Trying to tap the U.S. Hispanic market?  Don’t underestimate the influence of children in Hispanic households, Doug Anderson, Vice President, Research & Development, Nielsen Consumer Panel Services, writes in the October issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.
In households where adults speak English less well, children often wield significant influence on purchase decisions, from choice of category or brand to playing the role of negotiator with vendors, Anderson notes.  Overall, two-thirds of the Hispanics in the U.S. who speak only English are children.

In the past four years, organic products have been one of the fastest growing market segments within the food industry, logging growth rates between 13% and 33%.
That trend may now be changing, according to Nielsen, which recently released data showing a slowdown in organic dollar sales and unit sales growth in the four weeks ending Sept. 6.
Dollar sales of organics grew by just 13%, while unit sales grew by 8% in the four weeks between August 9 and Sept. 6, according to Nielsen.  In contrast, dollar sales of organic products grew by …

Will the presidential elections impact Hollywood? 
If history is any guide, Democratic presidents are associated with larger box office sales growth.  From 1980 to 2007, box office sales grew by 2.8%, on average, during Democratic administrations, while average sales growth under Republican administrations was just 1%, according to research released Monday by Nielsen PreView.
Overall, in the past three decades, movie sales have grown almost three times faster during Democratic administrations than during GOP administrations, according to Nielsen.

Sales of private brands are up 10% this year — to $80.3 billion in the U.S., Nielsen reported Friday.
Private label dollar sales are being driven primarily by higher commodity pricing — especially in staple categories that are dominated by private brands. But in recent weeks, private label unit sales have also grown — a sign that consumers are starting to shift away from established brands in search of better deals.
Among private label food brands, flour (+35%), baby food (+33%), and fresh eggs (+28.2%) showed the largest dollar percent change during …

According to Nielsen, Russian consumers are among the most confident worldwide — despite the country’s high rate of inflation and an ongoing stock market crisis, The Guardian reported this week.
Consumer prices in Russia have risen by 10% so far this year, but Nielsen researchers found that most Russians are confident about the country’s job market and their personal finances. 
Of the 1,000 people in Russia surveyed by Nielsen, two-thirds said they were confident they could overcome any hardship in the second half of 2008.  Another 58% of respondents reported having good career opportunities, and …

The typical U.S. mobile subscriber sends and receives more SMS text messages than telephone calls, according to research released Monday by Nielsen Mobile. 
During the second quarter of 2008, a typical U.S. mobile subscriber placed or received 204 phone calls each month.  In comparison, the average mobile customer sent or received 357 text messages per month — a 450% increase over the number of text messages circulated monthly during the same period in 2006.

They don’t have expense accounts — or even their own income, but tweens (ages 8 to 12) are perhaps the hottest new target for U.S. cell phone operators, CNET and Forbes reported Wednesday.
Both stories noted that 46% of U.S. tweens use cellphones, but only 26% own them, according to Nielsen Mobile.
Instead, tweens are more likely to borrow their parents’ phones — when they go out with friends or take short trips.  The borrowing typically starts at age eight-and-a-half; by age 10 or 11, many tweens have their own phones, according …

British women are the target of a new marketing push that aims to prop up flagging beer sales in the UK, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Beermakers like Coors and Diageo, which owns Guinness, are hoping women, a largely untapped group of potential beer customers, will be drawn to sweeter, lighter new beers they’ve introduced. 
But that strategy alone may not be enough to boost beer sales, Graham Page of Nielsen told the Journal. 
“[Women] don’t consume the volume [of beer] — and that is crucial — that men do,” Page noted.

Mars Snackfood is introducing a new line of premium M&M’s, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The premium sweets, which have shed their traditional candy coating, come in five new flavors: mint chocolate, mocha, triple chocolate, raspberry almond, and chocolate almond. 
The Times reported that Mars hopes the new M&M’s will capitalize on the current demand for higher priced chocolate.  The story noted that Premium chocolate sales grew 17.8% for the year ended June 14, compared with 1.4% for non-premium chocolate, according to Nielsen.

U.S. consumers are buying more wine in the $9 to $12 price bracket — with sales in this range up more than 12% from last year, according to Nielsen.
Noting that trend, the Chicago Tribune recently offered tips for selecting good but inexpensive wines. 
“With the economy nose-diving and costs rising, what we all really need is a good, cheap, drink,” Bill Daley, the Tribune’s food and wine critic, wrote Wednesday.