It’s interesting to see an emerging trend we’ve known about for some time finally making mainstream news. Articles, editorials and blogs are buzzing about the population trends that show it is births, not immigration, accounting for most of the growth in the United States Hispanic population.

The arrival of Hispanics in remote and rural areas far from traditional gateways has been going on for years. What’s new is a pronounced demographic shift unfolding because these young immigrants are having children. Births outnumber deaths, and the population increases. That’s due largely in part because Hispanic moms are younger than the U.S. population as a whole. Their median age is 27.4, compared with 37.9 overall.

What will this mean in the future?

For one thing, the economic impact will be a positive. The U.S. is gearing up to support 79 million Baby Boomers in their old age, the growing and younger population of Hispanics ensures that the next generation as it grows will contribute greatly to the workforce, the tax revenue and the housing market. Other countries simply are not replacing themselves demographically, according to some researchers.

I think of all the opportunities this is already opening up for innovative companies. The only way these corporations are able to stay ahead of the innovation curve is by recognizing the global impact of megatrends and by knowing their consumers on a deeper level. Hispanic women lead the AlphaMom market in many ways and they are an important segment for marketers to understand.

Those who have tapped into the Hispanic mom’s feelings about motherhood, the challenges she faces, how to reach her, the impact of acculturation on her decisions and what motivates her as a consumer will ultimately deliver the innovative products and services that will shape our culture in the U.S. for decades to come.

Nintendo is releasing what might be the first big-budget console game that can pull in that ever elusive segment: mothers. I blogged about the Wii craze last year, pointing to the ALPHA MOM as the key audience Nintendo looked to in creating video games that would spur their children to get off the couch. For an industry that’s often been blamed for helping cause obesity and inactivity, Wii Fit is a chance to turn back the criticism by offering a game that targets health issues in a way that’s fun.

Wii Fit is a health and exercise program that I believe will boost the momentum of the Nintendo Wii, which has sold more than 9 million consoles since it was released in November 2006. The Wii has created a huge shift in the gaming world, inviting millions of casual and nongamers, many of them women, to pick up the motion-sensing Wii remote controller and play games using gestures and waves.

Officially, Nintendo said Wii Fit is designed for an “expanded audience.” But the game has the potential to attract what some marketers have called the chief household officer, ALPHA MOMS, a large but mostly unreached population of potential gamers. Some think that the new Wii game will skew female, much like the “Richard Simmons Sweatin’ to the Oldies. ” videos of the Eighties.

For about $90 players can chart their weight and body mass index over time and work to improve them by engaging in about 40 activities including yoga, aerobic step routines, strength and training exercises, and balance games. The balance board can track the progress of up to eight players, so users can encourage each other toward their respective goals. (Nintendo’s Wii Fit mini-site has video demonstrations of each training mode. For those who are well aware of the Wii Fit and have been patiently awaiting its release, you may have a tough time finding it in stores!)

The increase in new female gamers on the Wii has been noticeable, but Wii Fit can take it a step further by enticing moms to spring for the Wii for themselves, not just for their kids.

Disposable diapers have become a roughly $5.7 billion business, but cloth diapering is making a comeback. Here is an interesting diaper product that is not only fashionable, but environmentally friendly. They’re called gDiapers, and consist of a washable, cotton outer pant and a plastic free flushable refill. They are made of breathable material just like sports clothing, and that is what keeps the skin from getting diaper rash.

The makers encourage parents to toss flushable refills because they’re plastic-free, or garden compost the wet ones. They’ll break down in 50-150 days. Check out gDiapers here!.

Today’s new cloth diapers are different from the ones that I struggled with years ago. While approximately half of cloth users still rely on fold-and-pin diapers provided by laundry services, new designs with cutesy names like Fuzzi Bunz, bumGenius, Kissaluvs and Happy Heinys have become enormously popular with parents who want to do the right thing for the environment.

Velcro, buttons and snaps have replaced pins, and the diapers are fitted with elastic around the openings to hold tight around flailing legs. In place of old-fashioned rubber panties, the new cloths use water-resistant covers made of merino wool, nylon or polyurethane laminate.

It will be interesting to see how the disposable diaper industry responds to these next generation diapers!

I’ve just launched a slew of new book reviews over on my Books On The Edge page, just in time for spring! To “kick off ” the series I thought I’d blog about one of my favorite marketing topics: The Alpha-Mom. I’ve blogged several times before about her.  She has evolved tremendously from the so-called “soccer mom” of the early nineties into a tech-savvy powerhouse with buying power many marketers are just beginning to grasp.

This month Michele Miller and Holly Buchanan have released The Soccer Mom Myth: Today’s Female Consumers…Who She Really is; Why She Really Buys. It’s a long title for a book that I think is a wake-up call about who today’s female consumer lives both online and offline.

Check out the other books I recommend by clicking here.

My congrats to Kimberly-Clark for winning the coveted 2008 Visionary Award for SpaSensials, a fantastic innovative product!

SpaSensials was one of six finalists at the VISION 2008 Consumer Products Conference, organized by INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry. I was honored to champion this innovation while I worked at Kimberly-Clark, and am proud of the entire SpaSensials team for its great work!

If you’re not familiar with SpaSensials, click here to learn more about this amazing at-home spa treatment consisting of intensive moisturizing and conditioning socks and gloves.

It’s a product geared toward women who love the softness of a spa manicure and pedicure, without the salon prices. Advanced technology helps the intensive conditioning formula in SpaSensials products to quickly and effectively absorb into the skin. The nonwoven material keeps moisturizers on the inside, next to the skin.

Kimberly-Clark had some tough competition, and there were some great new innovative consumer products in the contest. The other five finalists were:

1. Curity Brand Nursing Pad, Covidien
(formerly Tyco Healthcare Retail Group) redesigned its nursing pad into a three-dimensional lemon shape that provides a more discreet fit.

It has a thinner fluff pulp/SAP core for improved dryness and comfort as well as a tissue layer on the top and bottom to better contain the core.

2. Do-Rite Disposable Dog Diapers, Do-Rites
Do-Rites are nonwoven disposable diaper/garments that are fashionable and also provide the protection of a disposable diaper, without looking like one.

3. PowerTex Glass Cleaner, Ecolab
With applications in both consumer and institutional products, this system offers an environmentally responsible spray bottle cleaning system that uses a chemically impregnated nonwoven “sleeve,” a trigger sprayer with a specially designed dip tube system and a bottle.

4. OMop Dry Sweeper Cloths, Method Products
The OMop Dry Sweeper Cloths are disposable dry sweeper cloths made from 100% PLA (Poly-Lactic Acid), a plastic derived from corn, and are designed to be used on a custom sweeping tool.

5. Consumer Shopping Bags, Reliance Industries (India)
These reusable shopping bags are made of reverse printed and laminated BOPP film on a polypropylene nonwoven and are designed to replace conventional paper bags and cotton cloth bags in the grocery and retail market.

Here’s a great example of how Open Innovation partnerships deliver new opportunities for success. Avon Products, Inc. has teamed up with award-winning television host and best-selling author with Suze Orman. The renowned personal finance expert will serve as a Special Personal Finance Advisor to the company’s sales reps, offering them money management advice and strategies for success.

What a creative way to stimulate Avon’s corporate culture!

As part of the partnership, the company has created an “Ask Suze” mailbox feature on its intranet site so Avon reps and employees can submit personal questions to Orman for individualized advice and guidance. Critical financial management tools will also be provided to determine FICO scores, create a will and trust, evaluate insurance and guard against identity theft.

Orman will also be featured at key events, webinars and taped webcasts, which speaks to the needs of today’s tech-savvy “Alpha Mom.” (If you haven’t read any of my previous posts on this subject, click here and here to read up on who Alpha Mom is and how advertising gurus are cashing in on this key marketing segment.)

The partnership is the first of its kind in the direct selling industry, and was formed to advance Orman’s and Avon’s shared missions to provide financial empowerment to women–in this case, 500,000 Avon representatives in the U.S., and eventually to representatives around the world.

Avon had conducted a worldwide opinion poll of women in 16 countries in early 2007, and the findings overwhelmingly showed that worries about money were at the top of the list of women’s concerns. “Having enough money to live right and pay the bills” was cited by women as the number-one factor that would change their lives for the better.

One of the trends I’ll talk more about in 2008 is the movement toward eco-friendly consumer products. Our “alpha mom” is beginning to demand household cleansers that she trusts are not only safe for her home and her family, but won’t deplete the budget. One company is filling that need in a big way:

Clorox is rolling out a series of natural, biodegradable household cleaners called Green Works to its $4.8 billion family of cleaning and household products. Known for making bleach a household cleaning product more than a century ago, Clorox is the first major consumer products firm to launch such a line. Now the company has a chance to move green cleaning products beyond the niche of Whole Foods-type stores and into the wider world of Wal-Marts and suburban supermarkets.
As part of this week’s product launch, Clorox is also introducing a nationwide advertising campaign for Green Works. The products - which include a general purpose cleaner, window cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, dilutable cleaner and bathroom cleaner – are now available in 24,000 stores nationally, including Safeway and Wal-Mart.

Clorox makes three brands of conventional all-purpose cleaners - Pine-Sol, Clorox Clean-Up and Formula 409. Because Clorox has several big brands that consumers know and trust. This latest move will definitely break down barriers for consumers who might think that natural products don’t work, they’re expensive, and you have to go to special stores to get them.

While the overall $2.7 billion market for household cleaning products isn’t growing, the so-called Green niche is. Sales of natural cleaning products rose by 23 percent between 2006 and 2007, according to SPINS, a market research and consulting firm for the natural products industry. Clorox’s own research concludes that almost half of all consumers would be interested in natural cleaning products if they were as effective as traditional ones.

This product line is at least 99 percent natural, biodegradable, nontoxic, made from plant- and mineral-based ingredients rather than petroleum, and not tested on animals. The new Green Works products will carry the logo of the Sierra Club. Clorox’s commitment to Green Works - the company’s first new brand in 20 years - is the latest evidence that environmentally-friendly products are going more mainstream.

Is your company speaking to moms? One of my favorite topics to blog about is the Alpha Mom, and as I’ve said before, an Alpha Mom is an amazing woman. She isn’t necessarily wealthy, but she does control 85 percent of the household spending.

I like how nicely Gina Robison-Billups, the president of Moms In Business Network, sums it up: “Mothers influence everything we do…from what we wear, to what we eat, to what we drive. Because of their influence and purchasing power, moms are one of the most powerful economic forces in the world.”

Politicians are also trying to woo Alpha Moms, much as Bill Clinton appealed to “soccer moms” in the 1990s. A new bi-partisan MomVote.com website is targeting this massive audience, and was created after several 2008 presidential candidates asked for her help in reaching contemporary mothers.

On the corporate side, one marketing firm learned that 70 percent of these moms feel that companies are not doing a good job speaking to them. I think they’re just not speaking in the right language.

So what is the official Alpha Mom language and ways to communicate? Check out these facts:

• 80% of moms have watched an online video in the last week
• 87% of moms read blogs
• 90% of mothers use the same products at home and the office
• 5 million moms own their own business
• 88% of mothers refer to themselves as household CFO

Alpha Moms have their own unique way of communicating with one another. They are one of the greatest influencers in word of mouth marketing. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), the likelihood of moms telling others of a positive business experience or enjoyable product is 90-95 percent. In addition to that, busy working mothers rely heavily on the recommendations of other busy moms when investigating products and services to buy.

In other words, forward-thinking, innovative companies can’t afford to miss the target with the largest consumer group in the U.S.