Esquires' 2009 Best Dressed Real Man in America

I am waaaaaaay late on this (blame the house re-do/move), but my boy Kenyatte Nelson has passed on his Esquire crown to Dan Trepanier as The Best Dressed Real Man in America. Congrats one last time to Kenyatte for last year's victory and 'grats to Dan for his big win.

Check out the following videos on Dan's big win (sweet) and his Kenneth Cole shopping experience prize (a thousand x sweeter). And to shop the same looks, try here at KennethCole.com. (Hint: Click the link in the bottom right after the jump.)

The Win

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The Reward

Would You believe these 2 pictures are the SAME room?

Here's a preview of my home renovations...

Before--->

After--->

More to come...

Market Research from U.S. Census Bureau Data

I find this large retailer (assets over $50 million) data fascinating and encouraging key economic indicators:

U.S. Census Bureau Q2 economic data shows a monster increase in retail sales profits ($13.3 billion) vs. Q1 ($7.4 billion). That's an increase of 80%! And this is despite a sales volume increase of only 7% vs. the same period ($499.99 billion vs. $487.6 billion).

Of note, however, is the significant decrease in sales versus a year ago (YAGO)- down 6% from $532.8 billion in Q2, 2008. The good news? Despite this decrease, the U.S. retail sector achieved profit growth of 2% ($0.9 billion more than Q2, 2008).

So what does this all mean? It means there is recovery in the retail sector of our country to a degree and a strengthening of brands that have core audiences of loyal consumers. This "Brand Darwinism" allows those brands with strong products and solid marketing plans to raise prices and offset lower dollar volume while increasing profit margins.

The next step for these companies is to regain the fringe consumer- those that stop buying due to, say, economic hardship- and convert them to loyal buyers. This will help return sales volume to past dollar figures, while bolstering the bottom line by further increasing the strong profit numbers we are already seeing.

(Data credit: U.S. Census Bureau; Analysis by linechange.blogspot.com)

Back like Prime Time

It's been a month-long hiatus and, like your favorite nightly Hulu fix, my blog is back. (And by "Hulu fix", I mean your weak attempts to mask your porn surfing with an overlay of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".)

To start things off slow and simple before bringing the fastball, I present to you this season's "closest-thing-you-can-get-to-a-can't-miss-new-series-on-network-TV". It's called "Community" and it's on NBC (*GASP* Network TV! *Choke**GASP**Choke*). My money's on it for NBC actually catching on to "The Soup's" Joel McHale- read: underrated. And that's tough to say in this age of net-related, instantaneous, 24/7 entertainment coverage.


Enjoy the preview below: