• by Karlene Lukovitz , October 2, 2006

Radical worldwide shifts in population that are now underway have fundamental implications for companies, brands and marketers. The challenge is sorting them out and responding effectively.

According to global trends experts who spoke at last week's Focalyst Executive Forum, you can't go far off track if you cleave to a cardinal truth: You will be judged and valued on the basis of your behavior in relation to your communities and the environment.

Between 2000 and 2020, the world population of people over age 50 will increase by 70 percent, and the population of 15- to-24-year-olds will increase by 11 percent, according to data presented by Rosi Ware, executive vice president of development for The Kantar Group, and Michael Desmarais, director of HeadlightVision, a research consultancy.

The result, explained Andrew Zolli of Z + Partners, a futures research and design strategy firm, will be an "hourglass society" heavily populated and dominated by two groups: the older and younger generations.

This represents a sea change from the world's traditional pyramid population structure, made up of a relatively small number of older people at the top and progressively larger, younger cohorts down to its base.

"If you don't understand this new architecture, you're out of the game," Zolli declared. "It will shape our approaches to every aspect of brands."

Chief among the many impacts: Older and younger generations tend to have more in common with each other than with middle generations, and all factors point to both generational extremes being highly engaged in community/societal and ecological issues.

"The older you are, the greener you are. The younger you are, the greener you are," summed up Zolli. Translation: "The fastest-growing contributors to brand value are perceptions of social stewardship; perceptions of environmental stewardship; and ethical leadership," Zolli said. "We're seeing in the boomers, especially, a return to first principles."

Where there used to be little perceived connection between the companies producing products and the consumer, people now expect the private sector to take responsibility for societal issues that were previously considered the sole purview of government.

"The experience a company provides, its communications, and the behaviors it enables both for itself and for its community of interest will increasingly drive the value of the brand," Zolli said.

In real terms, this means focusing on "moving up the chain of meaning," in Zolli's terminology.

While it's hardly news that profit margins increase exponentially as a company moves from providing a commodity to a product to a service to an "experience," experience is no longer the holy grail. Instead, companies should be striving to embrace communities and create a relationship with the societies it serves.

"We need to use design and technology together to humanize the experience of capitalism," he said. Other trends and conceptual shifts that companies and their marketers should now be aggressively preparing for include:

Positioning the brand as a filter. Because the Internet and other factors have created an "explosion of choices" for already time-challenged consumers, offering a filtering effect is "the number one opportunity for brands," according to Zolli.

Leveraging technology to provide growing personalization. Want a genetically engineered, hypoallergenic cat? They're available now. And it will soon be possible to cost-effectively map an individual's entire genetic makeup, enabling highly personalized medical treatments and even personalized drugs, noted Zolli.

Navigating health and physical/spiritual well-being for consumers. Lengthening life expectancies, advances in medicine and technology, and weakening traditional structures (e.g., health care systems) create a growing need for guidance and support from the private sector, pointed out The Kantar Group's Ware. Furthermore, illness is the new definer of "old age," and looking and feeling healthy are the keys to enabling those 50 and older to maintain a younger identity.

Providing opportunities for experiences and self-actualization. As consumers age and have more affluence and leisure time, they become less interested in acquiring material goods and more interested in experiences that allow them to keep growing, said Ware and Desmarais. They're also more aware of time, and eager to seize opportunities to fulfill old dreams and find solutions for financial and other challenges not previously addressed.