dreads that her tombstone will be inscribed with the word "metrosexual". She is the executive vice president and chief marketing officer at ad agency, JWT, but for the past couple of years has been better known as the trend spotter who identified the metrosexual craze before it started. She has an knack for telling businesses what consumers will want before they know it themselves. The author of The Future of Men and Buzz, Salzman is considered a futurist and is ranked among the world's leading predictors and trendspotters, along with John Naisbitt, Li Edelkoort, Faith Popcorn and Peter Schwartz.
On a recent visit to India, Salzman spoke with Rashmi Hemrajani and Prasad Sangameshwaran on, among other things, the convergence in technology finding its way to consumer goods. Excerpts:
One of the biggest phenomena in the world of marketing and advertising was the baby-boomers. But they're now growing old. What happens next in the developed world?
It's an interesting issue. The oldest baby-boomer must be over 60 and the youngest must be in the mid-40s.
In these countries [where the baby-boomers were present], there will be a shortage of skilled workers and a decline in taxpayers. It is like global warming. Nobody has seen this happen before.
The first thing is, marketers can no longer write off a person as dead at 50. Senior citizen products, such as adult diapers, vitamins and cosmetics, are available in a sexy way today. What we are going to see is a lot of interesting marketing directed at customers in their 50s and 60s.
Even in India, where people get married early, by the time consumers are in their 50s, they are much happier as they are doing well for themselves, and in some cases, even their children are independent.
Their desire to try new products is higher "" be it a new hobby, new hotel, new airline, new food chain or a new pair of jeans. They will passionately embrace things in a way marketers have always associated with teens and pre-teens.
Most marketing communication at present is targeted at teenagers. Will this also evolve?
The age of desirability has gone from 18 to 36. What we will see now are women who are in their 40s, like Sarah Jessica Parker, who will introduce consumers to new products.
As the population ages, the 40-plus are going to be represented iconically in marketing. It will change from country to country, but it has already changed globally. Television serials like Sex and the City have introduced a new segment of consumers to the society. These trends redefine the 40s segment.
Will the changing age profile also lead to the need for introducing new products?
Products such as "healthy" junk food, healthy chocolates, fresh fruit smoothies and anti-ageing creams are likely to increase. Products will have to provide consumers more than the obvious. I would want my product to do five different things.
For instance, a cream should be anti-ageing, sun proof and more. Also, what is interesting is that the communication needs to be designed specifically. Marketers cannot sell the same cream targeted at a 16-year-old to a 50-year-old lady. Rather, it has to be tailored to the specific needs of the consumers.
That means convergence is not going to be restricted to technology....
Convergence in technology is a drip "" it is a tiny bit and irrelevant. According to me, life and work, home and office, friend and family, schools and entertainment have converged. The idea of blurring and blending is the way ahead. My new book, Next Now, also talks about gender blurring, men behaving like women and vice versa.
How are the gender roles converging?
The metrosexual man is the guy who is a best friend, great shopper and the best lover. He is also more traditional than the woman: he is more likely to take time off to raise children. He seizes control of the kitchen for cooking, but not for cleaning the kitchen. He is more romantic, more into fashion.
What about women? Why is the metrosexual phenomenon largely restricted to males?
I think there is a different way to address the modern women. The woman who is just out of college or university is an extremely important target for marketers.
She is young, curious, self indulgent, intelligent, risk-taking and shares information with her friends, family and cousins. She is a human billboard, thus a great marketing target. As marketers, we need to figure out how do we get such girls to talk about our product.
For instance, Sunsilkgangofgirls.com is a forum provided to discuss issues that concern them. Also, marketers need to understand that we are going to have interesting microniches.
For instance, in online matching sites, the service would be fun for an average 24-year-old, interesting for a 25-year-old and extremely crucial for a 26-year-old.
Will marketers need to create different products and services to tap into the microniches?
That would depend a lot on the product. For instance, an iPod can be bought by the grandfather and used by everybody in the family. In contrast, shampoos are different. Consumers have different colours and textures of hair, which need different treatment.
The information on social networking sites such as Orkut and MySpace often lead to marketing insights. What are the social trends that are bound to come up because of online networking?
It is just the beginning of online social networking. What's important is, how do I persuade someone to try a new product or service, and create human billboards who speak up for our brands.
What do you think are the marketing challenges as more people go online?
The way consumers go online is important. Being raised in the US, I log on to the Internet using computers and most Americans don't SMS or go online through the mobile phone.
But the idea of mobile phones has invaded India in a very significant way. We need to understand cultural differences and adapt marketing models to suit each market.
In this age of digital expression, advertising cannot sell a product by just providing its value or by inventing desire. It has to be more than just x+y.
