Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Challenging Times

Strategic Action #4 for Surviving and Thriving:
Connect With the Zeitgeist (Part 4)

The most influential idea in Western culture idea is that at the roots of our individual existence we are independent souls with vast powers of self-determination. This is so deeply engrained in our culture that most of us find it hard to embrace the idea that we are more completely defined by our relationships than by the properties of the person we see in the mirror each morning.

The idea of our individual separateness grew from the ancient Greek mind. But with it came was an existential conundrum: how is the three dimensional material world connected to the immaterial world of the mind and soul? Several millennia after Aristotle, French philosopher Rene Descartes tried to resolve this question. He said the material self and the immaterial self have separate existences. In so saying, Descartes launched the modern existential debates between the science and religion.

A little later, Isaac Newton developed his conception of the universe as a clockwork mechanism in which the motions of all of its parts are fully predictable. Social philosophers, attracted by this mechanistic view of the cosmos, extended its reach into the murky realms of human behavior. With enough information in hand, they thought, the behavior of people is as predictable as the behavior of planets.

Psychology - once called social physics - and economics - were offspring of Newtonian science. Chronically frustrated by failed predictions of human behavior, psychologists have been accused of physics envy. Economists have a dismal record for accuracy that would not be acceptable in any other field of study outside of psychology.

Nearly totally missing in deliberations among psychologists and economists (and let us add marketers) are reflections on the role of the zeitgeist in how we humans behave.

The closest that marketers usually come to considering the zeitgeist is turning testimonies from surveys, interviews and focus groups into “trend statements.”

Ignoring the zeitgeist’s influence on consumer behavior is like ignoring the weather’s influence on what people wear or do to amuse themselves in the outdoors.

Cognitive scientists tell us that 95 percent of the mental activity that underlies our perceptions, thoughts and decisions occurs outside the realm of consciousness. Thus when researchers probe the contents of consumers’ minds in surveys, interviews and focus groups they are focusing on the meager five percent of mental activity that shapes consumer behavior.

Interestingly, many of the great marketing stories have not unfolded from research. The uncanny intuitive competence of some bright light in a company or on a marketing team often lies behind the text book success of a campaign, product or even an entire company. Case in point: Nike founder Phil Knight made no secret of his contempt for consumer researchers as he built his leviathan company.

For a long time, Nike’s consumer research was conducted by one person in the company who went out in the field to talk to footwear customers at athletic events. Nothing formal: conversations instead of interrogations.

Scott Bedbury, who was the person most responsible for turning Nike into a major international brand did so by tapping into the zeitgeist, which during his tenure as Nike’s brand majordomo was largely shaped by the values of youth who were then the consumer majority. 

But as Nike was achieving world dominance in athletic footwear, another company was tuning its pitch to be in harmony with a zeitgeist that was soon to replace the youth-dominated zeitgeist that prevailed during Bedbury’s days at Nike.

Around 1990, New Balance head Jim Davis realized that sales to teens and young adults were declining because in the wake of the aging boomer generation was a smaller youth and young adult population. Davis then chose to stick with boomers as they rode into their middle years of life. To do so, he developed a strategy based on values and worldviews associated with people in their middle adult years. This strategy would soon prove to be effective in younger markets as well. The reason? After people over 40 became the adult majority, the zeitgeist underwent a transformation in which the values and worldviews of midlife became the dominant macro subliminal influence on consumer behavior.

Davis’s decision paid off handsomely. New Balance went from number 12 ranking in the athletic footwear business in 1990 to number three ranking by 2003 - just behind the newly merged Adidas and Reebok enterprise.

Next: A deeper dive into the concept of zeitgeist affirms its importance in marketing decisions

 

Comments

[Shama Hyder]

Very interesting.

How can more businesses incorporate this "philosophy" in their business?

[Ann]

Well, I did not read New Balance advertising. The real question is whether New Balance adjusted its product. Being middle age and heavier, I found that only New Balance fit comfortably. I tried the others. Most recently, I got a recommendation for Asics, and they fit well, too. It's really about consideration for my foot, not publicity.