Pi-Consulting

Despite a recent spate of anti-US rhetoric from the Kremlin, a newly-prosperous Russian middle class seems to be re-visiting its liking for things American. Russia just became the 43rd country to open a Starbucks (a Venti Mocha will set you back $9, almost double the Stateside price). This year’s surprise TV hit in Russia is a re-make of America’s favorite tacky family sitcom, “Married With Children”, here re-named “Schastlivy Vmeste” or “Happy Together”. Sample dialog: “Honey, take your clothes off”. “Heyyy, after all these months, suddenly you want sex?”. “Naw, I’m hungry. I thought the sight of you would kill my appetite”. Local analysts’ take on the new show’s success? “TV is now training Russians to forget about politics”, they solemnly aver. Says one: “People are getting used to living like children, in the family of a strong, powerful father. Everything is decided for them”. Sounds like Putin’s influence over the media goes way beyond the newscasts alone. Source: New York Times, Pi.

When is a cellphone not just a cellphone? When it’s an iPhone, said all those fanatics back in mid-Summer, as they waited in line to be among the first to pay $599 for one. Apple seemed to have another “gotta-have-it” product on its hands.

So, if the newly-launched iPhone was not just a cellphone, what exactly was it? And why would consumers walk past the free or subsidized phones offered by many wireless telephony companies in order to pay out nearly six hundred bucks? The technical spec described a sleek little techno-miracle that was at the same time a super-phone, a web-browser, a music player, e-mail center and image sharing platform. But none of that was really the point, somehow. “It was a lifestyle choice”, explains a report in the Washington Post, “an advertisement for oneself, …a shiny little slice of the future, a thin slab of cool”. (more…)

A new generation of Americans is growing up on computers, and the race is on to be little kids’ online “destination of choice”. Now nine-year-olds can dress up dolls in cyberspace, picking out their clothes, hairstyles and accessories online. If you don’t like the dolls at Cartoon Doll Emporium, you could always click over to Cyworld, Habbo Hotel, Webkinz or WeeWorld. Even mighty Mattel is getting in on the act, with BarbieGirls.com. Sites enjoying 3 or 4 million visits a month are re-thinking their free access policies, and adding ‘premium services’ for $5 to $8 monthly. At Webkinz, buying a toy at the toy store allows children to enter a secret code from the sales tag at webkinz.com. This activates a ‘virtual replica’ of the toy, which the owner can then control at the click of a mouse, walking the cybertoy through virtual environments, building it a house, and so on. Kids “want a say in the script”, say industry observers. Most site visitors are female, with many ranging in age up to 16 and older. Seems there’s often a little girl hiding behind the most sophisticated teenage exterior. Sources: New York Times, Pi.

Just as High Fashion decides it reigns supreme, something happens to disrupt the hegemony of the proprietary designer label. The battlements of America’s fashion retail business are being stormed by… retailers’ Own Label goods, of all unlikely new entrants.

Those who thought that Designer Label giants would rule the mall for a thousand years are blinking in disbelief at an upstart source of sales which was always supposed to be constrained to the point of insignificance by its relentless dowdiness. Top names like Liz Claiborne are staring into the abyss of precipitous sales fall-offs, while retailer JC Penney laughs all the way to the bank with the takings from its own labels such as Worthington, a.n.a, and Arizona. These “names from nowhere” already represent half of Penney’s clothing sales. Macy’s have turned over significant retail space to their own labels such as American Rag and Alfani. Far from being confined to the USA, similar trends are also overturning top brands’ presumption of supremacy in London stores like Harrods and Selfridges. (more…)

We should remind ourselves that a significant number of high-spending consumers (though it’s not actually their money) are a lot younger than us. Mere children, in fact.

The Consumer Insight column looks at the headline above, and winces. Today, Maurice Chevalier’s lyric from the 1951 musical Gigi! resonates with a decidedly queasy tone. Back then no-one much imagined a culture that could produce pouting Bratz dolls and catwalk-ready six-year-olds.

Nonetheless, at least one company that caters to juvenile consumer appetites has reason to “thank Heaven for little girls”. Then again, maybe their thanks should go to Andy Mooney, for his intuitive understanding of what makes girl-children squeal with delight and tug their mothers’ sleeves.

Mr. Mooney was the former Nike manager who was brought in seven years ago to rescue Disney Consumer Products, where sales were slipping by 30% a year. He arrived with a magic wand in his pocket. A month into his new job, he went to a “Disney On Ice” show, and noticed long entrance lines of small girls, all dressed up in thrown-together ‘princess’ costumes. Mooney thought this looked like latent demand, and briefed his production and marketing team with a swatch of colours and a sheaf of draft license agreements. “We’re going to help these little girls to do what they’re doing anyway”, said the sport-shoe seer. “To project themselves into characters from our classic movies”. (more…)