• Business Week, Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:30 AM

Brands like Chevy Impala, Crest Whitestrips and Reese's peanut butter cups are turning to a consultancy run by a 36-year-old former music executive for help in imbuing their brands with a combination of hip-hop ethos and practicality.

Steve Stoute immodestly characterizes his firm--Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging--as "a McKinsey of pop culture." He is closely aligned with a new guard of innovation consultants providing strategies that go beyond tricked-out sneakers and jeans. His message: Companies have not embraced the changes in the culture to be able to talk to a new generation of consumers.

As an African American with strong relationships to hip-hop artists (music icon Jay-Z is a business partner), Stoute also says he's helping executives understand a phenomenon that he refers to as the "tanning of America." It's a generation of black, Latino, and white consumers who have the same "mental complexion," he says, based on "shared experiences and values."

Read the whole story at Business Week »