Harness the Future: The 9 Keys to Emerging Consumer Behaviour

By Shirley Roberts

It's not news to anyone in business that the rules of the game are changing faster than ever before, and so are patterns of consumer behaviour and spending. Rapid change on many fronts means that power has shifted away from businesses and into the hands of consumers: Globalization and technology have increased consumers' buying options and knowledge, and have intensified competition. Technological advances have raised quality standards, increased consumers' expectations, and lowered product differentiation. Demographic shifts that go well beyond ageing baby-boomers are significantly influencing the market place. But just how do you identify all the factors that have a significant influence on consumer buying behaviour in a rapidly changing world? And - more importantly - what do you do about them in your own business? Harness the Future shows how to paint a comprehensive picture of your customers by examining trends in nine key areas: Economy Technology Globalization Government Environment Demographics Consumer Psyche Wellness Retailing But beyond telling about the way things are and will be, Harness the Future also shows you how to predict and profit from changing consumer behaviour. Shows how to track and analyze the trends that affect your own business. Identifies emerging trends to help you understand consumer behavior in the future. Provides valuable strategies, planning tools, and business-building ideas. Features examples of trailblazing companies that are using these techniques to harness their future.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471642355
• ISBN13: 9780471642350
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: WILEY
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.6" x 0.9" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Consumer Behavior For Entry Level Marketers

The concepts and indicators Shirley Roberts mentioned in this book are nothing new to me since I have been working the last two decades at an investment bank that already follows these trends quite closely. Most of the first two chapters seemed to be elementry knowledge, however starting with chapter 3 the text begins to look a little bit more into the detail of the "Hows and Whys" of her beliefs. Numerous examples of failure and success stories of companies that have recognised trend changes help the reader fully understand the concepts she is talking about.The author comes from a food and beverage background which is very evident in her examples but she does use other business sector cases as well.In the book she really pushes the theme of globalisation of the world's markets and their effects on consumer behavior. However, there are only a few very limited number of non-North American case studies.The occupation of a "Marketing Professional" will become much more difficult as consumer market becomes extremely non-homogeneous, destroying the "Mass Marketing" philosophy.. hurray hurray... this means more marketing jobs... ha ha ha ..Although I have been in an occupation tracking these trends and statistics over the last 20 years, I was able to learn a few new and interesting things but I would say this book is an excellent read for the college graduate/entry level employee for a marketing/market analyst type occupation.

Harness the Future: The 9 Keys to Emerging Consumer Behaviou

This book is good for anyone interested in long term trends. The author does a good job of identifying the specific factors influencing trends and then mentions what magazines you can read that will talk more specific about the area you are intersted in learning about further.