TRESemmé gives a "Fresh Start" when an unexpected date arrives (above) and Alberto Culver’s dry shampoo is now number one in the category with Q4 2010 retail sales topping $7.7 million.

Alberto Culver is more than a global beauty-care company, it’s an online savvy brand that launched its first private online community, My Beauty Café, in 2007. When research showed that women wanted hair rejuvenation on days when they didn’t shampoo, the brand had turned to Communispace, a leader in online consumer insights communities founded in 1999.

The Omnicom-owned firm has created more than 400 communities for major brands including Kraft, Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Hallmark, Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline. Communispace also recently won the Forrester Groundswell Award in the “Business to Consumer, North America” Embracing category for their work with Alberto Culver.Continue reading...

A new study from loyalty marketing company LoyaltyOne's Colloquy arm, sponsored by Epsilon, sheds light on current consumer attitudes toward brand loyalty in the context of current global economic challenges. The study looks at consumer attitudes in two sectors: emerging economies (Brazil, China and India) and developed economies (Australia, Canada and the U.S.). 

The study reveals how consumers in emerging markets respond differently to new brands and product opportunities than do their counterparts in developed nations. In emerging economies, 35 percent of shoppers welcome foreign brands, while only about 7 percent of consumers in developed countries felt that foreign competition was positive. In fact, 90 percent of Chinese consumers trust foreign brands over their own brands.

Consumers in Brazil and India were happier with their own domestic brands than the Chinese, but not nearly as much as consumers in developed economies. In Australia, Canada and the U.S., consumers are over twice as likely to trust their own brands versus ones from other countries.

Obviously, this presents an opportunity for well-established brands from developed nations to make significant inroads with consumers in emerging countries. This could explain why so many American brands, for example, have pursued an expansion strategy in such countries as Brazil, China and India, even as the same brands pull back and regroup in other sectors.Continue reading...

It’s no secret that how consumers spend their time on media varies with age, so it’s fascinating to look at two recent studies (US and UK) to get a bead on how the generational shift in media consumption is advancing.

According to the latest Generational Strategies study from Frank N. Magid Associates, during the 9-5 workday more consumers use Facebook than watch television. The sole exception is Boomers, who prefer TV to Facebook, although 26% of those surveyed use the social network during work hours.Continue reading...

This holiday shopping season will be dominated by the ‘precision shopper’ as 72% of U.S. consumers will be consciously minding their budgets according to the latest annual Accenture Holiday Shopping Survey.

Accenture projects that discretionary gift spending this holiday will be consonant with the strains on consumer’s wallets and economic concerns. ‘Extravagant’ or ‘unrestrained’ spending is planned by only 6% surveyed while 24% expect a ‘thrifty’ holiday season with one in five (18%) ‘focused on necessities.’

While 88% plan to spend the same or less than last year, a spike from shoppers with income exceeding $100,000 (71% of respondents) expect to spend at least $500 on gifts in a segmented boost for retailers. 

“This holiday season will see the balance of power continue to tip in favor of the consumer,” stated Janet Hoffman, managing director of Accenture’s retail practice. “‘Precision shoppers’ will dominate. They will be very targeted about where and what they buy, and will be more inclined to shop around for the best value.”Continue reading...

Yahoo! and BBDO just completed a joint study which revealed that 95% of consumers “crave” engagement with brands and that leveraging storytelling on paid, owned and earned media (POE) “through the prism of a dating relationship” will increase marketing success.

"Humans crave stories and advertising, at its best, has always been about the business of storytelling to build brands," said Simon Bond, CMO of BBDO. "However, given the new media landscape of paid, owned and earned media, branded storytelling has changed forever. It's no longer what you say, but how you say it."

For more on the best practices for brand storytelling (one hint: don't shout!), click below.Continue reading...

This week we learned that Brits have a soft spot for Scooby Doo, naming the voracious mutt the healthiest cartoon for kids because he's always on the run (from ghosts and to hamburgers, but still...)

Now it's SpongeBob SquarePants' turn in the docket. The Nickelodeon staple has stuck around for a lot longer than most cartoons ever do. Its pilot episode hit television screens in May of 1999 and the franchise is stronger than ever. But even though it’s been around for (seemingly) forever, it’s now being accused of shortening the attention spans of the kids that are watching it.

Now, a University of Virginia study “claims to have found evidence that the TV show moves too fast for little kids, and thus erodes their ability to pay attention,” Bloomberg reports. This complaint, by, has been floating around about children’s television since at least the late ‘70s.Continue reading...

The latest figures are bullish on social media as a sustainable revenue-producing platform as indicated by Facebook's own performance. Reuters reports revenues reached $1.6bn for the first half of 2011 with net income at $500m, while Goldman Sachs claimed Facebook revenues totaled $1.2bn for the first three quarters of 2010 with net income of $355m.  

The billion-dollar question for brands looking to build their own business model on Facebook: how to attract the right type of Facebook fans? And what are they looking for?

Hitwise estimates that each new Facebook fan generates on average 20 additional visits to a retailer’s website, citing UK retailer John Lewis’ efforts to attract and engage fans on its Facebook page.

One tip for retailers on Facebook: Author Facebook posts on Wednesdays, according to a new report from Buddy Media. If they do, they’ll reap 8% more engagement than from other days, a change from last April when Sunday was the best day.

Short posts apparently perform best, with messages longer than 80 characters (the Twitter effect?) garnering 40% lower engagement, and too many posts also decreasing engagement. Brands posting three or more messages daily had 25% lower like rates and 42% lower comment rates.Continue reading...

A new Pew Research report finds social networking sites are gaining traction with adult Internet users as sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn engage the largest share of adults to date.

The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project reports that two-thirds of adult Internet users (65%) say they use a social networking site, up from 61% percent in 2010 and 29% in 2008.

“The pace with which new users have flocked to social networking sites has been staggering; when we first asked about social networking sites in February of 2005, just 8 percent of Internet users—or 5 percent of all adults—said they used them,” wrote report co-authors Mary Madden and Kathryn Zickuhr.

This marks the first time in Pew Internet surveys that 50% of all adults use social networking sites.Continue reading...