BOSTON: The major retirement housing developers are still mass trend marketers, believing everyone over a certain age and owning their own home is a candidate for their product.
But the baby boomer client signals the end of the big trend. This is the century of niche marketing and niche products.
“No longer will we see major social shifts where the majority move in one direction or another,” says social researcher David Chalke.
“Rather we will experience an unpredictable and often disconnected roiling of short-lived movements that will often disappear as quickly as they arose.”
Most of the social scientists approached with this idea thought Chalke was “on to something”, but cautioned against overstating it. Mr Chalke pushes back. “It’s the marketing people I speak to who are scared of what’s happening,” he says. “Because most of them were taught their craft based on 20th century models.”
These models were designed to catch an enormous number of people with one net. Products were targeted via mass media towards an amorphous lump of humanity. It was convenient for companies to view humanity that way. The 21st century is a world of bespoke marketing of bespoke products…