At the same time, advertising and business schools were cranking out tomes on branding and consumer marketing, opportunities to be exploited if you knew the right demographics, learned the right metrics, positioned the products properly.

With that future now upon us, I read a piece this past week about likely climate change and political/religious scenarios.  Rapid population growth was the biggest contributor to rampant starvation and consumption  exceeding  the planet’s ability to provide, hardly something new as we’ve been talking about it for decades now.  Its just the scale and scope and rapidity adding  billions more people to this planet which take one’s breath away. 

One of the scenarios I read was the impact of coastal flooding and 3-5′ rise in sea level, insufficient fresh water and increase in deserts rendering crop production problematic.  That author cited a likely rise in temperature to 150 degrees F by 2050 and serious ramifications.  The charts and graphs came from highly reputable scientists.

In the face of all this, another trend report showcased opportunities for savvy marketers in the face of huge increases in urban populations world wide.  Let me share one tidbit with you on what this change looks like.  Foreign Policy, August, 2010 ran the numbers and says China will have 221 cities with over a milliion people by 2030.  For perspective, there are 35 in Europe in 2010;  India will boast 68.   More than the entire population of the United States and Brazil combined will move to Chinese and Indian cities during this period.  Over half of the world’s population is urban.

The industrialization of the world which began roughly 200 years ago in our great grandparent’s lives and shifted our population to a largely indoors species has had enormous consequences for the planet and ourselves.  Even with Blackberries, we’re still creatures in the midst of an evolutionary process, while we tinker with genes, colliders and space travel.

We are like the canaries lowered into a mine shaft to see if it’s safe down there.  By the time they pull us up we might be fast asleep forever. This change is something we’re a part of, involved in causing, and can’t seem to stop.  Unlike the dinosaurs, we’re gifted with consciousness, yet not sure what it is, or electricity for that matter.  There can and will be creative ways of production, marketing and consumption.  Increasingly they come from abroad.

These scenarios and forecasts are the golden nuggets for savvy folks to understand and  help shape positive outcomes.  Presumably not all that’s positive is a bottom line concern. Today’s spirituality post from David Steindl Rast bemoaned how much our society evaluates everything on utility or ‘usefulness’ rather than ‘aliveness’.  That’s like the bottom line concern which dominated every ’80′s interaction.  He pointed out how much enjoyment of life can come from this subtle shift in our thinking.- to value ‘aliveness’. Its often the catastrophic events which shake us up and make us realize  how special appreciating ‘aliveness’ is; events like crazy winter weather, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, mud-slides, fires, earthquakes. 

As I wrap up blogging as Designed for Success owner/consultant to leave for a new position, we’re in the midst of a monster ice/snow event with high wind.  Have a hot chocolate, tea or cider and appreciate your life, your gifts and the present moment- to hit the pause button.  Its moving fast . . . the future, like a panther in the night.  All the very best.

Her garden thrived from compost and kitchen scraps, though a neighbor complained about unwelcome wildlife.  She relished bio-diversity and saved her seeds to propagate new plants come Spring and Summer.  Having survived The Great Depression, she took things to an extreme at times with the slogan, ‘make it do and wear it out and do with out’.  There were piles of washed fabrics for making quilts for shut-ins, and cut up old towels for cleaning rags rather than using paper towels.  There were containers of small nails, big nails, twist tie offs, buttons, bread bags, washed and stacked tin foil, wax paper, wrapping paper-to be carefully folded and used again, boxes stacked flat and old newspapers to be rolled and made into kindling logs.  (As she moved into her ’80′s it all got ahead of her.)

Of course, with the anti-clutter lobby, this would be frowned upon. In early adult-hood when things were tight, we adopted many of her habits. She’d purchase a two-for-one  on eggs from the local ‘egg man’, to share the extra dozen with us during college years, or use a coupon for a free  loaf of bread to tuck into a small shopping bag with extra garden produce. 

In my corporate years, there was a huge push on SQP- safety, quality and productivity and later, reducing waste and inefficiency in the manufacturing process to lead to greater profitability. The mantra was lean manufacturing.  It became a sign of the times with redudancy gone, waste and rejects not acceptable and soon, people expendable too, and others stretched to the max.  Adding value was expected in all things design, advertising and marketing. Greater efficiency is a valuable stimulus.

Later, I had the opportunity to work with client companies who continued to look for ever greater cost efficiencies and began to source cheaper product off-shore to import, handling only design, marketing and distribution stateside.  Ultimately, in a global economy things truly are different-  the best ideas can come from anywhere and soon design was also outsourced. Design and marketing has become highly contextual and specialized and thrives among loosely connected networks of new specialists. Different locations and populations demand different goods and performance.  Rapid solution teams can be readily assembled.  Yet huge trade fairs, huge vendors and huge production runs continue to dominate.  Increasingly, in the scenario of post peak oil, you have to ask if its not time to re-evaluate the paradigm which began to pick up momentum in the ’80′s and ’90′s and re-think locally produced, locally sourced and locally consumed. 

We’ve built these huge consumer tastes and markets based upon shipping container loads or flying in goods from all over the globe. Its a fact that multi-national corporations are wealthier than smaller countries.  It may very likely become cost effective to use a similar strategy to ‘cloud computing’  to create and promote local/regional networks for trade-  in consumables.  If I think outside the box as a ‘futurist’  and ‘save-ior’ then I want to see us embrace technology that turns manure into energy, incinerate waste rather than pumping it into water supplies, implement ways to use ‘gray water’;  grow produce hydroponically and locally on a healthy scale, and support local farmers rather than flying the same goods from distant markets.  I want to use more efficient and minimal packaging and embrace creative solutions.

A fellow designer became irate when I made a comment about how difficult it was to watch people ripping out good appliances simply because they weren’t au courant stainless.  She suggested they were energy inefficient.  ‘Are you suggesting we simply paint avocado or almond refrigerators?!’ she sniffed, missing the point. Yet scrap metals and component parts can be re-cycled.  Rubber is recycled, copper . . . well, we know the theft issues with that!  For the record, my aunt’s 1984 console TV with legs could not even be given to charity and it still worked great, while the flat screen we’d bought just 5 years before had died.

Anyone flying over the Western U.S. realizes how abundant wind and sunshine are. Why not power the air conditioning needs of -say Arizona- with solar panels.   Israel and the Mediterranean countries increasingly do. The vision has been there for decades now, the technology is there and emerging rapidly- in Europe and Asia.   I believe profitability is possible and probable, as a seminar on LEED showed by using energy efficient lighting and other examples right down to bottom line examples. The necessity for change leadership is ever more pressing,  for thinking outside the box and making it happen.  The future has a way of sneaking up all too quickly.

Some colleagues were puzzled why I earned a masters in theology after a masters in design and successful marketing career. I was interested in how design informs behavior for the first masters, and how belief informs behavior in the second masters.  There were several incorrect assumptions: ‘oh, she went weird’,  ‘she might try to convert us’,  ‘she doesn’t care about design anymore’,  ‘those two fields have nothing in common’,  ‘its career suicide’,  ‘it’s a midlife crisis’ . . . and many more.   I did want to ‘give back’ as many do- which explains a lot of volunteer work on fundraisers and events.  I wanted to know how  psychological/belief constructs can help or harm humankind.

Let’s explore ten vital linkages between design and ethics:

1. The world and workplace are made up of diverse peoples. Trend research shows the U.S. is becoming increasingly less homogenous.  We need to know how to design in global contexts and for people who are not from our immediate heritage or cultural milieu. There are patterns, images, symbols, colors one would not or should not or cannot use in contexts or cultures other than ‘our own’.  The sitcom, ‘Outsourced’  illustrated this as Asians put up an ancient cultural symbol, the  swastika, and utterly freaked out their American supervisor at an import call center.  Certain numbers are exceptionally unlucky in China and the art of Feng Shui is no joke in Hong Kong or San Francisco.  In Islam one doesn’t use human representations in design. In Africa you wouldn’t want to use certain colors or images. One example I read of showed a photo of a baby on a jar -as in Gerber’s baby food, and Africans  reacted in horror as if the jar contained ‘baby’.

2. Design ethics involve ‘green decisions’ and better choices.  One of the LEED workshops I attended showed how financially effective these decisions could be to the bottom line in terms of energy saving. It wasn’t a mere ‘hippy-dippy’ thing, but involved an incredible return for the upfront investment.

3. In designing the envelopes which house people’s home & family lives and spaces where they spend thousands of career hours, there’s an unspoken moral imperative to have certain minimal standards (thus building codes). This protects renters and homeowners from substandard conditions and is designed to protect workers from sweat shop conditions. (The U.N. has a platform supporting access to clean water, basic sanitation, protection from the elements   . . . ) That includes all engineering, architecture, design . . . and humanitarian impulses.

4.  A basic philosophical principle is beauty. Yet beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Are there universal standards beyond trends?  Each location uses it’s own indigenous materials for flavor and charm. Value and respect should be inherent in different contexts.  If you watch HGTV’s International House Hunters, you’ll see buyers react to locations as diverse as Holland, China, Latin America, France, Mexico, Africa quite differently through American eyes and conditioning. Do we need McMansions and marble? How many planets would we need to re-create that model worldwide?

5.  Public health and safety (example: fire safety-access & egress) are pivotal concerns in commercial spaces from hotels to schools to hospitals to soccer stadiums . . .  I earned 40 design CEU’s related to topics like designing for children, elderly, fire-safety, historic preservation, retail . . . all involve ethical considerations.  We all reacted in horror when products were deliberately tinkered with (fire exit doors chained shut),  or toys contained toxic levels of cadmium, paint contained lead, or when buildings collapsed because someone took a shortcut with cheaper steel or there was a flaw in the concrete.  As a product manager for a foam furniture company one question involved use of flame retardant foam in kid’s furniture.  Kids are natural pyromaniacs and this foam could explode in flame, yet the treatment to the foam could render toxic smoldering fumes and cost much more in competition with cheaper product.  We then had to look to the fabric cover. 

6.  There are a host of related concerns which connect design and ethics wherein psychological and physiological health is at stake. Here are some examples which individually deserve a column:  appropriate acoustic protection, cleanliness/upkeep, visual-reducing glare, after-images/sense of motion,  slippery/fall concerns, allergic response, way-finding, efficient HVAC and airflow, light and privacy- to name just a few. (See my book, Patterns in Interior Environments for more information)

7. Designing for differently-abled populations; physically or mentally challenged, and the aging population. Tiny electronic hand-held devices are anything but user friendly to many seniors.  I would charge design curriculum planners to eliminate the ‘snottiness’ factor in industrial design that exclude potentially lucrative markets based on ethically discriminatory criteria: ‘old’, ‘slow’, ‘fat’, ‘poor’, ‘less educated’ etc.  Design as if your life depended on it at any stage.

8. Different religions and cultures hold different views about social and cultural roles of men,  women, children and foreigners.  I was seated with the new surfaces buyer – (formerly a shoe buyer for a large retailer) at dinner in New York with the object of wining and dining her to create favorable future relationships.  Clearly distraught, she described working conditions at a shoe factory in China; children who would have been in school in America.  Yet their purchases enabled the village to have running water, improved sanitation and many other ‘luxuries’.  Has it changed since the early ’90′s?

9.  Different religions may require ritual washing or prayer spaces, kosher food preparation areas . . . Our area hospitals have a list of interpreters available for 23 different languages, in of all places, Central, Ohio.  Some U.S. cities have large Muslim populations; others Cuban, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Mexican, Latin American, Russian, Japanese, Chinese etc. Though related to visual/symoblic dimensions in point #1; this point involves physical facility design and human resource issues.

 10.  Attention to the emotional/psychological side of design: privacy, control . . . self expression, sense of security/safety, order & organization, storage, simplicity/complexity, integration with views/nature, change and freedom and regional/local considerations all involve design ethics.

Our design decisions go so far beyond color and the ‘pretty pictures’  business to include global warming, black mold, pests, bacteria, maintenance/ product longevity & lifecycle,  availability- way beyond what’s dated or trendy.  There are trust factors, visual outcome expectations and  honesty,  all involved between design/spirituality/ethics and relationships of each player on the design-build team and its clients.  Beyond the handshake are legal and financial expectations (the over budget clause/s).   Verbalizing the importance of design ethics connects with the design-environment movement in a synergistic way to lead us forward in designing a more hopeful future which respects both people and planet and its magnificent but finite resources.

With database management and mining, and so much done via IT come a new set of challenges.  Emotional intelligence, human factors and human interest, the ‘fuzzy’ logic of customers/consumers/subjects are often not linear and harder to predict.  This is why social psychology, sociology and the ‘softer’ sciences and arts are so important and contribute so much.  People buy on emotion. A story or headline grabs them.  Yes, saving money matters, but so does ‘doing good’ or a perception, an unknown context or factor, a ‘wild card’.  Its how you approach any product, brand, identity or image that makes all the difference in the world.  A canned approach is limiting.  Let me give you some tangible examples.

One villain is ATS (applicant tracking systems).  By mining keywords, dates, etc. harried HR executives can weed out folks who ‘don’t fit’ the profile or based on some small irregularity.  The ‘ideal candidate profile’ is kind of like porn- a set of characteristics, skills and traits airbrushed to fit a particular model of what’s necessary for gratification.  I am suprised the ACLU hasn’t intervened somewhere along the line as candidates determined to be over a certain age or having other characteristics (or not) are instantly eliminated.  Just because its illegal doesn’t mean it isn’t done and couched in different terms. 

People evaluators are not unlike cluster marketing- which  I’ve employed.  A lot of times these fancy catchword names are useful – like ‘early adopters’, and there are always folks who would adopt early but don’t because of XYZ- who could contribute far more to the discussion; but get lumped elsewhere because that’s what the system does.  The savvy marketer will probe further. Statistics is a wonderful tool, but people and situations are complex and not always predictable.  Imagination is also a wonderful thing.  Neuro-science is giving us all kinds of insights into how the brain works- not  two dimensional. Some responses are limbic, some are pre-frontal cortex, some are anterior cingulate. There is a big difference with even physiological outcomes.  

Another example is folks deemed to ‘not fit’ a given organizational profile for a role, with social intelligence grossly overlooked, or other circumstances completely disregarded.  Its almost as if a robot were preferred.  For example, context is everything. You put a woman in an overheated concrete back room with a large clock on the wall and subject her to a series of random mathematical equations which move faster and faster; and then deem her useless for a given retail opening. Never mind that minutes earlier she saved the family a significant amount of money calculating which size of breakfast burritos cost less versus the two for one sale, what the markdown was on a pair of slacks at 30% vs. the higher priced brand at 40% and then how fast she would need to drive to get across town given traffic conditions and miles to her next destination all the while scanning e- mails at traffic lights and taking an emergency phone call, and remaining calm, focused and pleasant.

Earlier in the week I was talking with a PhD psychologist. He suggested that psychiatry as we know it will radically change as we move increasingly to the cellular & genetic level and the findings of biochemistry and neuroscience reveal new dimensions in healing and wholeness of the mind/brain and personality.   At one point in the Rooms of America research project, I correlated personality type with color and style preferences; were one to couple this with brain scans who knows what else might be revealed.  My pattern research uncovered connections to where someone would sit; and how they perceived and behaved in commercial and social settings.  Dewey Sadka, a fellow CMG member has done some amazing things with color choice, profile and career, which was featured on AOL. Point is, measuring intelligence, choice, preference and opinion research is moving fast and its moving in terrific new directions for greater understanding.  Judgment is a slippery slope.

Would you ever have predicted our last several presidents?  How about assessments of the likes of Lincoln, Einstein and countless other notable people. Looking at cross tabs and survey results, I am reminded of the Buddhist saying that we shouldn’t mistake the finger pointing to the moon as the moon itself.  From my vantage point,  researchers need to post a  reminder sign which reads: ‘Human beings, handle with care’.  They’re capable of anything.

Some of the most important traits for users of both residential and commercial spaces which emerged from my design research were a sense of authenticity, timelessness, comfort/ease and that a space not be ‘dated’ (or outdated).   With the advent of ‘green’ design, there’s an added layer of consideration and responsibility.  We admire that which is ‘ real’ or that which preserves ‘real’ even in familiar man-made materials in symbolic form as a nod to saving nature and the natural.

In the push for greater simplicity, clarity and multi-functional spaces, a streamlined look and clean lined furnishings take center stage.  From that point forward color use is context specific.  Specialization takes hold as individual markets, groups, audiences and needs determine which hues and palettes one needs now and next. The architectural community has been averse to research which probes ‘the right look’- a preference- based approach with end users to help determine the best outcome.  Some architects are aghast that one might give that much freedom to the ‘occupants of a space’, after all, the expertise is theirs.   And the ‘public’ might choose something kitshy- say a Tudor look or Queen Victoria reproduction rather than Pei or Eames furniture.

But things are changing. Even in senior living, the seniors aren’t so senior in their preferences.  Educated, with travel under their belts, they might ‘no longer want that old crap’.  Give it to the kids!  This affects everything from carpeting, to upholstery, walls to walkways.  Used to be there were preferred palettes for specific markets: hospitality, healthcare, corporate office, retail, educational, public . . . but we’re not seeing that much in the new millenium.  Used to be direct mail was addressed to the anonymous, ‘occupant’.  In commercial space, ‘occupant’ is a highly specific target market and the building, even a brand statement.  Color will be a sales and marketing factor. Color psychology will play a role.  Color in varying light will matter, and color for health and well-being is simply the optimum, best-practices solution. Professionals needed.

For me, it started with the Swiffers last year as I relegated the old mops, brooms and sweepers to the garage. It progressed to the new Dyson as the Shop Vac became too much and the Shark ‘bit the dust’.  These CPG companies realize how important advertising is to support their message which was simply a matter of quality, efficiency and longevity. Good design became a good sales tool- in automotive too.  Reports are that shoppers are not that enamored with obsolescence and are eking thousands of miles extra out of older vehicles.

Another common point of connection became, ‘What apps do you have?’  -or- ‘Check out my apps.’  It was a matter of not only new technology, but new communication vehicles to enhance the marketing process and customer experience.  Being able to  save time, rapidly connect and find out cool and useful information  plus get goodies and share experience became the next big frontier.  

We’d completely upgraded our home to sell it with new lighting, fixtures etc.  As an industrial design grad, I was impressed at the features, quality and range of design in shopping for each next thing.  This is an economic climate where each item has to add value and not just a short term gratification thing.  Authenticity and design integrity emerged in my research as big factors in good design, process, and use, but are simply taken for granted now. 

It became apparent that this is the year of ‘not taking your customers for granted’ in many retail and commercial channels.  Satisfaction surveys mattered.  Rewards mattered. Even  having surgery for a shattered wrist, the hospital gave me a little flannel take home blanket- great for watching TV in the recliner for a quick cover-up.  Russ got coupons for $10 off dinner e-mailed to him regularly or one freebie or another.  Lowes sent us a new movers 10% off spiff and I just took home a free bag of dog food for being a frequent buyer.  Its all about brand and company value; perception supported with tangibles.

It continued on big ticket things. A realtor colleague is specializing in home leasing, lease to buy and other creative options in the worst real estate market around.  Many who ‘stay put’ are upgrading, updating.  At the same time there is simplifying, downsizing and right-sizing taking place in not only physical location but expectations.  Re-sellers are thriving  these days and a new marketing ethic is emerging as they text their customers, or post on Facebook about new arrivals in home furnishings etc.  It’s deals driven; connection based, a viral and virtual marketplace.  

As I look back to the Rooms of America and Homes of America surveys, and all my research with questions benchmarked over a 10 year period, I find we’ve seen whole new tiers of customers emerge and others shrink or disappear.  Shopping, saving, buying and finding great values techniques haven’t dimished . . . if anything, we’re seeing new resourcefulness, resolve and strategy on the part of the American consumer.  Like a stealthy lioness, she is not easily thwarted in her hunt for just the right prey. Even when she’s lying down, licking her wounds, never underestimate her.

“Oh my God! Its awful. I wouldn’t put it in my dog house!’

For the most part, you’ll get great pre-design or re-design qualitative information from focus groups and interactive discussions. However, there are reasons one actually takes coursework in qualitative research and updates ones skills through MRA, Burke, AMA and other like organizations.  I mentally reviewed the screener and the recruitment process.  Much later, both pieces of feedback proved to actually be true for different products in different ways.  There is that old maxim, ‘the customer is always right’.  You’ll find retailers like Lowes and others taking that to heart, especially in the ‘style’ department.

Companies often make a mistake deciding to do research to support a pre-conceived idea or market. When the findings and data uncover a rich new direction or fail to support the ‘pet’ approach, it’s quickly dismissed or adjusted or other vendors brought in to validate an executive’s sense of ‘ownership’ and support his/her idea.  That’s not what research discovery is about, rather to explore the insights of market/competition/product/brand/ image or users and design/develop/market to and for that and those needs. This is where ethnographic approaches and interactive ones are particularly useful.  The yield: sales, ROI.

Now, the research process is right in front of everyone. Playing it for all to see. Online. Digitally. Social Media. You read some of the blog comments (especially social, political, religious) and realize how some folks just love to see themselves in lights; hear themselves talk; expound in great detail regardless of how ignorant they are.  It never occurs to anyone to ask the basic research screeners, ‘who is this anyway?’  -or- ‘what validity do their comments rest on?’  Credentials are suspect.  Is it even the target user? What’s the context? (My favorite.) Plucking one comment out of a sea of responses is fool-hardy. This is why pie charts, bar graphs and quantitative results act as a balance. Companies should not underestimate the  importance of quantitative feedback. and sufficient balance to the process.  

We are in an environment where it’s important to cut to the main point quickly.  At a networking event, I introduced myself to an imposing lady with pointy features who was high on probably a jumbo Starbucks. She shot back, ‘And this is important, why?‘  She had the answers before anyone could ask the questions. In a similar scenario a job candidate  for a consultancy position jumped on a male executive and his assistant bragging on his business prowess and assured them he’d be back after the lunch portion at a marketing workshop. I am sure they crawled out under the banquet tables before the speaker got to his last Power Point slide. 

A colleage who taught me the advantages of rating scale nuances and measurements laughed when I said I hated True-False questions.  Forced choice responses can lead to incorrect conclusions. Research can be a subtle thing. Its for the curious. You want to get it right. Big bucks involved,  so ask the right questions and cultivate reason as much as emotion is involved.

Oh, and when you’re preparing  that report . . . you might want to use some qualifiers or have a sense of humor; do a little more digging and add finesse.  Someone really likes it . . . not for the dog house, but the great room!  (Pssst, guess whose wife?) Now that’s clout!

Boy, I wished I had a camera at that moment to record behavior. That’s my thing.  The world is my zoo; I’d just as soon watch people – even in the activities of daily living.  Its called, ‘ethnography’ to be more accurate. The ice cream aisle would have you laughing.  I buy those 100 calorie Klondike bars. The grocery I frequent can scarcely keep them in stock. 

You can tell who has grandkids coming . . . or who is buying for the Little League team, or who is spending Friday night watching HGTV, alone.  You can tell the frugal bagger for whom ‘cheap’ and ‘quantity’ is great value from the discriminating empty nester who had a bad day and needs a superlative single treat.  Calorie-wise, they’re saving to have a glass  of Merlot too, (or maybe two) and say ‘to hell with it all,’  after a rough week.

The names are terrific. Ben and Jerry’s broke new ground with ‘Chubby Hubby’ and Haagen Dasz certainly became a success story with premium flavors like ‘Dulce de Leche’.  The large tubs of rainbow sherbert have their own fan club- usually the silver haired lady and husband, shopping with a packet of coupons,  fixings for ham loaf and jello molds and perhaps potato salad, white bread, a cabbage, and sandwich meat.  I think I would love to work in a grocery store, just as a retired colleague loves his part time job at Home Depot to stay busy.  You can tell the frazzled working mom by her ‘cookie dough’ flavor ice cream and pre-made bag of frozen chicken tenders.

You can fancy yourself as a Jillian Michaels as your eyes scan the next cart over.  ‘Too much sodium!’  ‘High in fat!’  ‘Do you really need a day’s worth of calories in that package of sweet rolls?’  Tsk Tsk, ‘and you need how much full fat ice cream?’  My husband has an aunt who was a fabulous cook; but weight challenged. Her modus operandi was to spin the plate of pecan sticky buns on the lazy Susan and take just a tiny finger pinch each time it went around, and slather on a little piece of butter.  She could usually wipe out 2 or 3 -or more-without feeling guilty by doing it that way.  We watched a morbidly obese woman dining at a salad bar, starting with lettuce, graduating to all the heavy  mayo salads and then return to fill her biggie Pepsi cup with chocolate pudding- far more than 16 oz worth.  You don’t need to be fluent in Mandarin to understand when they hit the Chinese buffet. 

Ethnography records the truth of each situation:  they say they’ll shop quality, but they’re shopping price.  They say they just came for cat food, but they leave with ice cream, Nair, mascara, a six pack of Seagrams coolers and a Cosmopolitan magazine. 

To make for a successful marketing project, all kind of techniques come to mind, the first being: know  your customer (and what they’re really shopping for:  Emotional satisfaction? Self righteous congratulations? Gain favor with the kids? Reward for rough week?).  Understand their motives; the context for consumption and . . . the rest is just, ha ha, a piece of cake!

Recently Nationwide Insurance attempted to break fear-based marketing (life comes at you fast approach) with more of a bouncy, light-hearted campaign (a la Progressive-’name your price’) with a positive, ‘insurance is fun’ and ‘you are in the driver’s seat’ approach. For all practical purposes, it’s an integrated campaign.  One can’t be too careful because things are changing very fast.

The Columbus chapter AMA SIG (special interest group) held Thursday June 17th  featured IT whiz ‘kids’  Bryan Huber and Dave Culbertson who presented  a solid, ‘Seven elements of a Total Internet Presence’.  Because everything in the communications arsenal is so linked and everything feeds off everything else, credibility and findability are important.  In a competitive environment where every nickle counts, measurement tools are necessary and having a plan and goals for each piece of the puzzle exceedingly important -whether online or offline, owner or influencer.  ‘The website needs to be at the center of what you’re doing’ they advised. There was an excellent graphic to illustrate the point.  They gave a number of specifics for each point.

Here are some questions: Can clients find you using a smart phone? How does  your Facebook presence connect with the rest of your brand identity? Does a blog or Tweets connect back to your website?  Do you track who is following via each tool?  I thought of a website I checked recently for continuing education. It was slick, lots of special effects, but no-where could you find the course catalog basics. It was like the website designer had ADD.

Somewhere between privacy concerns vs. safety/connectivity concerns we’ve entered a brave new world.  I don’t like all my contacts (family, academic, corporate, colleague, diverse  and divergent writing/research  interests- which I prefer to keep separate and discreet)  all mixed up on Facebook, the idea of a  GPS in my car- the ability to be satellite tracked, every purchase recorded, followed because of the smart phone in my pocket or all my spending habits mapped. As a writer, you might find a spirituality article next to something on dogs next to a marketing post next to a research based architectural article.  Not all of us are one dimensional or easily categorized.

Evaluating people based on zipcode or credit scores is discriminatory enough.  Evaluating health insurance risks based on genetic profiling is probably a given.  I believe the ATS HR systems are discriminatory from the get go based on dates of education and other factors. You can’t proceed without providing that information. Its a way to weed people out who don’t conform to a stereotypical age/experience range. It all seems one step away from Stepford people (cloned for optimum conformity).  In cluster and niche marketing you’d have glib category names for each type of consumer/client/surfer type. 

Big governments and totalitarian states would love where we’re going; normative behaviors rewarded; individuality (the stand alone) suspect. In fact that’s how the IRS decides to audit people, through classic ‘red flags’. Complete monitoring of every facet of life, rampant use of anti-despressive drugs and giant wall sized TV screens is all very Orwellian:1984 to be exact.  In Kafkaesque fashion, ministers of energy conformity would control energy demands; water & electrical usage.  Beyond smart houses, smart toilets, we’ll soon see smart refrigerators which can communicate ‘their’/presumably our needs, Culbertson told us.  Its all a challenge to manage.     

At some point it seems we’ve all become hopelessly dependent on high tech and any other way is considered irrelevant . . . unless the power grid goes down for any length of time.  And then, even the film crew from Survivor would have no-where to post their all too real unfolding dramas.

A case study: The flooring market was relatively predictable. New designs and colors defined the offer in the ’80′s. You had vinyl-tile and sheet,  carpeting-usually plush, hardwood-parquet or strip; and tile. Then all hell broke loose. It began with new products like ‘Pergo’- an unfamiliar  foray into the market, coupled with national advertising in the ’90′s.  Laminate flooring didn’t go away and soon other players were introducing other new brand names.  ‘Linoleum’ had a comback with ‘Marmoleum’ , VCT entered the home center market. Bamboo and new variations in exotic wood flooring entered the market.  It was no longer ‘pine’, ‘oak’, ‘walnut’, ‘cherry finish’.  The tile category exploded with marble tile, porcelain tile, interlocking tile,  laminate ’tile’ and a host of other  variations.   Sustainability and sourcing became an important issue for producers and consumers alike.                                                          

As a home interior products researcher, I learned what homeowners currently had – by age of home and price point, and what they were planning to do next; what they thought about the new looks. 

These products and decisions don’t exist in isolation however.  Now the market pie is sliced into thinner pieces; I use cherry pie as an analogy- slice it too thin and the cherries fall out.  This means that after a time, its not  profitable to carry or maintain certain products. 

One also has to consider all the related and analogous products and services.  What coordinates with what? What’s getting the ‘hype’? What do homeowners need to know? What do professionals need to know? How to care for and maintain the products?  What’s the lifecycle?  Learning curve? Installation issues? Pros and cons? 

A similar thing happened in wall surface treatments.  Every manner of ‘new’ paint treatments, products, stencils, borders and wall coverings emerged.  Ultimately, the wall paper industry took the hit as consumers became overwhelmed and styles changed. There were many factors, not the least of which has to do with merchandising.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned, including the rate of adoption. These are not products one changes easily or often as T-shirts. Besides what new-builds are featuring, one needs to look at the best product for retrofit/remodeling and the age of a home.  Some manufacturing technologies don’t lend themselves to changing marketing conditions. Some situations don’t allow for certain products. There are always budget considerations. Homeowners hate to use some products; others require professionals.

Is ‘new’ always better? It’s always going to be a big hook for our fickle consumer.  What are the goals, criteria and expectations to judge ‘new’. What is the collateral impact on other and existing brands and market share? What are the ‘wild cards’?  Retailers are more than anxious to bump up sales per sku and replace low performers.  Turn rates are not really an ‘apples to apples’ thing between product categories as a measurement tool either.  Is ‘new’ all its cracked up to be? Is it a quick blast, a fad, a trend or a long-term promising direction?  Lots to think about.  Who thinks what? All in one loaded little word: ‘new’.