The Reality Of A Market In Transitional Change

Over the weekend, I watched a good amount of the Cooking Channel. 

For those of you who do not watch it, the Cooking Channel is Scripps Networks remake of Martha Stewart’s Living Network.

Its also where Scripps moved its prime time base of demonstrative cooking programming to as it elected to showcase more “contest programming” shows on Food Network.

I think I wrote a blog about a year ago about how a lot of the network leadership has sunk into the mindset of placing more value on ratings vs. more value on brand stewardship. 

Food Network and GSN (Game Show Network) are becoming more and more and more like one another. 

And the Pawn shows are now found on everything from TLC to History Channel to National Geo to TruTV.    

Enough about the lack of network brand leadership.

I watched a show that aired on Cooking Channel at noon on Saturday that is a great demonstration of what I will term a catalyst of change.

The name of the show is My Grandmother’s Ravioli hosed by a guy named Mo Rocca.  The show features grandparents cooking treasured family recipes in their home kitchens.

The Italian grandparents featured on the show struck me personally.  They reminded me a bunch of the heritage of my family roots.  The grandmother was a lot like my grandmother who actually was a professional Italian cook.

They didn’t measure the ingredients, they didn’t craft the product for the camera, and they referred to the ingredients partly in abbreviated Italian names and partly in English.

It brought back real images that I fondly remembered from my days growing up.

I was intrigued two-fold.

Several years ago, I wrote a blog about YouTube and how it was changing market perceptions of “staging” in filming and bringing to life reality TV. 

The broadcast industry reacted and two camps emerged.

One camp quickly emerged that embraced the YouTube format … in fact, actually produced shows that were comprised of nothing but video clips posting on YouTube.

Networks like MTV, SPIKE TV, VH1 and TruTV quickly integrated YouTube reality TV largely driven by the belief that the younger emerging audience group – that each network was fashioned around reaching – would quickly shift from watching reality video online to watching their network programming on the TV.

Few networks understood what was actually emerging in front of them.  Few networks ever really reached a level of the success they had envisioned.

The other broadcast industry camp believed that it was their mission to differentiate the quality of production and provide the viewership base with much richer film quality versus “that cheap stuff” being posted on YouTube.

More ad agencies posted membership in the second camp than in the first camp. After all, what could those "masses" out on the streets even begin to know about the art of filming a commercial?

And to film a commercial that cheap???

I have no idea who the catalyst of change was housed at the Cooking Channel, but someone perhaps up there in Knoxville, Tennessee got to sipping some of that Smoking Mountain Kool-Aid and ventured out with a camera in the back of the pick-up truck to produce a new television show.

What intrigues me even more was how this show might very well be a catalyst of change in we are re-rooting ourselves in the reality of just who we are and our heritage.

There was nothing contrived in the show.  Nothing staged.  No primping.  Limited special lighting.

The show captured a scenario and information set that is of value today.

As the Boomers re-discover the kitchen and Millennials experience it for the first time, Betty Crocker’s recipes are honest, real and truthful… something of a rarity in our new electronic world.

The show captured a sense of roots. 

Something that is returning whether individuals seek it out in Live-Work-Play communities or individuals are confronting as employers chuck the idea of moving teams around every two or three years.

The show captured a reality that we can place ourselves in that is believable and true.

What catapulted Archie Bunker and All In The Family was that it brought to the screen something that was not only perceived real in its staging, but more than anything, it confronted the really of what took place in many homes.

If you read the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), you cannot help but be connected with the brand and operational challenge faced by JC Penney.

I vow to write a blog about JC Penney and highlight it as a great example of what to avoid doing with a brand.

But for the purpose of this blog post, I will only use it as a great example of where reality was dismissed at the expense of staging the brand.

In today’s WSJ, there is an article about Sears and how its CEO’s push to become the mass brand for technology and entertainment is not driving sales.

My bet is that 90 days from now, that CEO will be replaced.

Speaking of being replaced, the CEO of P&G was replaced with the resurrected past-CEO of P&G.  That is also becoming an ongoing drama in the WSJ.

To P&G’s credit – and perhaps the past CEO who was ousted – a number of their household cleaning and detergent brands have been crafted to reach the emerging Millennial home-makers.

My bet is that there are many at P&G who cannot accept that there are market changes that truly challenge the conventional models that moved Consumer Package Goods brands in the 1990s.

On the surface, My Grandmother’s Ravioli is a great experience to watch.  You will learn some very genuine ways to cook great family dinners. You will also find the show to be very real and identifiable.

From a brand and business perspective, My Grandmother’s Ravioli provides a glimpse into the architecture of what is emerging in the marketplace that smart brand teams will embrace.

Ciao!

What's Really Driving Neighborhood Change

Neighborhoods change.

I am sitting in a coffee house early on Sunday evening in an Atlanta intown neighborhood called Virginia-Highland.

This is where I lived for10 years before selling my house and moving into the Brookhaven neighborhood about 4 miles to the north.

When I purchased my home back in 2001, the neighborhoods was one of the true hip and hot Atlanta ‘hoods.

Homes were being renovated, new indy coffee houses were opening up and fun, funky retail sores were staying packed well into the evenings.

While not all, much of the renovation and new retail moving in was being birthed by the Atlanta gay community and bohemian couple-hood.

It was truly a fun neighborhood to live in back then.

Now as I sit here, I cannot overlook what some refer to as the “breeders.” 

Not only have the “mom & pops” pushed out the true mom & pop shops, but they have changed what had been cool to what is now true Gen X cocoon heaven.

When I walked into the coffee house tonight, I was notified that the place would be closing down at 8pm.

“After all, tonight is a school night when parents need to spend time with kids doing home work.”

Neighborhoods do indeed change.

On the drive over here I passed by a real estate office.

They had a sign out front stating that there is a shortage of homes to sell and if a person lists one with the firm today, they would get a rebate on the commission to sell it.

In fact, that sign is communicating something that is hitting the home page of the news websites and the top news stories on the digital television sets.

There are now more folks looking to buy versus folks seeking to sell.

The news media talks a lot about the impact of economic recovery. 

Yet, what is really driving real estates sales is more an affect of a generational change wave than true economic recovery.

No question that corporate career mobility is no longer dependent on where people physically reside. Thanks to the Internet, people can work from virtually anywhere.

Physical flexibility is freeing up many businesses to adapt more quickly and operate more flexible than the past… and that’s a very good thing.

Another factor at work is that so many home-owners are still faced with appraised value of their homes and larger mortgages that they owe.  

The cost of real estates still has not recovered to pre-Great Recession price points and many of today’s homeowners purchased their homes with little-to-no down payments.

And then there’s the generational shift that’s taking place that the media simply overlooks in what they report.

The Millennials are now entering into the nest-forming life-stage. 

With more and more of the Millennials entering into their 30-something years, owning a home is their #1 goal… much more important than corporate or career commitments.

Some of the folks that I present this information to quickly come back and say that many of the homes that are selling are 3+ bedrooms in size and conclude that first time home buyers are really not what’s driving home sales.

As I share in this blog, at least once a month, I try to get out on the streets and talk with audience groups.  Dwelling behind the walls of an office quickly generates a very restrictive viewpoint of the marketplace at large.

About two weeks ago, I interviewed about three-dozen Millennials about their house hunting journeys. 

Many of those I interviewed not only talked about their goals of finding a home they could call their own and “sinking down roots,” but they also talked about finding a home that they could “grow into” over time.

A side observation… they didn’t seem to have too much of an issue with rooms sitting empty in the home right now… as long as they had space over time that they could make use of versus having to go back through the home buying search all over again.

Millennials do not plan to engage in the home search again when they decide that they are ready to make the $1 million investment in birthing a kid.

Other business folks I talk with still hold onto the belief that once the first time homebuyers elect to have kids, they will move out to the ‘burbs.

Whether it’s the frustration of the home buying and banking game or the frustration of engaging in commute traffic, Millennials are very reluctant to consider any move further out into the ‘burbs.

If in reading this blog you become more fascinated about the driving force of new home sales, I encourage you to spend time watching the HGTV, DIY, TLC, BRAVO and Food Network neighborhood, real estate and home design shows.

The vast majority of those shows center on the Millennial home-buyers.

Part of the commentary Millennials make when working with their living space is driven by a high level of expectation that what they see in home looks like what pops up on their mobile version of Pinterest. 

Other commentary is driven by what all they believe can be down with a visit to IKEA or the neighborhood flea market.

Neighborhoods do indeed change.

But so do the dynamics of the generational group moving in. 

Onward Beyond Co-habbing With The Ad Agencies

Part of change is coming to terms and accepting that it is indeed taking place and embracing it.

Howard Schultz wrote a super book that premiered a couple of years ago titled, ONWARD.  The book is about “how Starbucks fought for its life, without losing its soul.”

Schultz shares the challenges that the coffee house icon embraced in a rapidly evolving market… and a rapidly evolving organization.

I think in my reading it, I was most moved when he elected to shut down the entire chain for a day – in the middle of the week – and re-focus the core product delivery, its presentation, its packaging and its product quality.

He also goes on to share about how the brand team had to re-evaluate its space style, look and design. 

And he also talks about the refinement of the logo… something that I believe I challenged in one of the early blogs I scripted some 100 blogs ago!

I am writing this blog in my new space in Atlanta. 

Note, I did not say “office” space.

I am sitting in a place that carries a brand name:  ROAM.

While the space I am sitting in is very cool and I plan to share more about it in future Emails, the intent of this blog post is to share more about the change I had to embrace… and the change that others are challenged to embrace as well.

About three years ago, I made a decision that part of me regrets… I moved my office space for part of my week into shared space offered by an ad agency.

A year ago, I shifted from the space at one agency to the space offered by another agency.

This is something that I will never do again.

Both of the agencies are staffed by nice, good, talented people.  Both agencies are owned by very nice, good and talented personalities.

Problem is, ad agencies really no longer work… not that they don’t do stuff and spend time crafting things.

While the teams inside the agency walls today come together every day, what they generate is more often what the business should not be doing.

And many of those agencies remain confined in physical walls that they spend a bunch of dollars on making look hip and cool!

Ad agencies are out of sync. 

If you do not believe so, go Google a set of agencies… big ones, small ones, national ones, local ones… you will see a bunch of consistency.

The focus is most on making their clients happy. 

They will showcase their own branded “planning” process.  They will all talk about going in and speaking with top client management, marketing and sales.

They will highlight how they take what clients say about their products and how they develop creative to communicate it and media plans that will generate the reach and frequency to convince customers to believe it.

If you ask them what they do, the mantra is memorized.  And it has not changed. 

Sure… they will talk about integrating social media and online communications, but it’s all anchored around “building brand awareness” and the ability to “interact and sell in their client’s brand.”

My scripting this Email was delayed by about an hour while I contacted one of my client’s media teams. 

The media team brought a plan to the table two weeks ago that the client’s retail manager quickly dismissed and voiced concern over in that it “was no different” from what had been brought to the table before.

When I dwell among creative free lancers, film producers, ethnographers, brand inventors, entrepreneurs, app engineers… I hear them speak in a very different context than the context spoken inside ad agencies.

Many of these folks work in non-conventional space and rather inventive environments.

They elect to explore new ideas and challenge others with whom they relate.

As colloquial a phrase as it is… they do “break outside of the box.”

Here at EXPERIENCE, we are driven on a set of fundamental principles that truly do not match up well with the environment of the conventional ad agency.

Our strategy is not driven by the client, but instead by the consumer.

We challenge convention, make clients feel uncomfortable and do not shy away from it.

We re-invent conventional models of doing things relative to the execution of the brand experience, its delivery and they way it is brought to life in the communications dialogue with the consumers defining it.

I am writing this in the year 2013.  The year 2014 is now on the flow charts of my clients’ annual plans. The year 2018 is in the five year projection stats.

Ad Agencies had their hey-day in the 1970s to be sure.

I moved into a new context of work environment and will not move back ever again in my ownership of EXPERIENCE into the ad agency surrounds.

As Howard Schultz write… it is now moving ONWARD… and beyond! 

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.