Truth 30. Go to the Gemba

How much are your favorite pants worth? A judge in Washington, D.C. made headlines when he filed a $54 million lawsuit against his neighborhood dry cleaner that he accused of losing a pair of his pinstriped suit pants. He claimed that a D.C. consumer protection law entitled him to thousands of dollars for each day over nearly four years in which signs at the shop promised "same day service" and "satisfaction guaranteed." The suit dragged on for several months, but at the end of the day, the plaintiff went home with empty pockets.

If you're not happy with a product or service, what can you do about it? You have three possible courses of action (though sometimes you can take more than one).

• Voice response—You can appeal directly to the retailer for redress (for example, a refund).
• Private response—You can express your dissatisfaction to friends and boycott the product or the store where you bought it.
• Third-party response—Like the pantsless judge, you can take legal action against the merchant, register a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, or perhaps write a letter to the newspaper.

In one study, business majors wrote complaint letters to companies. When the company sent a free sample in response, this significantly improved their feelings about the company. This didn't happen, however, when they received only a letter of apology but no swag. Even worse, students who got no response reported an even more negative image than before, indicating that any kind of response is better than none.^[54]

A number of factors influence which route to dealing with dissatisfaction we will choose. People are more likely to take action for expensive products such as household durables, cars, and clothing than for inexpensive products. Ironically, consumers who are satisfied with a store in general are more likely to complain if they experience something bad; they take the time to complain because they feel connected to the store. Older people are also more likely to complain, and they are much more likely to believe the store will actually resolve the problem. Shoppers who get their problems resolved feel even better about the store than if nothing had gone wrong. However, if the consumer does not believe that the store will respond well to a complaint, the person will be more likely to simply switch than fight. The moral: Marketers should encourage consumers to complain to them. People are more likely to spread the word about unresolved negative experiences to their friends than they are to boast about positive occurrences.

To be more responsive to its customers, Dell created a social networking community it calls Idea Storm. This is an online forum for users to submit suggestions about its products, and people have deluged the site with thousands of recommendations and comments. Increasingly, companies are figuring out that they're better off revealing their flaws to their customers than pretending to be foolproof—and having to explain away failures later. For example, Delta Airlines (an established player in an industry notorious for low customer satisfaction) recently created its own Web site, http://blog.delta.com, that hosts suggestions from consumers—"Bring the pillows back, please"—as well as polls about features and offerings.

Many analysts who study consumer satisfaction or who are trying to design new products or services to increase it recognize that it is crucial to understand how people actually interact with their environment to identify potential problems. They typically conduct these investigations in focus groups where a small set of consumers comes into a facility to try a new item while company personnel observe them from behind a mirror.

However, some researchers advocate a more up-close-and-personal approach that allows them to watch people in the actual environment where they consume the product. This perspective grew out of the Japanese approach to total quality management (TQM); a complex set of management and engineering procedures aimed at reducing errors and increasing quality.

To help them achieve more insight, these researchers go to the Gemba, which to the Japanese means the one true source of information. According to this philosophy, it's essential to send marketers and designers to the precise place where consumers use the product or service rather than asking laboratory subjects to interact with it in a simulated environment.

Host Foods, which operates food concessions in major airports, sent a team to the Gemba—in this case, an airport cafeteria—to identify problem areas. Employees watched as customers chose to (or didn't) enter the facility and then followed them as they inspected the menu, procured silverware, paid, and found a table. The findings were crucial to Host's redesign of the facility to make it easier to use. For example, the team identified a common problem that many people traveling solo experience: the need to put down one's luggage to enter the food line, and the feeling of panic you get because you're not able to keep an eye on your valuables while you're getting your meal.

Get out of your office, and experience your product or service precisely the way your customers do. You may be in for a rude awakening.

 

Truth 31. Your customers want to be like Mike (or someone like him)

Will a few pieces of leather and rubber really improve your game? In the movie Like Mike, the main character believes that he can fly higher when he dons his magical Air Jordans. Even those of us who would need a rocket pack to jump higher still get caught up in beliefs like this—if we didn't, all those sweet celebrity endorsement deals would be "nothing but net." Whether we're influenced by another individual or by a group, many of our product choices are strongly influenced by what others do. (No, this force didn't go away after junior high school.) A reference group is "an actual or imaginary individual or group that significantly influences the way we think about ourselves and the things we buy. It's hard to discount the power these groups exert upon us.

For example, in the United States and around the world, many thousands of weekend Hell's Angels drop huge sums on motorcycles and biker paraphernalia. Harley-Davidson's most important marketing tool is not slick TV ads but its network of Harley Owners Groups (HOGs) that provide a feeling of community and camaraderie to members. Fellow riders bond via their consumption choices, so total strangers feel an immediate connection with one another when they meet. The publisher of American Iron, an industry magazine, observed, "You don't buy a Harley because it's a superior bike; you buy a Harley to be a part of a family."^[55]

Why are reference groups so persuasive? The answer lies in the social power they wield over us. You have power over another person if you can make him do something—even if that person does it willingly. Social scientists describe several categories of social power.

• Referent power—If a person admires the qualities of a person or a group, he tries to imitate them by copying the referent's behaviors (for example, choice of clothing, cars, and leisure activities). Prominent people in all walks of life can affect our consumption behaviors by virtue of product endorsements (50 Cent for Reebok), distinctive fashion statements (Fergie's displays of high-end designer clothing), or championing causes (Lance Armstrong's work for cancer). Referent power is important to many marketing strategies because consumers voluntarily modify what they do and buy to identify with a referent.

• Information power—A person can have power simply because she knows something others would like to know. Editors of trade publications such as Women's Wear Daily often possess tremendous power because of their ability to compile and disseminate information that can make or break individual designers or companies.
• Legitimate power—Sometimes we grant power by virtue of social agreements, such as the authority we give to police officers, soldiers, and yes, sometimes even professors. The legitimate power that a uniform confers wields authority in consumer contexts, including teaching hospitals where medical students don white coats to enhance their standing with patients. Marketers may "borrow" this form of power to influence consumers. For example, an ad featuring a model wearing a white doctor's coat can add an aura of legitimacy or authority to the presentation of the product. ("I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV.")
• Expert power—To attract the casual Internet user, U.S. Robotics signed up British physicist Stephen Hawking to endorse its modems. A company executive commented, "We wanted to generate trust. So we found visionaries who use U.S. Robotics technology, and we let them tell the consumer how it makes their lives more productive." Hawking, who has Lou Gehrig's disease and speaks via a synthesizer, said in one TV spot, "My body may be stuck in this chair, but with the Internet, my mind can go to the end of the universe." Hawking's expert power derives from the knowledge he possesses about a content area. This helps to explain the weight many of us assign to professional critics' reviews of restaurants, books, movies, and cars—even though, with the advent of blogs and open-source references such as Wikipedia, it's getting a lot harder to tell just who is really an expert!
• Reward power—A person or group with the means to provide positive reinforcement has reward power. The reward may be the tangible kind, such as what the contestants on Survivor experience when they get to stay on the island. Or it can be more intangible, such as the approval that the judges on American Idol (except Simon) deliver to contestants.
• Coercive power—We exert coercive power when we influence someone because of social or physical intimidation. A threat is often effective in the short term, but it doesn't tend to stick because we usually revert back to our original behavior as soon as the bully leaves the scene. Fortunately, marketers rarely try to use this type of power—unless you count those annoying calls from telemarketers! However, we can see elements of this power base in fear appeals that some companies use to scare us into buying life insurance ("who knows when you might walk into a bus?") as well as in intimidating salespeople who try to succeed with a "hard sell."

 

Truth 32. Go tribal

Before it released the popular Xbox game Halo 2, Microsoft put up a Web site to explain the story line. However, there was a catch: The story was written from the point of view of the Covenant (the aliens who are preparing to attack Earth in the game)—and in their language. Within 48 hours, avid gamers around the world worked together by sharing information in gaming chat rooms to crack the code and translate the text. More than 1.5 million people preordered the game before its release. This cooperative effort illustrates a major trend in consumer behavior.

A brand community is a group of consumers who share a set of social relationships based on usage or interest in a product. Unlike other kinds of communities, these members typically don't live near each other—except when they may meet for brief periods at organized events or brandfests that community-oriented companies such as Jeep, Saturn, or Harley-Davidson sponsor. These events help owners to "bond" with fellow enthusiasts and strengthen their identification with the product as well as with others they meet who share their passion. Researchers find that people who participate in these events feel more positive about the products as a result, and this enhances brand loyalty. They are more forgiving than others of product failures or lapses in service quality, and they're less likely to switch brands even if they learn that competing products are as good or better. Furthermore, these community members become emotionally involved in the company's welfare, and they often serve as brand missionaries by carrying its marketing message to others.

A consumer tribe is similar to a brand community; it is a group of people who share a lifestyle and who can identify with each other because of a shared allegiance to an activity or a product. Although these tribes are often unstable and short-lived, at least for a time members identify with others through shared emotions, moral beliefs, styles of life, and, of course, the products they jointly consume as part of their tribal affiliation. Some companies, especially those that are more youth-oriented, rely on a tribal marketing strategy that links their product to, say, a group of shredders (skateboarders to us ancient folks). However, there also are plenty of tribes with older members, such as car enthusiasts who gather to celebrate such cult products as the Citroën in Europe and the Ford Mustang in the United States, or "foodies" who share their passion for cooking with other Wolfgang Puck wannabees around the world. Pontiac opened a community hub on Yahoo! it calls Pontiac Underground—"Where Passion for Pontiac Is Driven By You." The carmaker does no overt marketing on the site; the idea is to let drivers find it and spread the word themselves. Users share photos and videos of cars using Flickr and Yahoo! Video. A Yahoo! Answers zone enables knowledge sharing. Meanwhile, a list of Pontiac clubs in the physical world and on Yahoo! Groups allows users to connect offline and online.

 

Truth 33. People like to do their own thing—so long as it's everyone else's thing too

The early Bohemians who lived in Paris around 1830 made a point of behaving, well, differently from others. One flamboyant figure of the time became famous for walking a lobster on a leash through the gardens of the Royal Palace. His friends drank wine from human skulls, cut their beards in strange shapes, and slept in tents on the floors of their garrets. Sounds a bit like some fraternity houses we've visited.

Although in every age there certainly are those who "march to their own drummers," most people tend to follow society's expectations regarding how they should act and look (with a little improvisation here and there, of course). Conformity is a change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or imagined group pressure. For a society to function, its members develop norms, or informal rules that govern behavior. Without these rules, we would have chaos. Imagine the confusion if a simple norm such as stopping for a red traffic light did not exist.

We conform in many small ways every day—even though we don't always realize it. Unspoken rules govern many aspects of consumption. In addition to norms regarding appropriate use of clothing and other personal items, we conform to rules that include gift-giving (we expect birthday presents from loved ones and get upset if they do not materialize), sex roles (men often pick up the check on a first date), and personal hygiene (our friends expect us to shower regularly).

We don't mimic others' behavior all the time, so what makes it more likely we'll conform? These are some common culprits:

• Cultural pressures—Different cultures encourage conformity to a greater or lesser degree. The American slogan "Do your own thing" in the 1960s reflected a movement away from conformity and toward individualism. In contrast, Japanese society emphasizes collective well-being and group loyalty over individuals' needs.

• Fear of deviance—The individual may have reason to believe that the group will apply sanctions to punish nonconforming behaviors. It's not unusual to observe adolescents shunning a peer who is "different" or a corporation or university passing over a person for promotion because she is not a "team player."
• Commitment—The more people who are dedicated to a group and value their membership in it, the more motivated they are to do what the group wants. Rock groupies and followers of TV evangelists may do anything their idols ask of them, and terrorists are willing to die for their cause. According to the principle of least interest, the person who is least committed to staying in a relationship has the most power, because that party doesn't care as much if the other person rejects him.

• Group unanimity, size, and expertise—As groups gain in power, compliance increases. It is often harder to resist the demands of a large number of people than only a few—especially when a "mob mentality" rules.
• Susceptibility to interpersonal influence—This personality trait refers to an individual's need to have others think highly of him. Consumers who don't possess this trait are role-relaxed; they tend to be older, affluent, and highly confident. Subaru created a communications strategy to reach role-relaxed consumers. In one of its commercials, a man proclaims, "I want a car…. Don't tell me about wood paneling, about winning the respect of my neighbors. They're my neighbors. They're not my heroes."

Intrepid marketers don't fear: These consumers are in the minority. Most of us are mindful of what our friends and neighbors buy, and people who belong to groups do tend to display patterns of similarity—even after high school!

 

Truth 34. Catch a buzz

Altoids breath mints had been around for 200 years, but suddenly their popularity skyrocketed. How did this happen? The revival began when the mint began to attract a devoted following among smokers and coffee drinkers who hung out in the blossoming Seattle club scene during the 1980s. Until 1993, when Kraft bought manufacturer Callard & Bowers, only those "in the know" sucked the mints. The brand's marketing manager persuaded Kraft to hire advertising agency Leo Burnett to develop a modest promotional campaign. The agency decided to publicize the candy with subway posters sporting retro imagery and other "low-tech" media to avoid making the product seem mainstream—that would turn off the original audience. As young people started to tune into this "retro" treat, its popularity rocketed.

As the Altoids success story illustrates, "buzz" makes a hit product. Word of mouth (WOM) is product information that individuals transmit to other individuals. Because we get the word from people we know, WOM tends to be more reliable and trustworthy than messages from more formal marketing channels. And, unlike advertising, WOM often comes with social pressure to conform to these recommendations. Ironically, despite all the money that marketers pump into lavish ads, WOM is far more powerful: It influences two-thirds of all consumer goods sales.

So, how can marketers harness the enormous power of WOM? In the "old days" (a few years ago), a toy company would launch a new product by unveiling it during a Spring trade fair, and then it would run a November–December saturation television ad campaign during cartoon prime time to sell the toy to kids. In contrast, consider the Picoo Z helicopter, a $30 toy helicopter made by Silverlit Toys in Hong Kong. In March 2007, a Google search for the Picoo produced more than 109,000 URLs, whereas the URLs for Silverlit Toys was more than 597,000, with many of those links pointing to major online global gift retailers, such as Hammacher-Schlemmer and Toys-R-Us.

Do you think this huge exposure was the result of a meticulously planned promotional strategy? Think again. By most accounts, a 28-year-old tech worker in Chicago started the Picoo Z buzz when he bought his helicopter after reading about it on a hobbyist message board. A few months later, he uploaded his homemade video of the toy on YouTube. Within two weeks, 15 of his friends bought the toy, and they, in turn, posted their own videos and pointed viewers to the original video. Internet retailers who troll online conversations for fresh and exciting buzz identified the toy and started adding their own links to the clips. In just a few short months, there were hundreds of Picoo Z videos, and more than a million people viewed them.

So, how can you stimulate word of mouth? Consider enlisting brand ambassadors to announce a new brand or service. AT&T sent its ambassadors to high-traffic areas of California and New Jersey, doing random favors such as handing dog biscuits to people walking their dogs and providing binoculars to concertgoers to promote its new AT&T Local Service. Hyatt Hotels unleashed 100 bellhops in Manhattan, who spent the day opening doors, carrying packages, and handing out pillow mints to thousands of consumers.

Or go for viral marketing, the strategy of getting visitors to a Web site to forward information on the site to their friends to make still more consumers aware of the product—usually by creating online content that is entertaining or just plain weird. To promote a use for a razor that it could never discuss on TV, Philips launched a Norelco Web site, shaveeverywhere.com. The ad features a guy in a bathrobe explaining how to use the shaver in places, well, not on your head. The site uses pictures of fruit and vegetables to refer to male body parts. This viral strategy did its job, as thousands of people worldwide forwarded the URL to their friends. Catch the buzz.

 

Truth 35. Go with the flow—get shopmobbed today

Odds are you (or your kid) have already logged some serious time on Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn before you started reading this paragraph today. Social networking, where members post information about themselves and make contact with others who share similar interests and opinions, may well be the biggest development in consumer behavior since the TV dinner! Almost daily we hear about yet another social networking site where users can set up a home page with photos, a profile, and links to others in their social networks. They can browse for friends, dates, partners for activities, or contacts of all kinds and invite them to join the users' personal networks as "friends."

Social networking is an integral part of what many call Web 2.0, which is like the Internet on steroids. (Learn more about social networking in The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking.) The key change is the interactivity among producers and users, but these are some other characteristics of a Web 2.0 site.

• It improves as the number of users increases. For example, Amazon's capability to recommend books to you based on what other people with similar interests have bought gets better as it tracks more and more people who are entering search queries.
• Its currency is eyeballs. Google makes its money by charging advertisers according to the number of people who see their ads after typing in a search term.
• It's version-free and in perpetual beta. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, gets updated constantly by users who "correct" others' errors.
• It categorizes entries according to "folksonomy" rather than "taxonomy." In other words, sites rely on users rather than preestablished systems to sort contents. Listeners at Pandora.com create their own "radio stations" that play songs by artists they choose, as well as other similar artists.

This last point highlights a key change in the way some new media companies approach their businesses: Think of it as marketing strategy by committee. The wisdom of crowds perspective (from a book by that name) argues that, under the right circumstances, groups are smarter than the smartest people in them. If this is true, it implies that large numbers of (nonexpert) consumers can predict successful products.

For example, at Threadless.com, customers rank T-shirt designs ahead of time, and the company prints the winning ideas. Every week, contestants upload T-shirts designs to the site, where about 700 compete to be among the six that it will print during that time. Threadless visitors score designs on a scale of 0 to 5, and the staff selects winners from the most popular entrants. The six lucky artists each get $2,000 in cash and merchandise. Threadless sells out of every shirt it offers.

Here are some more crowd-based sites to watch:

• Sermo.com is a social network for physicians. It has no advertising, job listings, or membership fees. It makes its money (about $500,000 a year so far) by charging institutional investors for the opportunity to listen in as approximately 15,000 doctors chat among themselves. Say, for example, a young patient breaks out in hives after taking a new prescription. A doctor might post whether she thinks this is because of a rare symptom or perhaps the drug's side-effect. If other doctors feel it's the latter, this negative news could affect the drug manufacturer's stock, so their opinions have value to analysts. Doctors who ask or answer a question that paying observers deem especially valuable receive bonuses of $5 to $25 per post.
• How about social networking sites that "create" a concert by persuading an artist to perform in a certain city or country? At Eventful.com, fans can demand events and performances in their town and spread the word to make them happen. Or how about actually buying a piece of the bands you like? Go to SellaBand.com, where fans ("believers") buy "parts" in a band for $10 per share. After the band sells 5,000 parts, SellaBand arranges a professional recording, including top studios, A&R (Artists & Repertoire managers (industry talent scouts), and producers. Believers receive a limited edition CD of the recording. They also get a piece of the profits, so they're likely to promote the band wherever they can.
• Individual consumers gain crowd clout by shopmobbing with strangers. So far, this is most popular in China, where the tuangou ("team purchase") phenomenon involves strangers organizing themselves around a specific product or service. Members who meet online at sites such as Taobao.com and Liba.com/index arrange to meet at a certain date and time in a real-world store and literally mob the unsuspecting retailer—the bargain-hungry crowd negotiates a group discount on the spot.

 

Truth 36. Find the market maven, and the rest is gravy

As Cold Stone Creamery expands to Japan, the ice cream store projects a somewhat different image than it has in the United States. The chain wants to be ultra cool by generating a buzz among fashion-conscious "office ladies," as the Japanese call young, single, female professionals. These women are very influential in Japan; their reactions to a new product can make or break it. To woo this group, Cold Stone sponsored a fashion show for young women (assuming the models can fit into the dresses after sampling a few of the chain's caloric creations), and fashion magazines staged photo shoots at the stores.

Although consumers get information from personal sources, they do not usually ask just anyone for advice about purchases. If you decide to buy a new stereo, you will most likely seek advice from a friend who knows a lot about sound systems. This friend may own a sophisticated system or may subscribe to specialized magazines such as Stereo Review and spend free time browsing through electronics stores. However, you may have another friend who has a reputation for being stylish and who spends his free time reading Gentleman's Quarterly and shopping at trendy boutiques. You might not bring up your stereo problem with him, but you may take him with you to shop for a new fall wardrobe.

Everyone knows people who are knowledgeable about products and whose advice others take seriously. Like one of the Japanese office ladies, this individual is an opinion leader; a person who is frequently able to influence others' attitudes or behavior. Clearly, some people's recommendations carry more weight than others. Opinion leaders are extremely valuable information sources because they prescreen, evaluate, and synthesize product information in an unbiased way. They tend to be socially active and highly interconnected in their communities. These individuals are often among the first to buy new products, so they absorb much of the risk. This experience reduces uncertainty for others who are not as courageous.

Early conceptions of the opinion leader role assumed that the opinion leader absorbs information from the mass media and, in turn, transmits data to opinion receivers. This view has turned out to be overly simplified; it confuses the functions of several different types of consumers. Indeed, we now know that opinion leaders also are likely to be opinion seekers. They are generally more involved in a product category and actively search for information. As a result, they are more likely to talk about products with others and to solicit others' opinions. Contrary to the static view of opinion leadership, most product-related conversation does not take place in a "lecture" format in which one person does all the talking. (Even husbands get a word in now and then.) A lot of product-related conversation occurs in the context of a casual interaction rather than as formal instruction. One study, which found that opinion seeking is especially high for food products, revealed that two-thirds of opinion seekers also view themselves as opinion leaders.^[56]

Consumers who are expert in a product category may not necessarily share their trade secrets with others but, on the other hand, we all know people who love to talk about what they buy—whether or not we want to hear about it. A market maven loves to transmit marketplace information of all types. These shopaholics are not necessarily interested in certain products, and they may not necessarily be early purchasers; they're simply into staying on top of what's happening in the marketplace. Researchers use the following scale items, to which respondents indicate how much they agree or disagree, to identify market mavens:^[57]

1. I like introducing new brands and products to my friends.
2. I like helping people by providing them with information about many kinds of products.
3. People ask me for information about products, places to shop, or sales.
4. If someone asked me where to get the best buy on several types of products, I could tell him or her where to shop.
5. My friends think of me as a good source of information when it comes to new products or sales.

Ironically, marketers often overlook yet another type of consumer in their quest to convince shoppers to buy. A surrogate consumer is a person whom we hire to provide input into our purchase decisions. Unlike the opinion leader or market maven, the surrogate is usually compensated for his advice. Interior decorators, stockbrokers, professional shoppers, and college consultants are surrogate consumers.

Regardless of whether they actually make the purchase on behalf of the consumer, surrogates' recommendations can be enormously influential. The consumer, in essence, relinquishes control over several or all decision-making functions, such as information search, evaluation of alternatives, or actual purchase. For example, a client may commission an interior decorator to redo her house, and we may entrust a broker to make crucial buy/sell decisions on our behalf. Marketers tend to overlook surrogates when they try to convince consumers to buy their goods or services. This can be a big mistake, because they may mistarget their communications to end consumers instead of to the surrogates who actually sift through product information and decide among product alternatives on their behalf.

 

Truth 37. Hundreds of housewives can predict your company's future

Are all of us smarter than any of us? A prediction market is one of the hottest new trends in forecasting the future. This approach asserts that groups of people with knowledge about an industry are jointly better predictors of the future than are any individuals—especially when each person stands to benefit from picking winners, just as they would if they were choosing companies to invest in on the New York Stock Exchange.

Companies from Microsoft to Eli Lilly and Hewlett-Packard empower their employees as "traders" who place bets on what they think will happen regarding future sales, the success of new products, or how other firms in a distribution channel will behave. For example, the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly routinely places multimillion-dollar bets on drug candidates that face overwhelming odds of failure—the relatively few new compounds that do succeed need to make enough money to cover the losses that the others incur. Obviously, the company will benefit if it can do a better job of separating the winners from the losers earlier in the process. Lilly ran an experiment where about 50 of its employees involved in drug development, including chemists, biologists, and project managers, traded six mock drug candidates through an internal market. The group correctly predicted the three most successful drugs.^[58]

In another emerging application, many companies are finding that it's both cost efficient and productive to call on outsiders from around the world to solve problems that their own scientists can't handle. Just as a firm might outsource production to a subcontractor, these companies are crowdsourcing. For example, InnoCentive is a network of more than 90,000 "solvers" that member companies, such as Boeing, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, and Eli Lilly, invite to tackle problems they are wrestling with internally. If a "solver" finds a solution, he or she gets a $10,000 to $100,000 reward.

 

Truth 38. Know who wears the pants in the family

The decision process within a household unit resembles a business conference. Certain matters go on the table for discussion, different members have different priorities and agendas, and there may be power struggles to rival any tale of corporate intrigue.

So, who "wears the pants" in the family? Sometimes it's not obvious which spouse makes the decisions. Indeed, although many men still wear the pants, it's women who buy them. When Haggar's research showed that nearly half of married women bought pants for their husbands without them being present, the firm started advertising its menswear products in women's magazines.^[59]

Figuring out who makes buying decisions in a family is an important issue for marketers, because this information tells them who to target and whether they need to reach both spouses to influence a choice. For example, marketing research in the 1950s indicated that women were beginning to play a larger role in household purchasing decisions. In response, lawn mower manufacturers began to emphasize the rotary mower over other power mowers to downplay women's fears of injury.

In traditional families (and especially those with low educational levels), women are primarily responsible for family financial management—the man makes it, and the woman spends it. Each spouse "specializes" in certain activities. The pattern is different among families where more modern sex-role norms operate. These couples believe both people should participate in family maintenance activities. In these cases, husbands assume more responsibility for laundering, housecleaning, grocery shopping, and so on, in addition to such traditionally "male" tasks as home maintenance and garbage removal. Shared decision making is becoming the norm for most American couples today—a Roper poll reported that 94 percent of partnered women say they make the decision or share equally in home furnishings selections (not a huge surprise), but in addition, 81 percent said the same for financial savings/investments, and 74 percent participate in deciding what car to buy.^[60]

As Hallmark well knows, women across the social spectrum still are primarily responsible for the continuation of the family's kinnetwork system: They perform the rituals that maintain ties among family members, both immediate and extended. Women are more likely to coordinate visits among relatives, stay in touch with family members, send greeting cards, and arrange social engagements. This organizing role means that women often make important decisions about the family's leisure activities, and they are more likely to decide with whom the family will socialize.

 

Truth 39. Youth is wasted on the young

Carmakers are wooing a new kind of consumer: one who's too young to drive. Many are advertising in child-oriented areas such as gyms that cater to kids, social networking sites where young people hang out, and the Saturday morning cartoons. In Whyville.net, a digital world where nearly two million children aged 8 to 15 hang out, kids can buy virtual Scion xBs if they have enough "clams" (Whyville's monetary unit). If not, they can meet with Eric, a virtual Toyota Financial Services adviser, to finance an xB replica they can use to tool around while in-world. Why bother pushing cars on kids? That's easy: About one-third of parents say their children "actively participate" in car-buying decisions.

Young consumers make up three distinct markets:

• Primary market—Kids spend a lot on their own wants and needs that include toys, apparel, movies, and games. When marketers at M&Ms candy figured out who was actually buying a lot of their products, they redesigned vending machines with coin slots lower to the ground to accommodate shorter people, and sales rose dramatically. Most children choose their own brands of toothpaste, shampoo, and adhesive bandage. A large survey of kids aged 6 to 11 also revealed these tidbits:^[61]
  • Seven percent have visited or used MySpace.com in the past month.
  • Ten percent have downloaded music online in the past month.
  • Six percent have written or read an online journal or blog in the past month.
  • Fifty-four percent have televisions in their rooms.
  • Twenty-six percent have stereos in their rooms.
  • Nineteen percent have computers in their rooms.
• Influence market—Parental yielding is the polite way to describe what occurs when a parent "surrenders" to a child's request. Yielding drives many product selections, because about 90 percent of requests to a parent are by brand name. Researchers estimate that children directly influence about $453 billion worth of family purchases in a year. They report that, on average, children weigh in with a purchase request every 2 minutes when they shop with parents.^[62] In recognition of this influence, Mrs. Butterworth's Syrup created a $6 million campaign to target kids directly with humorous ads that show the lengths to which adults will go to get the syrup bottle to talk to them. An executive who worked on the campaign explained, "We needed to create the nag factor [where kids demand their parents buy the product]."^[63]

• Future market—Kids have a way of growing up to be adults, so savvy marketers try to lock in brand loyalty at an early age. That explains why Kodak encourages kids to become photographers. Currently, only 20 percent of children aged 5 to 12 own cameras, and they shoot an average of only one roll of film a year. The company produces ads that portray photography as a cool pursuit and as a form of rebellion. It packages cameras with an envelope to mail the film directly back so parents can't see the photos.

 

Truth 40. Make millions on Millennials

In 1956, the label "teenage" entered the general American vocabulary when Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers became the first pop group to identify themselves with this new subculture. Believe it or not, the concept of a teenager is a fairly new idea. Throughout most of history, a person simply made the transition from child to adult, and many cultures marked this abrupt change in status with some sort of ritual or ceremony.

So-called Generation Y kids go by several names, including "Echo Boomers" and "Millennials." They already make up nearly one-third of the U.S. population, and they spend $170 billion a year of their own and their parents' money. They love brands like Sony, Patagonia, Gap, Aveda, and Apple. Echo Boomers are the most diverse generation ever. Thirty-five percent are nonwhite, and many grow up in nontraditional families. Today, one in four 21-year-olds was raised by a single parent, and three out of four have a working mother.

Unlike their parents or older siblings, Gen Y-ers tend to hold relatively traditional values, and they believe in the value of fitting in rather than rebelling. Their upbringing has stressed teamwork—team teaching, team grading, collaborative sports, community service, service learning, and student juries. Violent crime among teenagers is down 60 percent to 70 percent. The use of tobacco and alcohol is at an all-time low, as is teen pregnancy. Five out of ten Echo Boomers say they trust the government, and virtually all of them trust Mom and Dad.^[64]

Millennials are the first generation to grow up with computers at home, in a 500-channel TV universe. They are multitaskers with cell phones, music downloads, and instant messaging on the Internet. They are totally at home in a thumb culture that communicates online and by cell phone (more likely via text and IM than by voice). These consumers truly are digital natives. Many young people prefer to use the Internet to communicate because its anonymity makes it easier to talk to people of the opposite sex or of different ethnic and racial groups.

Young consumers think that wired phones or computers are antiques. They're jugglers who value being both footloose and connected to their "peeps" 24/7. The advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi labels this new kind of lifestyle connexity. When Toyota was developing its youth-oriented Scion model, its researchers learned that Echo Boomers practically live in their cars; one-quarter of Gen Y-ers, for example, keep a full change of clothes in their vehicles. So Toyota's designers made the Scion resemble a home on wheels: It has fully reclining front seats so that drivers can nap between classes and a 15-volt outlet so that they can plug in their computers.

One pair of researchers took an in-depth look at how 13- and 14-year-olds integrate the computer into their lives and how they use it to express their cyberidentities. These tweens have limited mobility in real life (too young to drive), so they use the computer to transport themselves to other places and modes of being. The researchers explored the metaphors these kids use when they think about their computers. For some, the PC is a "fraternity house" where they can socialize; it also can be a "carnival" where they play games and an "external brain" that helps with homework.^[65] Clearly, young people are forging intimate relationships with these portals to online spaces we are only beginning to understand.

Because modern teens were raised on TV and tend to be more "savvy" than older generations, marketers must tread lightly in attempts to reach them. In particular, Gen Y-ers must see the messages as authentic and not condescending. So, what are the rules of engagement for young consumers?

• Rule 1: Don't talk down—Younger consumers want to feel they are drawing their own conclusions about products. In the words of one teen: "I don't like it when someone tells me what to do. Those drug and sex commercials preach. What do they know? Also, I don't like it when they show a big party and say, 'Come on and fit in with this product.' That's not how it works."
• Rule 2: Don't try to be what you're not. Stay true to your brand image—Kids value straight talk. Firms that back up what they say impress them. Procter & Gamble appealed to this value with a money-back guarantee on its Old Spice High Endurance deodorant with an invitation to phone 1-800-PROVEIT.
• Rule 3: Entertain them. Make it interactive and keep the sell short—Gen Y kids like to find brands in unexpected places. The prospect of catching appealing ads is part of the reason they're watching that TV show in the first place. If they want to learn more, they'll check out your Web site.
• Rule 4: Show that you know what they're going through, but keep it light—A commercial for Hershey's Ice Breakers mints subtly points out its benefit when it highlights the stress a guy feels as he's psyching himself up to approach a strange girl at a club. "I'm wearing my lucky boxers," he reassures himself. "Don't trip. Don't drool. Relax. How's my breath?"

 

Truth 41. Grownups don't grow up anymore

Restylane is the top-selling dermal injection to reduce the appearance of wrinkles. In 2007 the company decided to pitch it directly to consumers for the first time so, in keeping with new media trends, it launched a multipronged campaign that recognized the technical prowess of many middle-aged people. A conventional TV spot features before-and-after results, along with women who talk about how frequently men check them out after the treatment. But a second component is a video skit on YouTube that supposedly takes place during a woman's fiftieth birthday party. While her son works on a video birthday card, Mom gets caught smooching with a younger man on a couch. Viewers don't know the skit is an ad until the last 15 seconds. A third prong is a contest to name the "Hottest Mom in America"; contestants will submit videos to a Web site, and the winner gets cash, free treatments for a year, and an interview with a modeling agency. Today's Mom isn't exactly June Cleaver.

The baby boomer age cohort (people born between 1946 and 1964) consists of people whose parents established families following the end of World War II and during the 1950s when the peacetime economy was strong and stable. (As a general rule, when people feel confident about how things are going in the world, they are more likely to decide to have children.) As teenagers in the 1960s and 1970s, the "Woodstock generation" created a revolution in style, politics, and consumer attitudes. As they have aged, they have fueled cultural events as diverse as the Free Speech movement and hippies in the 1960s to Reaganomics and yuppies in the 1980s. Now that they are older, they continue to influence popular culture.

As the Restalyne campaign demonstrates, this generation is much more active and physically fit than its predecessors, and they're now in their peak earning years. As one commercial for VH1, the music video network that caters to those who are a bit too old for MTV, pointed out, "The generation that dropped acid to escape reality…is the generation that drops antacid to cope with it."

Levi Strauss is a good example of a company that has built its core business on the backs (or backsides) of boomers. More recently, though, the apparel maker faced the challenge of keeping aging customers in its franchise as former jeans-wearing hippies lost interest in traditional styles. Levi Strauss answered this challenge when it created its "New Casuals" product category with pants that are more formal than jeans but more casual than dress slacks. The target audience is men aged 25 to 49 with higher-than-average education and income, who work in white-collar jobs in major metropolitan areas. The Dockers line was born.

Consumers aged 35 to 44 spend the most on housing, cars, and entertainment. Baby boomers are busy "feathering their nests"; they account for roughly 40 percent of all the money consumers spend on household furnishings and equipment. In addition, consumers aged 45 to 54 spend the most of any age category on food (30 percent above average), apparel (38 percent above average), and retirement programs (57 percent above average).^[66] To appreciate the impact that middle-aged consumers have and will have on our economy, consider this: At current spending levels, a one percent increase in the population of householders aged 35 to 54 results in an additional $8.9 billion in consumer spending.

In addition to the direct demand for products and services that this age group creates, these consumers have fostered a new baby boom of their own to keep marketers busy in the future. Because fertility rates have dropped, this new boom is not as big as the one that created the baby boom generation; we can best describe the new upsurge in the number of children as a baby boomlet. Many boomer couples postponed getting married and having children because of the new opportunities and options for women. They began having babies in their late 20s and early 30s, resulting in fewer (but perhaps more pampered) children per family. This new emphasis on children and the family creates opportunities for products such as cars (the success of the SUV concept among "soccer Moms"), services (the day-care industry and big chains such as KinderCare), and media (magazines such as Working Mother).

Although advertisers are always lured by youth, many are reconsidering this fixation in light of boomers' huge spending power. An ad for the Toyota Highlander, which shows boomers whose nests are emptying, declares, "For your newfound freedom, it's about how you are going to reinvent yourself for what could be 30 or 40 years of retirement, which is very different from your parents and grandparents." Even mobile marketers who typically blast messages to kids on their cell phones are beginning to target the middle-aged. For example, Redbook readers can bid on a year's worth of movie tickets via text messaging.

 

Truth 42. Dollar stores make good cents

About 14 percent of Americans live below the poverty line, and most marketers largely ignore this segment. Still, although poor people obviously have less to spend than do rich ones, they have the same basic needs as everyone else. Low-income families purchase staples, such as milk, orange juice, and tea, at the same rates as average-income families. Minimum wage–level households spend more than average on out-of-pocket health-care costs, rent, and food they eat at home. Unfortunately, they find it harder to obtain these resources because many businesses are reluctant to locate in lower-income areas. On average, residents of poor neighborhoods must travel more than 2 miles to have the same access to supermarkets, large drugstores, and banks as do residents of more affluent areas.

Still, a lot of companies are taking a second look at marketing to the poor because of their large numbers. The economist C. K. Pralahad added fuel to this fire with his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, which argued that big companies could profit and help the world's four billion poor or low-income people by finding innovative ways to sell them soap and refrigerators.

Some companies are getting into these vast markets by revamping their distribution systems or making their products simpler and less expensive. When Nestlé Brazil shrank the package size of its Bono cookies (no relation to the U2 singer) from 200 grams to 140 grams and dropped the price, sales jumped 40 percent. Unilever called a new soap brand Ala so that illiterate people in Latin America could easily recognize it. In Mexico, the giant Cemex cement company improved housing in poor areas after it introduced a pay-as-you-go system for buying building supplies.

Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist, won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics for pioneering the concept of microloans. His Grameen Bank loans small sums—typically less than $100—to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Many of these go to "cell-phone women," who rent time on the phones to others in their remote villages. The bank has issued about six million loans to date, and almost 99 percent of recipients repay them (compared to a 50 percent repayment rate for a typical bank in a developing country).

The success of La Curacao, a chain of department stores in southern California with a Hispanic focus, comes from the company's desire to serve the needs of lower-income consumers. The stores are the brainchild of two Israeli brothers who share a similar experience with many of their customers: They were once illegal immigrants searching for a better life in the United States. They realized that poor people can be good credit risks, if the retailer gives them reason to be grateful that someone has taken a chance on them. This trust seems to be working: Shoppers use store credit cards for 95 percent of purchases, and for eight out of ten of these customers, the La Curacao credit card is the first one they've ever had. The chain's slogan is Un Poco de Su Pais or "A Little Bit of Your Country." Everything about the stores—from the exterior emblazoned with Mayan and Aztec statues to the piped-in salsa music, Spanish-speaking sales staff, and Spanish-language sale signs inside—strives to make the customers feel as if they're back home. And because many of the immigrant families who shop there can't afford to take their kids to places such as Disneyland, every store also has a stage that features mariachi bands, clowns, and other family entertainment.

 

Truth 43. The rich are different

If you've got enough Benjamins (translation for readers over age 25: $100 bills), you can buy a Pink Splendor Barbie complete with crystal jewelry and a bouffant gown sewn with 24-karat threads. To dress a "living doll," Victoria's Secret offers its Million Dollar Miracle Bra, with more than 100 carats of real diamonds.

Obviously, many companies love to sell to affluent, upscale markets. This focus often makes sense, because these consumers have the resources to spend on costly products (often with higher profit margins). However, it is a mistake to assume that we should place everyone with a high income into the same well-lined bucket. After all, social class involves a lot more than absolute income. It is also a way of life, and factors including where they got their money, how they got it, and how long they have had it significantly affect affluents' interests and spending priorities.

Despite our stereotype of rich people living it up, the typical millionaire is a 57-year-old man who is self-employed, earns a median household income of $131,000, has been married to the same wife for most of his adult life, has children, has never spent more than $399 on a suit or more than $140 for a pair of shoes, and drives a Ford Explorer. (The humble billionaire investor Warren Buffett comes to mind.) Interestingly, many affluent people don't consider themselves to be rich. One tendency researchers notice is that they indulge in luxury goods while pinching pennies on everyday items—buying shoes at Neiman Marcus and deodorant at Wal-Mart, for example.^[67]

To generalize, people who are used to having money use their fortunes a lot differently. Old money families (the Rockefellers, DuPonts, Fords, and so on) live primarily on inherited funds. Merely having wealth is not sufficient to achieve social prominence in these circles. You also need to demonstrate a family history of public service and philanthropy, and tangible markers of these contributions often enable donors to achieve a kind of immortality (Rockefeller University, Carnegie Hall, or the Whitney Museum). "Old money" consumers distinguish among themselves in terms of ancestry and lineage rather than wealth. And, they're secure in their status: In a sense, they have trained their whole lives to be rich.

Pity the poor nouveau riches who actually earn their money; many suffer from status anxiety. They monitor the cultural environment to ensure that they do the "right" thing, wear the "right" clothes, get seen at the "right" places, use the "right" caterer, and so on. In major Chinese cities such as Shanghai, some people have taken to wearing pajamas in public as a way to flaunt their newfound wealth. As one consumer explained, "Only people in cities can afford clothes like this. In farming villages, they still have to wear old work clothes to bed."^[68]

Nouveau or not, we all have a deep-seated tendency to evaluate ourselves, our professional accomplishments, our appearance, and our material well-being relative to others. The rise of a mass-class market means that many luxury products have gone down-market; once-exclusive designer names appear on the bodies, homes, and garages of many consumers who used to only look at them longingly in magazines or on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Does this mean we no longer yearn for status symbols? Hardly. The market continues to roll out ever-pricier goods and services, from $130,000 Hummers and $12,000 mother-baby diamond tennis bracelet sets to $600 jeans, $800 haircuts, and $400 bottles of wine. Although it seems that almost everyone can flout a designer handbag (or at least a counterfeit version with a convincing logo), our country's wealthiest consumers employ 9,000 personal chefs, visit plastic surgeons, and send their children to $400-an-hour math tutors.

The social analyst Thorstein Veblen first discussed the motivation to consume for the sake of consuming at the turn of the twentieth century. For Veblen, we buy things to inspire envy in others through our display of wealth or power. Veblen coined the term conspicuous consumption to refer to people's desires to provide prominent visible evidence of their ability to afford luxury goods. The material excesses of his time motivated Veblen's outlook; he wrote in the era of the "Robber Barons," where the likes of J. P. Morgan, Henry Clay Frick, and William Vanderbilt built massive financial empires and flaunted their wealth as they competed to throw the most lavish party.

Sounds like they really lived it up back in the old days, right? Well, maybe the more things change, the more they stay the same: The recent wave of corporate scandals involving companies such as Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco infuriated many consumers when they discovered that some top executives lived it up even as other employees were laid off. One account of a $1 million birthday party that the chief executive of Tyco threw for his wife is eerily similar to a robber baron shindig: The party reportedly had a gladiator theme and featured an ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David with vodka streaming from his penis into crystal glasses.

The rich are different.

 

Truth 44. Out with the ketchup, in with the salsa

Marketers cannot ignore the stunning diversity of cultures that are reshaping mainstream society. Ethnic minorities spend more than $600 billion a year on products and services, so firms must tailor products and communications strategies to their unique needs. Immigrants now make up 10 percent of the U.S. population and will account for 13 percent by 2050.

This important change encourages advertisers to rethink their old strategies, which assumed that virtually all of their customers were Caucasians hailing from Western Europe. For example, as part of Crest toothpaste's fiftieth-anniversary celebration, Procter & Gamble revived its "Crest Kid," who first appeared as an apple-cheeked urchin that Norman Rockwell illustrated in 1956. Now, a Cuban-born girl plays the character. Although some people feel uncomfortable with the notion that marketers should explicitly take into account people's racial and ethnic differences when they formulate their strategies, the reality is that these subcultural memberships do shape many consumers' needs and wants. Research indicates, for example, that members of minority groups find an advertising spokesperson from their own group more trustworthy, and this enhanced credibility in turn translates into more positive brand attitudes. However, marketers need to avoid the pitfall of painting all members of an ethnic or racial group with the same brush; these generalizations not only are inaccurate, but they also are likely to turn off the very people a company wants to reach.

Ethnic marketing is in vogue with many firms, but actually defining and targeting members of a distinct ethnic group is not always so easy in our "melting pot" society. In the 2000 U.S. Census, some 7 million people identified with two or more races, refusing to describe themselves as only white, black, Asian, Korean, Samoan, or one of the other racial categories. The popularity of golfer Tiger Woods illuminates the complexity of ethnic identity in the United States. Although we laud Tiger as an African American role model, in reality he is a model of multiracialism. His mother is Thai, and he also has Caucasian and Indian ancestry. Other popular multiracial celebrities include actor Keanu Reeves (Hawaiian, Chinese, and Caucasian), singer Mariah Carey (black Venezuelan and white), and Dean Cain of Superman fame (Japanese and Caucasian).

The bulk of American immigrants historically came from Europe, but immigration patterns have shifted dramatically. New immigrants are much more likely to be Asian or Hispanic. As these new waves of immigrants settle in the United States, marketers try to track their consumption patterns and adjust their strategies accordingly. It's best to market to these new arrivals—whether Arabs, Asians, Russians, or people of Caribbean descent—in their native languages. They tend to cluster together geographically, which makes them easy to reach. The local community is the primary source for information and advice, so word of mouth is especially important.

In the past, marketers used ethnic symbolism as shorthand to convey certain product attributes. They often employed crude and unflattering images when they depicted African Americans as subservient or Mexicans as bandits. Aunt Jemima sold pancake mix, and Rastus was a grinning black chef who pitched Cream of Wheat hot cereal. The Gold Dust Twins were black urchins who peddled a soap powder for Lever Brothers, and Pillsbury hawked powdered drink mixes using characters such as Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry—who had buck teeth. As the Civil Rights Movement gave more power to minority groups and their rising economic status began to command marketers' respect, these negative stereotypes began to disappear. Frito-Lay responded to protests by the Hispanic community and stopped using the Frito Bandito character in 1971, and Quaker Foods gave Aunt Jemima a makeover in 1989.

Now, the Mars company is taking an interesting risk with its Uncle Ben's rice brand. For more than 60 years, packages featured the black Uncle Ben character. He wore a bow tie evocative of servants and Pullman porters, and his title reflects how white Southerners once used "uncle" and "aunt" as honorary names for older African Americans because the whites refused to call the African Americans "Mr." and "Mrs." Mars is reviving the character, but he's been remade as Ben, an accomplished businessman with an opulent office who shares his "grains of wisdom" about rice and life on the brand's Web site.

 

Truth 45. Look for fly-fishing born-again environmentalist jazz-loving Harry Potter freaks

Our group memberships within our society-at-large define us. A subculture is a group whose members share beliefs and common experiences that set them apart from others. Every one of us belongs to many subcultures, depending on our age, race, ethnic background, or place of residence.

The staggering diversity of consumers' interests and activities today means that it's usually no longer meaningful to speak of a mass market. We are witnessing a continuing spiral of market fragmentation that requires us to speak with increasingly greater precision to smaller groups of consumers—but the upside is that we can focus our messages very sharply to reach them.

In contrast to larger, demographically based subcultures like Hispanic-Americans or baby boomers (that Nature usually determines), people who are part of a microculture freely choose to identify with a lifestyle or aesthetic preference. A good example is the microculture that automobile hobbyists call "Tuners." These are single men in their late teens and early 20s, usually in Latino or Asian communities, who share a passion for fast cars, high-tech auto upgrades, and specialized car parts. This microculture started with late night meets among illegal street racers in New York and L.A. Now, Tuners are more mainstream; magazines including Import Tuner and Sport Compact Car and major companies such as Pioneer eagerly court these high-tech hot-rodders. A commercial for the Honda Civic aimed straight for Tuners; it showed a fleet of cars sporting customized features such as chrome rims and tinted windows.

Whether Tuners, Dead Heads, or skinheads, each microculture exhibits its own unique set of norms, vocabulary, and product insignias (think of the Grateful Dead subculture's distinctive skull and roses). A study of contemporary "mountain men" in the western United States illustrates the binding influence of a microculture on its members. Researchers found that group members shared a strong sense of identity that they expressed in weekend retreats, where they reinforced these ties by using authentic items like tepees, buffalo robes, buckskin leggings, and beaded moccasins to create a sense of community among fellow mountain men.

These microcultures can even gel around fictional characters and events, and they often play a key role in defining our self-concept. Many devotees of Star Trek, for example, immerse themselves in a make-believe world of starships, phasers, and Vulcan mind melds. Our microcultures typically command fierce loyalty: Star Trek fans are notorious for their devotion to the cause, as this excerpt from a fan's email illustrates:

I have to admit to keeping pretty quiet about my devotion to the show for many years simply because people do tend to view a Trek fan as weird or crazy…[after attending her first convention she says:] Since then I have proudly worn my Bajoran earring and not cared about the looks I get from others…. I have also met…other Trek fans, and some of these people have become very close friends. We have a lot in common and have had some of the same experiences as concerns our love of Trek.^[69]

Star Trek is a merchandising empire that continues to beam up millions of dollars in revenues. Needless to say, it's not alone in this regard. Numerous other microcultures are out there, thriving on their collective worship of mythical and not-so-mythical worlds and characters ranging from the music group Phish to Hello Kitty. Indeed, it's fascinating to realize just how many microcultures are out there (often reinforced by our obsession with blogging about anything and everything that we experience) and the products they can coalesce around. Consider, for example, the devotion to Peeps; every year people buy about 1.5 billion of these mostly tasteless marshmallow chicks; about two-thirds of them sell around Easter. They have no nutritional value, but they do have a shelf life of two years. Maybe that's why not all Peeps get eaten. Devotees use them in decorations, dioramas, online slide shows, and sculptures. Some fans feel challenged to test their physical properties: On more than 200 Peeps Web sites, you can see fetishists skewering, microwaving, hammering, decapitating, and otherwise abusing the spongy confections.

If a homely marshmallow candy can attain icon status in a microculture, might your product be next?

 

Truth 46. Ronald McDonald is related to Luke Skywalker

A myth is a story with symbolic elements that represents a culture's ideals.

Consider, for example, a familiar story in our culture: Little Red Riding Hood. This myth started as a peasants' tale in sixteenth-century France, where a girl meets a werewolf on her way to granny's house. (There is historical evidence for a plague of wolf attacks during this time, including several incidents where men were tried for allegedly transforming themselves into the deadly animals.) The werewolf has already killed granny, stored her flesh in the pantry, and poured her blood in a bottle. Contrary to the version we know, however, when the girl arrives at the house, she snacks on granny, strips naked, and climbs into bed with the wolf! To make the story even more scandalous, some versions refer to the wolf as a "gaffer" (a contraction of "grandfather"), implying incest as well.

This story first appeared in print in 1697 as a warning to the loose ladies of Louis XIV's court. (The author puts her in red in this version, because this color symbolizes harlots.) Eventually, the Brothers Grimm wrote their own version in 1812, but they substituted violence for sex to scare kids into behaving. And, to reinforce the sex-role standards of that time, in the Grimm version, a man rescues the girl from the wolf. So, this myth sends vivid messages about such cultural no-nos as cannibalism, incest, and promiscuity.

An understanding of cultural myths is important to marketers who, in some cases (most likely unconsciously), pattern their messages along a mythic structure. Consider, for example, the way that McDonald's takes on "mythical" qualities. The "golden arches" are a symbol that consumers everywhere recognize as virtually synonymous with American culture. They offer sanctuary to Americans around the world; Americans know exactly what to expect once they enter. Basic struggles involving good versus evil play out in the fantasy world that McDonald's advertising creates, for example, when Ronald McDonald confounds the Hamburglar. McDonald's even has a "seminary" (Hamburger University) where inductees go to learn the Ways of The Golden Arches.

We associate myths with the ancient Greeks or Romans but, in reality, comic books, movies, holidays, and yes, even commercials embody our own cultural myths. Consider the popularity of the elaborate weddings that Disney stages for couples who want to reenact their own version of a popular fairy tale. At Disney World, the princess bride wears a tiara and rides to the park's lakeside wedding pavilion in a horse-drawn coach, complete with two footmen in gray wigs and gold lamé pants. At the exchange of vows, trumpets blare as Major Domo (he helped the Duke in his quest for Cinderella) walks up the aisle with two wedding bands gently placed in a glass slipper on a velvet pillow. Disney stages about 2,000 of these extravaganzas each year. Disney is expanding the appeal of this myth as it moves into the bridal gown business. It sells a line of billowing princess gowns complete with crystal tiaras. Fairy-tale brides can walk down the aisle posing as Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, or Ariel.

Comic book superheroes demonstrate how a culture communicates myths to consumers of all ages. Marvel Comics' Spiderman character tells stories about balancing the obligations of being a superhero with the need of his alter ego, Peter Parker, to succeed in school and have a normal love life. Indeed, some of these fictional figures embody such fundamental properties that they become a monomyth, a myth that is common to many cultures. Consider Superman; a father (Jor-El) gives his only son to save a world with his supernatural powers. Sound familiar?

 

Truth 47. Sign a caveman to endorse your product

People love the Geico caveman. He appeared in commercials as a throwback dressed in "yuppie" clothing who struggles against Geico's insensitivity when its ads claimed, "It's so easy even a caveman can do it." How much do viewers love him? Well, ABC decided to develop a sitcom (okay, a short-lived one) about a group of caveman roommates who battle prejudice in modern-day America. This nouveau Fred Flintstone isn't alone. Burger King's creepy "King" mascot shows up in a series of video games, and the fast-food chain is arranging for him to star in a feature film. And the mythical Simpsons family debuted in real life as 7-Eleven transformed many of its stores into Kwik-E-Marts to promote the cartoon series' movie. During the promotion, customers snapped up KrustyO's cereal, Buzz Cola, and ice Squishees, all products from the show.

Reality engineering occurs when marketers appropriate elements of popular culture and use them as promotional vehicles. Reality engineers have many tools at their disposal; they plant products in movies, pump scents into offices and stores, attach video monitors in the backs of taxicabs, buy ad space on police patrol cars, or film faked "documentaries" such as The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield. A New York couple funded their $80,000 wedding by selling corporate plugs; they inserted coupons in their programs and tossed 25 bouquets from 1-800-FLOWERS. Internet casino GoldenPalace.com paid people a total of $100,000 to tattoo the company name on their foreheads, cleavage, and pregnant bellies. In one poll, about half of the respondents said they would consider accepting money from corporations in exchange for naming rights to their babies. Others do it for free: In 2000, the latest year for which data is available, 571 babies in the United States were named Armani, 55 were named Chevy, and 21 were named L'Oréal.

Traditionally, TV networks demanded that producers "geek" (alter) brand names before they could appear in a show, as when Melrose Place changed a Nokia cell phone to a "Nokio." Nowadays, though, real products pop up everywhere. A script for ABC's soap opera All My Children was reworked so that one of the characters would plug a new Wal-Mart perfume called Enchantment. Daytime TV stars eat Butterball turkeys, wear NASCAR shirts, and use Kleenex tissue. And the characters on the soap have been drinking a lot of Florida orange juice—not only because they're thirsty. Product placement is the insertion of real products in fictional movies, TV shows, books, and plays. Many types of products play starring (or at least supporting) roles in our culture; in 2007, for example, the most visible brands ranged from Coca-Cola and Nike apparel to the Chicago Bears football team and the Pussycat Dolls band.

For better or worse, products are popping up everywhere. Worldwide product placement in all media was worth $3.5 billion in 2004, a 200 percent increase from 1994. New advances in technology are taking product placement to the next level, as producers can insert brands into shows after filming them. Virtual product placement put a box of Club Crackers into an episode of Yes, Dear; producers also inserted Cheez-It crackers, a can of StarKist tuna, and Nutri-Grain bars into the show. This new procedure means that a brand doesn't have to be written into the script, and it can't be deleted by late editing changes.

Is the placement worth the effort? A 2006 study reported that consumers respond well to placements when the show's plot makes the product's benefit clear. It found that the year's most effective brand integration occurred on ABC's now-cancelled Miracle Workers reality show, where physicians performed novel, life-changing surgeries. Audiences reacted strongly to CVS Pharmacy's role in covering the costs of medications that patients needed after the procedures.

 

Truth 48. Make your brand a fortress brand—and make mine a Guinness

A ritual is a set of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occurs in a fixed sequence and is repeated periodically. Bizarre tribal ceremonies, perhaps involving animal or human sacrifice, may come to mind when you think of rituals but, in reality, many contemporary consumer activities are ritualistic.

Consider, for example, a ritual that many beer drinkers in the United Kingdom and Ireland hold near and dear to their hearts—the spectacle of a pub bartender "pulling" the perfect pint of Guinness. According to tradition, the slow pour takes exactly 119.5 seconds as the bartender holds the glass at a 45-degree angle, fills it three-quarters full, lets it settle, and tops it off with its signature creamy head. Guinness wanted to make the pull faster so that the bar could serve more drinks on a busy night, so it introduced FastPour, an ultrasound technology that dispenses the dark brew in only 25 seconds. Did you guess the outcome? The brewer had to scrap the system when drinkers resisted the innovation. You just don't mess with consumers' rituals.

The BBDO Worldwide advertising agency labels brands that we closely link to our rituals fortress brands because, once they become embedded in our rituals—whether brushing our teeth, drinking a beer, or shaving—we're unlikely to replace them. The agency reported that people it observed in 26 countries practice some rituals in common, including one it labels preparing for battle. For most of us, this ritual means getting ready for work. Relevant activities include brushing our teeth, taking a shower or bath, having something to eat or drink, talking to a family member or partner, checking e-mail, shaving, putting on makeup, watching TV or listening to the radio, and reading a newspaper. The study claims that 89 percent of people use the same brands for these sequenced rituals, and three out of four are disappointed or irritated when something disrupts their ritual or their brand of choice isn't available.

Rituals occur at several levels. Public rituals such as the Super Bowl, presidential inaugurations, and graduation ceremonies are communal activities that affirm our membership in the larger group and reassure us that we are reading from the same script as everyone else. Other rituals occur in small groups or even in isolation. Market researchers discovered that, for many people, the act of late-night ice cream eating has ritualistic elements, often involving a favorite spoon and bowl! And rituals are not always set in stone; they change with the times. For example, when we throw rice at a wedding, we are expressing our desire for the couple to be fertile. In recent years, many newlyweds have substituted soap bubbles, jingling bells, or butterflies for the rice, because birds eat the rice, which expands inside their bodies with nasty results.

Many businesses owe their livelihoods to their capability to supply ritual artifacts to consumers. These are items we need to perform rituals, such as wedding rice, birthday candles, diplomas, specialized foods and beverages (for example, wedding cakes, ceremonial wine, or even hot dogs at the ball park), trophies and plaques, band uniforms, greeting cards, and retirement watches. In addition, we often follow a ritual script to identify the artifacts we need, the sequence in which we should use them, and who uses them. Examples include graduation programs, fraternity manuals, and etiquette books. Make your brand a fortress brand.

 

Truth 49. Turn a (pet) rock into gold

In the early 1980s, Cabbage Patch dolls were all the rage among American children. Faced with a limited supply of the product, some retailers reported near-riots among adults as they tried desperately to buy the dolls for their children. A Milwaukee DJ jokingly announced that people should bring catcher's mitts to a local stadium, because an airplane was going to fly overhead and drop 2,000 dolls. He told his listeners to hold up their American Express cards so their numbers could be photographed from the plane. More than two dozen anxious parents apparently didn't get the joke; they showed up in subzero weather, mitts in hand.

The Cabbage Patch craze lasted for a couple of seasons before it eventually died out, and consumers moved on to other things, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which grossed more than $600 million in 1989. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers eventually replaced the Turtles, and Beanie Babies and Giga Pets, in turn, deposed them before the invasion of Pokémon followed by Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and now Webkinz. What will be next?

Although the longevity of a particular style can range from a month to a century, fashions tend to flow in a predictable sequence. Like a person, an item or idea progresses through basic stages from birth to death. The fashion acceptance cycle is pretty predictable, but the rate at which it occurs is speeding up dramatically in our global and high-tech economy. This means that companies have to work harder than ever to continually innovate rather than simply introduce a great product and rest on their laurels. Product development cycles accelerate in many industries from apparel (which used to have four seasons but now has six per year) to computers.

We distinguish among products in terms of the length of their acceptance cycle. A classic is a fashion with an extremely long acceptance cycle. It is, in a sense, "antifashion" because it guarantees stability and low risk to the purchaser for a long period. Keds sneakers, introduced in 1917, appeal to those who are turned off by the high fashion, trendy appeal of Nike or Reebok. When researchers asked consumers in focus groups to imagine what kind of building Keds would be, a common response was a country house with a white picket fence. In other words, consumers see the shoes as a stable, classic product. In contrast, participants described Nikes as steel-and-glass skyscrapers, reflecting their more modern image.

In contrast, a fad is a short-lived fashion. Relatively few people adopt a fad product. Adopters may all belong to a common subculture, and the fad "trickles across" members but rarely breaks out of that specific group. Indeed, others are likely to ridicule the fad (which may add fuel to the fire). Some notable past fad products include hula hoops, snap bracelets, and pet rocks. More recently, an entrepreneur named Johnny Earle caught the fad wave by turning his nickname—"Cupcake"—into a booming business. He started selling his T-shirts featuring cupcakes in unlikely situations (for example, one with a cupcake and crossbones) out of the trunk of his car. He wound up with two retail stores, including one on upscale Newbury Street in Boston. Customers walk away with the shirts wrapped in doughnut boxes rather than bags.

The first company to identify a trend and act on it has an advantage, whether the firm is Starbucks (gourmet coffee), Nabisco (Snackwells low-fat cookies and crackers), Taco Bell (value pricing), or Chrysler (retro cars). Nothing is certain, but some guidelines help to predict whether the innovation will endure as a long-term trend or if it's just a fad destined to go the way of hula-hoops, pet rocks, and little rubber spiders called Wally Wallwalkers that slowly crawled down walls instead of just dropping to the ground:

• Does it fit with basic lifestyle changes? If a new hairstyle is hard to care for, this innovation isn't consistent with women's increasing time demands. However, the movement to shorter-term vacations is more likely to last, because this innovation makes trip planning easier for harried consumers who want to get away for a few days at a time.
• What are the benefits? The switch to poultry and fish from beef came about because these meats are healthier.
• Can it be personalized? Enduring trends tend to accommodate a desire for individuality, whereas styles such as Mohawk haircuts or the grunge look tend to lock followers in to a fairly restricted set of styles.
• Is it a real trend or just a side effect of something else? An increased interest in exercise is part of a basic trend toward health consciousness, although the specific form of exercise that is "in" at any given time will vary (for example, low-impact aerobics versus Pilates).
• What other changes are occurring in the market? Sometimes carryover effects influence the popularity of related products. The miniskirt fad in the 1960s boosted hosiery purchases substantially. Now, sales of these items are in decline because of today's more casual styles.
• Who has adopted it? If working mothers, baby boomers, or some other important market segment don't adopt the innovation, it is not likely to become a longer-term trend.

 

Truth 50. Think globally, act locally

When Wal-Mart started to open stores abroad in the early 1990s, it offered a little piece of America to foreign consumers—and that was the problem. The retail behemoth promoted golf clubs in soccer-mad Brazil and pushed ice skates in Mexico. It trained its German clerks to smile at customers—who thought they were flirting. Now Wal-Mart is adapting (though not in Germany—the company had to throw in the towel there). Its Chinese stores sell live turtles and snakes and lure shoppers who come on foot or bicycle with free shuttle buses and home delivery for refrigerators and other large items.

As corporations compete in many markets around the world, the debate intensifies regarding the need to develop separate marketing plans for each culture versus crafting a single plan that a firm implements everywhere. Let's briefly consider each viewpoint.

• Adopt a standardized strategy—Proponents of a standardized marketing strategy argue that many cultures, especially those of industrialized countries, have become so homogenized that the same approach will work throughout the world. By developing one approach for multiple markets, a company can benefit from economies of scale because it does not have to incur the substantial time and expense to develop a separate strategy for each culture. For example, Starbucks is becoming a household name in Japan (where it is pronounced STAH-buks-zu). Like their American counterparts, local Japanese outlets feature comfortable sofas, and hip-hop and reggae tunes play in the background.
• Adopt a localized strategy—Disney learned the hard way about the importance of being sensitive to local cultures after it opened its Euro Disney Park in 1992. The company got slammed for creating an entertainment venue that re-created its American locations without catering to local customs (such as serving wine with meals). Visitors to Euro Disney from many countries took offense, even at what seemed to be small slights—such as the sin of serving only French sausage to Germans, Italians, and others who believed their own local version to be superior. Disney applied the lessons it learned in cultural sensitivity to its newer Hong Kong Disneyland. Executives shifted the angle of the front gate by 12 degrees after they consulted a feng shui specialist, who said the change would ensure prosperity for the park. Cash registers are close to corners or along walls to increase prosperity. The company burned incense as it finished each building, and it picked a lucky day (September 12) for the opening. One of the park's main ballrooms measures 888 square meters because eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture.

In some cases, consumers in one place simply do not like some products that are popular elsewhere, or their different lifestyles require companies to adapt the way they make their products. IKEA finally realized that Americans use a lot of ice in their drinks, so they weren't buying smaller European glasses. The Swedish furniture chain also figured out that, compared to Europeans, Americans sleep in bigger beds, need bigger bookshelves, and like to curl up on sofas rather than sit on them. Snapple failed in Japan because the drink's cloudy appearance and the pulp floating in the bottles were a turnoff. Similarly, Frito-Lay stopped selling Ruffles potato chips (too salty) and Cheetos there. (The Japanese didn't appreciate having orange fingers after they ate a handful.) The company still makes Cheetos in China, but the local version doesn't contain cheese, which is not a staple of the Chinese diet. Instead, local flavors come in varieties such as Savory American Cream and Japanese Steak.

So, what's the verdict—does global marketing work? Perhaps the more appropriate question is, "When does it work?" Although the argument for a homogenous world culture is appealing in principle, in practice it hasn't worked out too well. One reason for the failure of global marketing is that consumers in different countries have varying conventions and customs, so they simply do not use products the same way. Kellogg, for example, discovered that, in Brazil, people don't typically eat a big breakfast—they're more likely to eat cereal as a dry snack.

Some large corporations such as Coca-Cola have been successful in crafting a single, international image. Still, even the soft drink giant must make minor modifications to the way it presents itself in each culture. Although Coke commercials are largely standardized, the company permits local agencies to edit them so that they highlight close-ups of local faces. To maximize the chances of success for these multicultural efforts, marketers must locate consumers in different countries who nonetheless share a common worldview. This is more likely to be the case among people whose frame of reference is relatively more international or cosmopolitan, or who receive much of their information about the world from sources that incorporate a worldwide perspective. The best candidates for standardization: affluent people who are "global citizens" and who come into contact with ideas from around the world through their travels, business contacts, and media experiences; and young people whose tastes in music and fashion are strongly influenced by MTV and other media that broadcast many of the same images to multiple countries.

And that's the truth.