Yeah, here’s a surprise. Data from Nielsen Online, which measures Internet traffic, found that more than 60 percent of Twitter users stopped using the free social networking site a month after joining. ”Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent,” David Martin, Nielsen Online’s vice president of primary research, said in a statement.  (more…)

In the “What Latinas Want” research conducted by Meredith Hispanic Ventures and Telemundo Group, 81% of respondents said they are either the main decision-maker or make decisions with their spouse. The key factors determining their success in life were education, being fluent in English as well in Spanish, and often owning a business. Latinas are optimistic and self-confident, with 66% describing themselves as “someone who can do it all,” compared with 53% of non-Hispanic women. The ethnographies in this study also revealed refrigerators and pantries packed with both Latin and mainstream products, as these women prepare some of the same foods they grew up with but add new ones. ”She’s really mixing it up with American and Hispanic recipes, in spices, side dishes and how people eat at home,” said Ms. Gaviria, VP at Meredith Hispanic Ventures. “It’s really fusion cuisine. For [companies such as] Nestle, Kraft and Unilever, that’s actionable for them.” ”She’s the chief household officer, and she’s making all the decisions, from finances to food,” said Jacqueline Hernandez, chief operating officer of Telemundo. “She has a new-found self-identity. She’s very ambitious, and wants to have more than her mother.”  (more…)

At the entrance to almost every shopping mall in the country, you will find a directory that, if you are spatially coordinated, will give you an approximate lay of the land. But you will be no closer to discerning what drives the modern youth from one store to the next; what differentiates one’s frayed cargo shorts from another’s; or why one of them, Abercrombie, is facing a consumer revolt, while others are paradoxically upbeat. A clue: It has to do with price.  (more…)

Green marketing is turning out to be surprisingly recession-proof. Datamonitor shows 458 launches so far in 2009 of package-goods products that claim to be sustainable, environmentally friendly or “eco-friendly.” If that pace holds all year, it will triple the number of green launches last year, which in turn was more than double the number in 2007. ”It looks like this green trend is going to survive the recession,” said Tom Vierhile, general manager at Datamonitor’s Product Launch Analytics. Mr. Vierhile’s read is that the interest in green products has reached beyond the vanguard of eco-enthusiasts. (more…)

One of the most important paradigms governing today’s marketing world is the constant drive to better segment a brand’s customer and prospect base. Conventional wisdom says that the better we segment consumers, the better we can market to them. Consumer segmentation is viewed as a “best-in-class” practice across the marketing world. But are we on the right track? (more…)

In the Depression, smart college students flocked into civil engineering to design the highway, bridge and dam-building projects of those days. In the Sputnik era, students poured into the sciences as America bet on technology to combat the cold war Communist challenge. Yes, the jobs beckoned and the pay was good. But those careers, in their day, had other perks: respect and self-esteem. Today, the financial crisis and the economic downturn are likely to alter drastically the career paths of future years. The contours of the shift are still in flux, in part because there is so much uncertainty about the shape of the economic landscape and the job market ahead.  (more…)

Riding the trend of customization, cheaper eats, and the need to just have a little fun, Burger King Corp. will open its first Whopper Bar in Universal CityWalk, a 30-acre shopping and entertainment complex at the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Fla. Customers can customize their Whopper, Double Whopper or Steakhouse XT burger with up to 22 different toppings, including steak sauce, smoked bacon and guacamole. Burger King workers will add the toppings in front of customers for a sushi bar-like atmosphere. Russ Klein, president of global marketing, strategy and innovation said he envisions the new concept in stadiums, casinos, cruise ships and other spaces where customers are looking for both food and fun. (more…)

In the Super Bowl commercial calling Hulu ”an evil plot to destroy the world,” 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin intones: “There’s nothing you can do to stop it.” He’s right that viewers can’t get enough of the joint venture from NBC Universal and News Corp. In February it had the biggest surge in unique viewers of any online video site in that period. But Hulu is facing plenty of roadblocks elsewhere, including among advertisers, partners that provide entertainment content, and even its parent companies concerned that the site might cannibalize their own competing media. At least one analyst says the site is struggling to find ads for many of its videos. The payoff for advertisers is still far smaller online than with TV programming. A half-hour show that carries about two minutes of advertising on Hulu will have four times as much advertising when it’s broadcast on TV. Although online ads can cost more per viewer, TV advertisers spend more because they can reach much larger audiences. Online video has the benefit of targeting certain types of customers and letting marketers include interactive elements, but in the current economic climate many advertisers are unwilling to experiment. (more…)