Problem:
From, Marketing To The Cultural Creatives By Paul Ray
"Fifty million strong, they are the Cultural Creatives, the leading-edge thinkers and creators of a new culture in America. And the success of your business depends on getting to know them.
What holds the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) industry concept together? Surprisingly, it's the values and lifestyles of its consumers: It's not just their buying patterns for products and services but what they believe is most important in life. They are willing to put their money down on what they believe. They are a very distinctive group in American society, and there is a very definite way to approach and sell to them.
In fact, your business depends on knowing all about these, because they are finicky about the wrong approach but very loyal to those businesses that do appeal successfully to their values with products and services that fit their lifestyles. Indeed, after twelve years of values and lifestyles surveys of well over 100,000 Americans, and from more than 100 focus groups and dozens of in-depth interviews, it has become clear that the LOHAS consumer phenomenon is not just about market research. LOHAS consumers represent the emergence of an entire subculture of Americans who embrace a distinct way of life.
In the 1960s, there were too few of them to measure with standard surveys. Today that subculture has quietly grown to 26 percent of adults, for a total population of 50 million. I call them Cultural Creatives (CCs). I do so because they are "leading edge" thinkers and creators of a new culture in America, and they are the most influential opinion leaders for your products. They dominate the market for sustainable products, for organic and natural foods, for alternative healthcare, and for products and services related to personal growth and spirituality. CCs are seriously concerned with self-actualization, spirituality, self-expression. They like the foreign and exotic and enjoy new ideas. They're socially concerned, advocating ecological sustainability, women's issues, peace, social justice, and planetary awareness. These aren't separate concerns; when marketing to a CC, you'll do much better appealing to the whole package of principles. CCs are the ones who invented "authenticity," and heaven help you if you come across as "inauthentic" -- which is the way your ad agency is likely to make you look.
These are the people who read labels carefully and consult Consumer Reports when deciding on big purchases. CCs are twice as likely as the rest of Americans to be at the leading edge of environmental and sustainability concerns and far more likely to volunteer and be activists in any of the movements that have changed our lives from the 1960s to now: alternative health care, organic foods, new spiritualities, personal growth psychologies, anti-nuclear energy, peace, women's rights, civil rights, and jobs and social justice. In fact, they're twice as likely to have been interested in several such movements as the rest of Americans. Yet they completely reject "the culture wars," which pit social conservatives and the religious right -- the Traditionals -- against the secular Moderns who believe in the world according to Time magazine."
Question:
How do you sell to or market to CCs? What do you believe precipitates/creates loyalty for them? Assess their Basic Factors. What might excite them?...........And finally: are you a CC?