Tina Wells, Small Business University Instructor

TINA WELLS
Marketing Expert, Founder, Buzz Marketing Group
Black Enterprise Small Business University Instructor

The Process: Tina Wells, founder and CEO of Buzz Marketing  Group, wakes up around 6:30 a.m. and makes herself an espresso the old fashioned way: on her stovetop.  Since Buzz Marketing Group is international, no matter how early she wakes up, several e-mails and text messages await her.

The Vision: The seeds of Buzz Marketing Group were planted when Wells was 16 years old and doing product reviews for New Girl Times Magazine. The demand for teen input on products was so great that Wells decided to start her own company right out of her bedroom.  Buzz Marketing Group has gone from a one-person staff run by Wells to an international network of thousands of teens and tweens. (Actual grown-ups run the business these days.)

The It Factor: Many companies today provide market research, but Wells believes her company stands out because of Buzz Marketing Group’s reach and the depth of their knowledge.  “Our tagline is ‘Where insight meets activation’ and that really sums it up,” Wells says. “Everything we do is informed by rigorous research. We’re not giving clients feedback based on what we think is a good idea. We give results based on surveys, focus groups, interviews and other information gathering tools.”

The Defining Moment: By the time Wells began attending Hood College, her business was already two years old.  When Wells told a professor, Anita Jose, about her teen market research business, Jose immediately recognized the potential and instructed Wells to use the next semester for independent study so they could work on a plan.  “She was instrumental in helping me construct my business plan, and I still use it today,” said Wells. “I’m probably one of the few people who really took full advantage of my undergraduate years. As I was working on my business plan and I had questions about statistics or psychology for example, I would just go and get advice from my statistics and psychology professors.”

The Life: Wells is the oldest of six children and considers family time to be of the utmost importance. “I decided a long time ago that I would not work on weekends. I might check e-mail and things like that, but no full-on work,” says the entrepreneur and author of Chasing Youth Culture and Getting It Right: How Your Business Can Profit by Tapping Today’s Most Powerful Trendsetters and Tastemakers. Wells also just hired a new senior vice president of marketing, which allows her to truly take on a more executive role. “I can trust that my team will take care of the day-to-day business so that I can focus on strategic, big-picture initiatives.”

Register now at blackenterprise.com/sbu to see weekly video courses from Armstrong and other industry experts on how to build, grow and nurture your business. On top of that, you’ll have a chance to win more than $50,000 in prizes, including one-on-one consultations with successful entrepreneurs like Emerson, a small business makeover for your biz courtesy of Dell, and much more!

Visit blackenterprise.com/sbu for more details now!

Black Enterprise Small Business University Instructor Tina Wells, Founder and CEO of Buzz Marketing Group

You want to connect with your customer in a meaningful way, you’ve experimented (some) with social media, you’re anxious to boost the visibility of your business. But how do you, as an entrepreneur, do all of this for your small business effectively? One word: Marketing.

Where do you start? By signing up now for the Black Enterprise Small Business powered by Dell. When you register for our video courses, you’ll get access to smart tips from expert instructors like Buzz Marketing Group founder and CEO Tina Wells on connecting with your customer organically, get more publicity for your business and why you have to be a part of the social media conversation. On top of that, you’ll have a chance to win more than $50,000 in prizes, including one-on-one consultations with successful entrepreneurs like Wells, a small business makeover for your biz courtesy of Dell, and much more!

Visit blackenterprise.com/sbu for more details now! And see a special invitation from Tina Wells below. Class is in session!

Get updates from the Black Enterprise Small Business University by following the Twitter hashtag #SmallBizU

This is the screen you'll see if you're looking for the infamous Mary J. Blige chicken wraps commercials.

Though the damage (to Mary’s J. Blige’s brand) has already been done, the infamous Burger King chicken wraps ad featuring the mega-platinum star has mysteriously disappeared from the fast food chain’s YouTube (and thus can’t be easily obtained elsewhere).

(Reportedly, the commercial was removed due to “copyright issues,” a notion I give an even stronger side-eye to as well.)

If you were recently searching for it, you’d have to rely on Web, co-worker and family accounts of its ridiculousness. (We actually found it on another site here.)

The television spot, which featured Blige singing the ingredients to chicken wraps in a song reminiscent of a Top 40 hit (as a comical group of patrons Bankhead Bounce and Raise the Roof), had many reactions — mostly negative — from raised eyebrows to utter disgust, and reminded many of us that stereotypes of dancing, singing, and chicken-loving black people still remain prevalent in the hearts and minds of advertisers.

Not only that, but it’s to be noted that late-night talk show host Jay Leno and oh-so-fine soccer superstar David Beckham both have recent Burger King commercials, yet those do not include them making a mockery of their brands. (So you won’t see Beckham dancing around, doing foot tricks with nuggets, nor will you see Jay Leno singing any ditties.)

At this point, I just wonder what — if any — real response Burger King will have about this, and more importantly, what’s behind Blige’s thinking?

I could think of a few better ways she could have been featured:

1. Maybe in the drive-through, playing her own songs of which she’d like to promote and maybe adding a funny quip that references something she’s known for.

2. What about her being in the LINE herself behind the guy holding up the line asking what’s in the wraps, and some funny quip there.

3. What about anything but her popping up in the middle of a restaurant doing an impromptu performance that seemed like it should’ve been a skit on Saturday Night Live.

Mary, I still love you, girl. We all make mistakes. Let’s just chalk this up as a slip in judgment.

MZM Construction CEO Marjorie Perry (Image: Courtesy of Subject)

This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, in time for Women’s History Month, UBR contributor Samantha Pass speaks with women’s history maker Marjorie Perry, founder and Chief Creative Officer of MZM Construction & Management Co., based in Newark, N.J. Perry has earned numerous awards and recognition for her entrepreneurial achievements, including being named one of the Top 25 Entrepreneurs in New Jersey and one of New Jersey’s Top 50 Women in Business by the business publication NJBIZ. She has also recently been selected by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to be a member of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Perry built a career working for such corporations as 3M, Johnson & Johnson and United Airlines, before launching her own consulting firm focused on helping entrepreneurs succeed in the marketplace. Impressed by her insight and vision, MZM Construction, which was one of her clients at the time, asked her to join the business as a partner. Eventually Perry became the sole principal and CEO of the company. Under Perry’s guidance, MZM Construction has enjoyed 19 years of profitable performance, including work on such projects as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Meadowlands Giants & Jets Sports Arena. Perry joins the Roundtable to share her journey to the top of a multimillion-dollar construction business.

Think Tank Digital Founder and CEO Tynicka Battle (Image: Courtesy of Subject)

Also, UBR contributor contributor Renita D. Young speaks with Tynicka Battle, CEO of Think Tank Digital, a digital marketing and promotions firm, about how entrepreneurs can create strategic digital partnerships. Over the past five years, Battle and her company have spearheaded campaigns for Pepsi, Motorola and the 2012 U.S. Census, as well as for some of the hottest acts in music, including Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga.

And finally, every week on UBR, you’ll hear my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today business correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.

If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, connect with me at BE Insider, the social media network for people who are serious about Black Enterprise. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.

Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each week for UBR Spotlight, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.

Small business is BIG BUSINESS at the 2012 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo hosted by Nationwide, May 23-26, at the Hilton Chicago Hotel in Chicago, IL. Expect innovative sessions, high-powered speakers, and an early peek at the products, trends, and services you’ll need to stay ahead of the curve. Beat the March 16 Early Bird deadline to get a $200 registration discount at www.blackenterprise.com/ec/! And be sure to nominate your company or another business for our Small Business Awards! Want to pitch your business idea and win $10,000? Don’t miss the chance to enter our Elevator Pitch Competition before March 30 to qualify for the $10,000 grand prize. To register and find out more, visit www.blackenterprise.com/ec/

Teneshia Jackson Warner of Egami Consulting Group.

This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, in time for Women’s History Month, UBR contributor Samantha Pass speaks with women’s history maker Teneshia Jackson Warner, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Egami Consulting Group, a New York-based, award-winning multicultural marketing firm. Warner was recognized among “40 Rising Stars 40 & Under” in the February 2012 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.

In 2002, Warner left her position as project manager at IBM Global Services in Minnesota and moved to New York City with aspirations of succeeding in the hip-hop entertainment field. She tracked down hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and persuaded him to hire her for a volunteer position. A year later, she stepped out on her own to start Egami, and later merged her firm with MSL Group, a specialty communications company. Egami has run several award-winning  campaigns, including the Verizon Wireless Empowerment series and P&G’s My Black is Beautiful. The company has earned AdColor‘s Most Valuable Partnership Award. Warner joins the Roundtable to share what drove her ambitions and achievements.

Also, UBR contributor contributor Renita D. Young speaks with Christen Rochon, the creator of DivasAndDorks.com, a site dedicated to women who enjoy the latest in fashion, technology and entertainment. Vital to her site’s success has been Rochon’s relationships with advertisers such as AT&T, Ford and Verizon. Rochon, who has nearly a decade of digital marketing experience for brands including CBS Radio and Radio One, joins the Roundtable to share how to build great relationships with advertisers.

And finally, every week on UBR, you’ll hear my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today business correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.

If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, connect with me at BE Insider, the social media network for people who are serious about Black Enterprise. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.

Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each week for UBR Spotlight, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.

Small business is BIG BUSINESS at the 2012 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo hosted by Nationwide, May 23-26, at the Hilton Chicago Hotel in Chicago, IL. Expect innovative sessions, high-powered speakers, and an early peek at the products, trends, and services you’ll need to stay ahead of the curve. Beat the March 16 Early Bird deadline to get a $200 registration discount at www.blackenterprise.com/ec/! And be sure to nominate your company or another business for our Small Business Awards! Want to pitch your business idea and win $10,000? Don’t miss the chance to enter our Elevator Pitch Competition before March 30 to qualify for the $10,000 grand prize. To register and find out more, visit www.blackenterprise.com/ec/

BLACK ENTERPRISE spoke with Butler at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit to talk about the future of GM and how marketing will play a role in the company’s efforts to re-attain dominance.

With all that GM has gone through over the last few years, how would you encapsulate the marketing strategy for returning the company to where it used to be in terms of dominance?

Don Butler: The public face of GM to our consumers will be through our brands—Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. That is how we’re going to communicate. There is no longer going to be any GM advertising. Because, number one, let’s be fair: there’s a stigma associated with General Motors. There still is.  There’s not so much that same stigma associated with each of the brands.  That’s how people engage and interact with us. They engage and interact with us through Chevy, through GMC, through Buick, and through Cadillac. They don’t interact with GM.  They interact with the [individual] brands.

The second thing is knowing that that’s how we’re going to go to market. This had existed in the past.  But we’ve refined it even further. Each of our divisional brands now has a swim lane. What do I mean by that? Cadillac means certain things. We will stay true to that. It’s different than what Buick is. It’s different than what Chevy is. It’s different than what GMC is. In a sense, we need to be our own company. We need to be our own idea and our own aesthetic. So, Cadillac is all about what we describe as red-blooded luxury. Passionate, assertive, confident, charismatic, maybe even a little bit swagger, shall we say.  Contrast that with Buick. Very warm, luxurious, and a sense of being understated. Cadillac is not understated. Chevrolet, for the people.  GMC, professional grade.  Professional level of engineering and excellence.

So, that’s how we separate the brands and that’s how we go to market.

How are you using social media to get to that younger audience?

Butler: We leverage Facebook extensively.  That is our primary social space platform.  We find it to be quite useful in terms of presenting the brand and being able to have branding that is not obtrusive. So, on our Facebook page we have gone from 200,000 fans to over 700,000 fans [over the  last year]. We do that through engaging content that causes people to stop and take a look.

For instance, with ATS, we’ve been featuring a video series that we call The Journey, which has documented some of the development of ATS, including the engineers at the Nurburgring in Germany. Filming them actually doing the testing. We put that content on the web. That’s content that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. It’s engaging, it’s relevant, it’s also social. So, that’s how we engage and connect with our consumers there. We also have a presence, obviously, on Twitter. We make extensive use of YouTube as well in terms of our own video channel and then things that hopefully people can engage with and that we can promote virally as well.

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I understand you also do a lot of focus groups with regards to design and coming up with design, getting feedback from consumers. Are you intentionally looking at younger people to be part of those focus groups?

Butler: We do extensive research. Not so much to the point that we are kind of antiseptic and clinical about it. Because at a certain point, you’ve got to let intuition and emotion kind of weigh in, particularly when you’re talking design. You want to lead. It’s the Wayne Gretzky analogy. You don’t want to go where the puck is. You want to go where the puck will be. So to some extent, you have to understand and interpret the feedback that you get from consumers. If they say, oh wow, that looks like a reach. Well, is that a reach that will become fresh at a certain point in time? Or is that a reach that you’re reaching and you aren’t going to get anywhere with that because it’s still going to be out on the fringes?

So, we have to be careful to interpret what we get back from the research. But we have two groups.  One group that we call young adult males, or YAMs, [are] under 30. We intentionally recruit on that basis. And we recruit also based on competitive ownership—so, those owning BMW 3 series, for instance. We bring them into our clinics.  We also have a group that we call YAFs, young affluent females. We do two different groups, male and female because—particularly when you’re in a focus group setting—you want to make sure that one group doesn’t dominate the conversation. You want to make sure you get all the views that are aired. Then there’s certain things that come out when you have like-minded people sitting around the table.

Some of these interviews are conducted in the subject’s homes. Why is that?

Within focus groups, you have to be careful of group thinking and the setting that you’re in, and then how that would influence the information that you receive.  So, we spend a fair amount of time literally at people’s homes—two, three hours. They talk about their lives. They talk about what they do. They talk about how their home fits into their life.  They talk about how their car fits into their life. They talk about style and their clothing and their furniture. We really go in-depth. You have to be careful the people that you pick because you want them to be representative of a broader population. But the depth that you’re able to get to and how relaxed people are in that environment, you get really, really keen insights that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

The Cadillac ATS was introduced to the media a few days ago. Who are you trying to reach with that vehicle?

Butler: In some ways, you could say the ATS is our most important launch in decades. ATS represents for us our first truly credibly entry in the largest luxury segment, both in the US and in the world.  Compact luxury is the largest luxury segment.  Within the US, over 370,000 units are sold.  So for us not to have a presence there, it’s a huge handicap.  It’s a huge handicap from a volume and image standpoint. With ATS, [it's] an all-new, fresh, bold step for Cadillac into a territory that quite frankly we haven’t been in before.  These are also the youngest buyers within the luxury segment. These are, for the most part, people just entering luxury, just deciding to use that form of expression for themselves.

The other thing with ATS is it is our most direct, head to head competitor with some of the key luxury makes. BMW and Mercedes, for instance. The 3 Series, C Class. This vehicle will go head to head right on with those vehicles. CTS has been more of a bridge between a three and a five or between an C and an E. So, now with ATS, we are directly targeting our main competition. We’re doing it, we believe, with a bold statement for Cadillac. So, it represents a volume opportunity and it also represents and image opportunity for Cadillac.

(Image: Getty)

In September Huffington Post announced a new web series called The Tanning Effect featuring music exec turned marketing/ad exec Steve Stoute. Promoting his book, The Tanning of America, and the idea that diversity should be embraced by the corporate world, Stoute interviewed a line-up of celebrity guests that included Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams, and music mogul Jimmy Iovine.

Click here to read more at BlackEnterprise.com/BENext

(Image: Getty)

Queen Latifah Gets Another Talk Show

You may remember Queen Latifah’s self-titled talk show, The Queen Latifah Show, which ran in syndication for two seasons (1999-2001). Well, the rapper-turned-actress is giving it another try.

Sony Television Pictures said Monday that it will produce the untitled show alongside Flavor Unit Entertainment, the production company of Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere, and Overbrook Entertainment, the company of James Lassiter and Will Smith, according to the New York Times. In 1991, Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment gave the Cover Girl spokesmodel one of her earliest screen appearances on his popular sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Her new series is set to debut in the fall of 2013.

Read more at the New York Times…

Yale Study Shows Beverage Industry Targets Black and Hispanic Youth

A new study from Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity exposes beverage companies marketing sugary drinks to children, especially to black and Hispanic youth.

Black children and teens saw 80-to 90 % more ads compared with white youth, including more than twice as many for Sprite, 5-hour Energy, and Vitamin Water, according to the research. The targeting is very similar for the Hispanic demographic. Between 2008 and 2010, Hispanic children saw 49 % more ads for sugary drinks and energy drinks on Spanish-language TV. Hispanic teens saw 99 % more ads.

“The beverage industry needs to clean up their youth-directed products: reduce the added sugar, take out the artificial sweeteners, and stop marketing products high in caffeine and sugar to young people,” said Marlene Schwartz, co-author and deputy director of the Rudd Center. “We also need the nutrition facts, including caffeine content, for all beverages, especially energy drinks.”

The report’s authors studied marketing by 14 beverage companies and examined the nutritional quality of nearly 600 products including full-calorie soda, energy drinks, fruit drinks, flavored water, sports drinks, and iced teas, as well as diet energy drinks and diet children’s fruit drinks. The study is the most comprehensive and science-based assessment of sugary drink nutrition and marketing ever conducted.

To read the complete report, visit sugarydrinkfacts.org.

Brigitte Daniel of Wilco, Inc. Appointed to the FCC Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age

Executive Vice President of Wilco, Inc. Brigitte Daniel was appointed on Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission’s re-charted Federal Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age.

As one of a few African-Americans appointed, Daniel will be charged with providing recommendations to the FCC regarding policies and practices that will further enhance diversity in the industries the agency regulates.

“I am very honored and excited about my appointment to serve on the FCC’s Diversity Committee,” said Daniel, a Philadelphia tech leader.  “The topic of inclusion and diversity within this sector is paramount to providing opportunity, access, and a voice for all citizens of the United States. I look forward to representing the low-income marketplace that I proudly serve, broadening the scope of broadband access for the City of Philadelphia, and bettering the public interest of the American people and the missions of the FCC.”

Daniel currently serves as senior counselor to Wilco President Will F. Daniel. In addition, she handles corporate communications and oversees large-scale projects, including the launch and implementation of the new Wilco Philadelphia Housing Authority community and entertainment and web channel, WPHA-TV.