Posted by Elena del Valle on February 14, 2011
A box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day
Photos: Conrad Miami
Valentine’s Day was declared in A.D. 496 by Pope Gelasius I. Although most of us know little or nothing about the pope the date has become popular as a day to express love and appreciation to those close to us. In the 1840s, a daughter of Massachusetts, is thought to be the first to sell mass-produced valentine cards. The tradition lives on with many people setting aside the day to celebrate love.
Thinking of selling a love related product or service? These figures may interest you. In 2008, 66.9 million opposite-sex couples lived together. In 2009, 2.1 million marriages (about 5,800 a day) took place in the United States; many of them in Nevada. That year 108,150 marriages took place in that arid state, making it the fifth nationally in marriages, even though its total population that year among states was 35th; California ranked first in marriages, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
In 2010, first marriages took place at a median age of 28.2 and 26.1 years for men and women, respectively. Last year, 54.1 percent of adults responding to a national survey said they were married, according to Families and Living Arrangements: 2010.
At the same time the businesses that offer Valentine’s type products and services employ many people across several business sectors. For example, in 2008, there were 1,317 companies that produced chocolate and cocoa products (in 2009, Americans ate 23.4 pounds of candy per person, according to the Current Industrial Reports, Confectionery: 2009), employing 38,369 people. California led the nation in the number of chocolate and cocoa manufacturing establishments, with 146, followed by Pennsylvania, with 115; there were 422 establishments that manufactured non chocolate sweets products. They employed 16,860 people. California led the nation in this category, with 47 establishments, according to County Business Patterns: 2008.
The Spa at Conrad Miami is offering red rose promotions for Valentine’s Day
Beyond eatables there are many businesses that cater to love birds. Flower, cards and jewelry sellers figure prominently around this sweetheart centered holiday. The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2009 for all flower-producing operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $359 million (domestic roses accounted for $18 million); again California took the lead, alone accounting for $269 million of the sales (Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service). In 2008, there were 18,509 florists nationwide which employed 89,741 people, according to County Business Patterns.
In 2008, there were 26,683 jewelry stores in the United States. In February 2010, the stores sold $2.4 billion in merchandise, according to County Business Patterns.
Businesses of other types also promote romantic packages or simply Valentine’s Day themed products and services. For example, the Spa at Conrad Miami hotel in Florida is offering red rose promotions between $120 and $200. These include a 60-minute aromatherapy massage and 30-minute organic sweet red rose facial; a 30-minute aromatherapy massage and 60-minute organic sweet red rose facial; and a Champagne mimosa manicure and pedicure and 30-minute organic sweet red rose facial.
Still looking for love? In 2007, there were 393 dating service companies including internet dating services, employing 3,125 people and making $927 million in revenue (source: 2007 Economic Census).
Posted by Elena del Valle on February 11, 2011
Spend Shift book cover
John Gerzema, a social theorist on consumerism at Young & Rubicam, and Michael D’Antonio, a Pulitzer prize winning author of twelve books, believe the recession is changing people’s values. They think many people are returning to self reliance and focusing on economizing while maintaining a positive attitude.
They interviewed representatives from fifty companies in dozens of communities in eight states and share some of their findings in Spend Shift How the post-crisis values revolution is changing the way we buy, sell, and live (Jossey-Bass, $25.95), a 256-page hardcover book published in 2010.
They concluded, based on their research, that 55 percent of Americans across all walks of life, income levels, political affiliations and geographic locations have embraced this shift in spending values; and that another quarter of adults share that revised focus on values. While Millenials (those born between 1980 and 1998) are at the head of the movement surprisingly almost half of seniors favor the revised spending attitudes.
The informal movement is characterized by optimism, according to the authors. Followers are learning to live with less income while seeking, and in some cases finding, greater satisfaction and happiness than in the past.
The book includes a foreword by Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He indicates that more than half of our country’s population is adopting the value shifts. He says “They are seeking better instead of more, virtue instead of hype and experiences over promises”; and that “People are looking for value and values.”
The book is divided into an Introduction and eight chapters titled: The New American Frontier: Detroit, Michigan; Don’t Fence Me In: Dallas, Texas; The Badge of Awesomeness: Boston, Massachusetts; An Army of Davids: Tampa, Florida; Block Party Capitalism: Brooklyn, New York; The Quality of the Lion: Las Vegas, Nevada; The Citizen Corporation: Dearborn, Michigan; Innovation Nation: San Francisco, California; and Coda: The Takeaway: Los Angeles, California.
Two thirds of the people who responded to the authors BrandAsset Valuator said they feel they can, through their purchasing habits, have an impact on corporations; supporting companies who share their values and avoiding those with opposite values.
Gerzema, who relies on data to identify social change to prepare companies wanting to adapt to and anticipate consumer demands, is the author of The Brand Bubble. D’Antonio, formerly with Newsday, is the author of Hershey, a biography, among other titles.
Click to buy Spend Shift
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Posted by Elena del Valle on February 9, 2011
BradfordExchange.com, the most visited jewelry website
Americans hit the web with gusto this past holiday season. December 2010 saw an increase of 80 percent in retails site visits compared to the same time of year in 2009, according to comScore, Inc., a digital metrics company. According to a company spokesperson 85 percent of Americans visited an online retail site this past holiday season. Selling flowers or cards online? You probably did well in December.
The second retail category in online growth was digital seasons greetings with a 32 percent growth and 27.4 million visitors. Buyers of flowers, gifts and greetings were active during the last month of the year; 36.5 million visitors browsed and bought gifts online. Some items required shipping causing a spike in shipping site visits; 33.6 million Americans visited a shipping site in December, up 29 percent from the prior month.
AmericanGreetings Property was the category leader with 10.6 million unique visitors in December (up 28 percent) followed by Gifts.com with 7.7 million visitors, (up 36 percent), Hallmark with 3.8 million (up 10 percent) and 1-800Flowers.com, Inc. with 2.4 million (up 40 percent). ProFlowers.com more than doubled its audience in December, attracting 2.1 million visitors.
MyFunCards.com was the top e-card site with 7.1 million unique visitors (up 77 percent). Next was AG Interactive with 5.9 million visitors, a 47-percent increase. Evite.com came in third with 5.4 million, and 123Greetings.com with 3.3 million visitors (up 35 percent) was next.
Did you dream or splurge? Browse or buy yourself or a loved one jewelry? You were in good company. After watching their pennies during the recession many shoppers bought luxury goods this holiday season, resulting in an all-time high of 26.2 million unique visitors to Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories sites that month.
BradfordExchange.com took the top spot in the category with 2.8 million unique visitors in December (up 15 percent), followed by Zale Corporation with 2.3 million visitors (up 26 percent), Coach.com with 2.1 million (up 14 percent) and Swarovski.com with 2.0 million (up 13 percent), according to comScore.
Posted by Elena del Valle on February 8, 2011
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Horowitz Associates, Inc.’s 11th Annual Multicutural Media for Multicultural America Forum
March 16, 2011 | The Roosevelt Hotel, NYC
Leveraging Culture To Attract Audiences In A Competitive, Multiplatform Environment
Today’s multiplatform, multicultural environment is a game-changer for the TV industry.
It used to be all about “share of viewing”… now, it’s “share of culture.”
Today’s general audience is fragmented by multiple screens, influenced by social media, and in control of their consumer experience. This new audience is defined by its diversity, and is involved with both mainstream and culturally-relevant content.
Now in its 11th year, this annual Forum is THE venue for learning about trends that affect and influence your viewers and your audiences—America’s multicultural consumers. Come to the Forum to get the latest research on the attitudes and behaviors of multicultural audiences especially as it applies to pay TV, broadband, and mobile platforms. This Forum has become the signature event where programmers, advertisers, agencies, and pay TV companies discuss strategies for capturing and retaining audiences and subscribers in multicultural America.
Speakers
Gloria Constanza, Partner, Chief Contact Strategist, d exposito & Partners
Glenn Enoch – Vice President, Integrated Media Research, ESPN
Saul Gitlin, EVP, Strategic Services, Kang & Lee
Joe Lawson, Director of Content Strategy & Acquisition, Verizon Fios Content Team
Carolina Padilla, Senior Director, DIRECTV Más & WorldDirect
Marla Skiko, Sr. VP, Director of Digital Innovation, Tapestry
Curtis Symonds, CEO, HBCU Network
…and more!
Register early and save—early bird discount $249 (through February 23)! Enter code HMPR online at www.multiculturalmediaforum.com/discount.php and receive and extra 10% off! For more information and sponsorship opportunities, please contact us at 914-834-5999 or adrianaw@horowitzassociates.com.
Posted by Elena del Valle on February 7, 2011
Click to enlarge
Graphic: comScore, Inc.
Emails reach more than 70 percent of the U.S online population each month. And, in November 2010, more than 153 million people visited web-based email providers, according to an online data company. Although email remains one of the most popular online activities are people relying less on web based email systems (that excludes applications like Outlook and Thunderbird) and more on mobile email?
A November 2010 comScore study indicates that may be happening. The study found the number of visitors to web based email sites declined 6 percent during that month compared to the previous year. During the same time period, the number of users accessing email via their mobile devices grew 36 percent.
In terms of engagement, the company’s analysts believe overall time spent in the email category declined 9 percent, while total pages viewed dropped 15 percent. Could part of the shift from web based email to mobile email and the level of engagement be the result of higher unemployment nationwide? Is it possible fewer people are accessing emails on the web and surfing online while working because there are fewer people employed?
Although the company’s analysts concluded there was a general change in email related behavior across age groups below 55 they believe young email users between the ages of 12-17 showed the sharpest decline in usage of web based email during the past year. They believe the number of visitors from this age segment declined 24 percent and engagement dropped by half as total minutes fell 48 percent and total pages dropped 53 percent.
There was a greater drop in usage among men; total email minutes for that period dropped 12 percent for men compared to 7 percent for women. On the other hand, use of web based email increase among older adults. Among those 55 to 64 accessing web based email increased 15 percent with similar gains in engagement; users older than 65 experienced gains across all three metrics.
When it came to mobile email in November 2010, 30 percent of all mobile subscribers (70.1 million mobile users, according to their estimates) used a mobile phone to read emails. That was an approximate increase of 36 percent from the previous year, the comScore researchers believe. Adults between 25 and 34 years old were 60 percent more likely to access email than other mobile users; those between the ages of 18-24 were 46 percent more likely to do so than older mobile phone owners. Men were 14 percent more likely to use email on the mobile phones.
ComScore, Inc., a digital measurement company, relied on data from the company’s comScore Media Metrix, which relies on panel-based and website server-based metrics, and MobiLens, a mobile media measurement tool, for the study. The habits of users of mobile devices aged 13 and older were examined in the study.
Posted by Elena del Valle on February 4, 2011
-able book cover
Photos: Scott Ginsberg
Scott Ginsberg, a resident of Saint Louis, Missouri, has been wearing a name tag for ten years in a row. It started out as as a way to teach people how to overcome their shyness and the awkwardness of making the first networking introduction. Along the way, he learned how to be approachable and how to make being approachable profitable.
In his most recent book, -able 35 Strategies for Increasing the Probability of Success in Business and in Life ($19.95), published last year he shares 35 strategies he thinks can help readers increase their probability of success in business and in life. The suggestions are described with sometimes odd seeming phrases such as How to be more findable than a smile at a nudist colony; How to be more referable than an attorney hoped up on sodium pentothal; and How to be more sellable than a case of Coors Light at a Colorado Rockies tailgate party.
Some of the concepts he discusses include the thought that ideas are free and execution is priceless. He believes more is better and advises that readers be “dangerously prolific” and “refuse to slow down long enough for anyone to catch up.” Be fast, produce a lot, push many concepts to fruition and do it consistently, is his advice.
Author Scott Ginsberg
He also believes that not knowing how to do something should not stop readers. Better to move forward than to not move at all; he believes this is true even if you are not sure how or in what direction to move as long as you move. “Otherwise procrastination – the redneck second cousin of patience – will rob you of the motivation you need to carry in the cavalry charge. Finished is the new perfect,” he says.
Ginsberg is the author of twelve books including Hello, my name is Scott, The Power of Approachability, How to be That Guy and Make a Name for Yourself.
Click to buy -Able
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Posted by Elena del Valle on February 2, 2011
By Laura Scheiber
Co-author Unequal Fortunes
Laura Scheiber, co-author, Unequal Fortunes
Arthur Levine and I recently wrote a book called Unequal Fortunes: Snapshots from the South Bronx (see Fellowship foundation leader, assistant examine challenges faced by South Bronx youth). It focuses on three Latino teenagers coming of age in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation. For ten years Carlos, Leo, and Juan Carlos shared their worlds with us. It was a scary place where kids went to more funerals than graduation parties. Drug dealers were on every corner and gangs ruled the streets. Kids were forced to go to local schools with inadequate resources, under-qualified teachers, and a high staff turnover rate. The outcome was not surprising: half of the children in the neighborhood would never graduate from high school. By 16 years old, Carlos, Leo and Juan Carlos could count on one hand the number of friends who graduated from high school. Their other friends were either working minimum-wage jobs, unemployed, in jail, or dead.
Click here to read the entire article Make the world a better place for you and your family
Posted by Elena del Valle on January 31, 2011
Mark Moore, president, and Bill Peppler, managing partner, Kavaliro
Photos: Kavaliro
A podcast interview with Bill Peppler, managing partner, and Mark Moore, president, Kavaliro is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, they discuss job market trends with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
With more than 13 years of experience in the technology, financial staffing and consulting industries, Bill is responsible for overseeing operations and developing additional new markets for Kavaliro in the Southeast, including Charlotte, North Carolina. Before coming to Kavaliro, he worked in the Orlando, Seattle and San Diego markets for international staffing and recruiting organizations. He has recruited personnel for Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Boeing among others.
Mark oversees and helps to navigate the overall direction of Kavaliro. He is involved in strategic partnerships and the development of large capital accounts for the business. He has more than 12 years of experience in the government contracting, technical services, information technology, banking and professional services industries. He established and oversees offices in Orlando, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina.
To listen to the interview, scroll down until you see “Podcast” on the right hand side, then select “HMPR Bill Peppler, Mark Moore” click on the play button below or download the MP3 file to your iPod or MP3 player to listen on the go, in your car or at home. To download it, click on the arrow of the recording you wish to copy and save it to disk. The podcast will remain listed in the January 2011 section of the podcast archive.
Posted by Elena del Valle on January 28, 2011
Photos: Kaplan Publishing
In 2008, there were 2.3 million criminals in jail in United States which was a greater number than any other nation, according to the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London. In addition to that every year one million teenagers are locked up in the United States. Over time many of the former teenagers become adult offenders and are sent to jail adding to the already large prison population.
A circuit court judge in Florida’s Unified Family Court says there’s a better way to deal with teenagers who get into trouble. She believes the juvenile justice system needs to be reformed. She shares her ideas through examples from her courtroom in a recently published book Raised by the Courts: One Judge’s Insight into Juvenile Justice (Kaplan Publishing, $24.99).
Raised by the Courts book cover
“Alternatives to imprisoning young people exist that are more effective, less costly, and more humane,” she said. “We don’t need to spend money developing and testing new solutions. We need to support, adopt, and expand access to the many cost-effective programs that have proven to work, such as prevention of child abuse, parent counseling, family therapy, youth court and other diversion services, truancy reduction programs, and many others. Instead of paying for failure, we should invest in success. Our nation’s children deserve our concern and conscientious dedication to their futures and ours.”
The 285-page hardcover book is divided into three sections, Awakening, Despair and Enlightenment; 28 chapters and two appendices about Programs That Work and Online Resources.
The author points out in the Opening Statement of her book that even before the recession began Florida had poor scores in health, human services and education. In 2009, the state ranked forty-fifth in high school graduation rates and personal income growth and forty-ninth in state and local government spending on education yet it was third for spending on incarcerating adults and children. In spite of that she believes the southern state can be proud of having “some of the most progressive, effective juvenile programs in the country.”
Judge Irene Sullivan
At the end of the book she proposes ten principles that should guide the juvenile justice system in the future including: treating adolescents with significant mental health problems at mental health facilities rather than jails; providing gender specific services for adolescents; taking into account maturity levels and brain development when dealing with youth; and identifying at-risk children and families and addressing their situation.
Since 1999 Irene Sullivan has been a circuit court judge in Florida’s Unified Family Court. She is a member of the American Bar Association Commission on Youth at Risk, the National Truancy Prevention Association, the Florida Blueprint Commission to reform juvenile justice, and a statewide task force on Disproportionate Minority Contact.
Click to buy Raised by the Courts
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Posted by Elena del Valle on January 26, 2011
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Graphic, photo: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
As we look back at the housing market over the past few years and its impact on the economy it is still difficult to understand what exactly went wrong and what it may take to keep it from happening again. Seeing how other developed countries stand on the housing issue may give us some perspective and insights on how to move forward in the future.
According to Housing and the Economy: Policies for Renovation, a recently released chapter from the book Economic Policy Reforms 2011 Going for Growth from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which tracks changes in 29 developed countries including the United States, poor housing policies played an important role in triggering the recent economic and financial crisis.
The chapter looks at ways in which housing policies might be designed for better results. The Organization’s analysts believe “effectively supervised financial and mortgage market development combined with policies that enhance housing supply flexibility are key for macroeconomic stability.”
Here are some of the analysts conclusions and recommendations from the chapter: Appropriate housing policies, designed for efficiency and equitability, can help residential mobility, match workers with jobs and assist the job market recovery. Any changes in the mortgage markets should be accompanied by regulatory oversight and careful banking regulations; and housing supply responsiveness to demand has the potential for improvement in many of the markets examined as long as investment in residential real estate is dealt with to avoid volatility.
Angel Gurria, secretary-general, OECD
“OECD countries have seen the damage caused by badly designed policies through their effects on housing markets,” said Angel Gurria, secretary-general, OECD in a press release. “As we search for new sources of growth, as we seek to restore trust in our financial sectors, as we try to green our economies, policies related to housing can have a huge impact on our future”.
The United States is in good company when in comes to housing and economic problems. The OECD says that easy credit over the past two decades increased the volatility of prices resulting in housing price jumps of 90 percent or higher in Australia, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom over the study period. Poor supervisory systems alongside deregulation and innovation in mortgage markets led in part to a “significant relaxation in lending standards, an increase in non-performing loans and the sub-prime crisis.”
The Organization recommends an increase in responsiveness of new housing supply to market demand, specifically the revisiting of licensing procedures that limit new housing projects and reconsidering land-use regulations that unduly prevent development. Its analysts believe a better supply may lead to less price volatility, fewer excessive price increases and encourage labor mobility.
It also supports the elimination of tax policies that favor housing over other types of investments. Such favoritism can lead to cheap lending fees which can lead to excessive investment, speculation and price volatility while at the same time limiting mobility. It encourages a system in which property taxes more accurately reflect the true market value of property.
