This will be my last post for the year 2006.
It's the right time to reflect on how advertising will have to adapt itself for the 2007 customer. NY Times has an article that captures the essence of what it will look like and what marketers have to get ready for:
CONSUMERS WITH A CONSCIENCE
Consumers want to know where products come from, how they were made and what companies and brands believe in.
Consumer interest in environmentally friendly products will grow, as will interest in the local stories of products, even those that come from halfway around the world, said Marian Salzman, chief marketing officer of JWT, a WPP Group agency, and co-author of “Next Now: Trends for the Future.”
“Every brand is going to now have to have a social conscience, and they’re going to be evaluated for their social consciousness as much as for their products,” Ms. Salzman said
LIFE ONLINE OR OFFLINE?
Consumers spend so much time online — working, playing, sharing personal details with the world and living out fantasy lives — that the online terrain is blurring with the physical world.
In 2007, more companies will start adding social networking and user-generated tools onto their intranet sites, predicted Clark Kokich, worldwide president of Avenue A Razorfish, an agency owned by aQuantive.
“People in the younger work force are going to look for an experience on intranets that looks more like the experiences they have on the Internet,” Mr. Kokich said.
PUSHING THE OFF BUTTON
Even as consumers are networked in and logged on most hours of the day, some ad executives say they think workers will be quicker to separate their work lives from their personal space. Some hotels are now offering to lock up guests’ cellphones and BlackBerrys to give them a break, said Kiwa Iyobe, trend manager at Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve.
USER-GENERATED ADVERTISEMENTS
Ad executives are not going to be quick to give up their paychecks for creating ads. Still, a growing list of brands — among them Converse, Chevrolet, Doritos and Dove — are asking consumers to design commercials for them.
“Consumers are demanding and getting a seat at the table and defining what the brand experience is about,” said Allen P. Adamson, managing director of the New York office of Landor Associates, a WPP Group brand consultancy, and author of “BrandSimple.”
WHAT’S A BRAND TO DO?
Advertising executives said brands should focus on clear, simple messages that were consistent across consumers’ online and offline lives. Companies that scored the highest in a national brand study earlier this month were ones with well-known mass appeal, like Google, Las Vegas, the N.F.L., Sony and Amazon. YouTube, iPod and Yahoo also made the list of “top brands,” though they came in a bit behind Google.
On this note, Wish you a happy new year!