Hey! Let's Journey Into The American Middle Class!

They are the hot topic of the news and blogs…the American Middle Class.

And the picture painted is one of the working class parents, two kids, dog and cat living in that 3 bedroom-2 bath suburban tract home.

We hear about how they work day-in – day-out to strive to pay off their credit cards, make the house payment and get dinner on the table to feed the family.

The media, politico and marketing mavericks love to craft and fuel simple, digestible stereotypes of the human diversity that comprises society.

Too much of the time, we sit behind our desks and lean on those same stereotypes.

Get a load of some of these new American Middle Class stats…
• More Millenniums and GenXers make up the American Middle Class than Boomers and Matures
• More than two-thirds of the American Middle Class believes that they are better off compared to their parents when they were the same age a generation ago
• Nearly twice as many of the American Middle Class say that they are “living comfortably” as the number of Middle Class Americans “barely getting by”
• Nearly five times as many the Americans place higher importance on having free time and having children than being wealthy
• Only 38% of Middle Class America favors the current stimulus package now up for Senate review and vote…down from just over 50% a week ago!

So is there more to Middle Class America than Joe The Plumber?

Just last night I had one of those “aha experiences” that open up how we think and how we view the changes taking place around us.

I am currently taking a class at Emory University that explores modern day cultures and is held once a week at one of the area restaurants.

Last night, I sat across the table from a very fascinating young lady who is an instructional text writer for one of the software companies in our fair city of Atlanta.

She has a college degree in finance and lives in a townhouse in one of the fashionable suburban Atlanta neighborhoods.

She works daily with technical programmers and watches how they load and interact with software programming and then translates their actions and process flow into instructional text.

Last week she completed a 45-page manual in less than three days!

Whew!

What is interesting about this person is that she is part of what we term the “American Middle Class” with an income that is nearly the median reported in 2008 – about $52,000 a year.

I don’t know about you…but when I get out from behind my desk and get out and dwell with the real people behind the labels, I glean some cool insights and perspectives!

Cool insights and perspectives that generate consumer interest, cultivate brand loyalty and drive dollars to the bottomline!

Numbers and text can reveal some things…but there’s nothing quite like joining up with the change agents themselves!

So to kick off 2009 right, we are launching a new website this week where others can come and hop on the bus with us on the field trips and cultural anthropology digs among the trend-setters and trend-benders that are driving market change!

The new site is www.heyletsjourney.com

Check it out… And our first journey is into the communities, lives, headsets and heartbeats of Middle Class America!

See who really makes up what we label as the American Middle Class.

Come meet up with the “Young Pioneers,” “Blue Chip Homesteaders” and “Intown Rooted Classics”!

Click on the Videocasts and check out their dreams, passions and perspectives.

Let us know what issues and cultures you want to explore more.

Best yet, call us and join us out in the field and just like the website says…

Hey! Let’s Journey! ... www.heyletsjourney.com