B. Smith sells brands: products boosted by affiliation with lifestyle maven.Not only has Barbara Smith Barbara Smith (born December 16, 1946) is an African-American, lesbian feminist[1] who has played a significant role in building and sustaining Black Feminism in the United States. , 57, proved to be a successful model, restaurant owner restaurant owner n → dueƱo/a or propietario/a de un restaurante , and entrepreneur, she's also shaping up to become one of America's top product endorsers. Since Smith has appeared on the General Mills' Betty Crocker Betty Crocker, an invented persona and mascot, is a brand name and trademark of American food company General Mills. The name was first developed by the Washburn Crosby Company in 1921 as a way to give a personalized response to consumer product questions. Cornbread & Muffin Mix package, sales have risen an impressive 22.3% in the 12-month period ending September 2006. General Mills Please help [ convert this timeline] into prose or, if necessary, a . now owns Pillsbury, and the company has placed the lifestyle doyenne's likeness on its Pillsbury brand biscuits as well. As a result, Smith's visibility has increased significantly in mainstream households and may, in turn, help bolster sales of her own company's product lines. "Between Betty Crocker Cornbread and Muffin Mix and Pillsbury biscuits, my image is on 50 million products," says Smith. "People like to connect to a personality that they believe in. [The B. Smith brand] is about home, it's about entertaining, it's about family--it's about bringing people together." Smith's message is also about staying true to her African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. heritage, yet reaching out to other cultures at the same time, says Pepper Miller, president of the Chicago-based Hunter-Miller Group, a market research and planning firm. "She has great crossover appeal because she doesn't prepare just soul food," says Miller. |
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