Bonnie Gloris: HERITAGE HERESY

Are you familiar with trendwatching.com? The company helps “forward-thinking business professionals in 180+ countries understand the new consumer and subsequently uncover compelling, profitable innovation opportunities.” I’ve subscribed to their newsletter for a few years now and it’s consistently fascinating. They also offer premium services for a fee. While doing this week’s readings on market segments, target market selection, etc., a recent issue of trendwatching came to mind – one that somewhat contradicts traditional notions of identifying your market.

The issue is called HERITAGE HERESY (http://trendwatching.com/trends/heritageheresy/) and the idea is that, “rising numbers of consumers are embracing brands that play with, subvert and even explode their own heritage.” Driving this trend are the following concepts:

1. Brand Baggage - Brand heritage becomes brand baggage.

2. New Normal - Ready for post-demographic consumerism?

3. Clean-Slate Competition - Consumers are flocking to brands without history or heritage.

4. Tumblurred Lines – Whose brand is it anyway?

5. Not -So-Virgin Consumers - New markets, new mindsets, new heresies.

Among these topics, #2 is most compelling. According to trendwatching, “traditional demographic segments are becoming ever less useful. Fueled by growing choice and freedom, consumers are ever more diverse and unpredictable. Meanwhile, a global culture sees consumers from nine to 90, from Chicago to Bangkok, lust after the same smartphones, eat the same sushi, and wear the same sneaker brands. Enter POST-DEMOGRAPHIC CONSUMERISM, and the embrace of brands that cater to universal (and complex) needs and wants, rather than constructed (and limited) identities.” 

 

Trendwatching implies that consumers no longer fit into neat demographic packages, and neither should brands.  Do you agree, or is it still beneficial to “develop prototypical customer profiles based on consumer benefits,” as suggested in Miklos Sarvary’s article Market Segmentation, Target Market Selection, and Positioning?