Trend Influence Continues to Grow with Three New Hires

ATLANTA – March 6, 2009 – Trend Influence, the brand innovation agency, today announced three new hires in strategy, industrial design and operations to support the company's growing client roster.

"We're happy to see our team continue to grow, in spite of the poor economic climate, said Richard Leslie, President. "In times like these, brands are actively seeking the added value that our cross functional teams provide. Research, Brand and Business Strategy, coupled with Industrial and Identity Design provide incredible value in this current climate of shrinking marketing, research and innovation budgets. We continue to seek out the best and brightest to help us to push the limits on our value proposition as an agency. We are excited to welcome Lindsay, Justin and Reagan to the team."

New team members include:

Lindsay Williams Bellasi as Director, Brand Innovation. Lindsay joined Trend Influence from Zyman Group. She is skilled in developing research methodologies, conducting fieldwork and is bilingual in Spanish. Prior to Zyman, she was with Grupo Mas where she worked on the 2006 Yankelovich MONITOR Multicultural Marketing Study. Lindsay spent three years in Argentina for McCann Relationship Marketing and later for McDonald's. She also worked for the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in Latin America where she specialized in marketing to low income consumers in Brazil and India. Lindsay received her MBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory and was awarded the Roberto C. Goizueta Latin America Scholarship, served as president of the Hispanic Business Association, and was presented with the Zyman Institute of Brand Science award for excellence in Marketing for her class. In her role with Trend Influence, she will lead a variety of brand strategy and innovation initiatives bringing a evolved rigor to our processes and methodologies.

Justin Arsenault, Industrial Designer. Originally hailing from California, Justin originally came to Georgia to attend Savannah College of Art and Design. While at SCAD he won an internship with Procter and Gamble which lead to his adoption of an intense research based design philosophy. Graduating with a B.F.A in Industrial Design has enabled him to excel at many different design tasks from Brand Identity to complete Product Development of complex items such as appliances. In his role at Trend Influence, Justin provides critical design input on research structure providing the client teams at companies such as Navistar, LG Electronics and Coca-Cola with a much more actionable deliverable. By supporting the cross functional teams in identification of knowledge gaps and strategic opportunities for brand and product resonance through design, Justin adds another dimension to the agency as a whole.

Reagan Schmidt, Operations. Reagan joins Trend Influence from a media migration company, VidiPax, LLC where she served as the Finance, Contracts and Administration Manager. Regan earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Western International University and in her role with Trend Influence, she will lead or support various financial, human resource, team and location support initiatives.

Trend Influence is a brand innovation agency that identifies future product and brand opportunities. The team is comprised of consumer anthropologists, business and brand strategists, product innovators and creative designers who make brands more relevant to their constituents by delivering contextual solutions to brand challenges. Clients include Charles Schwab, The Coca-Cola Company, Levi Strauss, LG Electronics, Navistar and Toyota. Trend Influence is a division of Northstar Research Partners, a full-service research consultancy with offices in Atlanta, Toronto, London, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Detroit.