As part of The Little Luxury Project, Luminosity Marketing has commenced on a series of roundtable groups with targeted groups of consumers.  Our March 2010 group focused on mothers of young children in the Raleigh/Durham metro area.  We’d like to introduce you to one of the participants.

Meet Katie

Katie is a 30 year-old stay at home mother with 2 children under the age of 2. Her big splurge is anything to read – from a trashy magazine to an actual book.  She loves the escape she gets when she can have a few quiet moments each day to enjoy this little luxury.  Katie’s constant little luxury is little chocolate treats.

Katie told us, “I just have to have my Cadbury Crème Eggs because I love how its sugary center and creamy chocolate shell makes me feel blissed out on sugar. If someone or something were to get in the way of my Eastery goodness I would feel cranky of hypoglycemic.  I know it’s expensive.  It costs me $2, and I have to give up my waistline … but it’s totally worth it.”

To learn more visit The Little Luxury Project page .

After Two Weeks Of Living With The iPad In The Real World, The Device Proves To Be Worthy of The Hype

So I’ve been living with my iPad for a little over two weeks now and to quote Justin Timberlake, “I’m lovin’ it”. For a status-seeker like myself, it feels great to be the ultimate early adopter. I haven’t felt this popular in years. The device has been with me everywhere I’ve gone over the time period and I’ve truly soaked up all of the “ooh’s and ahh’s”. Those first few days were particularly gratifying. Every time I took it out, whether on the train to work or in a bar or at my local Starbuck’s, people just wanted to strike up a conversation about it. “Is that the iPad?” they would ask. “How is it? Can I touch it?” I even noticed people out of the corner of my eye, elbowing each other and pointing — “Look hunny, that guy has an iPad”. Even my seven year old son got into the spirit. He loved carrying it around with him while we were running errands that first Saturday, giving out demos and lapping up the attention. When a teenager spotted him playing with it at our local pizza parlor and remarked simply “Sick”, he really started to believe he was a coolest seven year old in town.

Beyond the ego boosting however, I am still having a hard time truly justifying the purchase. As I suspected, it hasn’t replaced any of my other gadgets (too big to trump a smart phone and too limited for word processing). So I can’t seem to shake the nagging guilt that has followed me around since making such a self-indulgent and unnecessary purchase. I also know deep down that my first-mover cred is coming with the additional burden of having paid more for the gadget than my later-adopters will, and that I am working through some of the bugs (crappy wifi, no Flash Player) that those folks won’t have to deal with.

But make no mistake about it. This thing is a joy to behold. All in all, the benefits still outweigh the costs. The screen resolution and user interface are just stunning. It’s a whole different computer experience from anything I’ve ever known. Around the house, I find myself thinking of things to look up, information that I need to know right now, just so I can whoosh away on my iPad screen; breezing through Google, and YouTube and the Weather Channel with the greatest of ease. Want to see the photos from our last ski trip? I hope so because I can’t resist showing you how great they look on the device.

And what a nifty travel companion this thing is. On our recent spring break beach vacation, the iPad proved be a durable and stupendously handy sidekick. At the airport I had all the entertainment I would ever need at my finger tips (and I didn’t even have to remove it from my bag to go through security). No more loading up on reading material, The Journal, USA Today, New York Times and GQ Magazine were all just one tap away. On the flight itself the only problem was that I had promised to loan the device to my son for a couple of hours so that he could watch “Where The Wild Things Are” (in crisp HD I might add) while other passengers craned their necks to sneak a peek. Finally, and I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say this, but what has become most apparent is that the iPad is simply the greatest portable gaming device ever. As proof, during that entire vacation trip, my son barely removed his beloved Nintendo DSI from its case. He was too busy fighting me over access to all the many cool, clever, eye-popping apps that I had loaded up on the iPad.

So what drawbacks have I experienced besides guilt? Well, as I mentioned above, the lack of Flash can be a bit of a drag, and I did have all kinds of issues getting the wifi to work as I travelled about to different hot spots. The Flash problem isn’t going away, but the wifi thing seems to be less problematic now that I am back home. Also annoying is having to make do with iPhone apps that have not been optimized for the iPad. They look fuzzy when blown up to fit the device’s massive screen.

And sure, the iBooks application is amazing, I don’t think I will ever be able to fool with a paper back again. But one thing I noticed while trying to enjoy a novel by the pool is that the glare from the sun renders books unreadable. After trying to defeat the sun by cranking up the screen resolution to max brightness, the device actually gave me an “overheated” message, then shut itself off (Meanwhile, my wife’s Kindle was working just fine).

Other than those minor grievances however, my only problem will be trying not to blow too much money on the App Store, which is way too accessible. Maybe I need to put down my iPad for at least a few minutes a day so that those nagging guilty pangs don’t start to get the best of me.

With the recent release of the iPad, consumers are buzzing about the new gadget from Apple. No one is still quite sure what it does yet, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s Apple’s new product and what kind of early adopter would you be if you didn’t pick one up? Well, you might just be an early adopter with serious buyer’s remorse.

There is a promising product on the horizon from (dare I say it?) Microsoft. The Courier, rumoured to be released sometime in the second-half of 2010, is everything that the iPad is with added functionality. Rather than a giant iPod Touch, or, god forbid, a giant Zune, the Courier seems to have everything the iPad doesn’t.

The Courier’s design is smart, and seems to tackle many of the issues that people have with the iPad. It’s dual screens allow for more than one application to be open at a time, it closes in on itself allowing for worry-free transport, and it tackles the largest problem of all by adding the highly desired stylus.

The addition of the stylus allows you to take handwritten notes quickly and find and open applications with ease. People still will have to tackle the annoyance of a touchscreen keyboard, but at least this device seems like a more practical gadget for the coveted student consumer group. The biggest student complaint of eReaders thus far has been the lack of functionality. The Courier seems to solve this problem simply by adding the stylus and the capability of taking handwritten notes. So, hypothetically students could carry all of their textbooks and notebooks in one lightweight device.

Another consumer group the Courier seems to win over is the traditionally Apple-loyal group of designers. Rather than being a larger iPhone that can’t make calls, the Courier actually allows designers to work, design, take notes, research, and jot down ideas all at the same time. It’s functionality goes way beyond that of the iPad and many of my Apple-loyal, design-geek friends can’t wait for this device to hit stores.

All that being said, the emergence of this device does leave something to be said about Apple.  I would assume many of you have  not heard about this seemingly superior gadget, which is a clear testament to the power of the Apple brand, advertising and hype machine. There is obviously a large group of consumers out there who will simply buy the newest Apple product no matter what it does (or if they aren’t even quite sure what it does.) And don’t get me wrong, I geek out on my fair share of Apple devices. But the Courier just may be my first Microsoft purchase in years.

The question remains, how can Microsoft beat the giant that is the image of Apple? Especially among two of it’s most loyal and devoted consumer groups? And will Apple fight back? We saw with the emergence of the iPad how a scared and frightened Kindle tried to claw its way back into consumer’s hearts and minds with increased advertising. Will Apple try to do the same? If Microsoft is smart, which obviously, with still a majority of the computer electronic market, they are, they will direct their advertising to these target markets. (And it wouldn’t hurt to add in a bit of the subtle cleverness that we normally associate with brands like Apple.) We’ll just have to wait and see if Apple considers the Courier a threat. If so, expect to see increased iPad advertising around the time of Courier’s roll-out. But, with the potential superiority of Microsoft’s product, it may not matter.

UPDATE: To my despair and I’m sure the despair of many others, turns out that Microsoft has killed the project of the Courier. So sad. http://gizmodo.com/5527442/microsoft-cancels-innovative-courier-tablet-project.

I ran across an ad today that had me thinking about an old advertising debate: the mere exposure effect. It’s a common psychological theory that people tend to like things that they see repeatedly, things that are familiar (like your neighbor). The argument, of course, then, has been whether overexposure will kill a campaign, leave neutral impressions, or create favorable ones. The ad I saw today had me thinking about it on another level—not the repeated ad message of one brand, but the repeated exposure to an entity within different brands. Karl Lagerfeld appears to be, perhaps inadvertently, testing this idea.

Most notably known as the creative director for Chanel, Fendi, and his namesake label, Karl Lagerfeld also dabbles in photography, designing houses, and lately, Coke bottles. The interesting thing about the campaign is that he not only designed the just a tad self-indulgent bottle, but he also cast high fashion editorial models for his ad. Take a look at the guy in the background. The general public may not know the male model’s name but has definitely seen his face more than once over.

Now take a look at the following ads.

Strung together it’s like a very obvious Where’s Waldo. And these are just ads within the past two seasons (most of them are from F/W ’09). Many of these ads not only run in magazine pages, but also in stores, windows, digitally, etc. Not to mention he’s been in countless editorials. The number of times we see this male model, then, becomes exponential—inordinate—but because he’s no celebrity we may not even be aware that we’re seeing him. In the apparel industry, it’s very common that many of the same female models are used over and over again in cosmetic ads, clothing line ads, presentations, etc., depending on their relationships with certain casting directors, photographers, and even stylists. And now that these typical fashion faces are crossing over into even more mainstream brands like Coke, I have to wonder how much of this one male model’s work is attributed to his status as Karl’s muse and how much is attributed to, perhaps, a subliminal tactic to see whether familiarity does breed liking.

Finally, I have to stop and ask myself this question—if I were a calorie conscious person who reads any print or other media with Chanel advertising, do I now like the Coke Light brand more because I see the familiar face of this pretty boy? And now with digital marketing and social media, doesn’t this effect just have the opportunity to completely blow up? (I’m thinking seeing these same faces across multiple channels and markets, in my email, on my iPhone, in my brain intertwined with the faces of my best friends…) Okay, maybe a far out theory, but hey, media overexposure was how I finally bought into the Lady Gaga brand. And you know Lady Gaga can sell anything, and she doesn’t even have to attach her name directly to the label.

Nielsen’s latest report on mobile trends predicts smart phones overtaking regular mobile phones by the end of next year.  The report is not surprising given predictions from Gartner, IDC, Admob, and a slew of other media and research companies earlier this year. 

When the reports talk about rapid adoption, they’re not talking about just young tech guys either. Ethnic groups, such as Hispanics, use smartphones even more than the general population. And these new mainstream adopters aren’t using their smartphone just for business.  They are watching episodes of their favorite shows, checking out the Duke basketball stats, and looking for ideas on what to make for dessert.

Combine this with all the hoopla from this week’s iPad launch and it is pretty apparent that even the most traditional marketers can’t afford to ignore the growing category of mobile advertising.

With smartphones and newer mobile enabled devices having larger screens and more interactive capabilities,  expect the flavor of mobile advertising to change.  The issues  folks talked about a year or two ago (small ad unit size, limited audience, expensive creative development costs) are evaporating.  If I can reserve a table at my favorite restaurant via Opentable, check competitor prices via RedLaser and notify the world as to my whereabouts on Foursquare, there is no reason why uber-sized brands should have a monopoly on mobile advertising.  Mobile is the perfect platform for upstart brands, restaurants and regional retailers. Watch out Miller….Here comes Brooklyn Brewery!