Marketing: An Expectation Economy

To successfully market to your target audience, it is necessary to understand the trends in which they, your audience, pays attention to. Watching and tracking cross-industry trends can help you better focus your advertising and marketing dollar more effectively. The following excerpts from an online article is a start to address capitalizing in on your share of this dynamic market.

Sure, we know that what you really, really want is to be told which trends will dictate your industry. If you’re in automotive, you want to know about the future of transport; if you’re in food and beverage, you’re no doubt interested in everything healthy and green and organic. And of course you have a near-obsession with what your main competitors are up to. But in an EXPECTATION ECONOMY, business professionals should obsessively think and look cross-industry, as opposed to suffering from industry tunnel vision.

Here are three reasons why looking cross-industry isn’t just great for inspiration, but a prerequisite for understanding how to fuel innovation in an EXPECTATION ECONOMY:

First of all, focusing solely on your own industry will obscure the fact that in economies of abundance, consumers are increasingly spending their ‘play money’ on goods and services that net them the experience, the indulgence, the excitement, the satisfaction they’re looking for at a specific moment.

Secondly, limiting yourself to your own industry will make you miss important changes in consumer expectations, and will thus put you at risk of disappointing or even annoying consumers. Every industry has its own ‘innovation competence’, and the innovations they’re bringing to market not only excite their own customers, they also shape their expectations for other industries.

Last but not least, if you’re obsessed with what your direct competition is doing, you will always end up copying new concepts in your industry. Which means that, unless you’re comfortable with being a ‘smart follower’, this is not going to unleash your innovative brilliance.

Now, all of this is of course not to say that you shouldn’t actively track what’s happening in your own industry. But in the next 12 months, do also constantly ask yourself: who are our other competitors? What experiences could our product or service be traded in for? And what can we learn from other industries setting consumer expectations across the board?

Tracking and understanding THE EXPECTATION ECONOMY is not a science; in fact it’s a nice mix of experience, intuition, and knowing your sources. Grab your notebook and camera and start taking EXPECTATION ECONOMY notes and pictures.

Find competitors and non-competitors, big and small, who are setting consumer expectations much higher than you’ve ever been able to. Then compile what you think are now the global standards for whatever it is you do, and from there start thinking about new goods, services and experiences that at least incorporate those standards, and preferably outdo them.

With a little practice and perseverance, you will begin to see trends that you as an owner can utilize to capture your target market. Sometimes, being the biggest is not necessarily being the best.

(Courtesy: TrendWatching.com

Read the entire story at

http://www.trendwatching.com/briefing/)