As the ultimate homage to fashion meets technology, the Japanese Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology unveiled a ‘fashion model robot‘ today. She is 5′ tall, 95 lbs, can speak, express emotions and walk with grace. She will hit the catwalk in Tokyo on March 23rd and likely many tradeshow floors shortly thereafter.

While the fascination with robots [...]

There are many facts supporting female’s power over purchases made in every B2C sector. Although, most of these studies don’t further segment women into those who drive the female consumer to make these choices. Just as in any other demographic segmentation there are those who influence and those who are influenced.
The strategic challenge becomes highly-complex [...]

Simple and direct has replaced complex and obscure.
Example: Flip sales figures and acquisition rumors this week.
Function and ease-of-use marry exclusivity and fashion.
Example: Fergie promoting HP usability. 
Reliability and convergence usurp bleeding edge.
Example: Engadget’s nod to Nokia for exploring the next big trend.
Consumer retention outweighs acquisition.
Example: Kodak’s new upsell technology released at PMA.
Insightful innovation leads ubiquitous invention.
Example: Intuitiveness of the [...]

If you missed Engadget Editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, you didn’t miss much. Their energized tête-à-tête at CES didn’t carry over to national television, it became a lovefest over the not-yet-available Palm Pre. As this type of mainstreaming of technology fascination becomes a staple on talk TV, it will be a creative challenge to bring the [...]

For all those who attended CES early this year, you may have noticed a celebrity comedian roaming the aisles - Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy Fallon and Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky, put on a funny impromptu review discussing the PalmPre and the “not netbook, ultra-portable, coat pocket-fitting” Sony Vaio P. 

Obviously, this duo hit it off and Jimmy has [...]

While working with consumer electronics brands, I’ve come upon varying degrees of sophistication in retail strategies. Many believe proposing endcap ideas and featured areas in retail environments is a great “added value,” but a luxury, not a necessity. Times have changed or more specifically, marketing channels need to be reprioritized.
A new study released today from [...]

I experienced technology fear yesterday. Not personally, but genetically - my mother was looking up someone’s name in …. THE WHITE PAGES. Her fingers were doing the walking. I don’t know the last time I opened a big clunky phone book, put my fingers on the page thus smearing the ink, and squinted my eyes [...]

In an article by Caroline Winnett, Chief Marketing Officer, NeuroFocus titled “Gender and Marketing: The Female Brain,” Ms. Winnett articulates the results from NeuroFocus’s research on how marketing to women is different than marketing to men on a neurological level. This science, used by some of the top consumer packaging brands such as Frito-Lay, measures brainwaves, eye-tracking and [...]

The eco-trendy trendwatching.com March 2009 Brief was released today over my eco-Apple which sits by my eco-java in my eco-office with my eco-ant problem. The trendwatchers have been busy creating eco-lingo to coin consumer behavior. With the study from Reuters asserting that 82% of consumers buy green despite the battered economy, green practices and claims have [...]

The Nielsen Company released an article today by Mitch Barnes, president of their Greater China division that asks the important question, “Should we continue to invest in innovation or should we save our money [during tough economic times]?” Certainly, a question on the minds of consumer electronics companies.
Nielsen studied recessionary times in a variety of markets [...]

In watching un-DVRed, prime-time TV last night (a rarity), I saw my first spot for the Verizon Hub. I know it’s been out for awhile (almost a month), but I hadn’t yet seen their advertising. (As a side note, I couldn’t remember the URL at the end of the spot, so I typed in “Verizon [...]

I love leaving a brand experience and thinking “man, they’ve thought of everything.” In the last week, I’ve had two of those such moments. Even after repeat visits. Both in my SF backyard.
Benefit Cosmetics
Benefit is an international, mid-priced, ultra-girly cosmetic brand that serves up unique products like lip stain, face primer and complexion enhancers. They create cheeky [...]

As a brand specialist in consumer electronics, almost every meeting I’m in with the CMO or VP of Sales they say “we’re in the technology business, so we should probably have a good website.” How many at the time of this statement have a good website? Almost zero.
But, the more important question is what is [...]

As a follow up to my Feb. 11th blog, Boomers the new gamers, a Nielsen’s study was released this week confirming the Wii’s pull to bring new estrogen-powered gamers into the market. The study also shows how segmented the gaming system market has become with Wii appealing to boys age 6-11 and women age 25-34, Xbox [...]

While reading the San Francisco Business Times this past week, I came across an article that highlighted the success of a Bay Area consumer electronics company - specifically marketing breathalyzers. The company is KHN Solutions and has a “grew out of my house” entrepreneurial story. It reminded me of a blog from Seth Godin asking “which comes first, the [...]