Claire Brooks said: "It’s no longer particularly hip to own an iPod, but it’s definitely not passe either. The iPod has moved from hip accessory to lifestyle classic almost immediately, which is something very few brands are able to do, and certainly none of the competitive offerings."

Shopping for home electronics seems to be rooted in an almost-scholarly evaluation of features... or is it? "When you talk to consumers, they say, ’Of course I buy a TV for the picture quality,’" says Claire Brooks. Then she showed them standard-quality broadcasts... on an old-style set and a fancy new one. Invariably they claimed the plasma picture was far superior. The form factor is so sexy that people are saying, "I’m gonna have the good-looking thing." In her view, thin sets are actually allowing TV’s to reclaim hearth-like status in the home. Brooks’ focus groups were full of women complaining about larger and larger sets that inflicted home-decor damage. "I have a lovely piece of video of someone saying, `This thing was so ugly I had to banish it, and my husband, to the basement,’" she says.

Pitching authenticity, [Claire Brooks] said, is a "platform against a tidal wave of new competitors." Ketel One, for example, publicizes a vodka that is distilled by hand. Chevrolet plays up the country roots of its pickups in advertisements that show them in a farm setting worthy of Dorothy’s Kansas. Brooks distinguished authentic brands, such as Frye, from "retro" products, explaining that retro refers mainly to newly designed goods whose relationship to their progenitors is mainly one of style. She cited the new Volkswagen, which, with its cartoonishly exaggerated features, may recall the Bug but has yet to seduce young consumers... "Young adults prefer the original," she said.

Trendspotting is big business in the US. The never-ending quest for the Next Big Thing means jobs for people like British-born Claire Brooks... Brooks has noticed that "’trendsetters are very similar the world over. They share a creative mind-set, one that says "I’m going to search for things for myself’". She cites London as a magnet city for such cultural leaders. Even so, she says, the trend-spotting industry "doesn’t exist in the same way [in Europe] that it does over here. Europe is less fad obsessed and more culturally heterogeneous than the US so tastes don’t shift as quickly."

Brooks said Apple is one of the top brands among trendsetters, along with Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Nike. "(Apple) is a core trendsetter brand," she said. "It’s a lifestyle thing. Apple just comes up all the time."

The cool industry is a matriarchal one. "Women are the net-workers, the chatterers", says Claire Brooks, "what you need in this industry is an ability to get beneath what people are saying, and doing, and look at what it really means". Brooks depends on information from a network of youthful informants. "They are trendsetters" and Brooks is casually ruthless about who makes the cut. "there are a lot of early mainstream people who think they are trendsetters..." It is impossible to talk to Brooks without inwardly measuring yourself against the golden yardstick of cool...

For the past four years, SKYY Vodka has invested a series of entertainment-based marketing campaigns designed to make the brand seem glamorous and sexy.

Starting with product placement in movies, they developed the campaign across all marketing platforms, from advertising to the creation of "cinematic cocktail moments" in short films to point of purchase displays. The results have been superb. SKYY’s brand awareness and product trials have doubled, and advertising awareness has tripled.

Teens are soaking up the sun of the tropics and climbing the Eiffel Tower - from the comfort of their own bedrooms.
"Teenagers want to be someplace else these days," says Valencia interior designer Cynthia Piana. "I think their stress levels have escalated. They have more pressures from school, sports and parents than ever before, and they’re often decorating their room with a location theme."
And the hot spots? Paris, tropical islands, Asia and Africa, say decorating experts and local teens who want to feel like they’re on vacation without leaving home.
"Unfortunately we’re at a funny time at the moment. Teens are bruised by the elements of war, and the security thing is very important, so the tropical or desert oasis doesn’t surprise me," says Claire Brooks...

Come game day, any game day, fans pack the hottest sports bars. Three cheers for camaraderie!
Though it’s not quite 10 a.m. on Sunday, at Legends in Long Beach the restaurant-bar is already bustling. By 10:30, nearly every seat is filled, and, with the loud cheers coming from various corners, it feels more like 10:30 on a Saturday night.

The patrons -- men and women on their own, couples, families -- aren’t here for the huevos rancheros but for the 30 TV screens showing NFL games from around the country.