Be Brave Enough To Capitalize On The Next Wave Of Change

This past month, I have had the opportunity to work with a few companies with some very cool new venture ideas. 

It’s funny… all of the teams are essentially regional brands – not large massive national corporate brands – instead brands that are visible in a number of states in categories that some might label as conventional and uninspiring.

What’s cool, is that the owners-CEOs all see through the standard mass markets and know that the marketplace is at a tipping point of change… and opportunity.

In the last blog, I highlighted some of the really stupid things that the ad agencies are doing… and in large part, actions coached on by the internal marketing teams.

A lot of brand categories today are on the downward slope of market maturity and brand saturation. 

One of the new ventures is a very cool way to bring to life brand alternatives in the supermarket and restaurant business. 

Talk about market saturation and maturity. Talk about a couple categories begging for innovation and alternative offerings!

What the fast food brands are doing today is driven by the mission call to “be everything for everybody” and “forget about the brand’s historic USP – unique selling proposition" – a term that solidifies the MBA-marketing mantra. 

Taco Bell is rolling out French fries.  Arby’s – Where’s The Meat – is rolling out fish sandwiches.  Pizza Hut is promoting a pizza that's actually a hamburger.

McDonald’s made the front page of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) with its mission to “become the next Chic-fil-A.”

I read the online edition of the WSJ every morning with my bagel and coffee.  

When I saw the headline about McDonald's, I thought… well maybe McDonald’s is going to start bringing meals to the table or maybe McDonald’s is going to close down on Sundays or maybe McDonald’s is going to become a moral guardian and hire just kids who have found Jesus.

When I went and read the article, I found out that I was completely off in my assumptions. 

The BGO – or Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious – is that McDonald’s is on a mission to overtake Chic-fil-A as the number one fast food restaurant offering chicken sandwiches. 

I am not making that up.

Market saturation and maturity goes way beyond fast food restaurants. 

You got Kroger’s trying to be Walmart and Target trying to be Kroger’s.

You’ve got hardware stores trying to be gift shops and home accessory stores trying to be hardware stores.

Big Lot’s trying to be Party City and PetSmart trying to be home entertainment.

Enough is enough… literally!

What tickled me about these new clients is that they are digging into market indicators that I also dig into and say, “wow!”

If you have checked out our TRENDCAST or attended one of the presentations, in 2018… and probably all the way through to at least the next 10 years… Millennials forming family, seeking to buy a house and sink down roots along with another surge of kids… is going to rattle the market. 

Frustration with Washington and the Press and the continued surge of the techies broadcasting how the computers and apps are smarter than the humans is rekindling a need for a sense of direction and control…. a sense of containment… a sense of locale. 

I am writing this post on a Sunday.  This afternoon I visited six area furniture and second-hand retail stores.  In some ways, I was not surprised that in many of the stores, I was close to the oldest customer among a large majority of Millennials.

In each store, I asked the Millennials about shopping and what they were buying for their homes.

Here’s a summary of what I scribbled down on a “composition tablet” I carry around with me…

* Nearly all the Millennials purchased the vast majority of their furniture and at least half of their home accessories like kitchenware and dinnerware, lighting, rugs and even some of the bed linens from flea markets and second-hand stores

* Many reference IKEA as the source of what they had in their homes and were now replacing

* At least half told me about people at the stores they got to know that they “consult with” as they move to enhance other rooms in the now owned homes

* While Pinterest was mentioned often, they also talked about finding ideas in magazines – I am not making this up!

* About half talked about watching HGTV and about a third talked about watching DIY-TV

When I asked the Millennials how they were getting familiar with their new neighborhood they mentioned PTAs, HOAs, places of worship and local pubs and restaurants.

When they mentioned pubs and restaurants, I asked them if they were brands they had grown up with or new brands.  Response was quick to qualify that these were “local,” “new,” and “indie” or “long-time” places “in the neighborhood.”

For one of the cool new ventures we are working with, I plotted out a statement that Nielsen tracks where panel participants can rate the statement on a 5 point agree or disagree spectrum.  The statement references a preference to shop more local brands vs. large national brands.

Not only was the index of “strongly agree” high among Millennial DINKs as well as Millennial family start-ups we label as “Millennial Nesters,” high indices of “strongly agree” also showed up among high income families and Baby Boomer “new” empty-nesters. 

My 4-year-old niece uses “faces” to rate items and ideas.  One of the faces has a big smile; another of the faces has a big frown. 

This past week, those trading on Wall Street gave Walmart a big frown face for their attempt to expand into online retail through the corporate acquisition of Jet.com.  As a result, Walmart experienced the biggest one-day drop in its stock value ever in its trading history.

When I watched TV with my niece and the Arby’s fish sandwich commercial aired, she gave drew a big frown face.

When I asked her what she thought about McDonald’s becoming the next Chic-fil-A she quickly asked if McDonald’s would still serve hamburgers. 

When I asked her if she wanted French fries from Taco Bell, she called me the crazy uncle.

I told Lyris (that’s her name) that someday she will be the CEO of a very successful entrepreneurial venture.  She responded back and asked if being a CEO meant that she would still be able to ride a bike.  I told her that those who get out from behind their desks and hang with those in the neighborhoods will be the winners. 

She said she loves it when we go and visit the neighbors and she gets a chance to have tea with them.

Trust me, there are days when I think about how nice having a standard set agenda might be.  I think about just how much money that the CEOs and corporate giants like Omnicom and Publicis rake in producing those idiot commercials – not that I have an opinion set!

But then I think about how much I get charged up leading the edge of change and I realize quickly why it is I get out of bed every morning and take on a new day.

If you read this and share common thoughts, call me at 404.245.9378 and let's craft the next wave of brand success!

“The Masses Are 'Stupid'… Bad Assumption"

 Hillary, in part, lost her bid for the presidency because she viewed the masses as the “Deplorable” and “Irredeemable.”

Those who claim Manhattan, San Francisco Bay and Hollywood as their home base share a similar, rather perverted viewpoint of the world, too.

So it’s not much a surprise that a large portion of the creative produced by the BIG AD AGENCIES is literally killing brand equity.

Freud would have a ball with many of the copywriters and production teams that bring us ad commercial series like the Dr. Pepper game day vendor, the GIECO Insurance gecko-lizard, Progressive saleswoman Flo and the myriad other character-spokesperson-voice-overs. 

Freud would quickly summarize that many seek to replace their production staff positions with a deeper desired role of Hollywood producer. 

On the client side too, there are CMOs and marketing teams that crave to do more than commute daily to dwell in their cubicle offices.  They are the ones that beg to go meet with the ad agency so that they call spend time in their funky, ping-bong table, quasi-coffee café, open-forum think-tanks.

Every time I see the Chevrolet ads with the focus group man, I want to throw up. 

The loon ad agency that produces the ads is a division of McCann called “Commonwealth//McCann” – that is exactly how they format the name.

AdAge notes them as the “global agency of record for Chevrolet” and describes them as “innovative” and “an open forum” team.

I know.  I know.

I get upset because the focus group facilitator rips off what I do.

When I shared with a table of friends how stupid I felt that the ads were last week, they immediately responded back with, “well how do you think an insurance sales person feels when they see the duck, or the newt or Flo?”

No… that is actually not why I think that agency producing them is a bunch of loons... not that I am opinionated nor speak my mind.  

Just like the immediate “wows” expressed by the “characters that are real and not actors” is not the reason I want to throw up.

Just like the newest ad that showcases a focus group discussion taking place on an entrance ramp to the LA Freeway in the middle of afternoon rush hour… is not the reason I want to throw up. 

The reason why I want to throw up is that the focus and the mission of the Chevy brand… the brand equity and brand culture… the essence of the brand EIP or Emotional Ignition Point… that is all pushed aside by both the marketing mavens client side and the ad team within the ad agency…

…To live in the fantasy world of the present thinking that they are all actually the next breed of Hollywood producers with a storyline series and high personality, featured actor.   

Two weeks ago when I drove from Atlanta to Nashville, I stopped off and got gas in Kimball Tennessee.  There’s a large, super-size Walmart and a Chrysler dealer just across the street from where I got the gas. 

As I was filling up the tank, I watched the folks looking at cars in the Chrysler lot and wondered just how many of those Commonwealth // McCann creative and production folk ever have stepped out of their open-forum work space and walked and talked at dealer lots.

Okay, maybe they went to a dealer lot in Hoboken, but did they go to one in Albany or Norfolk or Knoxville or Norman, Mesa or Medford? 

I doubt if any have done so. 

What makes me throw up is that this is where brands that ARE IN TROUBLE focus today. 

Staying on cars for one moment longer, this morning I ran into two guys who recently each purchased a new KIA Sorrento.  They are now big fans and brand endorsers of KIA. 

One of my cars is a KIA Sorrento. 

They asked me if I loved my KIA as they love their KIA and I said, “nope.”

I then went on to explain how way too much is automated and high tech.  I showcased how whenever the temperature hits 40 degrees, a red light warning icon lights up on the dashboard right next to the speedometer to let me know that the roads might ice. 

They claimed that their new KIAs don’t have that feature.  Since mine is a 2017 and their KIAs are 2018, I think that the new ones do have that feature.  Given that I am about 15 years younger than either of the two guys, my bet is that they cannot see it even when it lights up.

The masses are not only NOT STUPID, they are changing the framework of the marketplace as I script this blog and you out there are reading it.

Just as I watched the folks walking the lot at the Chrysler dealership, this past week I took a couple of hours and went and visited a mall out in the metro that many think is soon being torn down. 

I watched people and talked to people. 

I asked them what was it about the mall that drew their car to take them to it (that’s a Chevy pun, by the way.)

In addition to using terms like “convenience” and phrases like “variety of stores,” they went on to talk about how nice it was to simply go somewhere, take time to walk around and get away from the house and work.

They talked about how sometimes they meet up with friends or family at the mall and they actually have more than a text line of conversation.

They talked about how they enjoyed sorting through stuff on the shelves and trying on clothes at the department stores.

The malls are coming back to life as I write this post.

Just as the “masses,” “the great unwashed” and the “deplorables” are refueling malls, they are also purchasing lots of baby products and un-prepared food items to actually cook and tools at the hardware stores and videos for the DVDs and books – actually printed hard-cover books – at the bookstores.

Corporate investment is coming back BIG TIME just as we enter 2018. 

When I person at the coffee table this morning told me that people would no longer be driving the next wave of industry in the U.S. and that it would all be automated by machines… I quickly asked what was the nature of the company that has many major markets sitting with bated breath to hear where its opening a second HQ. 

That company that is forecasting the hiring of 50,000 new employees is a company that many believe is totally, 100% staffed by high-tech automation. (Amazon if you don't catch much news)

And one last commentary about the absurd perceptions of those that dwell in the confines of their mobile apps and Google created town squares…

If “someday more than 80% of all shopping will be competed on the Internet,” how will the products get from the warehouse to the home pantry?

If those semi-trucks on the tollways and outer belts and interstates and side-roads drive you a bit nutty now… just wait.

The nuggets of insight that will drive brands forward is not sitting on the iPhones nor in the creative circles of Madison Avenue and Michigan Avenue, nor Hollywood and the Silicon Valley. 

Nope. 

Those nuggets of insight can be found where the masses today dwell.  Those nuggets can be found in backyards and houses of worship and neighborhood restaurant dinner tables and yes... even in the malls. 

EXPERIENCE in 2018... Our Focus With Brand Leadership

Welcome to 2018!

The last Blog post was all about five of the 2018 TRENDCAST Trends. This Blog is about how EXPERIENCE will embrace and seek out 2018 opportunity... 

#1 – We will focus more on mid-size brands and their leadership teams. 

In 2017, we saw more large brands merge with their historic competitors to form large behemoth corporations. 

Brands that own retail space.  Large holding companies absorbing fast food brands.  Media companies gobbling up like media or other media firms.  Retailers continuing to merge together and become one comprehensive brand. 

Brand differentiation gets kissed good-bye.  More C-level direction and control shifts over to the financial MBAs. 

A small share of C-level leadership – and it’s a very small share – understand that the brands merging together are not only at the height of market maturity, but even on the downward spiral of declining growth. 

TLC has a show called the “My 600-lb. Life.” These merged corporate behemoths could be showcased in that series.

I have highlighted the non-sense that leadership resorts to within these merged mega-brands. 

There’s a pizza mega-giant whose whole business is about home delivery that is running a $60 million+ television campaign about how they have torn down the old store fronts and built new ones. 

There’s merged television networks that have elected to cross-share programming between their networks.  Does the programming fit under the unique network brand equity?  What’s brand equity the MBA CFO asks, “we are saving production costs by extending the reach of the programming.”

There’s fast food restaurants combining menus and others that are splitting the store fronts into half one restaurant and half another.

There’s hotels and resorts that have one logo on the outdoor signage and another brand logo on the room décor and a third logo on the complimentary breakfasts and desserts.

When I went Christmas shopping this year, I was struck by how the same clothing lines are in many of the different stores until it finally hit me that the brand name on the store fronts are all owned by the same corporate holding company.

Over the course of the last five years, EXPERIENCE has worked with a higher number of large corporate brands vs. regional and new start-up brands. 

While the CEOs that have brought us to the table share similar passions and drive to move beyond the conventional, MBA modeled, slow-moving leadership of the past, the same CEOs quickly discover just how difficult it is to make change happen because of the behemoth size of their corporations.

No question that the big corporations have big budgets to spend. 

The large ad agencies function as reinforcement for the layers and layers and layers of internal marketing and brand “leadership.” 

The thought of an ad agency rocking the boat and challenging conventional thought that is challenged in moving the behemoth, newly merged corporate brands forward… well for all their talk about keen strategy and creative innovation, those same ad agencies are challenged with paying for those posh, “novel” office space. 

CP&G, a “creative, brand strategy and digital agency” just signed a new contract extending their relationship with that pizza mega-giant running the ads about its new store fronts through 2020.  Yup… the agency telling the pizza mega-giant that the ad content the Dominos is dictating to convey is meaningless to consumers and risk the agency’s contract extension? 

Hell no. 

Here at EXPERIENCE, the audience that drives our mission and reason for existence is the consumer marketplace. 

So in 2018, our business focus will shift over to mid-size brands and new brands that can capitalize on the true drivers of change.  Corporate structures that are fluid and can be molded and shaped.  Leadership that has a passion for the brand vs. an MBA financial model of the past.

The BIG brands and corporations are no longer able to capitalize quickly and adapt. 

What we are seeing with politics where the age-old political models are driven by a mis-matched, past engineered patchwork of mechanics is quickly moving to the business landscape. 

#2 – We will not fear confronting false predictions of change vs. what is really taking place in the marketplace.

I subscribe to a number of the online editions published by American City Business Journals including their weeklies that service Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham and Charlotte.  In addition, I subscribe to Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company and Wired. 

Each of the publications is addicted to march in unison with the same tune…

1. (1)  All of the Millennial generation is just exiting college and will continue to do so for many more years to come
2. (2)  The Internet is replacing the store fronts of the past and soon everyone will use the Internet for consumer purchases
3. (3)  The intown communities of today are evolving into luxury destinations that will drive all the business trends of the future
4. (4)  Corporate leadership is extremely brilliant in every move they elect to make
5. (5)  Soon technology will drive everything we do – literally with self-driving cars and trucks -- and the labor force of the past will be gone

If a trend forecast reinforces what they construct and reinforce, they embrace it quickly.  If a trend forecast challenges the that model, they either discount the source as unreliable or simply ignore it.

Our 2018 TRENDCAST challenges a whole lot of conventional thinking.  What is emerging right in our midst is already rattling the marketplace and a notable share of the marketplace cannot figure out what is driving the change.

I get a kick out of the recent articles in the WSJ, NY Times and Washington Post.  They ran articles that highlight changing statistics and then quickly make stupid statements like all market changes are attributed to the Internet.

EXPERIENCE doesn’t just wet the index finger and sense the direction and speed of the wind, we invest a sizeable amount of money each year in securing some of the most leading statistics tracked.

In 2018, EXPERIENCE will launch a line of market reports under the INFORUM brand name.  The reports will not only include the greatest and latest market statistics, but also a perspective of what the information means in terms of impact upon the brand whose leadership requested the report.

We are not an ad agency nor a digital shop so we are not bound to see market change and trends only through the perspective of the marketing sunglasses.

#3 – We will further integrate the cyclical change model into strategic guidance

What got me energized to script this blog the way that I have in large part can be attributed to the rag publication called Atlanta Magazine.

Atlanta Magazine is not unlike any of its publication families or like pubs produced by other media-promotional companies… they are all glorified promotional mailers the are filled with advertorial and similar ad sponsors. 

The current issue is anchored around “Atlanta in 2040.”  Here’s a share of what the advertorial writers highlight:

1. (1)  Our jackets could answer the phone (that’s the way the writers scripted it… not me)
2. (2)  Everything will be customized
3. (3)  Suburbs will learn to share
4. (4)  We won’t report to the office every day
5. (5)  Delivery food will improve

Wow.  I hear a group of middle school kids that hang out at the local coffee house make similar predictions in their essays. 

The best Atlanta prediction is that the official city of Atlanta will be “the largest city in the nation” by 2040.  The official city of Atlanta posts a new 2018 population of 466,512 residents and is growing at a rate of 5.74% over the next five years.

The official city of New York, the largest city in the nation posts a new 2018 population of 8,598,697. 

Atlanta magazine needs to purchase a new solar-powered calculator before it publishes any more predictions. 

Change is NOT linear, but rather cyclical.  Parts of the past re-surface and the influence of past dynamics re-appear. 

In 2018, we will work with clients in understanding the dynamics of like dynamics when the Boomer began forming families and having kids back in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Business need to place less attention on artificial intelligence and more focus on transferrable insight into factors that affected brand growth and development during comparative time cycles.

When I started my career back in 1981, I worked with a baking products brand called Martha White Foods.  The brand challenge was to craft product, distribution models and branding that could bring Martha White into a sense of connectivity with the growing share of Baby Boomer moms.

We are working with three brands right now on how to embrace the new Millennial moms.

One of the clients that EXPERIENCE has worked with a lot in the past 10 years is Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.  Children’s hired a new ad agency about two years ago.  The new agency launched a new brand campaign in 2017 focused around the Emotional Ignition Point that “Moms know.” 

Millennials seek out a sense of self-control and a sense of personal signature… thanks in part to how technology “invades their lives” … and thanks in part to their Boom “helicopter” parents.

Children’s Healthcare leadership has a viewpoint anchored by cyclical change.

Just a quick FYI… in 2018, 96% of all first-time moms will be Millennials.  The other 3.5% will actually be Zoomers!  And believe it or not, the other 0.5% will be GenXers.  

Sooooo….

If you are a new evolving brand or a middle-size brand seeking to capitalize on the big competitors who move very slow… call us.

If you wish to really know what are the true change agents of the marketplace and the impact they are having right now on your brand and how to strategically capitalize on them… call us.

If you ponder how the dynamics of past change operated and how the human marketplace evolves today… call us.

Call this number… 404.245.9378… and I promise that it will me answering the phone… no assistant… no admin… no automated service center… promise!

2018 Trendcast ... Top Five Trends!

It’s that time of the year again!

Time to forecast out the trends that will drive the marketplace in 2018. 

But first, I have to side-track. 

As I share in past Trendcast blog-logues, the trends noted each year are based on all the information that we weed ourselves through combined with the interesting times we have speaking with consumers in groups and one-on-one. 

This past year we have spent a lot of time working with retail clients, some related to food and dining and others related to house & home. We are working with a retailer in pet food and supplies and another retailer in jewelry.  We continued to work with our client in party goods and another one that competes with other department stores.

We have worked with an interesting mix of politicians and political campaigns from the West Coast to the Midwest to the Southeast on some levels state-wide and others very specific voter districts. 

 We have worked with healthcare providers as well as a couple of banks.  We even worked briefly with a trade association of lawyers and another network of funeral homes.

We did a good amount of work with print as well as online media in 2017.

I share this because it gives a feel for the scope of context around which we observe trends as they are being formed and birthed. 

Here are the first FIVE 2018 Trendcast sightings and a feel for how they will impact the marketplace. 

If you find these snapshots of interest, call us at 404.245.9378 and we are happy to come present more depth in person of these FIVE plus the second set of FIVE.

#1 - The Millennial Family Boom

This time last year we highlighted the beginning of the Alpha Generation.  In 2018, the first of the Alphas will be turning 3 years old.  What’s more interesting is that the number of Alphas will likely double in just one year! 

I have to laugh.  If you Google “Millennials having babies,” you will see a host of articles published in 2014 and 2015 talking about the “Millennial baby bust.”  But if you Google “Millennial Family Trends,” you will see a host of articles published in 2017 talking about the fast rate of Millennials now forming families.

The drive of the Alphas will become the #1 driver of change in our American marketplace as the Millennials shift from texting and selfies to claiming home space and assuming the roles of parent and homeowner.  The passion for eco-green and social cause is being replaced by getting to know and becoming active in the local school and PTA.

Reality checks are taking place too.  House payments and taxes are introducing Millennials to the mechanics that drive local politics versus what they see on CNN.com. Kids becoming addicted to a smartphone video game provide a snapshot of the Millennial peers and their addiction to texting.

Brand after brand after brand continues to personify the Millennial as the college kids that never shops in-person, but lives totally online.  Those brands are the ones that will lose out and close their doors soon!

#2 - Migration Out To The ‘Burbs

The reality check I cited in 2017 will explode even more in 2018…The attraction of urban dwelling space is being replaced with morning and afternoon commutes out to the new 3-bedroom-2-bath home. 

I cannot say it loud enough to proceed with caution on any investments being made future forward in what still wears the mask of the novel, hip, cool and growing urban centers and “revitalized” ‘hoods. 

I drove this past weekend out into the suburbs and exurbs of Atlanta and my jaw dropped as I saw subdivision after subdivision being built populated with swing sets in the backyard and tricycles in the driveways.  

In 2018, 96% of all first time babies will be born to Millennial parents.  Living with a partner plus a baby in 500 square feet is not an easy thing to do long-term. 

As noted in a Wall Street Journal article this past September, “the affordability crisis of inside-the-city neighborhoods is not just about buying homes.  Rents too have rising.  In hip urban rehab neighborhoods, the increased home values and rents have put housing out of reach for Millennials even making more than $125K."

Whether its new housing that provides square footage thought to be impossible to ever have again or retro mid-century homes that need rehabbing – or a “signature of personal design” as the Millennials call it -- the suburbs long thought dead are coming back full-steam ahead.

Is this all being driven by Millennials… maybe not. 

The big question is who will be more likely to replace the Millennials in the city.  Will it be Boomers who in their Empty-Nester and Senior years cannot stand to live among the screaming kids… or the GenXers whose Zoomer kids are soon heading off to college and finding that there are other folks besides GenXers dwelling in our society. 

Some suspect that it just might be the GenXers since their kids are not likely to rally up the college debt like the Millennials did before them!

#3 – Career Moms Becoming Stay-At-Home Moms

As much as brands like Betty Crocker and Gold Medal are likely to make a come-back, new terms like WAHM (pronounced as Wham) are all of a sudden hip.  WAHM is the acronym for “work-at-home-mom.” 

A Pew Research survey update found out that 48% of Millennial parents say children are better off if a stay-at-home mom raises them – a percentage level higher than GenXer and Boomers.

In a survey Pew did this past summer among working Millennial moms, 64% said that they would quit if they could to spend more time with their kids and “better anchor the homes.” 

And a stunning low percentage – less than one-in-five – working Millennial moms with one child plan to stay in their job when the second child is born.

I bet that corporate HR has limited idea of these stats!

Sure, there are a number of Millennial dads that are raising their hands to be the stay-at-home parent vs. the mom, but even then, the moms will likely play an instructional role of listing out the tasks that the dads need to do.

My psychologist friends say that fathers becoming the chief wage-earner or instead the stay-at-home dad are a hot new source of business in the next few years ahead!

#4 – Instructional Brand Relationships

I will say right up front, this is a role in which it is being driven by consumer need, not a client-brand desire to “teach” customers how to like and use their brand. 

No, the trend that is surfacing and going to pick up speed in 2018 is more than simple instructional use, its instruction relevant to the brand experiences themselves.

Pick up a copy of HGTV magazine and skim the pages.  You will see quickly just how much of the magazine is instructional in nature versus editorial features and design highlights. 

Whether it’s the Boomer parents that abandoned the kids at the malls or the politically incorrect state of shop and home-ec classes, HGTV Magazine is tapping a deep need for Millennials to understand the difference between a “mixer” and a “stirring spoon” as well as how to start a push mower.

A new growing genre of videos on YouTube are “how to” videos.  DIY-TV is posting its first wave of ratings growth.  Libraries across the U.S. are becoming the hip places to go to actually “learn” things from tuning up the car to innovative activities for the kids like checkers and bean bag games.

Baby Boomers are also drawn into instructional brand relationships that help them age as well as finally save and invest money in retirement plans. Boomers are suddenly coming to terms with the fact that life in this world is not infinite. 

Prepare to see this magnify more in 2018 and it will not be found only online… but in-store, on-packages and, of course, new blogs and news columns. Heloise is coming back!

#5 – Brand Blurs Fostering New Back-to-Basic Brands

About 10 years ago now – hard to believe – Target stores decided to become grocery stores too.  Course, grocery store brands like Kroger decided to become competitive to Walmart with electronics and home furnishings. 

This past Summer, Business Insider published an article titled, “The Restaurant Industry is in its Worst Tailspin Since the Recession.”  It cites the struggle of conventional fast food and causal quick service restaurants.  The authors attribute the rise in pick-up pre-pared meals at the grocery store as the primary cause.  

Nope.

The restaurant industry is now operating in a blur of brand distinction and character.

I can go to Burger King and get chicken nuggets.  I can go to Chic-fil-A and get a sausage sandwich the looks identical to a sausage McMuffin.  I can get pizza at Taco Bell and burritos at McDonald’s.  Shoot, I can get energy drinks and sodas at Starbucks.

Past simple menu boards featuring simple selection choice are now animated and constantly rotating a menu that has a vast selection choice. 

Starting with Chic-fil-A and now including Panera, management has decided to differentiate their brands by incorporating delivery to the table. 

I could care less if it’s hardware stores selling home furnishings or car dealers staging coffee cafes or farmer markets selling Whole Food products, brands have so blurred who the heck they are and what the heck they represent that even Google has difficulty charting out where the brands go in online searches!

In 2018, entrepreneurs and new start-ups will wake up!

The same entrepreneurs who spawned the rage of food trucks that tapped right into the need for specialty and simplicity will quickly rise with new offerings anchored around a simple and defined retail offering.

The Next Five of the 2018 Trendcast?… call us at 404.245.9378 and let’s schedule a presentation in person! 

The Winds Are Whipping Up From Wall Street to Washington to Hollywood

Hard to believe, but it’s just about the time when I begin crafting the Trendcast for the next year.

Trust me, there are some 2018 Trends that are rattling cages right now as brand teams start exploring options as they embark on planning missions.

Back at the beginning of August, I posted the blog about the impending Hurricane Season.  Mother Nature next followed suit.

While we read in the news about Houston, South Florida and other parts of the South, the most damage might actually be impacting Wall Street, Washington and Hollywood.

From corporate America to the American Senate to the Hollywood studios, long standing leadership is getting turned upside down.

While tornados quickly demolish and move on, Hurricanes linger long periods of time and might even double-back and demolish foundations all over again.

As I write this, America is weeks away from Election Day.

Many of you know that EXPERIENCE works with politicians and this election season is not one without involvement with a couple of election runs.

The New York Times ran an article about a week ago announcing that Independents now represents the largest political party affiliation in the U.S.

The GOP and DNC are not likely to survive in a conventional sense.  BOTH political parties are in trouble.

2017 Trendcast #3 cites the rise in Mobile Cocooning as our cultural ties not only are ones that travel with us, but ones in which many cling like an addiction to crack. 

As I write this, I am sitting in the San Francisco Coffee House in Atlanta.  There are three tables of Millennials sitting in here who are staring down at their iPhones with earphones plugged into the personal selection choice of music. 

They are not at all in tune with the environment around them.

Folks like these cannot dwell beyond their cocooned-defined world of comfort and perspective.

Many of the politicians of today sport the same behaviors… and perspective. 

The world … and local community perspective they see is defined within the confines of their mobile cocoons. 

I try to avoid the illustrations of the blind men and the elephant story where each attempted to define what they each were feeling and no one among them claimed it was an elephant.

But hey... if it works, use it.

In Atlanta, there are 13 candidates pursuing the mayor’s office.  Earlier this year there were more than 13 candidates in a race to fill a congressional office in the 6^th district.

Yesterday, one of the 13 candidates pursuing the mayor’s office came and sat down at the Wednesday business roundtable that I participate in at a Panera located smack in in-town Atlanta adjacent to Piedmont Park.

There were eight of us sitting around the table discussing aspects of business. 

The candidate that came in and sat down was serving as the Chair of the Fulton County Commission and resigned the elected post to run for Mayor.  Atlanta, the city makes up about 50% of the Fulton County population.  

The candidate, who will go nameless in this blog post, spoke at great length about what he views as the priority areas that Atlanta faces and that he… as a leader of academic and government agency groups… had the gifts and core values to “take over leadership” and move the city forward.

I was entertained by his “visionary” perspective. Issues like education, transportation and community unity are not too unlike the restaurant telling customers it's the place that stands apart from others because of its hot food and clean restrooms. 

He also shared that so far in the race, he had met and served as leader of more than 3 dozen sessions with Atlanta city residents…. And he had more than 20 schedule over the next several weeks before election day. 

The more he shared in terms of his understanding of what “made up” Atlanta and what were neighborhood concerns and issues, it quickly became apparent that he was clustering with those who shared common ground in his mobile cocoon. 

Best of all the sharing that caught the stage lights was the strategy to “lead” the Millennials through social media and public events where the vision could be shared and support secured. 

But wait… when Millennials talk about “finding options where they can co-author the design, engineering, programming and experience,” my bet is that they will not connect well with a a guy that positions himself as the sole leader they need to elect to "take charge."   

When we view national politico who share their perspectives of what’s happening in America, it does not take long to guess correctly where they reside when they leave their cherished views of the Potomac. 

Not only do Birds of a Feather Flock Together, they flock with those who see through a matched set of sunglasses.

Mobile access to the Internet along with social media and posting boards has created an added dimension to the perspective of the cocoon and a false sense of direct connection with leadership and change agents as birds of a feather text one another waiting in line at the local Starbucks for their Lo-foam-no-fat-dark roast-drip-venti-latte-in-a-recycled-environmentally-approved-insultated-tumbler. 

Diversity is great and let's promote that rainbow sticker as long as those in the green agree to a similar set of perspectives and values as those in the red, blue, purple, yellow, orange ... and pink!

By the way, that candidate who took over the table yesterday morning has currently fostered and developed a committed base of 2% of the Atlanta voter base. 

Wow.  Hold back my applause.

Elections across the U.S. this year are very entertaining to watch.  

A GOP candidate who is running for the Alabama governor’s slot and does not fit the conventional GOP model beat out another primary candidate who was the cookie cutter portrait of the longtime GOP. 

Right now, the social media landscape is experiencing the high winds of the impending Hurricanes of change as the aged relics like Pelosi and McConnell are being coached by their own kin to clear way for the next round of leadership.

John McCain and Chuck Schumer should jump in with Pelosi and McConnell and start cashing in on those retirement funds.

And the press follows behind in close sync too.  

Whether its NBC, CNN, MSNBC… or FOX News, they all are in denial that the conventional news studios that sit in their thrones of New York and Washington are unconnected from the vast public majority. 

Those occupying the high-brow halls of DC continue to think that Trump’s use of Twitter is “just so juvenile.”

And while I center the blog focus on America, the same winds are rattling the cages across the UK, Germany, Spain and Mexico… all the way to Iran and China!

Did you say North Korea? 

I assert that it just might be possible that Kim Jung-on and Weinstein might be more than just Facebook Friends.   Each keeps the news media content flowing as they scrape the fallen crumbs to stay afloat!

As we begin putting together the Trendcast deck for 2018, I will give away that the marketplace is changing at a pace that might qualify as level 5 Hurricane force winds. 

The elections this year are simple pre-cursers to what will transpire in 2018. 

Corporate America, the business press and the ad-pr-integrated-digital agencies ... better start moving inland and away from the east and west coasts...

Stay tuned…