home : hartbeat : what-a-trip-man

05.03.2002

“HartBeat” is The Hartman Group's FREE online newsletter, providing insight, analysis, information and strategy to give business leaders the knowledge and vision to build sustainable brands.

Archives »
Click here for an archive of past HartBeat articles

digg
del.icio.us

reddit
twitter

friendfeed

StumbleUpon

What A Trip, Man!

SECTION ONE. The Messy Consumer.

As The Hartman Group's work continues in understanding this "new" consumer, I'm constantly queried by the traditional marketplace as to the end-game: What's the group we need to target?...What's the size? Who's the target market? What are the demographics? When my response is to focus on the "journey," not the end-game, eyebrows are raised, backs are arched, and the traditionalists quickly excuse themselves in search of another "cluster analysis." It's not that I'm implying these aren't appropriate questions, it's the simple fact that in a world where mores are still being formed and behaviors have yet to be organized, these basic questions are secondary in our search for true consumer behavior. How many times have we fooled ourselves into believing our attitudinal surveys that what consumers say they will do, they actually do? Our efforts are far beyond that simplicity; and, it is that fact that perhaps many of these purists fail to understand the true nature of consumer change...life is messy...ours, yours and certainly the American consumers'.

We don't live in a world of specific patterns where, in the past, people fit more easily into homogenous groups. Our lives have changed because, most importantly, our world has changed. Whether it be in the enormous speed and diffusion of information, the traditional change in the infrastructures of our past or in our own search for a higher quality of life, the diversity of our complicated lives demands a different level of understanding - of ourselves and of the world in which we live, work and play. Or are we more like children in the candy store, where each child is in search of their individualized sweetness, affected by those around us but bound to our own individual taste?

American consumers are indeed on a journey, and we who try to understand them better should recognize that they have no developed and articulate end-game. It's all about the trip...and what a trip it is. Those who pursue the end-game are only developing answers to questions they have created. Certainly in the minds of the consumers those questions are yet to be formulated. In the past ten years we have witnessed an enormous movement in the lives of American consumers, and that change is driven in part by a need for individualized regimes within the context of a community.

This is not easy to understand (as David Moore clearly illustrates in the previous column), and that's specifically why we have created an understanding of unique behavior in the dimensions of world consumption and models where we can track movement (i.e., The Hartman Model). It's not a static marketplace we're living in. This is also why we strive to understand cultural components in relationship with changing behavior - people have and are changing the way they live, shop and buy. Why should we expect them to have all the answers in their lives when we don't? (At least most of us don't.) Perhaps those traditional marketers are really only selling to themselves. Isn't that the way the old world was?

SECTION TWO. The Consumer Challenge.

The challenge is recognizing how these new consumers are integrating the past and the present, a culmination of unique behavior incorporating the new with the old, throwing the old way of choosing out the window and developing a whole new brand called "Me and My Family."

Let's have the courage to jump on the wagon, in the plane or whatever form of transportation we find appropriate and realize that the understanding lies in the trip. Get your card punched and get ready, because around the bend is even more change, and still no end-game is in sight. Hang on!

The epiphany is recognizing that we need to understand consumers in flux, consumers who seek and aspire to a different lifestyle. Boxing them into segments based upon the old vision doesn't give us the end-game, it may only obstruct our ability to understand the journey, for even they don't know the final destination (if there is one at all).

What's even more complex is that their lives are filled with conflict: What about that runner who smokes? The supplement user who eats donuts? The organic produce shopper who doesn't recycle? The business exec who does yoga? These aren't so unusual. These are real people. They move on their path and at their own speed, even as they profess a higher plane of decision, they behave on their own terms.

Brands will allow consumers to move toward a destination they feel good about, both from a pragmatic use as well as an emotional attachment. As long as the brand invites the consumer to participate on their own terms, not as an icon to a "better world," because they are concerned about their world. The dimensions of consumption that we talk about are those that can have a direct impact on an individual's life. Knowledge. Authenticity. Experience. Isn't that what a lifestyle brand is all about? Isn't it the journey that is indeed the destination? Isn't it the constant search that delivers the greatest reward?

Comment »