10 | The Behrend Beacon
Consuming passions on campus
By Elizabeth Wellington
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
Abercrombie & Fitch fashions are a lot like
Gap's this fall: lots of denim, polos and soft
cardigans.
But to the college-age shopper,
Abercrombie is "so over"; Gap is what's up.
"Abercrombie lost it when they became a little
too white with their advertising. They lost and
alienated a lot of people who didn't see them
selves or their friends represented," explains
David Morrison, founder and chief executive
officer of Twenty Something Inc., a Radnor
based firm that analyzes the shopping habits
of the 18-to-35 set.
Morrison helps the nation's top fashion,
electronics and food brands market them
selves so they stay on the minds of consum
ers in their teens and 20s.
It's six weeks into the fall 2004 semester,
and young people are rewriting the "hot"
brands list because of more reserved fashion
trends and a still-weak economy. Dunkin'
Donuts is creeping up on Starbucks.
Mitsubishi is edging out Honda.
Fashion-wise, college kids are leaving be
hind the late-90s low-riders and sliding into
tweeds with ribbon-trimmed preppy style.
Tommy Hilfiger, Polo and J. Crew are "riding
high," Morrison says. LaCoste, with its
brightly colored mini-polo shirts and tennis
dresses, is hip, too.
The vintage craze has made Converse All
Stars the tennis shoes of choice. Adidas are a
cool second. Pumas, Morrison adds, are on
the cusp of hotness, thanks to their old-school
rap connection. Nikes, namely Air Force
Ones, and Reeboks are falling off.
"This market won't wear those as much, un
less they're (ball) players," Morrison says.
College students would rather be caught dead
than wearing shoes from Payless, but they
want shoes from DSW Shoe Warehouse.
They love Target and Wal-Mart, but can do
without Kmart.
Philosophy's cinnamon bun, blueberry pie
and orange sherbet-scented shampoos, con
ditioners and bath gels are the preferred
shower-caddy fillers, pushing aside long
popular Bath & Body Works. (We can thank
the nesting trend for that.) Also, Morrison says
Burt's Bees all-natural makeup is a must-have.
Revlon and Avon are beating out MAC and
Bobbi Brown, because they are more afford
able, yet college girls would rather spend big
money on a dress they bought from a bou
tique. (Think Nicole Miller or Nanette
Lepore.)
"They are super-expensive, and teens aren’t
convinced that these (makeup) brands are any
Comfy clothing , compact colors
By Kim Ossi
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
(KRT)
Benefit is rolling out two limited edi
tion-palettes with everything a girl needs
to pretty up for parties (or general do
ings). Though marketed as a "holiday"
item, this is already on the company's
Web site. Also, oddly, both palettes are
reminiscent of a season other than win-
Kelley keeps cranking with ‘Boston Legal 1
By Rick Porter
Zap2it.com (KRT)
David E. Kelley insists that he'll be scaling
back his day-to-day workload on his new
show, "Boston Legal." Eventually.
"I've been pretty involved in the first few,
helping to launch the series, but as we go for
ward the responsibility for writing these char
acters will fall primarily with (executive pro
ducers) Jeff Rake and Scott Kaufer," he says.
"That's a good thing, because the last thing
I wanted this series to be saddled with is an
element of sameness, and when you have the
same person writing it, there is that danger."
Kelley's prolific nature is the stuff of Hol
lywood lore in the late 1990 s he was writing
or co-writing nearly every script of two shows,
"Ally Mcßeal" and "The Practice" (from
which "Boston Legal" was spun off). He be
lieves, however, that "Boston Legal," which
premiered Sunday night, has a better shot at
success if it's allowed to develop a voice sepa
rate from his own.
So far, so good. Despite continuing the story
of several characters who appeared at the tail
end of "The Practice" last season, "Boston Le
gal" is about as different from its predecessor
as two legal shows can be. Where "The Prac
tice" featured dogged and righteous (some
times self-righteous) defense attorneys fight
ing for justice, "Boston Legal" has anything
better than what they can get at the drug
store," Morrison says, " ... but when they
get dressed up, they are going really high
end."
Today's young adults have gobs of dis
posable income, but they have attention
deficits when it comes to brand loyalty. As
with the Generation X-ers and baby
boomers before them, cost and packaging
are the No. 1 factors that drive spending
habits.
These youngsters, however, are picky
a jut how they receive sales pitches. They
prefer to get them through their e-mail in
boxes, music videos, video games or on Web
sites. They have little time for casual con
versation and magazines.
They are marketing-sawy and understand
business, Morrison says, even if it's on a
superficial level.
"They not only know what focus groups
are, chances are they've been a part of one."
Morrison has followed college students'
spending habits since his days at Haverford.
Back then, he had an out-of-a-dorm-room
business selling electronics - VCRs, radar
detectors and CD players -with customers
on 14 campuses.
He grew up with entrepreneurship and
marketing: His father is a retired vice presi
dent of marketing for Lipton; his mother is
an independent college guidance counselor.
Morrison started Twenty Something Inc.
when he was 22. At the time, he thought
major businesses were full of 50-year-old
executives trying to understand people in
their 20s.
If you ask Morrison, Twenty Something
Inc. was one of the first consulting compa
nies to niche-research the youth market -
before Soul Kool and Teenage Research Un
limited.
His first projects included refining pro
grams at the Entrepreneurial Center at the
Wharton School of Business and helping
Vibe Magazine fit into urban and suburban
worlds. His company developed a strategy
for Nokia cell phones to market color face
plates. (He's tight-lipped about other work
he's done because of nondisclosure con
tracts.)
Morrison has five .employees and keeps
satellite offices in Mexico City, Sydney,
Australia, and Seoul, South Korea to pick
the brains of teens across the globe.
He spends his days talking to his target
market in the malls and setting up focus
groups across the world. Right now, he says,
he's working with more than 60 companies,
more than half of which have made the For
tune 500.
ter (to aid with thinking warm thoughts,
perhaps?).
"Decked Out Dandelion" brings to
mind warm spring days, lying on the
grass, blowing dandelion seeds all over
the place. In actuality, the palette adds
pretty rosy aura to your look perfect for
the fair-skinned, with pink hues galore.
Included are a tiny applicator brush, two
eyeshadows, a lip cream and a sheer
powder.
goes civil attorneys fighting for their clients
- and a fat fee.
Leading the charge are James Spader as
the oily Alan Shore and William Shatner as
senior partner Denny Crane; both men are
reprising roles that won them Emmys this
year. The tone of the new show, Kelley says,
will be much more upbeat as it celebrates
its characters' eccentricities.
"This one, I think, will cater more toward
escapism," he says. "The storylines will be
more fun, there will probably be more soap
opera as we go forward.... When you have
at the center of your hub a character like
Alan Shore, that necessarily shifts it to a
different being."
The challenge for "Boston Legal," Kelley
thinks, will be keeping Shore's irreverence
intact now that the people around him are
just as amoral as he is.
"The equation has changed a little bit (be
cause) none of the surrounding characters
take themselves quite so seriously" as did
the lawyers on "The Practice," Kelley says.
"We always want him to be the guy who dis
rupts and upsets apple carts, sometimes even
his own.
"I think the key for all the writers as we
go forward is to explore him in all his com
plexities and not be afraid of his darker
side."
Kelley may occasionally be one of those
Morrison's book, "Marketing to the Cam
pus Crowd; Everything You Need to Know to
Capture the $2OO Billion College Market"
(Dearborn Trade Publishing, $25), has sold
3,500 copies. That's a really good number, says
Courtney Goethals, a spokeswoman for
Dearborn Trade, because its market is so spe
cific.
The book is required reading for the 20-plus
directors at the National Association of Col
lege Stores, an organization that tracks the
success of college bookstores.
"Those of us who've gone to college, we
tend to base our paradigm of what college stu
dents want today ... on what we wanted as stu
dents," says Marianne Wascak, vice president
of marketing at the association.
"But David does a good job at pointing out
that students these days are different. They
don't trust corporations like we used to. Just
because you give a college student something
for free doesn't mean they are going to buy
it."
On a recent afternoon, Morrison stands in
front of the University of Pennsylvania's
Barnes & Noble campus bookstore. At 37. he
has strawberry-blond hair that's graying at the
temples, but his face is line-free.
He talks at a rapid clip, totally excited about
his recent trip to New Orleans, where he
launched a campaign to hip up a fast-food
chain. Ask him the specifics, and he gets
cagey. An experienced businessman, he re
fuses to divulge key details.
In the store, current best-sellers are on the
bottom floor, near the magazines, and in the
back is every laptop accessory imaginable,
from label makers to cameras.
On the top floor are the textbooks.
But the cafe is where the "it" brands are evi
dent. The college palate is much more sophis
ticated these days, Morrison explains, so the
cafe offers scones and flavored coffee.
Young consumers are making buying deci
sions based on how healthy they perceive a
product to be, how well it fits into their
lifestyle, and how diverse the advertisements
are, he says. Right now, this age group is on a
health kick.
That's why the front of the store is full of
Fiji water (kids can't resist the squared-off.
blue bottle) and Vita Water. For snacks, it’s all
about Odwalla energy bars and big plastic tubs
of trail mix.
Students are getting what they want,
Morrison surmises.
"This is a market that marketers cannot af
ford to ignore. ... If they lose this pulse for a
second, they're going to wake up and wonder
why their brand is no longer relevant."
"Hoola Hues" brings to mind yet an
other season and setting: sitting on the
beach, sipping fruity drinks and wearing
a sarong while soaking up some good old
fashioned vitamin E. This palette is per
fect for the deeply tanned or darker
skinned. It includes the same items, but
in warm, neutral tones
palette pick
www.benefitcosmetics.com for $2B
writers, but he says he's taking part in a "12-
step program" to let Rake, Kaufer and fellow
executive producer Bill D’Elia - who previ
ously worked with Kelley on "Ally Mcßeal"
and "Chicago Hope" - take charge of the show.
Kelley has collaborated on several of "Boston
Legal's" first six scripts but is slowly trying to
extract himself from the day-to-day running
of the show.
"My difficulty is when I'm sort of one foot
in and one foot out," he says. "If one foot is
in, I tend to want to step over the line and be
immersed up to my chest like I am with the
shows I've historically run. When I'm out,
when both feet are out, I've been able to do
that successfully.... I think we're shooting epi
sode six (this week) and probably I’ve taken a
half-step back with each episode."
Old, workaholic habits die hard, though.
"The reason I wanted to step back this year
is because I really wanted more time to de
velop what the next beast will be," he says of
his plans to work on a new show. What that
will be, he isn’t saying yet - he knows only
that he wants to challenge himself and that "I
don't want it to be something I'm facile at."
"So that will be my challenge, and the other
challenge, I guess, will be knowing when to
parent and when not to on this series," he says.
"But for the most part, I have a terrible time
letting go."
Songwriter on the rise
JAMIE ROSE/KRT
Rachael Yamagata released “Happenstance,” her first full
length CD last June and is now pne of 2004’s best rising
talents.
By Chuck Myers
Knight Ridder/Tnbune News
Service (KRT)
ARLINGTON, Va. - In the space
of about a year, singer-songwriter
Rachael Yamagata has gone from sup
port act to headliner, emerging as one
of 2004's best rising talents in the pro-
That's no small achievement. But
then again, having an impressive de
but album will tend to put a charge
into a blossoming career.
After five years with a Chicago
based funk/soul/hip hop group called
Bumpus, Yamagata had written
enough material to strike out on her
own. Following a self-titled EP in
2003, she released her first full-length
album in June, "Happenstance" (RCA
Victor). Since then, Yamagata has
watched her solo career gain more mo
mentum.
"Everything always kind of always
happens backwards and very fast for
me," said Yamagata before a recent gig
in Arlington. "I take these giant leaps,
regardless of whether I'm ready for it
or not. You just have to do it."
Some music observers have drawn
similarities between Yamagata's mu
sic and that of other female solo art
ists. specifically Norah Jones or Fiona
Apple. But the comparisons don't quite
stand up. Yamagata exhibits a distinct
creative identity on "Happenstance"
by melding a variety of styles, from
rock and weepy country licks to jazz
and searing blues. Added to this tex
tured sonic bouillabaisse are alluring
orchestral elements that further
complement Yamagata's husky, ex-
pressive vocals.
"1 always write everything kind of
at the same time: melody, music, lyr
ics," noted the 27-year-old artist. "1
always have a little keyboard or what
ever instrument, whether it's a bass or
guitar, and I'd morph it through ped
als to make it sound like an oboe or
clarinet or some sound, just to add
some touches.... It was a big kind of
trial and error to see what kind of skin
I wanted on the album."
Filling out the album's orchestral
atmospherics in a live setting is no easy
task. Yet, Yamagata manages it bril
liantly on stage, backed by a quintet
of solid players that includes cellist
Colette Alexander and violinist Becky
Doe.
Friday, October 15, 2004
While "Happenstance" possesses
its share of upbeat moments,
Yamagata strikes her strongest chord
on the record's affecting ballads, par
ticularly on the elegant "Even So"
and heartrending "Quiet. " Most of the
album's lyrical focus flows from in
trospective musings about heartache
and yearning - inspired, in large part,
by Yamagata's own experiences with
love.
"It's usually very personal," said
Yamagata. "It always has something
to do with what I'm going through.
Certainly some of them (the songs)
are very personal experiences, talk
ing specifically to a certain someone.
If they're imagined, it's all based
around a framework of things that ac
tually happened. But you get great
inspiration all the time. Like you can
have a waiter come over and say
some flippant idea and think, 'oh my
God, that's poetry,' and you write it
down."
Bom in Arlington, Yamagata split
time as a child between her divorced
parent's homes in Maryland and New
York. She started playing piano at 12,
taking lessons briefly before aban
doning formal training for a self
taught route. More recently, she
adopted a similar play-by-ear ap
proach to learning guitar.
"A few years ago, I picked it (gui
tar) up just as a writing instrument,"
said Yamagata. "I kept getting frus
trated because I couldn't perform. If
there wasn't a piano, I couldn't play
some things. So now I'm trying to re
ally figure it out and learn. I love
writing off of it. But even at that, I
just play it by ear."
Although "Happenstance" has
given Yamagata's career a firm boost,
she doesn't dwell on the unrealistic
expectations that the album may cre
ate for her future musical endeavors.
In fact, she maintains a clear per
spective on her growing success and
creative journey.
"I try my best not to think about it
too much because it's a lot of unex
pected pressure to know what to do.
If you start thinking about it too
much, then you trip yourself up, and
it won't happen. I'm feeling good now
about the band, about the live shows
and about the new songs. I'm very
proud of the record. I think I'm just
in line with where I should be at this