Lifestyles: Marketing’s new frontier - 07 Oct 2007
As we all know, for quite a while now, it was the “offer” that created the “demand”. Things have considerably changed in recent years and we’re now seeing those that are in charge of products and services having to invent new offers, more and more unexpected if possible; in order to surprise and seduce consumers. How can a company achieve this? Sure there are the classical tools in standard marketing like market research, comparative marketing or even tactical pricing but today the key is to become so different – that there is no longer a “comparison”. To do that takes a savvy dosage of creativity, intuition and emotion.
Brands are no longer just a range of products but increasingly “lifestyles”. This permits companies to use a growing number of tactics without being limited by the specificity of their products or their history. The only rule is to respect the values that have attributed to their brand. Another reason is that they no longer have to target “segments” but “lifestyles” that express themselves with “desires” that are closely related to tribal rites and signals. These criteria, you will agree, are very far from the standard assortment of; revenue, sex, marital status, housing, number of children, education etc…, that are used so often to describe our consumer habits. The consequence is that there are no longer “borders” and everything can become competition as long as it satisfies “desire”.
You’re going to see a lot of this happening shortly in the Sports industry, much like you might have seen (without knowing) in other industries. Take for example STARBUCKS selling CD’s and Books. They don’t want to become a library or a book store. They simply wanted to add to the reasons we want to get our drink from there. The same goes for LAND ROVER and HARLEY DAVIDSON with their “owner clubs & chapters” full of events and adventures that create “experiences” outside and around the purchase itself.
What I’m most happy about with this new trend is that Laneo fits right in. After all, if companies are increasingly more interested in our lifestyles, then my hope is that they will ultimately contribute to preserving them.
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