The symptoms often go undetected. They are mistaken for other, less serious ailments. But thanks to a new initiative conducted by the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), more people are getting treatment for their Guilty Vacation Syndrome (GVS). They are learning to embrace vacation — with no second-guessing, stress or guilt. According to a recent survey conducted on ARDA’s consumer Web site, VacationBetter.org, ninety percent of people are not taking or are delaying their summer vacation this year because they feel guilty about it. With the negative economic news every day and companies cutting back on people and programs, many feel that despite wanting a vacation, they shouldn’t take one. According to ARDA, there are several remedies for GVS. First, realize that vacations are a necessity and not a luxury. Second, commit to an annual vacation — a recipe for stronger ties with families and friends, less stress and better health. (more…)  In other words, see you in two weeks.

Sriracha is the sauce well loved by top chefs and street food vendors alike.  The lure of Asian authenticity is part of the appeal. Some American consumers believe sriracha (properly pronounced SIR-rotch-ah) to be a Thai sauce. Others think it is Vietnamese. The truth is that sriracha, as manufactured by Huy Fong Foods, may be best understood as an American sauce, a polyglot purée with roots in different places and peoples.  (more…)

Can’t get enough of Sriracha?  Check out the State By State Listing of how it is used across the US and get some new ideas yourself. 

Unmarried mothers gave birth to 4 out of every 10 babies born in the United States in 2007, a share that is increasing rapidly both here and abroad, according to newly released government figures. Before 1970, most unmarried mothers were teenagers. But in recent years the birthrate among unmarried women in their 20s and 30s has soared — rising 34 percent since 2002. Much of the increase in unmarried births has occurred among parents who are living together but are not married, cohabitation arrangements that tend to be less stable than marriages, studies show. The pattern has been particularly pronounced among Hispanic women, climbing 20 percent from 2002 to 2006, the most recent year for which racial breakdowns are available. Eleven percent of unmarried Hispanic women had a baby in 2006, compared with 7 percent of unmarried black women and 3 percent of unmarried white women, according to government data drawn from birth certificates.  (more…)

Target is no stranger to cause marketing. The retailer is unusual in that it dedicates 5 percent of its income to charity. It’s also no stranger to social marketing, having more than 260,000 fans on Facebook. Last week, it brought the two together by kicking off “Bullseye Gives,” a campaign that invites users to choose from a list of 10 charities to which Target will donate $3 million. The social twist: After voting for a charity, users are invited to broadcast their selection to their Facebook friends via their news feeds, the running summary of updates that is central to the Facebook experience. In less than a week, Target tallied 40,000 votes, which translated into tens of thousands of peer-to-peer impressions. ”What we’ve learned is it’s not the cause but it’s the idea of a brand truly doing good that has a significant impact through social media,” said Joe Marchese, CEO of SocialVibe, a Los Angeles-based startup that runs cause-related social campaigns for brands like Kraft, Sprint and PowerBar. “When you do something good, it used to be that you had to buy a bunch of media and tell people or do PR. Now, the potential is for people to tell each other that you do good.”  (more…)

Deterred by immigration laws and the lackluster economy, the population growth of Hispanics and Asians in the United States has slowed unexpectedly, causing the government to push back estimates on when minorities will become the majority by as much as a decade. Newly released census data being also showed that fewer Hispanics are migrating to suburbs and newly emerging immigrant areas in the Southeast, including Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia. Instead, Hispanics are staying in traditional gateway locations such as California.  (more…)

Coca-Cola Co announced it has developed a new plastic bottle that is partly made from sugar cane and molasses, raising the bar in the battle for the most environmentally friendly packaging. Coke will test the new bottle in North America with Dasani bottled water and certain carbonated brands later this year. The test will expand to the vitaminwater brand in 2010. Up to 30 percent of the new “plantbottle” will be made from a material derived from sugar cane and molasses, which is a by-product of sugar production, Coke said. Admirable and cool from an innovation standpoint but at the end of the day what difference will it make? Existing Coca-Cola packaging can be recycled. Will this package be? For those who don’t recycle, the new package is still made with a large percent of materials that will not degrade. I suppose you can argue it is a step in the right direction but it feels like a tiny baby step. It’s not easy being green.  (more…)

On the heels of successful shows like “The Biggest Loser,” ABC is teaming with British chef Jamie Oliver and Ryan Seacrest for a new series that gives healthy makeovers to an entire city. Oliver will travel to the unhealthiest places in America and find ways to use nearby resources to improve local eating habits. The network has ordered six hours of the project from Ryan Seacrest Productions. The series is loosely inspired on Oliver’s acclaimed school lunch project in the U.K., where the chef set about to improve kids’ nutrition. His effort to improve one school’s offerings, documented in the 2005 series “Jamie’s School Dinners,” shamed educators into passing new measures to ban certain junk foods. I plan to eat at Oliver’s “fifteen” next month so I’ll let you know if his brand of healthy and responsible still tastes good. In the meantime, nutrition and health as entertainment continues to grow. (more…)

To close out a week of coffee blogs, it’s interesting to consider the approach Starbucks is taking to combat the onslaught of Mickey Ds advertising. As Starbucks grew into one of the world’s best-known brands, it rarely advertised on television. It didn’t have to. But now, the honeymoon is over. It isn’t just that a “tall decaf cappuccino” sounds as common as coffee; millions of customers won’t shell out for one, and the chain has had to go downscale with combo meals and loyalty cards. Starbucks, with familiar products and major competitors, is now a mainstream brand with a mainstream brand’s problems. So shouldn’t it employ the mainstream marketer’s trustiest weapon, the big TV ad campaign, to lure customers back? Unfashionable as it sounds, TV is still the most efficient way to sell an everyday product to millions of people.  But Starbucks has its’ own plans and TV is not a part of it but a large newspaper (?!!!) campaign is.  (more…)

Continuing on what is clearly the all coffee week, Dunkin’ Donuts is the U.S. leader in a “hole” lot of categories — No. 1 in sales of doughnuts, bagels (my bagels I might add) and cups of coffee. But here’s a switch. The company that cut its teeth on fried sugary pastries is offering a line of food that, OK, maybe isn’t healthful, but is considerably less gut-bustin’ and artery-cloggin’. The new deal is called DD-SMART — several items that pack fewer calories, and less fat and sugar than most of the goodies at Dunkin’. The most interesting DDSMART debut is the Egg White Turkey Sausage Flatbread Breakfast Sandwich, the longest name for any fast-food product. Clearly arming itself for the all out coffee war with McDonald’s, DD has opted to carve out a totally different space for its’ breakfast sandwich — as good a strategy as any. (more…)

Whoever said mass marketing is dead never worked at McDonald’s. The master of the McBlitz is about to outdo itself with its long-awaited national campaign for its new coffee line, touted as the biggest launch in its history — no small feat for a company that regularly drenches consumers in marketing. ”I assure you that we’re going to be surrounding the consumer with very relevant messaging,” said Neil Golden, chief marketing officer, McDonald’s USA. McDonald’s understands that it faces a quality-perception hurdle with first-time buyers, so it’s focused on “making the product the hero” in TV spots with what Ms. Peleo-Lazar calls “chocolate-cake shots.” McCafe’s African-American and Hispanic campaigns reflect preferences based on consumer insights. African-Americans are more interested in sweeter beverages, while Hispanics tend to be coffee and espresso experts, so they need assurance on quality. In recent years, McDonald’s has been on a roll. Let’s see if they can steamroll the competition in a category where brand loyalty and quality are strong.  (more...)