The GenXers Can Finally Lay Claim To Trendsetting!

I had the pleasure of having a cup of coffee with a GenXer yesterday. 

She told me about the struggle she’s going through.  Back “before having the kids” she had a very successful career.  She worked in marketing and sales.

But then along came the kids. 

Now before readers relate to her frustration because of being female… put a hold on it.

Over the last fifteen or more years, both she and her husband placed top value on raising those kids. 

He made sacrifices too.  In fact, they ended up moving just to get the kids in better public schools.  

And instead of taking a nice “get-away” vacation trips, both she and her husband channelled the dollars instead to refinishing the basement so that they and the kids could have more quality time.

In 2015, the leading edge of GenXers hits the magic moment of turning 50.  Yes.  50 years old. 

And the trailing edge will turn 39. 

You really don’t hear too much hoopla about it.

In fact, outside of kids, kids, kids and kids… you really hear little about Generation X.

Fact is… there’s really not as many of them as there are Boomers and Millennials.

In fact, you add those two population groups together and the GenXers barely represent about a third of the size.

I’ve written blogs about the GenXers in the past.  Close to half growing up with divorced parents.  Vowing adamantly that they would not get a divorce and instead preserve family values that their parents seemed to ignore.

Sidelight… left-side media has it ingrained in their headsets that “family values” is all driven by a disdain for gay folks when instead, “family values” is largely driven by GenXers and their dedication to avoid following in the foot steps of their parents.

GenXers are not known for being trendsetters and change agents.

However, this past week, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about a new trend hitting the movie theaters that actually we can all thank the GenXers for driving.

Really.  Not making this up.

Before I tell you what the movie theaters are doing, let me share a couple of interesting snippets about the GenXers.

In all the house and home work we do, we have not only gone out on the streets and talked with GenXers – or the family market segment, but we’ve shopped with them, toured their homes, joined the search online and with agents, sat with them and their interior designs and even baby sat the kids while the parents got out their paint brushes to make the bedroom a “teen retreat.”

My one observation is simple.  GenXers care more about the time cocooning than they do about the look, feel and style of the cocoon.

GenXers are famous for buying the house with the unfinished basement and carving out space for their “family” media room.

Down here in the ATL, there’s a furniture chain called “Rooms-To-Go.”  The retailer caters to GenXers by stocking “functional” furniture at very affordable prices.

Where IKEA might have an edge of style and design.  Rooms-To-Go has an edge on durability and function.

While Lay-Z-Boy has sorta been successful in repositioning their furniture line as being more stylish, Rooms-To-Go gave recliners new meaning with their classic GenXer signature piece… the sofa with the built-in food rests, declining back cushions and the built-in beer-can or Pepsi-can holders.

Remember... GenXers are not all professional and white collar.  There's a diverse generational scope that embodies the blue-collar working family too. 

Those blue collar GenXers might not have a Rooms-To-Go in their small town, but there were "close-out" says featuring those faux leather theater seat sets being sold off the pack of the moving truck... for sure!

Since the trend of the family media room hit, the Smiths, the Jones, the Kamdars, the Fohfamas, the Perez and the Chengs… all have purchased the large 84” flat screens, Best Buy sound systems and recliner sofas to stock the GenXer version of the family room.

The Wall Street Journal article bears the title:  “Coming to a Theater Near You: Recliners”

Yes… recliners.

Gone will be the flip down theater seats.  Gone will also be the larger number of seats.

Welcome the Lay-Z-Boy look along with the premium ticket cost that offsets the decline in the number of seats.

AMC Entertainment is leading the charge… By the way, now owned by a China-based Dalian Wanda Group.

The GenXer basement home theaters are soon to premiere in a mall parking lot near you!

The next time you hear a GenXer co-worker, friend, PTA community leader or your GenXer significant other talk about how the Boomers and Millennials are stealing their stage… tell them to go catch the latest movie at the neighborhood AMC Theater.

And you can even add… “... and it will feel just like home.”

Top Five Learnings From High Tech & Social Network Geeks

I attended a very interesting session this past week sponsored by Cox Media and this week, I am dwelling in Seattle with the leadership of Microsoft and Google.

First… The Cox Media folk…

My Cox Media contact told me initially that the morning offsite was going to be all about online advertising and marketing.  It turned out to be mostly about SEO and website architecture. 

The session was close to three hours long.The person making the presentation was the Cox Media SEO corporate expert.  From my perspective, the guy was a true tech geek. 

Geeks right now are cool… in some circles.

About three-dozen folks attended the session.

I was the only “consultant” attending… the other individuals were all “clients.”  Most carried a title with the word “marketing” in it.  A few were the owners of their small business or community group.

The first observation actually further reinforced a broader observation I make of many in marketing today… there is a profound belief that consumer behavior can easily be boiled down to predictable patterns that can be further influenced and molded to lead to purchase engagement.

Just like our communication boils down to “0s” and “1s,” there is a belief that human behavior is modeled the same.  There is a breed of Techie Geeks who view the scope of market to entirely exist within the world of the web and social media.

Two things this geek guy shared I found surprisingly, very interesting!

The first thing he shared was that SEO, in its historic model dynamics, will soon be history. 

I am sure that a number of you reading this Blogl-ogue think of SEO as having to do with the use of the right words and content in a website that will then generate a “higher-post” on the Google search page.

Sites that match up more closely with the “right” content words generate more clicks. 

To be honest, this type of modeling always bothered me.

I have worked with clients that are more hell-bent on using the right words more so than presenting the information in an emotionally, engaging way.

Several of my clients about shot me when I told them to scrap all the wording on their website and express their brand experience more in pictures.

Announced a few weeks ago, Google is doing away with word use as a priority factor and replacing it with actual time spent and the degree of visitor website engagement as the determinant factor in just how high up a website gets listed on the search results page

Wow. 

What a pleasant surprise.  Audience interest guiding what’s best versus word matches. 

The second thing he shared was that the website experience is actually more important than the mechanical architecture of the website. 

Wow… and that was coming from a tech geek.

He spoke about the presentation of information in the format of dialogue.  He talked about ways to build elements of “excitement to read / hear / watch” content that would generate a response to read / hear / watch more.

I really, really hope that individuals attending the Cox presentation heard these two points… however, my bet is that they still are dwelling in the mechanical elements of their SEO-Website-Self-Proclamation of the past.

Onward to Seattle!

Let me first say that I am not out here dwelling with the Google and Microsoft folks to glean high tech insights.

I am actually out here in Seattle exploring how a financial institution can reach out more effectively to engage the high salary geek Millennials. They are, after all, coupling, nesting in a place they call home, and stowing away investment funds to pay for their college degree and future retirement.

I conducted close to 40 one on one interviews today about banks and banking.  More than 2/3rds were interviews with Google and Microsoft geeks and geek management.

Here is what they said that surprised me.

They hate the BIG BANKS.

They love the idea of a “small town” bank.

They love the ad concepts that were simple testimonials.

They seek out personal, in-person interaction with a REAL person.

Here in Seattle, there’s a Starbucks or an Indie coffee house on nearly every corner.

I also noticed a lot of bakeries.  Even “mom and pop” shops. 

High Tech.  High Touch.

That was coined more than 30 years ago. 

It’s alive and well.

I also visited two large outdoor shopping complexes located within a stone’s throw from Microsoft’s corporate office where there was a half dozen home furniture and home good stores.  The sales people told me that the geeks love the country, casual, comfy style the most.

Marketers are you reading this???

Last part of this blog.

In today’s WSJ, there was an article titled:  “Social Media Fail to Live Up to Early Marketing Hype.”

Here are some quotes from the article…

“Fans and follower counts are over.”

“Social media are not the powerful and persuasive marketing force many companies hoped they would be.”

“Gallup says 62% of U.S. consumer say that social media has no influence on their buying decisions.”

“Nielsen found that consumers find television, radio, print and outdoor billboards to be more ‘trust-worthy’ than social media ads.”

I’ll never forget attending a big social media conference and a young lady wearing the title of “VP, Social Media Strategy” from one of the BIG (and expensive!) NYC ad agencies was the speaker.

Her client was a large CPG – Consumer Packaged Goods – food client.

She spoke for more than hour about the modeling and the engagement and the detailed insight that they did with their social media “like” members. 

I finally asked her, “How many people are we talking about?”

The answer:  38,000 people.

I then asked what market share of the category her client had built and approximately how many consumers made up their U.S. market. 

Her answer: 25 Million people.

Enough said.

Here’s my perspective of what all this is saying to us in the marketing field…

(1) People are people… not machines.

(2) Pictures communicate a thousand words and the words play a minimal role

(3) Engage… not educate

(4) High touch is hot
(5) Emotionally connect … unless the right side of the brain clicks… Poof… gone!

I Admit I was Wrong About HGTV Magazine

Okay… I am the first to stand up and say I was wrong.

A little over a year ago I posted a blog about HGTV magazine and used the blog post as a podium of commentary that I just could not see how a broadcast brand could easily transition to a magazine format.

I still agree that there are some rather unconventional ways that the editors bring to life television scenarios in a print format.

As a few might know EXPERIENCE does a lot of strategy development work with client-partners in the House and Home marketplace.  And, the work spans across much of North America and even parts of Europe.

I subscribe to a bunch of House and Home publications including House & Home, the premier Canadian interior design magazine. 

The set includes Country Living, Traditional Living, Dwell, Architectural Digest, Home & Garden, House Beautiful and Elle Décor.  It runs the gamut of how the English and French design their interiors to how the fashionable in Manhattan to West Hollywood define style.

There are two BIG CHANGES taking place within this microscope of culture right now. 

One is a direct reflection of the last blog-logue I posted that you can read below… The Millennials are emerging and rattling the cage of architecture and design.

Mid-century is hip and cool… down payments are scarce… and interactive combined with live-work is a “here and now” state of mind.

The second is that as the Millennials rattle the cage of architecture and design, the urban editorial world of house and home publications are quickly retreating to their own backyards… whether its Manhattan, Toronto, LA, Paris or London.

The problem is that their own backyards are so far away from the reality of the here and now of the masses.  Lord help us, but they seem to even make clarification that it’s a penthouse on the Upper Eastside and NOT the Upper Westside. 

At least three of the current issues of the high-brow design pubs feature stories about the homes of one of their own editors. 

The pictures of the “See and Be Seen” photo galleries showcase the same people issue after issue. 

Perhaps the label of “incestual editorial” might apply.

 When I pursue through the pages of HGTV Magazine I am struck by how much more real the people are who are featured in the stories.

Their homes look like what I see when I drive to work each morning or visit other metros and conduct Coffee House Chats at the neighborhood Starbucks.

The issues highlight ways to renovate the “mid-century homes” or near-mid-century homes that are found to be affordable to both “Property Virgins” and “House Hunters” of the mass market.

Instead of showcasing the $4,000 rocking chairs and $2,999 living room lamp, HGTV Magazine lists out finds at IKEA, T.J.Maxx ad Home Depot.

HGTV Magazine has commentary and advice on finding deals featured in pictures versus listing out by name the individual designers who custom made the prototype piece.

Are the high-end designer publications soon to fold… maybe.  I would not rule it out. 

I used to enjoy receiving my issues of Gourmet magazine back in the 1990s.  Gourmet Magazine helped educate me on what made California Chardonnays unique from French Cabernets.

But high cultural dining gave way to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. 

Target has to rethink and adjust as the Millennials begin to make their mark. 

And the highbrow Manhattan ad execs that see life through their Central Park sunglasses are receiving 911 client calls as ad dollar return diminishes.

We cannot entirely divorce HGTV Magazine from its peers – shoot, a good number of their editorial team once mingled with the Manhattan high-brow.

Are other publications that are embracing the Millennial’s perspective of “sinking down roots.”

Yes.

Whether its Country Living showcasing the Millennial Betty Crockers in Nashville or Dwell Magazine showcasing the 20-something gay couple and their 600 square foot pre-fab, indeed there are other print pubs out there that are getting it too!

And for the purposes of this blog post, I won’t journey far into the online, but trust me, there’s a bunch more sites that are connecting with Millennials without having to turn on the press.

I was wrong a year ago.  I admit it.

As Howard Schultz voices in his best-seller about Starbucks… Onward!

The BGO Rattling House & Home

I have written about BGOs in this bloglogue in the past… BGO translates to Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious.

House and home is a market that is posting a market BGO right before our eyes… and the market gurus from Wall Street to Madison Avenue to Washington are not seeing it.

Over the last few days, the Wall Street Journal posted a couple of stories that shed spotlights on the stage.

One of the stories that ran mid-week last week showcased the big decline in home sales and new home starts.

Like good MBA-accounting journalists, the article was littered with stats comparing sales, mortgage rates and real estate listing stats to support the overall observation that… well… housing is diving quickly back into a slump.

No question that the writers talked about the low-growth recessionary recovery.  They cited the new bank regulations and the long process of loan qualification.

They even wrote about the industrial transition with builders and developers.

Ahhh… but they did not cite the BGO!

The article over the weekend titled, “Rentals Reach For The Skies” came a bit closer to showcasing the BGO… but it too reminded me of the kid that comes close to knocking down that Cinco de Mayo clown filled with candy, but just cannot hit it and reap the reward.

The second article noted that there are 74 rental high-rises being built this year across the U.S. and another 81 on the books for next year.

It talks about the young singles and couples paying the premium rents to live intown and near where they work.

One evening last week, I sat at a coffee table with Atlanta community leadership and talked about all the new live-work-play centers that are all the rage here in Atlanta.

We talked a lot about our wonderment of just how long the live-work-play rage will be a rage.

So what's the BGO... the Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious?

Simple.  The Millennials are making their mark right in the midst of us… right in the midst of our here and now.

I’ve rattled in this blog a lot about the Millennials, their sheer size and how they are going to be the market drivers for the next 20-30 years.

They cannot be overlooked, excused or dumb-downed.

We are in the midst of the Millennial tsunami as Brian, Maria, Jasmine and Ethan depart from campus-town and the helicopter-parent nest to stake a home claim of their own.

But the Millennials are facing a record-setting low of down payment savings and record- setting pain-in-the-butt process of securing a mortgage loan.

Rentals are rising as the new American city-scape embrace this tsunami.

Community politico clients are always astounded by the stats that the make-up of their townscape is much more single and rental than they ever imagined that it could be.

House and home manufacturing and retail clients continue to dismiss that the mom-dad-kids-apple-pie-homebody is fading fast.

I am the first to showcase quick service restaurants and their franchisees.  A vast array of those teams see the Millennial tsunami and are out their capitalizing on it.

The biggest glitch that the QSR groups are making is an assumption that the Millennials are going to follow a family life-stage transition just like their Boomer parents… marry, move out to the ‘burbs and have kids.

If you don't see this happening ... go check the Burger King brand. 

Back to housing.

Home-owners who bought their pads in the 90s and early 2000s are in for a shock when they learn that the homes have way too many walls with outdated countertops, bathrooms and extended outdoor living space.

Real estate agents are in the midst of a shock as they cling to their out-dated commission-agent-driven business model.

And house and home retailers need to either re-adjust or be ready for the arrival of a new competitive mix.

House and home is hip… but it’s not what we see on the pages of Elle Décor or Architectural Digest.  

That set of pubs has become a dwindling cliché of New York designers, fashion publishers and high-end boutique retailers that refuse to recognize that life does exist past the Hudson.

To capture what’s really happening, tune in or better yet, pick up an HGTV Magazine. Spend some time on Pinterest and look at the pictures. Go shop at Pier 1 Imports and Target.  Go to the local “retro-rehab” furniture store.

The current issues of BOTH Southern Living and Country Living Magazines highlight the new retro-50s headset of the Millennial homemakers – and that’s both the male and female ones!

The housing market is in the midst of radical change.

Rental is the new norm – and probably will here for longer than a "transitional lifestyle" time.

Less is more and more is way too far out of what’s in the checkbook each month.

High touch comfort and multi-use furniture (note… I did not say space – that’s assumed to be there already by the Millennials) is the hip and trendy.

Pre-owned brings in history and neighborhood roots.

Kitchens are center stage and not operational sidekicks.

Color adds personality with window fabrics, area rugs, accent pillows and wall art… even modular flooring that works great in those newly built “post-industrial” lofts.

I am sure that some readers of this bloglogue have a take-away that I might have all the answers… 

…But in this situation I don’t.

What I do know is that we need to get out from behind the desks and sit down with Millennials and hear their stories about what they and their friends are doing.

Hey… I am the first to admit that the Millennial ADHD does not make it easy.

But folks, the Millennials are now in the driver's seat of the future. 

That Wall Street Journal article talks about the new high-rise apartment just built in Minneapolis and how its so very not what one would expect. 

They talk about how when you get up to the penthouse that posts a rental amount of $9,000 per month you can see the Mississippi River as it meanders southward.

After reading this… go to the newest high-rise apartment tower or live-work-play town center or new “retro” loft complex and take in the vista of the new market horizon and see what you might see.

All I know for sure is that the BGO hitting us right now is the Millennial Generation forming its nests – even if they have to rent it for the next decade or so!

Tech Geeks Writing A Dumbass Article In The WSJ

My hope in writing this is that many of our clients and business partners actually take a moment and read this blog. 

This might be one of the most important ones that I post this year.

I’m a strong advocate of the Wall Street Journal. 

And, that’s the printed newspaper version, and not the online editions nor website.  There are still a small number of us that still read the real print editions.

Despite my loyalty to the WSJ, this morning’s edition is actually the springboard for this blog – and it centers around an article that, quite frankly, is a junk story that I would more likely see in the local, Atlanta rag that goes by the name the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The authors of the WSJ article go by the names of Khadeeia Safdar and Angus Loten. 

My bet is that they are tech nerds that have an inner desire to be newscasters.

The title of the article is, “Search For Help With Web Ads, But Not Finding Much.”

No question, the headline did catch my attention. 

Reason being that there are a lot… a lot… of web consulting firms out there in many of the cities I work spanning the globe from Seattle to Toronto to NYC to ATL. And there are many, many smart marketers that are using the art and engineering of the web to achieve some great sales.

When I got into the article, I was further surprised.

The article is not about large corporations, but instead about small business owners and how those featured have voiced frustrations about their using online and web advertising as a part of their marketing mix.

The authors are out to make those firms that claim to do web advertising to be slime, money-takers.

My surprise is that the “Marketplace” sectional editors actually allowed this article to be printed.

Below the article’s picture of a small business owner, the quip reads, “Business owner Dave Bennett says he didn’t get customers after spending $1,800 in an online-ad campaign.”

Before I even begin to read the actual facts about the case, two things struck me.

One… the man is standing next to what appears to be a very sophisticated shower stall.

Two… $1,800 might be a large sum of money to this man, but $1,800 is really not a large marketing budget – especially as I learn, it was for four months of marketing!

When I delved further into the article, turns out that Dave Bennett runs a company called Wasatch Chill Zone.  It’s a whole body cyrotherapy firm.  Based in Utah. 

He was paying for listings in online business directories and search engine mechanics (SEOs). 

Wow. 

This story is appearing on the same page with news about Home Depot, GM and Google. 

There’s another story about a psychotherapist spending $2,200 on a campaign to market his service in New York City and another case about a firm called Ageless Karate in Las Vegas spending $1,000 to land students for classes. 

With roots in NYC, I find it surprising that the psychotherapist isn’t aware that $2,200 in NYC barely gets you one poster up from one week on a subway stop over in the Bronx.   But then again, we are talking about a psychotherapist.

And a firm called “Ageless in Karate” in Las Vegas … my bet is that the owner is a cousin of the whole body cyrotherapy firm over the border in Utah.

The reason why I encourage my clients and partners to read this blog… and to even go online and read the article is to gain an understanding that there’s usually a whole lot more to a story than what is captured in the tidbits of a headline or the viewpoints of “peer” commentary.

Yesterday afternoon as I was driving back home, there was a guy dressed up as a clown waving a poster to get people in the afternoon rush hour to come rent an apartment in a complex that needs a bunch of renovation help.

There are a lot of really dumb folks out there doing some very dumb advertising and marketing who spend small amounts of money and expect large groups of people lining up at the door.

Shame on the WSJ for printing the article.  The authors need to go back to their techie programming venues. The editors allowing need to get fired.

A couple important points…

#1… Advertising alone does not a sale make.

#2… Simply wearing a nametag when you walk into a room does produce long lines of people that are ready to jump into bed with you

#2a…. Taking a date to a cheap fast food restaurant also does not persuade them in all likelihood to go have passionate sex either

#3… Fat people do not look good wearing bikinis or swimmer thongs… a simple listing on a search site or a simple click banner ad will not produce purchasers of large ticket, highly targeted product lines

#4…. If I say the word television, and the conventional thinking set is “get on those shows that have the highest ratings” to generate that high volume of reach, then how can you sleep at night if you then say, “target one-on-one through that highly targeted use of online ads?”

#5… How many sale closings are you getting from your Yellow Page ad listing?  My bet is that these small business owners featured in the WSJ article actually spend more than triple the dollar amount highlighted in what they spent on the Internet on Yellow Page ads. 

Please… Please… do not abandon the use of online marketing as we cruise quickly into the year 2015.

And if you ever receive a resume from a person that matches with the two geeks or their editors from the WSJ, trash it. 

The Patchwork Of Human Community ... That Drives Sales!

Over the last two weeks, I have journeyed across America working with retailers, banks and local healthcare groups. 

The journey has taken me from Birmingham to Cape Cod to Cleveland to Seattle to San Diego.  Even Doraville… right in the ATL… and a city that was made famous by the Atlanta Rhythm Section back in 1974. 

I have had the pleasure of working on gleaning insights about the served geographies, neighborhoods and groups of people that reside and work nearby.

What hit me yesterday afternoon is that I really haven’t blogged much about the way that here at EXPERIENCE we have the resources and tools to go in and really dig down into the richness of just what makes up the consumer marketplace.

Bank in the early 1980s, I attended an AMA Conference up in NYC – AMA as in American Marketing Association.  One of the speakers at the conference was a guy named Robin Page from a corporation based outside of Washington called Claritas.

His presentation was all about how Claritas had built a system that profiled out the American patchwork quilt of neighborhoods and people into a set of 40 distinctive consumer lifestyle groups.

The lifestyle groups all had nicknames and when his slides came up with actual neighborhood maps of these distinctive groups, I was astounded by how reflective the groups were of the types of people who made up those communities.

After I attended the conference, I was hooked.  And now, more than 35 years later, a lot of what I do and the perspective of how I see the marketplace is through the glasses of the distinctive consumer lifestyle groups.

Today, in 2014, the U.S. is now made up of 66 different lifestyle groups.  There is no doubt that America has diversified since the early 1980s. 

Back then there were Hispanics that made up the population of the U.S., but not near the quantity – and diversity – of the American Hispanic-Latino cultural groups today.

Generationally, America was not as sliced and diced as we are today.  There were more of the War Generation and the Millennials were not quite being birthed.

There were urban, suburban, small town and rural communities back then, but now we have second tier cities, magnet urban centers and exurbia-villes.

These neighborhood groups go by cute nicknames… some of which I actually can lay claim to naming!

“Blue Chip Blues” and “Shotguns & Pickups” existed back in the 1980s and still exist today.  So does “Gray Power,” “Blue Blood Estates” and “Young Influentials.”

But gone are the manufacturing labor neighborhoods that went by the nicknames of “Levittown USA” and “Norma Rae-ville.” 

The upscale suburban Boomer family group called “Furs & Stationwagons” has evolved into the GenXer group of “Kids & Cul-de-Sacs.”

And while the hip and cool urban neighborhoods continue to attract the college elite, young professionals, the 1980s nickname of “Young Literati” has given way to the mobile iPad havens now nicknamed “Young Digerati.”

Today, the Claritas system known as PRIZM and also the like system for financial brands called P$ycle are both owned by Nielsen, a sister company of Claritas when they were both owned by the Dutch company VNU.

Over the years, I have built some very extensive segmentation models using PRIZM for some brands like BMW, Marriott, American Express, Discovery Networks, TNT and TBS, Church’s Chicken, Blue Cross Blue Shield, P&G, IAMs Pet Foods and Kraft Food Brands.

In the mid-1980s, I launched a company that brought the lifestyle groups to life in the healthcare business.

Also worked with PHD Media on building media planning models using Claritas PRIZM lifestyle groups.

Of all the clients I have worked with over the years, I am the first to say that the media folks are the most defensive and difficult to integrate the lifestyle groups in their media stats and sales strategy… and that is even true today with Nielsen now owning it.

Today, EXPERIENCE has licensed access to PRIZM in the U.S. and like systems in Canada, Europe and Asia.  We also have a good understanding and ties with firms that have crafted like systems in Latin America.

We are passionate about viewing the work as a diverse quilt of holistic and predictive lifestyle groups versus shotgun demographics. Passionate. Period.

In the last six months, I’ve had the chance to work in some very interesting markets with some very interesting brands and in doing so, have been able to see the American quilt right in the midst of fluid change.

A couple of observations…

Historic minority groups are merging into landscape of America

Whether the groups are African-American professionals, second and third generation Asian and Hispanic groups, or even gay and lesbian groups, they are merging into our neighborhood landscape versus redefining our neighborhood landscape.

The neighborhood group nicknamed “Blue Chip Blues,” that 20 years ago was made up of family-centric skilled labor is structurally the same today.  Kids are a top priority along with finding times to balance hard work with fun play with everything from motorcycles to RVs. Home is more home-base and Man Caves are not trendy, but something that is a given reward for hard work.

But today, those with family roots in Ireland, Poland and Italy, have been replaced by those with family roots in Mexico, Columbia and Korea. Perhaps the only quirk is that in addition to the Man Caves, the Mom Caves are a new given reward for hard work – whether that job is home-based or 9-to-5.

Boomers are changing the mix of the age 55+ lifestyle groups

Over the past decade, transitional empty-groups have emerged as a more dominant set of neighborhoods that in the past were viewed as transitional. Either the neighborhoods would quickly age into retirement living lifestyles or the empty-nesters would flee for the sunnier shores of Florida… but not anymore.

The neighborhood groups nicknamed “Middleburg Managers” and “Big Fish, Small Pond” are actually growing with Boomers in their 60s continuing to work or pursue new careers while groups like “Traditional Times” and “Gray Power” actually posting little-to-no growth.

Small town America is on the decline

Today’s Wall Street Journal posted a new release that showcases just how much of small town America is on a population decline as younger singles and families have to move to the metros to find work.  Traffic jams in the cities are even affecting the feasibility of living in the smaller satellite towns and commuting into the city. 

Younger, more service and hourly employment neighborhoods like “Crossroad Villages,” “Young & Rustic” and “Blue Highways” have declined, while groups like “New Beginnings” and “Boomtown Singles” have grown.

The professional DINK population is more permanent… and aging!

The headset of the 1990s proudly proclaimed that the female professionals were overtaking their share – finally – of the professional and management work force… but the headset quickly predicted that a very significant share would post a leave of absence to birth kids.  Interestingly, a large share of the dual-income couples elected not to have kids and is now in their 40s and even early 50s wearing the DINK label.

Neighborhood groups like “God’s Country” and “Country Casuals” are great illustrations of growing neighborhoods with DINK couples establishing roots along with peers where bikes, swing sets and family stickers on the back of the SUVs are no where to be seen.

Where do the Live-Work-Play developments fit in the mix?

I post this observation as more of a question than a statement.  I am not sure I have the answer yet … but certainly active in observation with a number of new municipal clients.

Live-Work-Play developments are booming right now as builders and developers see opportunity for multiple points of revenue, frustrated commuters see an avenue of escape from their standard hour long drives to work and Millennials crave the physical interaction that Facebook provides on the web-world.

But Live-Work-Play developments sport a combination of urban density against the backdrops of city, suburban and even exurban life. A strong share of those dwelling are rental and Millennial and there are bets on the table, transitional too.

Part of my gut predicts that they will become more matched up with a mix of “Urban Acheivers,” “Brite Lites, Li’l City” and “Young Influentials.”

There is no question that Baby Boomers shook the retail market into everything from fast food to drive-thrus to regional malls. Funny how those have attempted to transition and keep pace with the Boomers, but how many have fallen into a service mix with the transitional teen-to-twenty males and new immigrant groups.

Another part of my gut predicts that perhaps in about five to ten years, the Live-Work-Play developments may face a challenge that malls are facing today as the Millennials move onward.

Whew!

I know that this is a long blog, but I hope those taking the time to read it, send feedback or better yet, pick up the phone and give me a call.

PRIZM and lifestyle segmentation is cool stuff.  More importantly, it does drive business and bottomlines when used by those who see more than just the statistical numbers!

Its Time To Start Digging Below The News Dirt

Digging below the surface and unraveling the sub-merged.

In some ways that line is really what drives me to get out of bed every morning.

I am surprised by just how many folks claiming to be in the business of business fail to do any digging.

But then again, it’s good because the failure to do it keeps my company in business!

With all the snow that has hit the Southeast in the last several weeks, I’ve had the chance to delve more into the news reports. 

For example, here in front of me is today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal with a major news story posting the headline: Household Debt Jumps as Banks Loosen Up. 

I am always amazed how the writers on Wall Street see the world through their green colored glasses.

Last week I received a great project working with a financial group located in the Great Northwest and got the chance to hear some Oregon and Washington folks talk about banks and the process of “doing banking.”

Maybe its because the Northwest is not within a short car ride from Wall Street that the world over in the Northwest fails to perceive much “loosening up.”

Before I get into some digging, I want to share another interesting news story.

While unemployment posted by the Washington Politico continues to decline… so too does the percentage of folks out there claiming to work.

The percentage of population of our workforce has been declining in recent years.

The political left fails to even acknowledge the decline in the active American workforce.  The political right dashes quickly to showcase how many Americans have left the work force because of limited employment opportunity.

Again… the writers on Wall Street see the world through their green colored glasses and quickly attempt to engineer economic and business models to explain the decline.

The last Blog-post (and you can read it below if you haven’t) highlighted Generation X and their perspective of the world around them.

The generational architecture of a society… or the marketplace… is very telling indeed.

While Generation X is small and not too happy about being overlooked and dismissed, Boomers and Millennials are a whole different story.

Both generational groups are social, cultural and economic driving forces.

Those two generations combined represent about half of all human beings breathing in the U.S.

Let’s take a look for a moment at the Millennials.

This year – 2014 – Millennials will occupy the age 20-35 year old age group with the mass of the generational bell-curve falling in their mid-to-late 20s.

Over-nurtured by their Boomer parents, the U.S. marketplace is experiencing a seismic tremor as many are finally leaving the parental nest.

When the amount of debt is reviewed on an average across all households, Wall Street is correct that the average overall amount is on an increase…

BUT… if you simply view the debt by generational group, it’s a BGO of what’s driving it… (BGO = Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious).

It’s the Millennials who are finally forming their nests and accruing debt as they purchase everything from homes to furniture to appliances to electronics.

Yes… debt is on the increase, but the driver of it is the new generation now forming their nests.

And the drop in the percent of who all makes up the active American workforce?

Enter the Boomers.

What I am about to post is something to which, I can personally relate.

In a couple of weeks, I turn 55 years old. I am a trailing Baby Boomer.

If you asked me 10-15 years ago, at what age I would see retiring or starting up a second career, I probably would have said close to the age I will celebrate in a couple of weeks.

Baby Boomers long thought that they would enjoy an early retirement.

While the economy has shattered those dreams for many, we cannot let go of the fact that many, many businesses and corporations have extended early retirement packages and that many Boomers have quickly said, “Okay.”

Every day, about 12,000 Boomers turn age 65 and that will be taking place every day of every year for close to the next 10 years.

Part of the economic model is based on the drive that as people retire, the younger generations will have jobs.

Problem is that technology and the web have exploded in the midst of that transition.  Technology can do things that previously took 3-4 people to do.  And I am not just talking about technology on manufacturing lines.

Sooooo…. When we hear statistics of individuals exiting the labor pool, we have to be careful not to lay all the blame on lukewarm economics.

Lastly, the big news on Wall Street is the sale of WhatsApp for $19 billion dollars… the most paid ever or a new venture start-up. 

There’s a picture of the fWhatsApp founder on the NY Times website. He’s wearing a T-shirt, suit jacket (note: not a blazer), jeans and flip-flops. 

The article highlights why the deal makes sense and cites the fact that 55% of its users are age 18-24.  It highlights that young people use it.

Here at EXPERIENCE, we have coined the term ZOOMERS to describe those born between 2000 and 2014.  Their parents are GenXers.  Leading-edge ZOOMERS are just entering into the adolescent years.

Individuals age 18-24 are riding the very tail end of the Millennial Generation that this year spans the age spectrum of 20-35 years old.

Part of the rationale behind Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp is that it could be a tool to help Facebook open up China. 

Perhaps.

Here’s where I will place the bet.

One interesting characteristic of Millennials that they very rarely lay claim to the fact that they are a generational group.  Many believe that youth is immortal and that their group is comprised of boundless youth.

Just as the BIG BUSINESS clients I work with have great difficulty seeing the world beyond their corporate walls, Millennials have difficulty understanding constraint… for the most part, any constraint. 

Reading the article and further reading an editorial about the founder in the Wall Street Journal, it quickly becomes apparent that he… like Mark Zuckerberg… believes that the age 18-24 year old group will be the commanding force forever.

Problem with this perception is the bubble is bursting as I write this blog.

Starting this year and going forward for at least the next 10 years, the U.S. population of those age 18-24 will decline dramatically as the 76 million strong Millennials age and the 1-2 average kids per household of the 52 million GenXer parents cruise through their late teens and 20’s.

That’s the U.S. stats.  If you don’t think its rattling the population globally, check out the latest of how China is finally loosening the “only one kid per household allowed” dictate from Beijing.

I'm not planning to purchase any Facebook stock anytime soon.

What amazes me most out of the observations I post on this blog is how much the business community looks at the surface stats and surface news and crafts their overall strategy around it.

Yesterday I watched how a past corporate client of mine continues to move forward with some rather naïve actions that in the long-term make no sense.

I also had a chance to sit down with a financial service entrepreneur. It was a very enjoyable time listening to the entrepreneur react to market dynamics and strategic options.

By the way, the entrepreneur was older than these geek-tech 20-somethings!

My advice... don't react to the surface level of news reports... better yet, call us and bring us in to dig below the surface and unravel the insights!