Agency

Excitement over unexpected in-store deals has diminished as discounted prices become an anticipated part of the consumer products shopping experience, according to the Deloitte/Harrison Group annual American Pantry Survey.

As online shopping continues to reach unprecedented levels, retailers plan to emphasize value and savings to their shoppers all holiday season long.

According to a recent BDO USA, LLP survey of 100 chief marketing officers at leading U.S. retailers, just 27 percent expect to see an increase in Black Friday sales, down from 38 percent in 2010. Similarly, only 24 percent project an increase in Cyber Monday sales, with the vast majority (74%) expecting flat sales. Overall, CMOs project a 1.6 percent increase in Black Friday sales (down from 3.8% in 2010) and 2.5 percent increase in Cyber Monday sales.

With economic conditions heightening consumer sensitivity around purchasing decisions, retailers that design differentiated ‘experiences’ around their products and services can drive growth, profitability and lasting consumer loyalty, while also maintaining a price premium over competitors, according to a new report from PwC US, titled Experience Radar 2011: Retail Insights.

Ever wondered what makes Latinas so unique and memorable? With a majority bicultural-bilingual audience of women in the U.S., Latinas today display a unique fabric of traditional and conservative values combined with the spice of beauty and fearless attitude that make them stand out from the pack. This is why they are proud and no longer afraid to visibly share who they are and what they stand for in life, they are “Orgullosas”. By Lili Gil, Media Contributor & Managing Partner, XL Alliance

Available on HispanicCMO.com and HispanicPRpro.com

Businesses are wasting time and money trying to reach people online without realizing many resent big brands invading their social networks – according to findings from a global study launched by TNS, a Kantar company and part of WPP.

The study, ‘Digital Transformation: A Roadmap for Billion-Dollar Organizations,’ examines how digital technologies are changing the business of some of the world’s leading firms but reveals that only one third of companies globally have an effective digital transformation program in place.

This report examines the vital economic and fiscal contribution of Chicago’s burgeoning Latino population. At over 1.8 million, Latinos account for 22 percent of metropolitan Chicago’s 8.4 million people. DOWNLOAD Report Here.

As Black Friday and the holiday season approaches, Apple appears to be the consumer electronics brand to beat. A recent Nielsen survey shows kids’ holiday gaming and electronics appetites are whet by a number of top-selling Apple devices – with the iPad leading the pack. DOWNLOAD Report Here.

Walton|Isaacson (WI) executive executive Rochelle Newman-Carrasco won Best Executive – Service Businesses – up to 100 Employees in the Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

When a Walmart or P&G uncouples its multicultural budgets, is it time for MC agencies to tremble or cheer? More than anything else, the creation of autonomous MC budgets signals a welcome turning point-however nascent-in the branding community. The message, to our thinking, reflects an attitude change long overdue. MC budgets, like the MC marketplace itself, suffered a kind of second-class citizenship. The days of the entrenched, bifurcated view-dividing markets between multicultural and mainstream-are passing, if not already gone. And with good reason: MC population and purchasing power are growing far faster than the mainstream, in a marketplace reversal without equal in modern American commerce. By Yuri Radizevsky – Chairman and CEO / GlobalWorks Group

71.6% of web users overall watch online content in a typical week—and 39.0% of all viewers spend between one and five hours per week with online video.

In the U.S., the amount of time spent streaming videos online is growing at a much faster rate than the number of video viewers, according to Nielsen. Over the last three years, time spent watching video from home and work computers has more than doubled while the number of unique viewers increased 26 percent over the same period.

Blowing up multicultural silos seems to be the esprit du temps, or at least the theme of the last ANA Multicultural Marketing and Diversity Conference. Leverage your common multicultural insights across different consumer groups. Realize economies of scale. Develop marketing communications that appeal to multiple multicultural segments at the same time. Reflect in your organization the new mainstream and the demise of the so-called “general market.” By David R. Morse – President and CEO / New American Dimensions, LLC.