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Nicole Granese

Member since October 2008Contact Nicole

Nicole aka Wonder Woman is an accomplished marketer with 13+ powerful years of brand strategy and marketing experience under her gold belt. Some of the brands she's worked her magic on include Samsung Mobile, Hyundai, Head and Shoulders, Cheerios, Dr Pepper, Borden and FASTSIGNS. Her insightful analysis and original thinking across multiple industries like B2B, technology, retail, and consumer packaged goods have proven invaluable. Prior to joining Slingshot, Nicole served as the Director of Consumer Insights and Strategy at Haggar Clothing Co. where she led market research and business analysis efforts and provided the strategic direction for all brand advertising including TV, print, online, and point of sale.

Articles by Nicole All articles by Nicole

  • It's Boomer Time! How Alcohol Brands Can Show Them Some Love in Engage:Boomers on 12/16/2013

    Nearly 70% of Boomers drink-that's 48 million men and women in the U.S. alone. Not that you'd ever know that because they are rarely featured in most alcohol advertising. For many years, those in the alcoholic beverage industry haven't made a point of engaging drinkers age 50+; but if marketers don't want to leave money on the table, it's time to rethink that.

  • The Boomer-Millennial Connection in Engage:Boomers on 11/19/2013

    A lot has been written on the difference between the Boomer and Millennial generations, but take a closer look and you'll see the two generations have a lot more in common than you may think. There have even been instances when a message targeting one of these generations has also resonated strongly with the other. Could it be possible to tap into the over $3 trillion in spending power the combined audiences represent with one campaign?

  • Want Fries With That? Kids Say 'No Thanks' To Boring Kid's Menus in Engage:Millennials on 10/25/2013

    Kids have always had some input on family decisions, but today's Gen We has more influence than the generations that came before them. The restaurant category is just one of many feeling the effects of Gen We's strong point of view. A 2013 NPD study found that nearly a third of visits to restaurants include children. Of those visits, Mintel data indicates that the parent was likely to have let their children pick the restaurant 26% of the time. Thus, it's critical that restaurants have a strategy to increase their Gen We appeal, as these kids expect more when it comes to the kid's menu and the actual dining experience. Here are four things restaurants need to focus on to create a kid- (and parent-) approved experience.

  • Meet The Most Sophisticated Generation Yet: Gen We in Engage:Millennials on 07/19/2013

    In interacting with my daughter and her friends on a daily basis, it has become clear to me that this generation of kids is way more sophisticated than we were. Don't believe me? Go find a 10 year old, and ask her what she wants to be when she grows up. I know what I said at 10, and it was president of the United States (sorry to disappoint you, Mom). In my generation, the answers you would have gotten were more simple -- doctor, lawyer, police officer. That is just not the case anymore. I did a quick poll of kids I interact with, and here are some of the answers I got:

  • Unlocking The Power Of Authenticity With Millennial Consumers in Engage:Millennials on 06/28/2013

    Lately, it seems like whenever I have a discussion about branding, the word authenticity comes up, no matter what the category or age of the target audience. It seems like authenticity, and the desire to portray a brand as authentic, is on everyone's mind. So what is authenticity? Essentially it's the quality of being genuine or real, but often we use the word to mean true to its origins, unadulterated, or uncompromised. Based on research from Iconoculture, a top U.S. consumer trends firm, a strong majority of U.S. consumers agrees that "being genuine and authentic is extremely important for me and for the things and people in my life." Also of note is that authenticity is one of the top 10 values that is deemed personally important across all generations.

  • The Recession Gap: A Look At How Older And Younger Millennials Were Affected By The Recession in Engage:Millennials on 04/22/2013

    For years, marketers have classified 18-35 year olds as "Millennials," because they share similar characteristics. However, there is value in segmenting this generation further into older (27-35) and younger (18-26) Millennials when looking at financial attitudes, as this generation experienced the recession and, thus, its effects in vastly different ways. Though all Millennials were affected in some way by the recession, younger Millennials, compared to older Millennials at the same life stage, have been more substantively impacted in several ways.

  • From Princess To Diva: Gen We's New Beauty Culture in Engage:Millennials on 03/22/2013

    My daughter is seven, but she is so mature, articulate, and style-focused, she could easily be mistaken for a tween. And she's not the only one. Because of her, I spend a lot of time among girls age five to ten and I can tell you with certainty that the girls of Gen We are different than we were. In retail, the term "Christmas Creep" refers to the earlier displaying of Christmas-related merchandise every year. In the same fashion, the girls of Gen We are being affected by "Tween Creep," whereby girls as young as seven or eight are being targeted with style- and beauty-related products that in past generations would have been reserved for the tween years. If you are looking to explore the new beauty and style culture surrounding Gen We, there are three key places to look: the toy aisle, the makeup aisle, and the salon.

  • Toy Rewind  in Engage:Millennials on 01/02/2013

    Why Gen We's most-wanted toys for 2012 were strikingly similar to those from 25 years ago.

  • Stop Shouting! Why Enabling Brand Discovery Works Best  in Engage:Millennials on 10/26/2012

    We've all read the headlines, that Millennials are the hardest generation to reach due to their multi-tasking, multi-screen, "always on" mentalities. With this group's tendency to overload their senses and ability to edit their lives in real time, Millennials are savvy to the ways of traditional advertising. This makes it hard to figure out how to engage them and even more difficult to begin the conversation. When it comes to the Millennial attitude towards marketing, they don't want to be told what to do, what to like, or what to buy and will quickly tune out any message that is clearly meant to sell. With all the information available to them today, they want to believe that they have organically discovered the things that they buy or associate with.

  • Millennials Seek Adventure And Engagement From Their Fave Beer Brands  in Engage:Millennials on 09/29/2012

    We're big fans of beer ... who isn't? We love it so much that as an agency we actually have a beer cart tradition. But over the last five years, as Millennials have swelled to make up almost two-thirds of our employees, our little beer cart has changed dramatically to accommodate the tastes of our staff. Where it used to be dominated by Heineken and Coors Light, it's now graced by Blue Moon, Fireman's #4, and Rahr Ugly Pug Porter. That made us curious: was the change the result of the influence of a couple of beer snobs in our office or indicative of a larger trend with Millennial beer drinkers? So, after much debate and one too many beers, we decided to field our own proprietary research study to find out.

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