Thursday, January 22, 2009

Saving Parents $$$$

Helping all you parents save $$

Think twice before you purchase that Hannah Montana Movie soundtrack


Miley's done it, Jonas Bros., Rhianna and Aly & AJ did it on two CDs, and you can bet this CD will do it - the deluxe version two months after this release.


Do you want to spend $15 bucks for your tweens, and then in June, 2009, another $20 for the deluxe version? That's $35. That's what I just bought a $180 Perry Ellis suit jacket for when it was on sale. SHOP SMART. Wait for the deluxe version, with the 2 videos included.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

U.S. business ignores largest disposable income market

Feel sorry, very sorry for business in the U.S.A. Feb. 19, 2009, the First Brats, Malia, 10, and Sasha (Natasha), 7, Obama jumped up and down at The Kids’ Inaugural held in Washington, D.C., on the eve of their father’s coronation as president.


Other than Disney, businesses seem to have NO clue how to market to tweens. The concert featured Miley Cyrus opening the show and the Jonas Brothers closing. In between were Demi Lovato, Corbin Bleu and Bow Wow.


Lovato, Jonas, Cyrus, Bleu – all on Hollywood Records, which manages most of Disney’s stars. Bow Wow is on Sony.


It appears labels like Sony, Warner Bros and all the majors have missed the tween market. Hollywood Records exploits it well through its Disney affiliation. Add Aly & Aj, Hilary Duff, Vanessa Hudgens, Hayden Panettiere, Jordan Pruitt, The Cheetah Girls and soundtracks. The key to tween music is Radio Disney. This is tweens’ biggest marketing tool.


Radio giant Clear Channel ignores the tween market. Granted, all the Disney tween stars market their concerts through Clear Channel’s Live Nation, yet Clear Channel’s radio stations leave the tween market to Disney. That’s equivalent to Toyota, Honda, etc. leaving truck sales to Ford; wouldn’t happen. Even the auto industry is ignoring tweens.


Disney utilizes ABC television on Saturday mornings, Disney and Disney Family. They know media and how to reach tweens.


This is the largest marketing segment in the world. I saw a guy about 50 with two tween daughters at the mall; bags of Hollister in their hand (Why always Hollister? Inadvertently marketing to tweens through older sisters?). Tweens own the wallets of the latter-day baby-boomers.


Look at Malia and Sasha. Their dad now makes half-a-million a year. They got a concert with their favorite stars, Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. Tweens get what they want from their parents. From a disposable income perspective, tweens represent the largest audience, segment or group.


Here’s the future, too. You can bet the Obama Brats have iPods. When they are 15, they will have iPhones. Apple owns these children. Have never understood Microsoft’s recent campaigns about “I’m a PC.” Yet I do understand the future of laptop computing – and that is computing’s future – belongs to Apple. Microsoft targets geeks. Apple is targeting tweens through iPods and iPhones. Microsoft is confusing. Every three years you need to buy a new computer to get the latest operating system. With Apple, you update, not replace.


The U.S. is going to lose its financial future due to companies ignoring tweens

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Broadcast radio dies in 2009

Nearly two years ago, Richard Kelleher penned in the Arizona Republic, “…the power to form music opinion still lies in the hands of broadcasters that use FCC licenses rather than Internet.”


His premise was that people create top selling music from what they hear on the radio rather than the Internet.


Let me declare Rihanna’s “Disturbia” to be the last song to be made popular by radio. In 2009, radio will die. The song became a hit without being on her CD. It proved so popular, her label had to issue a “Reloaded” work. Most people became aware of this song from traditional radio play.


Radio is killing itself off. Listen to morning shows. Are they music, or all following a pattern not originated, but made popular by Howard Stern, where it is the announcer talking about himself and his friends? Who cares? I have my own friends and it takes like $50 to create an Internet radio station, even less to create a podcast and post it on a blog. Clear Channel, one of the largest empires of the 21st Century, is popularizing this trend through its national KISS radio stations – I’m sure all 50 ADIs have a KISS station.


Revenues are extremely down for radio stations.


Today’s taste-makers in popular music, whether it be tween, 20-something or baby-boomers, will come from local communities. MySpace’s new emphasis on music will be the death-knell for commercial radio.


Guns & Roses, in a stupid move, distributed “Chinese Democracy” only through Best Buy. Yet, they put up a MySpace site where you could hear at least half the work for free. Smart marketing move; sales fell unexpectedly short of goal.


My projection is that at least 60 percent of music sold in 2008 was done through iTunes. Why would anyone offer exclusivity to retail outlets like Walmart and Best Buy? The old term for this thinking was “shooting yourself in the foot.”


Shopping malls will miss the mark again. They could be trendsetters in music tastes – high density, uniformity throughout the nation. How easy it is to set up a lighted banner throughout the store or mall with the sign, you are listening to….(whatever the song and artist is). If there were smart marketers out there, record companies, radio stations and mall owners would have implemented this more than four years ago. Hollister is doing it!