Targeting
the upscale
Jewish consumer
is now
a huge business.

The number of kosher food
products more than doubled in
10 years, with much of that
increase In exotic gourmet Items
intended for an upscale
consumer.

BARBARA PASH SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

of so long ago, Sallie
Abelson used to get
complaints that some
of her products were
"too Jewish." Ms.
Abelson is president
of Contemporary De-
signs, an Iowa com-
pany that makes games, toys, books,
gifts and novelty items, from "Yid-
dishe Cup" coffee mugs to memo pads
that cheerily declare "Chai There!"
Ms. Abelson, whose products are
sold in retail and Judaica stores
around the country as well as con-
gregational gift shops, especially
heard from Reform congregations in
the South, which objected to Hebrew
on the products.
She doesn't get those kinds of com-
plaints anymore. Now, Ms. Abelson,
whose company is one of perhaps 10
such specialized businesses in the
country, sees "a big increase in things
like decorations for Chanukah, in
baby clothes that say `Shayna Punim.'

What I'm noticing is that I can offer
more products and more expensive
products."
Ms. Abelson's observations are on
target, other experts say. The last few
years have seen an explosion of eth-
nic target marketing, also known as
micromarketing and niche market-
ing. Begun about a decade ago as an
effort by manufacturers and retailers
to more effectively reach their audi-
ences, this type of focused versus
mass marketing has taken off for two
reasons: the highly competitive busi-
ness climate and the resurgence of
ethnic pride.
David Koch calls it the "Roots syn-
drome," a reference to the popular
book and TV series.
Mr. Koch is president of the Joseph
Jacobs Organization, a New York City
advertising agency that specializes in
the Jewish market, the oldest but now
not the only such agency in the coun-
try. "The melting pot idea is out and
ethnicity is in," he says. "People want
their children to know their heritage."

Among Ameri-
can Jewry, Mr.
Koch sees signs of
ethnic pride in
statistics, such as
the increasing
number of Jews
who attend a
Passover seder
even though,
he notes, "they
may not be
particularly
religious the
rest of the
year."
Sallie Abelson founded
her company in 1977 to produce
Jewish learning materials like games.
She attributes its growth to a "desire
and pride to identify with Judaism."
To commemorate life cycle events like
b'nai mitzvah and births, her line of
large, colorful certificates, with He-
brew and English lettering, is meant
to be framed and displayed. "Jews,
many of whom are now third-gener-

Photos by Craig Terkowitz

