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Building Your Marketing Foundation

CHAPTER 2

The Marketing Mindset

The best marketers are sensitive to cultural trends. A skilled marketer is a bit of a cultural anthropologist—she loves to watch how people do things, asks why they do the things they do, and creates products and services that can make a person’s life easier. Marketers must not only identify cultural trends, but also develop implications of these trends and determine how these implications might alter how a product interacts with and relates to consumers.

Societal trends

The first part of understanding your market is understanding what broad social trends may affect it. Below are some major trends you should be attuned to as a marketer.

• Family fragmentation: Divorce rates remain at high levels. Working mothers with young children are now common. According to the U.S. Census Population Survey, single parent households increased by 27 percent between 1970 and 1994. About half of American children live in homes without their natural fathers. Only 20 percent of American families sit down to dinner together.

• Workplace/technological dynamics: Corporate downsizing is a constant, while freelancing and working part-time are more common. Technology’s evolution has produced advances in cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), scanners, faxes, e-mail and instant messaging. The result is a mobile office, where workers can never truly be “off the clock.” In fact, devotees of the Blackberry, a popular accessory that combines a cell phone with an address book and e-mail function, liken it to an addiction, where they are constantly checking e-mail and text messaging throughout the day and night.

• Privacy and piracy: The phrase “identity theft” has become a common term in our collective vocabulary, and one that strikes fear in people. As an increasing part of people’s lives happen online (banking, shopping, emailing, entertaining), more and more information about us is available

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online too. Scam artists find ways to capture this information and use it to apply for credit cards, tap into bank accounts and wreak havoc in general. Computer software packages that check for such intrusions are brisk sellers, and e-mail marketers must comply with strict regulations to keep people’s private e-mail addresses just that—private. Caller ID is a standard feature on today’s telephones, and in turn many people are masking their phone number so that the caller ID feature can’t read it!

• Salad bowl: The term “melting pot” used to refer to the increasing ethnic and religious diversity found in the United States. “Melting pot” implies that distinct cultures are being pushed together and forced to conform to standards. America now publicly embraces diversity and claims that all people can live together peacefully. There is a rise in the number of multi- ethnic celebrities and supermodels, and fashion, culinary, and musical tastes from cultures ranging from China to India to Mexico have made their way into the American mainstream.

Consumer buying trends

Societal trends lead to consumer trends—ways in which consumer behavior can be analyzed. Product development is driven by consumer trends. Twenty years ago, no one craved a “sport utility vehicle.” Now SUVs are all the rage with posturing motorists tackling the wilds. Recently, consumers have gone gaga over fruit and vanilla scents. Changing customer needs and whims means brand groups must constantly monitor their own market share and product, and the innovations of their competitors.

Product development managers live in horror of missing out on the Next Big Thing. At the same time, sinking company resources into chasing a short- lived fad means career disaster. To help divide the blips from the long-term consumer trends, marketers must pay attention to developments in fields such as nutrition and public safety. Technological innovations, such as the development of a new fabric like Polartec or Tencel, can also effect lasting changes in consumer behavior. Though R&D scientists make these breakthroughs, it is up to brand teams to bring them to the market, devising the types of products to use the new technology, and deciding how to sell the public on the new offering. As with societal trends, we will give some examples of consumer trends.

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Convenience

Whether it is because they are increasingly busy or because they’d rather be doing other things, consumers demand a quick and painless shopping experience.

• Starbucks and McDonalds are introducing their own convenience cards— cards that hold value and provide a quick way to pay for products.

• Online bill payment is becoming more common, and consumers save time by not having to write checks, address envelopes, find stamps and remember to drop off the mail.

• Delivery options abound, with many local supermarkets offering home delivery

Stress relief

Stress is the root of all evil. Although that’s a bit of an exaggeration, today’s consumers feel stressed out by their jobs, finances, and family. Products that promise stress relief are more popular now than ever.

• Aromatherapy and scented candles sell briskly • Holistic therapies such as acupuncture and osteopathy are becoming more

mainstream • Yoga and meditation are more popular now than ever (in 2003, over 20

million Americans practiced some form of yoga, according to WebMD) • Greater number of people taking anti-depressants

High quality, low price

American consumers are more demanding than ever. They seek out “better products, better quality and better taste at a competitive price,” according to Brandweek. And everyone wants a bargain—consumers do their research to find the best deals on many products they buy.

• IKEA furniture • Home Depot • Costco • Wal-Mart • Target

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Ego gratification

People want to feel special, and companies are catering to their egos by personalizing an increasing array of products, and offering consumers the chance to make their own specific products

• iPod • Sneakers and athletic jerseys • Dell computers • Jo Malone perfumes—combine scents to find your favorite

Forever young

Both women and men are seeking more ways to halt or at least slow the aging process. Growing old gracefully isn’t seen by much of society as a positive attribute, and people are doing things later in life.

• Cosmetic surgery is more common, with patients having multiple procedures and starting at a younger age

• Wrinkle-preventing sunscreen is an ingredient in a growing number of products

• Women in their late 40s are bearing children

Do-it-yourself design

A man’s home is his castle, and if he can learn easy and inexpensive ways to decorate it, all the better. Reality shows that document home makeovers for the lucky participants are plentiful, as are magazines that bring interior decorating to the masses and stores that show you how to do it yourself.

• Domino Magazine • Trading Spaces television show • Home Depot • Pottery Barn

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