New York SBDC Research Network

Here is a survey of how women are really using technology today [PDF] , from laptops to mobile, from AdAge in collaboration with JWT. The single most interesting thing was the Millennial Profile of Aimee MacDonald (page 9), who, despite her high-tech lifestyle, learned "the value of a good old-fashioned person-to-person phone call."

I love Advertising Age magazine. Several of us read our office subscription. The October 11, 2010 edition is The Consumer Issue, and contains several useful articles, including: How U.S. Assimilation Is Changing Marketing Rules Will Ad Industry's Opt-Out Program Entice Consumers? Marketers Still Struggling With Mommy Issues - they fail to recognize mommy is likely older, e.g. Don't Be So Quick to Dismiss Power of Asian Consumers 'Urban' Trope Misses a Large Swath of Black Consumers Tweens Embrace Makeup, Reject Miley Media-Savvy Gen Y Finds Smart and Funny Is 'New Rock 'n' Roll' There is a finite nymber of articles you can access online without a subscription. One suggestion: How U.S. Consumers Are Steering the 'Spend Shift' Five Eye-Opening Takeaways From an in-Depth Analysis on How Americans Are Changing in a Post-Crisis Society 1. The New American Frontier -- the values of optimism, resiliency and opportunity 2. Don't Fence Me In -- the

These advertising to sales ratios from AdAge Magazine can help a business benchmark advertising spending by showing the average amount that businesses in an industry spend on ads. Covering dozens and dozens of industries, the reports show advertising as a percent of sales, advertising as a percent of margin, and ad growth percentage. The figures cover 1997 through 2007.