Prime Time Entertainment Of Coupling And Setting Down Roots

While watching House Hunters International on HGTV tonight, I got to see a promotion for a new show soon to premiere.

As soon as I saw the promo, I decided that it was important to use it as the lead-in for this Blog posting.

Most of my evenings in the city are spent attempting to relax and watch a bit of television. 

More times than not, I ended up watching television and then taking what I see and adding it into the mix of the projects I might be completing.

Tonight is no different.

In the last week, I have made six presentations about the character of Atlanta neighborhoods, their projected five-year growth, their demographics and their lifestyle mix.

When I ask area business people, folks I sit next to in coffee shops, area politicians and even fellow marketing consultants what percentage of the local area population is made up of the conventional family with kids, at least two-thirds of the responses voiced are guesses of 50% or more.

No question that Baby Boomers made more babies.  Also no question that those babies did not leave the nest for good as we might say is normal. 

Then again, Baby Boomers are never known for their normalcy.

GenXers represent the core base of the stereotype of the family...at least for the last 15 years or so.  In this calendar year, the leading edge of the GenXers turns 48 years old. 

We must always remember that…

#1 – The average size of the U.S. household is very much anchored around two kids or less.

#2 – GenXers are the smallest generational group in the U.S.

Hence, the number of kids in the U.S. has been shrinking along with the percentage of the U.S. made up of households with kids.

Singles, couples and empty-nesters as a group on "non-kid households" now makes up more than two-thirds of the U.S. population and is actually growing.

But… the next generation that I write about a lot – the Millennials – is the next change agent of U.S. culture.

The hot American Dream is all about getting coupled (note that I did not say married) and buying the first house.

Shows that range the mix from First Time Homebuyers to Say Yes To The Dress to I Found The Gown to Marriage Under Construction are all centered on the Millennials as they move from single-hood to couple-hood.

The new show on HGTV will be about…no surprise... couples coming together and getting a house just in time for couple-hood.

Remember… the show is on HGTV and if the show was grounded solely on marriage in the conventional setting, many of the film and host crew would boycott the set.

Here in Atlanta, the hottest real estate area is a neighborhood called Ashford Park.  It is littered with singles, couples, hitched and newly marrieds. 

Many business leaders believe that the conventional mom-pop-two-kids-dog-and-cat family represents more than half of the area. 

It represents just less than 23%.  Singles and couples account for more than three out of every four households.

Not only are Millennials re-scripting career development, work hours, leisure time, communications, the definition of “friends”… but they are now emerging as next wave of setting down roots and carving out their own character of neighborhood and home.

I preach this to bankers and pediatric hospitals.

I preach this to home designers and retailers.

I preach this to grocery stores and QSR restaurants.

 The American landscape and couple-hood is going through a major change right now. 

If you still are featuring pictures of the ideal mix from 1990s and first few years of the 2000s… your brand is WAY behind the times. 

The Jesus Marketing Message Might Be Of Value

What I have preached for years is wrong. 

Not all consumers want to be in control.

There are two types of consumers now out in the marketplace… those who actively define their needs and then emotionally seek out products, services and brands that deliver against the need… and those who follow the leader and do as told.

For years, I preached to my clients… and wrote about it this blog… that the old business model of build it and the consumers would come buy it is dead.

That is not totally true.

I got into a debate with two media reps this past week. 

One works for a radio station and the other a newspaper. 

I was working with each of the two in the development of an interactive web strategy campaign.

When I shared with each rep the mechanics of a very niche targeted approach to reach a client’s best opportunity consumer, each of the two reps voiced very strong defense, and voiced it quickly, that they were very uncomfortable with the approach.

Why the discomfort?

Because the amount of people reached would be very limited and that was totally against their model of effective marketing strategy.

I asked each one if they truly believed that if a marketer banged away their message among a broad reach of audience groups multiple times that the recipients of the messages would walk just like ZOMBIES and go buy the product.

They both said, “yes, that’s how the marketplace works… that’s what we are taught and that is how we are trained to sell media.”

Okay.

In the past, I have placed blame on the professors who teach advertising in college. 

But… now, I cannot place total blame on the professors.

These are the folks who watch the ZOMBIES in the CarMax ads follow the word “Start” on the ground and then look up at the CarMax sales guy.

These are the same folks who relish the banks and investment companies where they can just hand over their savings and the banks and investment companies will make them millionaires.

These are the ZOMBIES who voted in a presidential candidate that very openly believes that the federal government knows better how to spend dollars.

And these are the ZOMBIES who believe that Bloomberg, the NYC Mayor will guide them on what to best eat and drink. 

I rest my case… there is a portion of the consumer marketplace that have run from the process of thinking and now, have elected to simply follow whatever they are told to do. 

To be honest, I publish this blog in the hopes that any prospective clients that visit our website and read the blog realize that we do make moral choices regarding what type of brands and organizations we refuse to entertain.

I remember back in my college days that the ad and marketing professors would lecture about business ethics and they asked the class if anyone had an issue with taking on a tobacco or alcohol client.

One of my professors asked the class if we would even entertain taking on a GOP political candidate or pro-life or church group.

Just so that blog readers know, we have worked with several alcohol candidates, the Baptist Sunday School Board and a mix of GOP, DNC and Indy politicians. 

We have not and will not work with a tobacco company. 

We once did some consulting for a condom manufacturer… but in the end, it was really not as fun as it could have been. 

We were asked to evaluate the use of colors.  We came back and said that the candidate should consider cartoon characters.

The client thought we were too crazy and declined to hire us.

In addition to my distaste for the ZOMBIE Followers… I also refuse to work with companies and brands that capitalize on it for moral reasons. 

No product… no service… no cause… and God forbid… no politician is of any value if they dig so low as to take on the ZOMBIE marketing approach.

Having blog posted all of these thoughts, there is one other observation I will share… when there are ZOMBIES… there just might be opportunity to evangelize and preach a born-again experience.

We just celebrated Easter and Jesus and his message of salvation.

There are elements of both Rome and the Jewish leadership back then that is very similar to the MBA Empire and Corporate leadership of today.

Jesus’ message centered around situational morality and individual accountability. 

Marketing and branding today boils down to the same base…especially given the rise of the consumer ZOMBIES.  

The New Chic And Trendy

The “File-Tax-Time” is quickly approaching. 

Not only have I filed both my Uncle Sam and state tax returns… the taxes were filed electronically and I wait with bated breath to get refunds this year.

YEAH.

I start this blog off with the topic of filing taxes because taxes are more in their prime this year than ever before in the U.S.

Washington leadership grabs into the pockets of whomever, whenever and for whatever amount they can get their hands on.

Washington is one of the markets in the U.S. that has not experienced any housing slump.

I will put $100 on the table that there is a behavior relationship between those two variables I just cited.

This morning at the neighborhood Starbucks I visit regularly in the city, a friend of mine in the banking business came and sat at the community table with me.

He’s an investment portfolio advisor. 

A young lady came and sat at the table shortly after my friend arrived.

The young lady worked for a custom clothing retailer that literally custom designs and makes clothes for folks.

I asked her how much would a suit cost for a banker friend like mine sitting next to her. She replied that they had four levels of design and materials and a suit from their “budget” level would cost my friend $899.

When she left, I asked my banker buddy if he was going to call and order a suit.

He quickly replied…”No way.”

He went on to say… “I just cannot even begin to think of spending money like that on a suit.  I shop the sales and get very nice suits for much less than that amount.”

I am not a banker… nor do I wear suits.  So I quickly added that the “Chaps” branded sweater I was wearing was purchased at Kohl’s and cost $14.99 and the nice cotton button-down dress shirt I was wearing was from WalMart and cost $7.99. 

His reply was the reason why I had to carve out time this afternoon and post this blog.

He said… “Very cool.”

My morning reading at the Starbucks each morning is the Wall Street Journal while I sip on my cup of “small, regular coffee”… I refuse to incorporate the Starbucks-lingo in my language set.

There were three WSJ articles that prompted this blog.

The first one was showcased on the first page.  It was all about how the Millennial Generation debt is actually going down and that Millennials are more “budget-sensitive” than initially thought to be.

The Millennials are running up less debt on their credit cards… the lowest noted in 15 years… and are more hesitant to make a purchase without making sure it fits their budget.

No question that Millennials are quick to wise-up… or at least pay attention to what the apps tell them on their Smart Phones or their buds post on Facebook!

The second article was all about how JC Penney sales continue to drop off the cliff and that regularly scheduled discount sales are coming back more while the “chic designer in-store racks” may not roll out as fast.

Its funny how chic designer store racks can make it in Target, but not in JC Penney. 

Something in my gut says it’s hard to make tried and true… hip and cool.  Sears continues an uphill climb too. 

Maybe simply going to a mall is nor long chic and cool.

There are also some folks saying that the ex-Apple JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson might be the issue.

By the way, when you Google Ron Johnson he comes up on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia posts that Ron still resides in California and jets back and forth on a company jet several times a week to his office in Plano, Texas. 

If Ron Johnson hired EXPERIENCE to help him, my first suggestion would be for Ron to ax the corporate jet and get on a Greyhound bus on his next jaunt to his California McMansion. 

Back to the main purpose of this blog post.

The third article I read is what prompted me to shift around my schedule today and carve out time to write this blog.

The article has the headline:  “IKEA Plans A Hotel Brand.”

IKEA walks a very different path than that of JC Penny or Sears. 

In some of the great Canadian and English designer magazines I get, many of the million dollar (ala pound) trendy estates feature IKEA furniture and cabinets.

The new IKEA Hotel Brand is not going to have IKEA furniture, but instead be constructed with some very novel construction techniques and prefab rooms that will be stacked together onsite. 

What IKEA is bringing to the table is the innovation of modular design, engineering and assembly.

Moxy Hotels is their new brand name. 

IKEA is partnering with Marriott to build the Moxy Hotels in Europe and North America.  

The CEO of Marriott is quoted in the article saying, “This is a fresh new take on the economy segment.”

What strikes me in all of what I have shared is that the innovative, creative, entrepreneurial drive of the marketplace embraces changes, reconfigures the dynamics of convention and reinvents ways to move business forward.

No question that the half-empty glass of living on a budget is now a day-to-day foundation of many, many different generational and income groups.

Finding ways to create the chic, designer look for pennies on the dollar is driving the programming and content of many of the top hits on TV and top sites on the Web.

This is not a temporary market glitch.

And this does translate to gloom and doom. 

The Washington politicians and academic theorists can pontificate all they want and the CEOs and corporate marketing leadership can dwell in the past as long as the stockholders tolerate it.  

What is chic and trendy is changing fast.

The entrepreneurs that not only just accept it, but also embrace it and make it cool will be the winners. 

Those are the folks I want to partner with as clients. 

Where And What Is Driving Growth

Many of you know that I spend a good amount of time delving into the neighborhood dynamics of many cities across the U.S. and Canada.

With in-house access to the latest and most in-depth U.S. and Canada Census, lifestyle dynamics, business stats, tax revenue, retail sales projections and housing insights, I end up knowing interesting aspects of communities even before I get there.

Yesterday morning while I was having my morning coffee at a neighborhood café, I ended up making commentary on a nearby conversation.  

One of the individuals, a Gen X guy, was telling an empty-nester couple that Buckhead was the highest income ZIP Code in the State of Georgia.

He was wrong.  John’s Creek is the highest income ZIP in Georgia.

One of my favorite stats is the percentage of the population of households with kids age 18 or less.  Nationally, it is exactly one-third of households in the U.S. … a percentage that right now continues to decline. 

If you asked the average Joe out there what percentage of households have kids in the U.S. and their local communities, most will say at least 50% and some speculate as much as 60-70%. 

I have often wondered just how they think those kids originated.

This morning’s Wall Street Journal has a great editorial that showcases some of the latest and greatest regions of growth here in the U.S.

The writer refers to these regions of growth as geographic corridors.

There are four of them:

** The Great Plains

Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming

** The Intermountain West

Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Colorado

** The Third Coast

The Gulf regions of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida

** The Southeastern Industrial Belt

Region from Birmingham to Nashville to Atlanta to Charlotte to Raleigh

Not only is the population growing in these areas, but so is the younger, college-educated, technical trained working population.

The number of people with college degrees grew at a remarkable 50% in Austin and Charlotte and by 30% in Tampa, Houston, Atlanta and Dallas while barely moving the needle in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

Cites such as Raleigh, Charlotte, Austin, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Denver enjoy the fastest growth of ZOOMERS, the generation that is emerging next after Millennials while the under age 15 population is on the decline in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

Energy, manufacturing and agriculture are the driving industries and Asian firms are swarming into South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. 

Athens, Georgia where I reside on the weekends is soon to celebrate the opening of the Caterpillar manufacturing plant that is moving back to the U.S. from Japan.

I cited in the 2013 TRENDCAST the emergence of the Working Class as a major driver of the consumer marketplace.  My prediction is coming true.

The 2012 election was a surprise to many, but the dynamics driving its outcome are more complicated that what we hear preached from White House pulpit.

The Working Class that is emerging is a blend of the technology-trained (note, I did not say the tech geeks), the applied-education trained (note, I did not say the educational elite) and the next wave of the American workforce (note, I did not say the unionized workforce). 

The Working Class embraces opportunity and self-driven success.  They aspire to do better. They are a “get-it-done and move-on to the next challenge” mindset.

Part of the voter base that drove the elections this fall engaged in a simple, non-complicated, non-elusive message… whether it was true or not!

The complexity of the GOP platform, their candidate and their campaign graphics did not connect with the Working Class and as a result, they failed to win.

The population numbers I work with always make good roundtable chat.

The geographic corridors of growth will fuel entrepreneurship and innovation.    

The Working Class will likely drive the future success of marketing brands, communities and politicians that grasp just who they are and what drives them each morning when they get up and begin a new day.

The guy that wrote this morning’s Wall Street Journal editorial is a professor of “urban futures.” 

He concludes his editorial with the following…

“The corridor’s growing success is a testament to the resiliency and adaptability of the American economy. 

It also challenges the established coastal states and cities to reconsider their current high-tax, high-regulation climates if they would like to join the growth party.”

Interesting. 

I will end this block with the following…

The emerging Working Class is a testament to the resiliency and adaptability of the human drive to seek out betterment and aspiration.

It also challenges the established corporate, business and marketing leadership to reconsider their self-declarations or brand value and brand doldrums if they would like to join up with the evolving growth marketplace of 2013 forward.

The Drive Of Innovation

Not sure if any of the folks reading this blog live near a college or university that issues annual awards for the best marketing programs. 

Here in Atlanta, Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business issues what they call the MAX Awards.

It would not surprise me if those of you located in the Atlanta had not heard of the MAX Awards.

To be honest, I am not a big follower either.

However, the MAX Awards and the 2013 nominees are featured in this week’s Atlanta Business Chronicle.  The pub even allocated an entire sectional insert dedicated to the nominees and background of the event.

Now I want to say right upfront before I go any further in this blog that the firms nominated are probably all staffed with genuinely good people and that they work hard doing their work.

Six Georgia companies are finalists. 

They were selected by the Georgia State University Roundtable that according to the press release sent out by the college, “is comprised of senior marketing executives from top Atlanta companies.”

The release also goes on to say that “the MAX Awards program is considered the most prestigious marketing awards event in Georgia” and that the award “honors the best in new products, services and marketing innovations.”

Wow. 

When I first saw the front-page teaser in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, I thought there must be some astounding stories to read about in the insert section.

I could not wait to read about brands that were embracing those trends highlighted in the EXPERIENCE 2013 TRENDCAST Report like the reign of the Millennials, the rebirth of Americana, the rise of the Working Class and the anchoring of Kitchen-Central.

Shoot, there are probably some very innovative, truly “out-of-the-box,” internet and social media embracing brand stories that would make it to the final six. 

Here are the six finalists:

·      AirWatch and the AirWatchSecure Content Locker

·      FLIR Integrated Systems and the Mobile Surveillance Capability

·      The Georgia Conservancy and the Gamification-based Non-Profit Membership Drive

·      Georgia-Pacific and the Brawny Paper Towel’s Wounded Warriors Project

·      Kimberley-Clark and The Healthy Schools Project

·      Southwire and the Southwire Engineering Academy

Bestill my heart. 

If you visit the MAX Awards website, the home page features the MAX Award brand line “Never stop thinking.”

Note the left-brain nature of the brand line.

Guess “Never stop innovating” or “Never stop imagining” or “Never stop challenging” made it past that Atlanta senior marketing executive roundtable.

There is also a play off of the Best Buy logo and tag line that is re-scripted to read “Good Buy” with the tagline “Thank God they kept thinking.”

I am not making this up.

The speaker at the awards event might happen to be the best actress on stage.  The speaker is Spanx new CEO Laurie Ann Goldman. 

I have to give Ms. Goldman some due credit. 

There was a news story in the WSJ about two weeks ago that Spanx is coming out (no pun intended!) with a new line of products for men.

A product line like that deserves an applause.

The reason why I showcase the MAX Awareds in the blog is because its a great illustration of the business marketplace innovation headset.

There are two television commercials have emerged in the last two weeks that I must admit, I find rather depressing.

One is for Fidelity Investments that Arnold Worldwide created. 

For a while, Fidelity kind of abandoned the “green line follow it like a brainless Zombie” Arnold television ads.

But now… THEY ARE BACK. 

The second one is almost a near rip-off of the “green line” campaign that I call the “Start line follow it like a brainless Zombie” television campaign.

Its CarMax's latest campaign series. 

In fact, the one airing right now features one of the bride’s maids that leaves a wedding even before it starts and follows the line across the beach and down the streets until she arrives at a CarMax retail center. 

My bet is that girl will remain single for most of her life.

A new Change Wave is unfortunately surfacing and I am afraid to say is likely here to stay.

There is a mindlessness that no longer is kept in the closet. 

Conventional business leadership champions it.

The shallow suit stereotype of corporate marketing teams is not really much of a stereotype today.

The techie nerd of the past is hip and cool.  

The MBA marketing executive nerd of today cannot claim the same fame of the techie nerd, but rather mirrors the brainless green-line Zombie being led down the Fidelity path of corporate BIG Business.

I am committed to staying optimistic and help client-partners view the glass as half full.

Because in reality it is.

Thanks to the showcase examples of the MAX Awards, we can see first hand why innovation and the courage to truly do is a mandate to drive brands forward.   

It's All About Discovery

My New Year could not have started any better than it did this week.

While there might be a new account assignment taking place, it was not related to sales.

 Yesterday morning, I met with a creative director that works with one of my firm’s agency-partners.

Just before Christmas, this creative guy and I got on a Delta flight to the basking, resort town of Iowa City, Iowa.  (pssst… he’s making light of the destination)

The trip was a quick one. 

Both he and I had a host of other clients we had to meet with before Santa came down the chimney. 

Perhaps even more important, there was a true blizzard brewing out west that was scheduled to arrive the day our flights departed back to the sunny South.

The purpose of our trip was to do a set of roundtable focus groups to evaluate three creative concept approaches for the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

All kidding aside, Iowa City is actually a pretty cool place.  Reminded me a little bit of Athens, Georgia where I have my weekend get-away…even a little feel of Austin, Texas. 

The Cancer Center is a designated National Cancer Institute facility… NCI as the healthcare gurus call it.

I simple terms, if the facility is NCI-designated, the team there is doing some great stuff in not only treating cancer, but also they are involved in some break-through research to find the cure.

Two of the concepts we tested were nice, positive, good-feel story spots. 

The third concept we tested pushed the bar on what a medical center might conventionally consider doing.

While I try to remain very neutral in facilitating the discussion groups, I must admit that when I saw the third concept, I knew that the concept was going to garner discussion. 

I also knew that the concept would be memorable… and for many, not in a warm and fuzzy way.

When we did the groups, participants were just as my hunch was telling me… they found the other two spots to be “nice,” “positive,” and “interesting.”

But they also quickly said that the spots were very similar to other messages they see and hear about cancer.

The third concept generated commentary… both positive and negative… and the commentary started before I even asked for it.

Uniformly, the participants found the concept to be very different from most anything that they had seen.

By the time we were done with the third focus group, I was eager to hit the road and get back to the airport because the winter weather storm was moving eastward quicker than originally predicted.

Just as I was packing up, I was informed that we were going to do a fourth discussion group. 

Being snowed in for Christmas in Iowa was not something I would even begin to entertain.

I was not the happiest of campers.

Not only was there a fourth group, but we had to drive and then walk through a maze to get across campus to a room in the hospital itself to conduct it.

The fourth group was among cancer survivors and cancer patients undergoing treatment.

As soon as the participants entered the room, my perspective of life was altered. 

These folks really were battling cancer and surviving another day.

When we shared with them the different concepts, they became very focused on that third concept idea. 

They didn’t get excited about it. 

Instead they very quietly, but very personally related their own experiences of battling cancer within the context and the format of the idea.

It was one of those few times while facilitating a focus group that I had to actively hold back tears.

After we completed the group, that creative guy and I got back into the car and drove an hour east back to Moline, Illinois to board the plane back to Atlanta.

Over the course of the next couple of days, I received a string of phone calls from the creative guy. 

The client was just not sure what to do. 

The first two spots tested okay, but they were certainly the comfortable approach to take.

The creative guy was challenged.  Did he need to start over from scratch?  Did he need to combine the approaches and produce a hybrid idea? 

When I wrote up the report, I was very honest about what people said and how the spots were evaluated. 

But I also added a POV – Point-of-View – at the end of the report.

I was very direct and said that the third concept was decisively different and unique, but it hit the cord – that coveted nugget of emotional engagement – that would move their brand not only forward, but would elevate their brand to a new level of perception.

Now getting back to yesterday morning.

When I met for coffee with the creative guy, he shared with me two modified concept approaches the he had crafted around that third idea. 

He captured everything that participants and the client commented on along, but had preserved that nugget of emotional engagement.

Then he shared with me two more concept ideas in which her raised the bar on more tier. 

These two concept ideas took that nugget of emotional engagement and actually translated it directly into the context of a cancer survivor experiencing it.

I commented that all four of the “revised” concept ideas would move the client’s brand forward and emotionally capture audience engagement.

When I left that meeting, I realized very quickly why the stuff we do is of value to clients and prospects. 

How much a client spends is not what drives us in doing our job, nor what drives audience groups to seek out a brand.

It’s not about being cute and creative.  It’s not about buying media cheaper.

It’s all about discovery.

Discovering those “nuggets” … what I term the “EIP” of the brand experience – the Emotional Ignition Point … is what branding is all about.

My next blog is going to be about the drivers of discovery. 

I know that the University of Iowa is going to journey far this year. 

I am very appreciative of the opportunity to participate in part of that journey and very privileged to have the chance to team up with cool folks like that creative guy! 

ONWARD into 2013

I am writing this blog as I fly first class on a Delta Airlines flight on a Sunday afternoon. 

I am en route to Iowa… the University of Iowa… to facilitate and listen to individuals talk about cancer and the battle to be a cancer survivor.

I always applaud groups that take the time to hear how consumers perceive things before they go spend a bunch of money attempting to drive their brand forward.

As we are soon off to celebrate the Holidays with family, friends and pets, I want to take a moment and reflect some on 2012 and even more importantly, project out what will be some of the dynamics we are likely to encounter in 2013.

This past year has been an interesting year to be sure.

The U.S. re-elected its president and yet is now more divided than ever.

The Canadian economy is predicted to stall as consumer debt hits one of the highest levels on the maple leaf state’s record.

Europe struggles to unify with working economies footing the bill for the leisure economies. 

China is no longer a silent economy.  While China’s economy quickly becomes part of the global community as a whole, no one can overlook the fact that China is a major global economic agent.

Mexico and Latin America can be both a supply resource of labor along with an energy resource provider if the governments ever take a moment to rise up and see the opportunity.

Perhaps more important than the economic and political landscape are the generational changes taking place… and the lack of many businesses to fully wrap their hands around the emerging opportunities.

Perhaps the #1 force that will be driving 2013 forward is the trend I refer to as the “Millennial Springboard” in the 2013 TRENDCAST report. 

In some ways, I feel like a broken record when I get on the pulpit and preach to businesses and clients that the Millennials are not only here, but they are now crafting the world around us just as the Boomers did in the ‘60’s and the ‘70’s. 

The U.S. Census has now embraced a slightly wider age range defining the Millennial Generation (or GenYers as parts of the press and academia still refers to them) of adults (note “adults”) age 19-34 in 2013.

The leading edge of Millennials is driving business strategy and the trailing edge is soon to be out of college. 

Colleges and Universities are quickly facing the reality that the market of applicants is now on the decline… and the predicted resurgence of Millennials birthing kids gets delayed even more, thanks, in large part to the cost of raising a kid in today’s economy.

In 2013, Millennials will drive the housing market and their lifestyles will drive the crafting of home layouts and design.

They will be impacting the media world and what we interactively engage in whether it might be social, entertainment or function. 

Back in 2010, I crafted a set of what I referred to as Change Waves… trends that were not simply affecting a segment or two of the marketplace, but rather re-shaping the marketplace at large.

“Rethink and Refocus” was cited as one of the Change Waves that will drive change in how we have conventionally modeled business and personal pursuit.

Whether we individually participated in the re-election of President Obama or not, the drive to “Rethink and Refocus” will affect the outcomes of pursuit even more in the next 4-5 years ahead.

The ways in which individuals personally pursue their dreams and visions will be even less crafted around convention.

Businesses that elect to venture forward with past models will at best, see little-to-no change in their sales… and perhaps even more likely, will file Chapter 11.

In this morning’s WSJ, there is an article about Simon Malls and their “overhaul strategy” to combat declining mall shopping and vacant storefronts.

The article even notes “after decades of retail construction, the era of new-mall development in the U.S. is drawing to a close with much of the U.S. overbuilt and online shopping crimping many retailers’ grand opening plans.”

Here are a couple of sideline observations… and remember, I am writing this aboard an airplane so its not like I am spending time pursuing quantitative statistical support for these observations…

#1 -- Most of the Simon Malls are located in aging suburban neighborhoods posting little-to- no growth in the next 5 years

#2 -- Most of the population around the malls is aging with kids leaving the neighborhoods in pursuit of jobs

#3 -- Most of the brand names found in the malls are brand names that have been around for at least 25 years and are seeking out ways to "recharge" their brand platforms

#4 -- All of the malls' marketing directors that state events continue to fashion their strategy around the "mom and dad with two kids and a dog" 

Malls are a great example of a business that is facing profound challenges, but at the same time, opportunity to “Rethink and Refocus” and craft their brand experiences around the new, emerging Millennial Generation.

If Simon Malls picked up the phone and called my group today, I would welcome the chance to team up with them in crafting strategy to Rethink and Refocus…

BUT…

I would confront leadership in that phone call and ask them if they are fully ready to embrace the change and let go of convention that no longer works.

Otherwise, all of the time and energy spent would be for naught.

Many of my friends this time of year are placing their bets on what team will be winning which one of the bowl games so I will end this blog with another opportunity for readers to put some money on the table relative to Simon Malls and the challenge they face in 2013.

Here is what the president of Simon Malls said in the article about how Simon Malls is planning to move their brand forward…

“There are very few markets that aren’t already served by sophisticated retail… making what you already have as good as it can be is the best way to go.  We are planning to spend $300 million in the next two years to improve the shopping centers with expanded dining choices and movie theaters.”

Whether its “11” or “13”… I know where I am placing my money on the betting table!

ONWARD into 2013!