In part 1, I argued that we are living through a “post-middle” era as far as marketing is concerned, where consumers can be divided into either Thrift-minded, or Aspirational. Then in part 2, I examined some ideas for how realtors might think about marketing homes for sale given that consumers are either driven by price or by lifestyle aspirations.
In this next part, I’d like to look at how service providers — the real estate agents, the mortgage brokers, the appraisers, etc. — might think about marketing themselves.
This is NOT for a Thrift play...
In part 1, I started to talk about marketing in a consumer environment when the middle is disappearing. My basic hyopthesis is that the American consumer today operates in one of two modes: Thrift and Aspiration. Thrift mode means a focus on price above all; Aspiration means a focus on luxury, lifestyle, or something more than “mere product”.
To apply these thoughts to the marketing of real estate, I asked a few questions, of which the first one is the topic for this post:
If the Middle is disappearing, and the two dominant modes of consumers are Thrift and Aspirational… have you considered how you are positioning properties not only to demographics, but also to psychographic profiles?
Let me attempt to tackle this question and explore what real estate marketing of a property in a post-middle era might look like.
Read the rest of this entry »
Image: David Armano, Logic + Emotion
Thanks to Brandie Young‘s wonderful post, I found David Amano’s thought-provoking post on “Marketing in a Post-Consumer Era”. It’s worth reading in full. Actually, they’re both worth reading in full.
I couldn’t help immediately reacting, however, with skepticism.
Perhaps it’s because the last time we were in a recession, we heard the same thing: conspicuous consumption is out, and frugality is in! Since then, we have seen an absolute explosion of conspicuous consumerism, celebrity worship taking over as the official culture of the United States, and a continual denigration of the average middle American lifestyle in our cultural institutions. (I for one do not recall “Walmart” being a dirty word back in the recession of the early 90′s.) Read the rest of this entry »
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