Eric Butterman

Articles by Eric All articles by Eric

• Market Focus: More than Nine Months to Reach Them in OMMA Magazine on 04/29/2011
  

  Many companies are decent at targeting the new parent demographic yet not necessarily through the years which follow. So how do you not just get them but keep them? Rufus Griscom, CEO of online magazine Babble.com, which has six million visiting moms a month, says it's important to understand the changing role and mindset of the mother. "There's a lot of confusion going on," Griscom says. "Years ago, you had many more stay-at-home mothers. Now you have moms going off to work and maybe feeling guilty. Some who stay home are feeling guilty. If you can help them with this transition and growing through it, there's a lot of loyalty there. It's now about 50-50 in terms of mothers working and staying at home."

• Industry Watch: Ready for Take Off in OMMA Magazine on 07/15/2010
  

  Not long ago, leisure travel looked anything but relaxing. Oil rose to more than $140 a barrel, airline prices were sharply escalating, and customers were wondering if they'd ever go on vacation again. Well, they don't wonder as much anymore. Oil sits at $72 at press time, some believe the possible consolidationb of United Airlines and Continental could actually lead to better price competition, and the economy is still looking brighter in the last year, despite a schizophrenic stock market. In other words, leisure travel might still be headed for bright blue skies - provided you don't mind paying for carry-on bags.

• Market Focus: Marrying for Money in OMMA Magazine on 06/24/2010
  

  Weddings are beautiful, a dream come true, a day that comes around once in a lifetime - for marketers looking to make money. The honeymoon is a more expensive trip than probably either the bride or groom has ever taken, there are whole new sets of everything to be bought - in other words, a married couple has never been more open to a marketer's message.

• Market Focus: Fun and Games Are Serious Business in OMMA Magazine on 03/01/2010
  

  Many hobbies aren't serious, but there's no question that hobbyists are serious business - a multibillion-dollar industry, in fact. In an increasingly stressful world, people crave a chance to get their minds off their worries - and will invest in the fix that fills the need. For example, the toy train collector has an average annual income of $60,000 and numbers in the tens of thousands - and that's just official membership, says Roger Carp, senior editor of Waukesha, Wis.-based Classic Toy Trains magazine. Or consider scrapbooking, which may seem as throwaway as the paper and photographs it's created with. But is there anything throwaway about 19 million households who participate, and the $2.3 billion in revenue they generate?

• Finding Religion in OMMA Magazine on 12/01/2009
  

  When The Passion of the Christ was first pitched, many Hollywood executives thought it was crazy. So crazy in fact that big budget studios, in the end, didn't foot the entire bill. And how it cost them. When the final tally was told, the box office receipts cleared $600 million, making independent investors extremely wealthy.

• Industry Watch: We're With the Band in OMMA Magazine on 05/01/2009
  

  The music industry has never been more challenged - okay, threatened - in its entire existence than it is now. Still, creative marketing (take Pearl Jam's Ten game in this issue, for example) and a return to grassroots has given it new hope. From Radiohead's groundbreaking decision to let people download their album online and decide how much they want to pay, to John Mellencamp and his label focusing on exposing his work through commercials as opposed to radio, the business and the artist are, believe it or not, bouncing back.

• Industry Watch: No Place Like Home Page in OMMA Magazine on 02/02/2009
  

  eBay isn't a Web site - it's an obsession. Ever since Internet users learned how easy it was to shop from home, it's been a credit card and click. Shopping for a home, however, is a different story, considering that one click would equal a $200,000 mortgage and, therefore, a death wish to many economically uncertain consumers.

• Markets Focus: Only the Lonely in OMMA Magazine on 11/03/2008
  

  The stereotypical image of a single person is someone in a tiny, cramped apartment, lonely, biding time until marriage comes so life can start. But what that image leaves out is the very real fact that life already has started. And people, even singles, are never alone - they're part of a large, burgeoning community that comes together in support and buying power. Marketers who think the rapid growth of social networking sites came from married couples haven't bothered to check out the content.

• Markets Focus: Cashing in on Kids in OMMA Magazine on 08/21/2008
  

  The difficulty in guessing how to market to a child, it's often said, is that marketers are adults. So, good news for marketers who have long since lost the innocence of their youth: Kids are growing up faster than ever before, to the point where many children ages 8 to 12 already think of themselves as adults. And these little giants have the walking-around money to prove it. Even more, they have a discerning eye for what they're going to spend it on. These days, it seems every kid is Richie Rich.

• Industry Watch: Look, Up in the Air in OMMA Magazine on 07/22/2008
  

  With a hike in fares and baggage charges that consumers consider unfair, will airlines find themselves financially grounded? Anyone who didn't see the gas price increase coming years ago wasn't living on planet Earth. Still, those who banked on $130-plus a barrel for oil in 2008 were clearly in the minority.

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