For me, this is fortune teller time. Lately, I've gotten
several press releases that attempt to predict the future of
marketing in the US and other affluent countries. Among my
favorites:
- One emphasizes that marketers need to understand the
essence of what their brand stands for and communicate that
symbolically, not verbally.
- Another believes we're in a "post-Wal-Mart world" and
that pets rule.
- The third declares that "design" will be the leading
source of product differentiation and revenue.
Time and technology will be the biggest influences on future
marketing, declares Cheryl Swanson, managing director of Toniq,
a company focused on brand strategies. Many of us feel that we
never have enough time. We have increased the pace of our lives
so much, that we've lost touch with our biological rhythms,
because we are living at the speed of technology.
We call this influence "Survival of the Fastest" (SOF), says
Swanson. It is a direct result of our reliance on technology in
everyday life and the fact that technology has enabled us to do
things faster and faster. Technology has dramatically changed
how we live our lives and how marketers need to address us.
We have created more information from 2000 than throughout
the whole of human history. As a survival tactic, we edit out
at least 85% of the information that comes our way. To address
this consumer base, marketers must communicate with clarity and
simplicity and do it consistently across a range of media.
Humans are a sight-driven species (unlike our pets, who have
more equally developed senses), 80% of what we learn about the
world comes through our eyes. Consequently, the most powerful
marketing messages are distilled to a compelling, visual,
symbolic representation.
Companies tend to communicate their marketing messages with
lots of words that "tell the consumer" rather than
communicating symbolically in a manner that compels consumers
and ignites their interest. In the hierarchy of visual memory
(we're all primarily visual), words are remembered last. Color
is first, symbols second (logos, shapes or actual symbols),
numbers are third and words are last.
Marketers need to understand the essence of their brands:
The one thing that they stand for. Then they need to
communicate that symbolically. Keep it simple, sensory
(sensorial experiences reunite us with our biological rhythms),
empathetic (understand our time-pressed needs) and optimistic
(give us small moments of joy as we go about our day).
We are moving into a post-Wal-Mart world, asserts Wendy
Liebmann of WSL Stategic Retail. She does not predict the
demise of the largest retailer in the world. However, she is
suggesting that the way of doing business that Wal-Mart defined
over the last 20 years has changed.
Retailers have finally learned to compete in a Wal-Mart
world. Not only a few retailers as in previous years; not only
big box discounters and mid-level department stores as in
previous years, but also high-end department stores and
specialty stores. They opened early, they stacked it high, they
priced it low.
There are other factors that are shifting us into a
post-Wal-Mart world, including the consumers' desire for easier
shopping (better shoppability). They want a more enjoyable,
inviting shopping experience.
Pets have fast become the extension to many families. In our
2004 How America Shops® Macro Trends, pet supplies was the
fastest-growing of 12 Leading Indicator Categories we studied;
and by a long way.
Fashion retailers such as Coach, Burberry, Nine West,
Anthropologie, even beauty retailers such as New York's funky
Ricky's beauty supply stores, jumped right in. So too fashion
brands such as Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren that introduced
designer clothes for pooches.
Ken Hirst of Hirst Pacific, a product design and development
firm that specializes in luxury products, makes these
observations:
- Design is becoming the leading source of product
differentiation and revenue.
- Quality is on the rise. Product quality will continue to
improve. We expect to see the move toward product
customization.
- Technology products, from colored iPods to platinum
Virgin cell phones, are becoming key personal branding tools.
We expect personal tech to thrive as a standard fashion
accessory.
- We will seek new luxury products and services that allow
us to experience life in new and more self-enriching
ways.
