Orinoco-in-Bostons-South-End-39469
Posted by Elena del Valle on June 20, 2012
Sugar consumption children and adolescents 2005-2008 – click to enlarge
Chart source: CDC/NCHS, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005–2008, CDC.gov
Restaurant owners, food makers and sellers listen up. Insufficient exercise, fatty and sweet foods were among the top concerns of Hispanic respondents to a November 2011 survey question by Mintel, a consumer, product and media intelligence company, about poor health.
Other concerns included eating too many processed foods as well as foods with too many calories or too much salt. The results of the survey of two thousand adults were released in Attitudes Toward Sodium US February 2012, a report by Mintel. The survey did not indicate if the respondents planned to take any action to modify their exercise regime or eating habits.
While Hispanic households spend less than mainstream households in general due to the larger size of Hispanic households (3.3 people compared to 2.5 people in the average non Hispanic home) Hispanics spend as much on groceries as the average household, according to Who We Are: Hispanics Second Edition (see Book outlines Hispanic population major characteristics).
It’s not clear whether the beliefs expressed by the Mintel survey takers are based on facts or perceptions and whether they apply only to adults. A study that used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey examined sugar consumption of United States children and adolescents between 2005 and 2008 (see Consumption of Added Sugar Among U.S. Children and Adolescents, 2005–2008 at CDC.gov and Mexican-American children eat less sugar than peers, says new study on NBC Latino) and indicated that Mexican American children “eat a smaller percent of calories from added sugars than their non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black peers.”
Posted by Elena del Valle on June 18, 2012
Melinda Lee, director, Getty Images Music
Photo: Getty Images Music
Getty Images, a leading creator and distributor of still imagery, video and multimedia products, as well as a provider of other forms of digital content including music with business customers in more than 100 countries, hopes to sell music to executives in the Hispanic advertising industry which the company’s executives believe represents more than a $5 billion industry. Getty marketing staff believe Spanish-language indie music is a “significant and largely unknown super-genre” that is growing “immensely in popularity and penetrating mainstream markets.”
Getty Images Music in partnership with MuuseMe is targeting United States content creators who service the Hispanic programming and advertising industry, the local Spanish language market, Latin America, Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries. The content creators in the United States represent about 75 percent of their target audience, according to a spokesperson.
“We’re committed to offering an affordable solution to this growing market, so that it can continue to grow without budgetary or creative limitations,” said Melinda Lee, director, Getty Images Music by email.
“The forward thinking team at Getty Images Music really gets what we’re trying to do here at MuuseMe,” said Rob Filomena, co-founder, MuuseMe. “Their international network allows us to offer our content partners multi-platform placement opportunities, and stay at the forefront of an important cultural trend by creating the first ever Spanish-language Indie production library.”
Getty Music has over 200,000 tracks. Through the partnership it will acquire an additional 3,000 tracks for a total of 10,000 Spanish language tracks when combined with its existing Spanish and Latin American catalog with Spanish-language indie music and indie bands that have Hispanic influences to be licensed through single and multiple track licenses, blankets and customized offerings by project. Price will be project and use based.
“We are promoting this highly valuable offering through media outreach efforts, on Getty Images digital platforms, social media and through our global sales and marketing force. We already know that our existing clients need this music so we are committed to getting the music to them,” said Lee in response to a question about channels the company is relying on to promote its new product line.
Examples of tracks that are available in the new collection include Plastics Revolution (Mexico), La Bien Querida (Spain) and Palenke Soultribe (Colombia). In addition to Getty Images Music’s existing Spanish and Latin American catalog with Spanish language indie music, the offering also includes English language indie bands that have Hispanic influences; and well-known Spanish and Latin American artists who are breaking into the United States market, according to Lee.
Posted by Elena del Valle on June 15, 2012
#tweetsmart book cover
Photo: O’Reilly
As social media fever continues nationwide figuring out how to participate in social media channels may be rising on the list of priorities of marketing departments. Twitter, one of the fastest growing social media sites, has become increasingly popular in business circles. Although many believe Twitter is not to be used for self promotion users write about their products and services all the time.
For example, the Swedish Institute and Visit Sweden, the government tourist agency, on the advice of a Volontaire, an advertising company, has recruited a different volunteer to be interesting, Twitter-literate and post in English each week. They have been the voice of the nation of nine million; and ranged from a high school student in Trollhattan, a town in western Sweden, to a 60 year old. Following the Swedish lead similar projects in Ireland, New Zealand and the city of Leeds in England are sprouting. (see Swedes’ Twitter Voice: Anyone, Saying (Blush) Almost Anything in The New York Times).
“The first tendency of most marketing teams is to transplant old strategies onto this new technology, which can be fatal,” said Jesse McDougall, a programer and web strategist from Vermont. “Would-be marketers on Twitter can do more harm than good in a very short amount of time. This new approach to marketing—one based in discovery instead of interruption—is only going to grow in popularity in the coming years.”
In #tweetsmart 25 Twitter Projects to Help You Build Your Community (O’Reilly, $19.99), an 85-page softcover book published this year, McDougall, discusses Twitter as a platform to connect with interested, influential people. He explores, in 25 short chapters, ways to meet and connect with others to build a community in ways that “are strategic, measurable and fun.” He shares several contest and promotional ideas, and discusses hashtag use, doing market research by inviting Twitter followers to share input, adlib, Haiku, discussion groups, Tweet Bombs, and photo sharing.
McDougall, who has 12 years of experience as a web designer, programmer, and web strategist, is author of eight books about conducting business on the web.
Click to buy #tweetsmart
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Posted by Elena del Valle on June 13, 2012
Direct mail credit card offers – click to enlarge
Chart: Mintel Comperemedia
Some researchers believe credit card offers are a reflection of the economic health of the country. In June 2011, there were 497 million credit card direct mail offers nationwide, a healthy number. By April of 2012 the number was down to 260 million, reflecting a 33 percent drop in direct mail offers for new credit cards between April 2011 and April 2012. In other words in April of this year, United States households received an estimated 260 million credit card offers while a year earlier they received 390 million offers. This may be the lowest estimated monthly mail volume tracked in the past 25 months, according to Mintel Comperemedia.
“Issuers have adopted a more cautious approach due to an uncertain economic environment. The latest downturn likely reflects a pause in activity rather than signifying a permanent reduction in direct mail,” said Andrew Davidson, senior vice president at Mintel Comperemedia. “Credit card direct mail volume will be significantly lower in 2012 than 2011. For credit card issuers this is a great time to be in the mail. The mailbox is less cluttered and it is easier to get consumers to notice your message.”
Because direct mail offers for credit cards are cyclical mailings likely reflect market trends and Dow changes, and since other marketing channels, such as online and social media, are not replacing direct mail the mailings are likely to return to high levels once the economy recovers, he believes.
Posted by Elena del Valle on June 11, 2012
The Scent of Departure Paris
Photos: The Scent of Departure
Ever want to visit Singapore, Budapest or Istanbul but didn’t get a chance? Or perhaps you visited those exotic cities and want to reminisce about your trip? A new perfume line, launched in 2011, promises scent lovers the essence of those cities and 17 others including three in the United States in a $45 1.7 ounce bottle. If blood orange, sweet orange, lemon, yellow tangerine, pink grapefruit, lotus flowers, freesia, lilac, orange jump, white musk, blonde wood, vanilla, and caramel remind you of Miami you are in luck. Those are the ingredients in the line’s Miami eau de toilette fragrance.
Caramel can also be found in New York if the perfume makers are to be believed. In addition to caramel they made that city’s namesake fragrance with green and crispy apple, juicy apple, lotus flower, jasmine, lilac, rose petal, caramelized apple, white musk, and vanilla. Tokyo on the other hand smells like lemon, bergamot, green stem, lotus flower, freesia, ozonique flowers, peony and white musk, according to them.
This could be a good time to introduce such a line, allowing it to be in place for the year’s Christmas holidays which, according to Mintel, is when most perfume buying takes place in the country. Perfumes and products with fragrances seem to be popular among United States consumers. In a survey last year, many (29 percent) domestic consumers said they bought someone a fragrance (25 Stocking Stuffers from Mintel, Holiday Shopping U.S. July 2011 and Seasonal Chocolate U.S. August 2011 Mintel survey reports). In 2005, the average annual consumer spending of Consumer Units (there were 2.5 persons per Consumer Unit; Consumer Unites appear in 000s) on cosmetics, perfume and bath products was 132.31 (Household Spending 12 Edition), the highest segment by far of the Personal Care Products category.
Magali Senequier and Gerald Ghislain
Gerald Ghislain, perfumer, and Magali Senequier, his creative partner, used the IATA (International Association of Travel Agents) assigned three letter airport codes for 20 cities to name The Scent of Departure line which, according to a company spokesperson, is made in Paris, France. They selected cities they had visited and liked for the line targeted at “men and women who love to travel or discover trendy and atypic products,” according to the spokesperson. Prior to this line they launched Histoires de Parfums.
The fragrance is contained in a slender glass bottle sporting the letters for that city with a design inspired by a luggage tag with the three IATA code letters of the city that it represents. The initial scents are: Paris (CDG), London (LHR), Milan (MIL), Frankfurt (FRA), Munich (MUC), Keflavik (KEF), Istanbul (IST), Budapest (BUD), Vienna (VIE), New York (NYC), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), Dubai (DXB), Abu Dhabi (AUH), Doa (DOH), Singapore (SIN), Tokyo (TYO), Hong-Kong (HKG), Seoul (ICN) and Bali (DPS). The company plans to sell the line at airports, large retail stores, Henri Bender in New York and at its website, thescentofdeparture.com.
The Scent of Departure Los Angeles
If as Jennifer Dublino, chief operating officer, Scent Marketing Institute, said “Scent is particularly important to Latinos, even more so than to other cultural groups,” (see Scent Marketing Connects to Hispanics on a Deep Cultural Level) this new line could appeal to Latino consumers in the United States and Latin America.
It is noteworthy that the three cities in the United States included in the line, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City, have some of the largest pockets of Latinos in the country. Some might wonder if the inclusion of well liked cities like Paris and London will make up for the absence of Latin American cities in the line. Will the oversight displease United States Latinos? Will Latinas who, according to Dublino, use fragrance products much more frequently than non-Latinas because they are an important part of their feeling of femininity, respond to the marketing concept of the line?
Posted by Elena del Valle on June 8, 2012
The News and Public Opinion book cover
Photos:R. Lance Holbert, Wayne Wanta, Spiro Kiousis
Four academics, Max McCombs, R. Lance Holbert, Spiro Kiousis* and Wayne Wanta, discuss the effects of news media (print, television and radio) on public opinion in The News and Public Opinion Media Effects on Civic Life (Polity Books, $22.95). In the 210-page softcover book published in 2011, they address the public’s attention to news media, effects of media exposure on the gathering of information and forming of attitudes and opinions, and how these elements affect public life or how the process affects public opinion.
R. Lance Holbert, co-author, The News and Public Opinion
The authors point out that some media are suffering financially. In relation to news they refer to how the television networks news programs have decreasing audience numbers which have led to a loss of profitability and power. Soft news programs are more profitable and the networks remain focused on making a profit; also, older men are the most likely to watch network news programs and a young demographic is not following in their footsteps, they say.
Wayne Wanta, co-author, The News and Public Opinion
Cable news networks like CNN and Fox News have a role as well. Fox News viewers, according to a study by Jonathan Morris, were not was well informed as the viewers of other television news programs, followed specific voting patters, held specific political views and had a political perspective distinct from viewers of other news networks.
Public trust of news media is very low and entertainment content within public affairs has become popular because “the present practice of journalism is so poor,” the authors say in the first chapter. Citizen involvement in journalism has been greatly enhanced, and continues through the internet; the audience of news media is decreasing and to reach them segmentation, including by ethnicity and language, has become increasingly necessary, the authors say. In the Audiences for News chapter, they indicate their belief that ethnic-based news media will continue to grow.
Spiro Kiousis, co-author, The News and Public Opinion
Education plays a role in learning from the media and people with high levels of education learn more and at a faster rate than their counterparts with low educational levels, according to the authors who discovered that newspaper readers learn more than television audiences. Gender also plays a role, they believe, with men favoring hard news and women favoring soft news. The authors also discuss media selectivity and the importance of form versus content.
*Elena del Valle and Spiro Kiousis serve on the University of Florida Public Relations Advisory Council.
Click to buy The News and Public Opinion
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Posted by Elena del Valle on June 6, 2012
H1N1 3D graphic representation of a generic influenza virion’s ultrastructure
Illustration, graph: Dan Higgins, CDC
In spite of all the commotion around exotic diseases like the West Nile Virus, H1N1 flu, salmonella and others that have received extensive media coverage infectious diseases account for a fraction of deaths in the United States. Sellers of funeral services, insurance, health care or end of life related products may be interested to know that world wide 56 million people die every year many from cardiac disease or cancer. Those two causes of death accounted for more than half (63 percent) of all deaths in 2008, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In the United States, about half of the adult population has a chronic condition like diabetes. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease and Control Prevention), the top five causes of death in 2009 were heart disease (599,413), cancer (567,628), chronic lower respiratory diseases (137,353), stroke (128,842), and accidents (118,021).
U.S. Causes of Death 1980, 2008 – click to enlarge
In 2008, 139,241 Hispanics died; the top 10 causes of death for Hispanics in Health, United States, 2011 (Table 26) , the most recent CDC report, were: diseases of heart (28,951), malignant neoplasms (28,851), unintentional injuries (11,080), cerebrovascular diseases (7,121), Diabetes mellitus (6,544), chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (4,091), chronic lower respiratory diseases (3,949), homicide (3,331), influenza and pneumonia (3,176), and Alzheimer’s disease (3,005).
In OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, (the United States is an OECD member) nearly one quarter of the population (22 percent) will be 65 years old or older by 2030. In contrast young people in developing countries are more likely to die from infectious diseases. If they survive into middle age the common killers, cancer or cardiac disease, become the more likely causes of death.
Posted by Elena del Valle on June 4, 2012
Click to enlarge
Graphic: HispanicMPR.com
Are you marketing or selling a new product in the United States? Speed may be of the essence. For 40 years innovation has, at least in part, fueled our growth in the United States. In the 1990s, rapid innovation made it possible for our economy to grow at a quick pace and prompted the creation of new jobs while old ones were lost due to higher production efficiencies and cheap labor costs overseas. Recently, that process appears to have broken down. While the flood of jobs to developing countries continues the pace of innovation has slowed and the amount of time during which manufacturing and selling new products remain profitable within our country is shorter, according to Pinched.
Knowledge, business know-how and research and development become less valuable more quickly today than they did 15 years ago, according to economist Michael Mander (see A Massive Writedown of U.S. Knowledge Capital at innovationandgrowth.wordpress.com). Some people believe improved and inexpensive international communication and a diverse international workforce have played a prominent role in the loss.
The more people, companies and countries have access to knowledge the less valuable it becomes. As communication has improved so has the flow of information and knowledge, reducing the value of the knowledge more quickly in the countries where it was developed (often the United States and Europe) and shifting the know-how to other countries with greater efficiency than in past decades, say the experts.
Too much red tape and corporate power has dramatically decreased new inventions (see Patent attorney explores reduction of inventions in America). With fewer inventions patented and a faster rate of knowledge capital depreciation (which results from the expenditures of an organization that have led it to increase efficiency over time according to Paul Strassman at Strassman.com) the importance of our skilled scientists and business professionals has grown, these economy analysts believe. Is it possible that developing marketing plans and timelines to match the changing marketplace may make a big difference in extending the timeline of profitability and keeping knowledge capital depreciation in check?
