International,

Information Resources Inc., which tracks data for consumer products makers and retailers,reports that Budweiser Selectwas the second best-selling new product of 2005.

Slim-Fast’s Optima diet line topped the 2005 list with $166 million in sales. Budweiser Select beer, from Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., had $123 million in sales.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 9:44 am and is filed underBreweries. You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0feed. You canleave a response, ortrackbackfrom your own site.

I am a 14 year old, who wants to learn computer programming on my own. What is the best program that teaches you and lets you do it?

In yesterday’sinterview with Becki Heller from Trendsta, I mentioned the news from eSPIN about their new partnership with United Sample Partner. Fromtheir press release:

United Sample and eSPIN, a subsidiary of Hearst Magazines Digital Media and a top entertainment/community network for teens and young adults, today launched the new www.Surveys4Teens.com, a vibrant community where teens can have a voice and earn rewards for sharing their thoughts, bringing some of the most valued – and most elusive – opinions within reach of companies and market researchers.

I believe this trend, i.e. converting btoc teen web users into market research subjects for brands and companies, will become even more widely adopted. We all know that traditional online marketing, i.e. banners, popups, etc. tend to flatline with this audience and that even with ad dollars shifting to digital, sites are still trying to figure out how to monetize through advertising in a way that gives brands the ROI they need to justify spending more money. Because of this reality, publishers are experimenting with new ways to monetize their sites. Whether it’s myYearbook’s new subscription model inspired by their success with virtual goods orPangea’s similar btob offeringbased on its popular btoc quiz sites or Sulake’s syndicated research study based on surveying its users, all of these sites are actively collecting data from their teen users.

Personally, I don’t see a problem with engaging teens online to take surveys or quizzes that really do allow them to have a voice in shaping the products or advertising campaigns that may target them. In fact, I think it can be empowering and find this approach much more ethical thanpassive data collection(which users do not opt into) that is then sold to third parties. But given that we’re dealing with minors (let’s assume 13 and up, though we know there are tweens on these sites lying about their age), sites that are going to head down this path do require a new level of transparency — especially if teens are coming to a site initially on the promise of entertainment, socializing and fun. I’m glad eSPIN and United Sample Partner launched a separate site, for example, vs. just integrating these surveys into eSPIN.

If I was working for a consumer teen site that was moving into this space, I would ask the following question:

Is it easy for teens to find and understand the privacy policy and/or information clearly telling them how their data and survey/quiz results will be used? I don’t mean just having a page of text/legalize linked but pages that clearly speak to this audience in a way that gives them the knowledge they need to make an informed decision about whether to participate and how much to share.

From the brand perspective, companies engaging consumer sites for data have to also know that what they’re getting is based on the unique demographics of that particular site vs. a representative sample of "all teens." i.e. are Habbo users the same as eSPIN users? There is a danger in confusing this type of "research" with market research that combines different entry points and uses both quantitative and qualitative methods as well as withacademic research.

Lots of food for thought for those of us in the teen research space as well as publishers wanting to jump in. What do you think?

For more coverage of youth marketing, go to theYpulse Youth Marketing Channelsponsored byYouth Marketing Connection.

Categorized under:Youth Marketing

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These days, everyone’s cutting back, and it’s starting to affect the corporate bottom line. The company response as been to plan ahead accordingly.Subway, way ahead of the competition, unveiled it’s“Five Dollar FootLong”special at the beginning of 2008, only to make it a standard, permanent menu item a few months later. The tradition of the“value menu”has invaded nearly all fast food franchises, making a $1 cheeseburger an easily obtainable guilty pleasure.

But what about the specialty coffee drinker?

Starbucks, a company not exactly known for their frugality,  has announced that they will be unveiling a line of “value meals,” or as described to investors, “several breakfast pairings” at “attractive prices.” The company has yet to explain what will comprise these value meals (although they may reveal more details as early as the end of this week), but it is largely believed that the reason for the new value initiative is to reattract customers to Starbucks, as a combination of a bad economy and increased competition from their lowpriced counterparts are steadily driving the company’s numbers down.

Starbucks finished 2008 with a massive drop in sales, and while they have long faced competition from other franchises in the specialty coffee market, such asCaribou CoffeeandSeattle’s Best, they are facing down an even stiffer increase of competition from two unlikely sources: fast food juggernautMcDonaldsand beloved donut stopDunkin’ Donuts.

Not only can you get a McDonald’s breakfast meal for the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks, but nowadays, you’re likely to walk into a McDonalds and be able to choose from a specialty coffee line nearly as impressive as their beangrinding competition. And whereas that extra sugarfree raspberry shot in your mocha will cost you upwards of $.65 at a Starbucks, you can flavor up your beverage at McDonalds for absolutely free.

Dunkin Donuts, traditionally attracting a priceconscious demographic to begin with, has released several breakfast deals, including a muchadvertised $1.99 meal featuring a cup of coffee and an eggwhite flatbread sandwich. Dunkin Donuts hasn’t even had to overcome the stigma of bad coffee quality that McDonald’s and other fast food restaurant chains have faced: Dunkin Donuts coffee became so popular, that by 2003, the company added a coffee image to their logo.

For the specialty coffee drinker, the options are becoming more diverse and affordable. With continued losses into their first fiscal quarter, the smartest route Starbucks could take is to take a hint from their competition and try a series of value options. If it turns their numbers around in any degree, it can be assured that their other competitors will follow with their own value options.

Read theAssociated Press articlefor more information.

Photos courtesy:static.seekingalpha.com, http://www.vagablond.com/wordpress, www.basementapartment.wordpress.com

Former Steelhead Brewing Co. brewmaster Teri Fahrendorf has begunthe road tripthat will take her to 70 or so breweries in the next few months.

Herfirst stopwas Deschutes in Bend, Ore., on Wednesday.

She plans to blog regularly about her brewery adventures.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 12:54 pm and is filed underBeer culture,Just for fun. You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0feed. You canleave a response, ortrackbackfrom your own site.

Gareth Pugh and Matthew Stone DJing for the after party at Velvet Underground @ Zouk,

There were lots of people in the smoky room, all fashion people mingling with each other. By midnight the dance floor was almost full, everyone was having fun.

Matthew giving some tips to Gareth…

Thanks to Zouk for the invite!

I am going off for a shoot now, then Ashley Isham next, til more updates.