| KEY FINDINGS |
| KEY NOTE SPEAKERS
Devra Davis, PhD,
MPH , Author, When Smoke
Ran Like Water
& Visiting Professor of Public Policy,
Carnegie Mellon University
& Honorary Professor, London School
of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Edie Weiner,
President, Weiner, Edrich, Brown Inc.
Sharon L. Allen,
Chairman, Deloitte & Touche
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| ROUNDTABLES
The Wannabe Market
Living in the Psychosphere
Water, Water Everywhere?
Sensory Revolution
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| CLOSING
REMARKS |
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KEY NOTE
SPEAKER
WEDNESDAY NIGHT, SEPTEMBER 17, 2003
Devra Davis, PhD,
MPH
Author, When Smoke Ran Like
Water
& Visiting Professor of Public Policy,
Carnegie Mellon University
& Honorary Professor, London School
of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
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“I’m
delighted to hear about the progress of women
in the corporate world, but I’d like
to know where are the women presidential candidates.” |
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In the 1950s,
we didn’t know how the environment
shapes our health. We didn’t call
the smoke and smells from manufacturing
pollution, it was making a living. |
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When you are in
an environment where things are not right,
you can have a sense of it, but you don’t
pick up on certain things until years. In
Denora we didn’t see that there was
anything unusual about the smell coming from
the Zinc refinery. Now, we can plot that all
the people who died of a cancer were within
a half mile of the plume of smoke coming from
that plant. |
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Breast cancer is
a puzzle. Most women who get breast cancer
are perfectly healthy, something happens,
and they get this disease. So the only thing
that is different about breast cancer is our
public discussion of it. |
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One of the problems
with cancer is that it doesn’t come
from one cause with the exception of high-dose
radiation. Cancer is a result of multiple
events that happen throughout life. Radiation
to the breast of young girls is a much more
potent inducer of breast cancer than for women
who were radiated in their 50s. |
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Less than 12% of
the research on cancer is about finding the
cause. Most goes to finding a cure for three
reasons: First, if you have cancer or someone
you love has cancer, you want a cure. The
constituency for prevention is not as well
developed, and most people take the primal
impulse, praying for a cure. Second, the medical
model treats the individual and doesn’t
look at the causes. Third, it’s a lot
more profitable to cure cancer than to prevent
it. |
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A new paradigm
in medicine is emerging, and it’s asking
if a patient’s tremor is Parkinson’s
and if it is due to pesticide, arsenic, or
some other toxicity. That is a real revolution.
There’s a lot of money to be made in
Chemo prevention, and we really are ready
for a revolution in our capacity to understand
the ability of a whole host of compounds.
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A Rabbi is walking
a beach at high tide and sees a group of starfish
stranded. She picks up the starfish one at
a time and tosses them into the water. A little
boy comes up to her and says, “Why are
you doing that? It’s not going to make
any difference.” And she picks up another
starfish and says, “It made a difference
to that one.” |
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KEY NOTE
SPEAKER
THURSDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 18,
2003
Edie Weiner,
President, Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc.
"MISLEADING INDICATORS" |
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Seven Facts
About Predicting Consumer And Market Behavior |
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- Economists, behaviorists, and pundits
are making projections on a world that
no longer exists. The ability to predict
year-by-year, or even quarter-by-quarter,
consumer sentiment and behavior is no
longer a given.
- Consumer sentiment is not so closely
tied to purchasing behavior. In the early
part of the recession, consumers were
spending a lot more than all the predictive
instruments were saying they would. The
more depressed consumers were, the more
they shopped.
- Businesses benchmark against efficiency.
If we look to history and the future,
it’s clear that efficiency is a
prescription for vulnerability. Effectiveness
is really the benchmark we should strive
to meet.
- As demographics data-mining comes of
age as a marketing tool, it is already
of diminishing usefulness. Lifestyle and
psychographics are more effective ways
of targeting than lifestages or age boundaries.
- Deviance is more commonplace, and the
time it takes to move an idea from the
fringes to social convention is shortening.
- The Las Vegas model of doing business
now applies across every industry. All
business has become show business and
executives are asking what would we do
differently if we charged admission.
- Companies that look to generalizations
overlook their own capacity to win or
lose based on their unique strategies.
Even when there is an economic downturn,
there is never a problem of over-capacity,
only a problem of under-imagination.
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Twelve
Misleading Indicators That Will Impact Our
Businesses, Our Culture, And Our Lives In
The Future |
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- The heartland is no longer typical of
America, and the projections we make on
household formation no longer hold-up.
There is no typical nuclear family.
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• Ethnic mixes are profoundly
changing the US. Blacks are losing influence
to Hispanics and Asians. Families are
becoming multi-racial.
• More single women and gays are
adopting children. Most very successful
women don’t have children. Thirty-one
percent of births in the US are out
of wedlock, and this is low compared
to the rest of the world.
• Pets are full-fledged family
members, human companions, and there
is more money spent on them in many
working class and lower income households
than on family members.
• Children no longer graduate
college and start homes of their own.
Four million 25-34 year olds live with
their parents, and 60 percent of college
students plan to do so after graduation,
and for more than one year.
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- The biggest exports from many Third
World and developing countries are their
people and the expatriation of US dollars.
Money sent home to Latin America and the
Caribbean in 2000 was $15 billion, 10
times more than in 1980.
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- Debt may be bad, or it may be good.
Baby boomers don’t like debt. Young
people see debt as a way to leverage money.
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- Higher education and health care will
soon be the two expenses that eat up disposable
income. The poor and middle-class will
spend more on education and health care
than housing, food, and transportation.
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- Frequent flyer miles are the second
largest currency in the world, and this
is crippling the airlines.
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- Economic lines are blurring. Wal-Mart
is selling gourmet foods and upscale appliances,
because retailing is about down-scaling.
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- Political labels, like liberal and conservative,
are no longer predictive of behavior or
beliefs. Feminists, gays, and Jews, for
example, all thought to be liberals, are
pro-guns.
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- Food is poison. It’s either: genetically
modified, making us fat, or planning what
we’re going to eat takes up too
much of thought and time.
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- Wellness, safety, and convenience have
surpassed environmentalism in consumer
preferences.
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- Divorce, because of the high rate and
economic impact, makes married couples
a greater mortgage-lending risk than singles.
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- Women 35+ are the largest growth segment
for video game usage.
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ROUNDTABLE
THE WANNABE MARKET |
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“The next
generation, those 18-year-olds now going off
to college, aren’t all trust fund babies
who can afford designer clothes, but they
want to look very polished and pulled together.”
Sherry Cassin, President & Creative Director,
Cassin |
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“Public relations
plays a bigger role in the success of a brand
than ever before. Viral marketing, press coverage,
Internet chat rooms, alliances with other
brands, fan clubs, Web sites, and other awareness-building
techniques now allow us to reach markets that
we cannot reach with traditional television
advertising.” Cynthia Harris, President,
Disneyland Resort |
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“The
wannabe market is a mass market, because
wannabes are situational. We’re all
wannabes in some way and at some time, and,
because of this, no business model is safe.”
Maggie Wilderotter, Senior Vice President,
Business Strategy, Microsoft |
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Target market niches
are becoming mass markets. Technology, the
globalization and ubiquitous nature of media,
expanding middle classes, and the growing
acceptance of made vs. found identities. |
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Technology is a
tool and a leveler, and it is both disrupting
current business models and creating new opportunities
Software piracy is a huge issue, but one way
to build market awareness in emerging markets
like China. Music and video piracy, however,
are bankrupting segments of the entertainment
industry and leading to the arrest of young
children who don’t see downloading copyrighted
material as stealing.
Technology enables entrepreneurs to start
businesses with little or no capital and
compete with legacy brands. Desktop publishing,
manufacturing, and production make it possible
for all of us to produce goods only larger,
capital heavy businesses could once create.
E-training is emerging and making it easy
for new and larger segments of the population
to gain professional skills.
Companies that provide outsourced services,
like Kinko’s, can make small companies
look and feel very big. Kinko’s technology
is global, transparent, and levels the playing
field.
In 2003, Microsoft will spend $6.9 billion
on technology research and development.
That’s more than any country is spending
in this area. As a result, the company will
deliver more innovation in the next five
years than any five year period in its history.
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Media is driving
the wannabe market. It’s universal and
24/7 and, aided by advanced technologies,
is creating a horizontal society where identity
is open, knowledge is shared, grass roots
political movements are born, and authority
is based on celebrity rather than hierarchy.
The power of the press is so great that it
can propel a brand to recognition more effectively
and cost-efficiently than advertising. |
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The expanding
middle class has enormous spending power and
net worth. There are almost 20 million U.S.
households with incomes of at least $100,000
and a minimum net worth of $500,000, excluding
primary residencies.
The middle class identifies with and aspires
to luxury brands. They want to feel wealthy.
This is creating new opportunities for brands
like Mont Blanc. Increasingly, luxury brands
are expanding the breadth of their product
offerings and introducing new “entry-level”
products at lower price points to the new
multi-faceted consumer market.
The challenge is making the brand accessible
without alienating the core customer. This
requires price sensitivity while protecting
the brand’s legacy, image, quality,
and identity. The gift category, particularly
corporate gifts and employee recognitions,
is presenting growth opportunities for many
luxury brands.
Brands like Mont Blanc, Marc Jacobs, Tiffany’s,
Isaac Mizrahi, etc., are providing entry
price point and top-end products, and consumers
are mixing and matching.
Counterfeits and piracy remain threats.
However, a luxury brand isn’t just
about the products, it’s about the
experience, and that cannot be replicated
– from the manufacturing techniques
to the quality and customer service.
Green manufacturing and marketing, charitable
giving and sponsorships, and respect for
customer privacy by the luxury brands remain
consumer priorities.
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Made identities
are commonplace. Through self-discovery, self-expression,
and self-invention, wannabes can change their
sense of who they are and the ideas, groups,
celebrities, and communities with which they
identify. |
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Luxury, deviance,
demographic descriptors, profession, lifestyle,
and even ethnic identity are all up for grabs
to any one who wishes to affiliate with them.
Wannabes do not actually take on new identities,
but will spend money, attention, and effort
to emotionally affiliate with an identity
or multiple identities.
For example, few people own Harley Davidsons,
but many own the branded paraphernalia and
identify themselves as part of the Harley
family.
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Wannabes want to
feel authentically aligned with their aspirations.
Any attempt to downgrade the standards or
image of the luxury brand or lifestyle to
which they aspire would erode the entire market
– alienating the core market and losing
the luster for the wannabe market. |
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The re-juvenile
market of adults who want to be kids is growing.
More adults 18-49 watch the cartoon network
than CNN. Purchase intent for Strawberry Shortcake
and the Care Bears, a study in 2001 revealed,
was the same for women who wanted to buy these
collectibles for their children and those
who wanted to buy them for themselves. |
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ROUNDTABLE
LIVING IN THE PSYCHOSPHERE |
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“Our brains
are hard wired for sex drive, romantic love,
and attachment – the peace and security
of finding a long-term companion. SSRIs jeopardize
sex drive, which is chemically linked to love
and attachment. When we dampen the sex drive,
we also dampen the ability to fall in love
and form deep attachments.” Helen Fisher,
PhD, Research Professor, Department of Anthropology,
Rutgers |
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“Interpersonal
power is how we negotiate, compromise, persuade
others. Men chose to be direct, forceful,
and controlling. Women often choose the powers
of the weak, seducing, charming, or compromising,
to achieve their objectives.” Priscilla
Kehoe, PhD, Neuroscientist and Academic Administrator,
University of California, Irvine |
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“Fear concentrates
power among those who can afford to purchase
it. Fear is a very contractive state and has
never led us to accomplish great things. Companies
are experiencing and operating out of fear.
Like individuals, they’re trusting authority
completely and giving power away.” Linda
Stone, Former Corporate Vice President, Microsoft
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Our Culture
and Our Brains |
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Our culture
is increasingly directing resources, attention,
and dollars to psychological disorder and
well-being. The events of 9/11 and the subsequent
fears of terror and increase in surveillance
have us living in fear and suspicion. The
World Health Organization predicts that
by 2020, depression will be the second most
disabling disease in the world, second to
heart disease. |
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Post traumatic
stress-disorder, battle fatigue, attention
deficit disorder, hyperactivity, and the pursuit
of happiness are increasing our use of Prozac,
Zoloft, and therapy. But, if it’s the
malcontents that are often the sources of
innovation, what will we do, if everyone is
drugged to be happy? |
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A true revolution
in neuroscience is allowing us to see thoughts,
if not the cells producing those thoughts,
and to understand more about how the brain
works. Using breakthrough technologies,
like genetic mapping and brain research,
we’re studying the psychological roots
of behavior. |
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Parents, teachers,
employers, and marketers are increasingly
aware of their responsibilities for their
children’s, students’, workers’,
and customers’ psyches. As stress and
tension rise at work, psychological trauma
increasingly impacts productivity and is likely
to be considered under the Americans with
Disabilities Act. |
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We can actually
produce new brain cells in certain parts
of the brain, particularly the Hippocampus,
the area where learning and memory reside.
Cell production is possible in the young
and the old to both improve function and
replace cells lost to disability or aging.
However, stress hormones in increased quantities
destroy brain cells and connections. |
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There has been
a huge amount of attention within psychology
on negative emotions and suffering. So, we
know how to make people less miserable to
some extent, but we know or understand very
little about joy, happiness, awe, gratitude,
compassion, sensory pleasure, and the other
feelings that make life worth living. The
SSRIs do help depression, but wreck havoc
with pleasure, self-esteem, and confidence.
The psychology and psychiatric professions
need to do better. |
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For the last 20
years, the network has been our center of
gravity and our goal has been to be a live
node on the network. We scan for opportunity,
and we multi-task. We’re bombarded with
information, and we’re all suffering
from continuous partial attention disorder
– paying partial attention continuously.
We’ve been networked to death. Overwhelmed
and over stimulated, our ability to make commitments,
emotional connections, and pay attention has
been compromised. |
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The trend of hyperactivity
is shifting, and more people are saying no
to all the opportunities to connect superficially.
We’re moving away from the virtually
and reconnecting with the physical, being
in our place in the moment. Focusing and paying
attention, we’re learning is restful
and nourishing. A thousand people a second
signed up for the national “Do Not Call
List.” This is evidence that we are
starting to reclaim our time and our power.
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We have to slow
down the push for performance. Our kids are
burning out at a rapid rate. It’s also
important that we help them to connect to
their humanity and spirituality and take extreme
caution when it comes to pediatric psychopharmacology.
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Women,
Power, and Happiness |
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As women get more
power, money, and resources, they’re
not happier. In fact, happiness measures show
a decline. The aspiration gap is one reason
why. We’ve come into work situations
created by men, largely hierarchical. Women
prefer to form affiliations and collegial
groups and can feel less rewarded by moving
up. |
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Personal ties are
really important, but we’re so consumed
by the desire to perform well that we lose
track of friendships. Over-obligation, particularly
for married working women, is making us lonely
and depressed. |
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Women must do a
better job of connecting with, supporting,
and recognizing each other. Men, particularly
in corporations, are better at this. In supportive
relationships, we can praise each other and
help each other to use our personal power
more effectively and to be more courageous.
We turn to massages to reduce stress, but
connecting with and paying attention to another
person is really one of the most nourishing,
healing, and stress-reducing experiences. |
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Women are asserting
themselves in the workplace, which is new
brain function, while taking responsibility
for managing their home lives, which is old
brain function. Since brains do not evolve
at the same rate as our culture, women are
more prone to stress. Eventually the brain
will learn to tolerate higher levels of stress,
accommodating rather than addressing increased
stress. This new view or baseline on we interact
in life will also change our definition and
parameters for depression. |
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Women are chemically
built for nurturing and communicating, and
we live in a world that needs our nurturing
and ability to articulate. The 21st century
is becoming a more collaborative society in
which the talents of women will increase in
value, and both sexes will play equal roles. |
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KEY NOTE SPEAKER
LUNCHEON
THURSDAY AFTERNOON, SEPTEMBER 18, 2003
Sharon L. Allen,
Chairman, Deloitte & Touche |
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“Strategies,
tactics, and policies need to be under the
bright light of diverse views. A rubber stamp
can become a rule rather than an exception,
and a dissenting voice may be stifled or ignored.
We are obligated to diversify business and
to rekindle and elevate trust in the corporate
mode and capital markets.” |
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Governance
The industrial revolution and the
practice of fudging the books to get more
capital led to the creation of the public
accounting industry to provide independent
oversight of company financials. Today’s
Big Four, started as a “gentlemen’s”
non-competitive business, then firms grew,
combined, and moved into more areas of business.
Sarbannes Oxley is leading to more frequent
audit committee meetings, deeper understanding
of financial reporting, improved internal
control, better communication, and a more
aggressive SEC.
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Diversity
Legislation and police work alone can never
secure right-minded behavior. Certainly greed,
inadequate controls, and lack of integrity
were causal factors in some of the corporate
scandals of the past two years. However, a
lack of diversity in corporate America was
also a key factor. If the views within professions,
meeting rooms, and board rooms had been more
diverse, we may have been able to head off
quite a few problems before they occurred.
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Invention
Corporate in-breeding seldom promotes
invention. This is not to say a firm or corporation
should attempt to function without legacy,
tradition, and the connective tissue of culture,
but diversity is key. It’s the diverse
view and perspective that leads to renewal,
innovation, and growth, and that is part of
what makes a company successful.
Ten years ago, a dissenting voice at Deloitte
& Touche – “this isn’t
a great place for women to work some days”
– led to the introduction of the Women’s
Initiative. This led to a changed work environment
and Human Resources culture that has benefited
women, men, and the firm. Since then, the
firm has taken diversification very seriously
and has increased the number of women partners,
principals, directors, and leaders, and
earned widespread recognition as an employer
of choice.
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Responsibility
There are a lot of people watching senior
women and learning. Even when you don’t
know that you’re a role model, there
is someone looking to you as an example, and
that spells responsibility. Your responsibility
is not to just elevate yourself, but others
around you and like you. In so doing, you
will help diversify business, and you will
allow the rekindling and elevation of trust
in the corporate models and capital markets.
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ROUNDTABLE
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE? |
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“Despite
what we often hear on the news, investment
in innovation in the United States has actually
increased in the last two years. And the number
one driving theme behind innovation according
to Fortune™ 500 executives is sustainability.”
Christopher Ireland, President & CEO Cheskin |
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“Technology
innovation falls into two areas: 1. Downstream
technologies, which take the water and clean
it so that it’s useable and 2. Upstream
technologies, which change the way we interface
with and use water.” Kathryn J. Jackson,
PhD, Executive Vice President, Tennessee Valley
Authority |
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There is a limited
amount of fresh water in the world that is
suitable for drinking and agricultural purposes,
and demands for this water have been steadily
rising. There are more than 1.1 billion people
in the world without access to clean water,
and 3 billion people do not have adequate
sanitation. Unclean water is responsible for
80 percent of all diseases. |
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The World Bank
believes that a lack of water will be a significant
factor in restraining economic growth. The
availability and ownership of water poses
strategic concerns equivalent to those surrounding
oil, with the potential to pit regions within
a country against one another or one country
against another. |
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Integrated and
innovative approaches that capitalize on the
growing trend toward convergence and link
technologies in the fields of earth science,
biology, and the social sciences may offer
the best hope for solutions. New products
and services that make water use more efficient
and less costly will represent a great area
of opportunity in coming years. |
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There are 54,000
water systems in the US. Less than 4,000 serve
81 percent of the population. The Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA) is the only place in
the US where the whole water shed is managed
by a single entity. |
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There is serious
disagreement between those who believe water
is a fundamental right and those who believe
the most efficient delivery of water can only
be done by the private sector. Yes, water
is a commodity, but it has to be managed as
a human right. |
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Water is still
cheaper than cable, telephone, electricity,
and gas. Consumers get a lot of value for
a low price. When pricing water, companies
have to consider that they’re selling
water for drinking and for other quality of
life uses – lawns, gardening, boating,
fishing, rafting, etc. New communities in
Florida, for example, are addressing this
issue by laying two grades of water pipes,
one for drinking water and another for lawns,
etc. |
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A lack of water
is the result of: ground and water pollution,
drought, inadequate infrastructure, poor waste
water management, increased residential use
of water, increased use of electricity, corruption,
competing demand for water, water planning,
usage behaviors, regulatory environments,
population growth and shifts from rural to
urban, destabilization of political systems.
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Consumers prefer
bottled water because they prefer the taste,
believe it is more consistent and better quality,
and like the status of carrying the bottle.
Water, for companies like Coca Cola, is an
enormous and growing brand. |
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Awareness and education
about usage and conservation are critical.
Developers need to consider ground water levels
and contamination, agricultural and manufacturing
waste, regional lifestyles, and harvesting
rain water. |
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Water utilities
are an old industry and a very expensive business
– the cost of delivery of water is high,
but the market price is low. |
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If Coca Cola is
to continue building its business, it has
to do more to conserve water. The company
is bringing in technologies to ensure that
water conversion in their manufacturing processes
are one-to-one. For every bottling facility,
Coca Cola has a waste water treatment plant.
Their goal is to give ownership of that plant
to the cities in which they operate, and they
do this in a number of innovative ways. |
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Rain water harvesting
is gaining popularity in the US where the
water quality is good. It’s capital
intensive, but companies like Coca Cola are
putting containment units on the roofs of
their bottling plants. The development of
low-cost filters that clean collected water
is also a priority for many companies. |
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Europe has much
tighter restrictions on the ingredients in
foods and water. European Union countries
are held to very strict standards for the
use of pesticides. These laws are much more
relaxed in the US and even more relaxed in
developing countries where pesticides used
for farming have completely contaminated water
supplies. |
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The developed world
which is consuming more water and other carbon-based
minerals and chemicals than the developing
world has an obligation to create technologies
to provide cleaner water and air. Today, the
poorest in the world pay much more for water
than their wealthy neighbors. |
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We all need to
be very involved in preserving our water shed
areas, river basins, and natural resources.
It’s not rocket science. We have to
embrace conservation, teach it in school,
keep water rights out of the hands of corrupt
politicians and regulators, and bring new,
clean water technologies to the communities
that need them at a price they can afford. |
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ROUNDTABLE
SENSORY REVOLUTION |
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“Use your
senses to find who you are. Stand nude in
front of a mirror five minutes a day for two
weeks. One day, you’ll see yourself
as you are, and you’ll understand why
you look the way you look, chose the body
you have, and see the gifts that are part
of your physical body. This is a moment of
freedom that comes from looking with all the
sense. Once that click occurs, you never go
back,” Helen L. Stewart, PhD, President,
UMS and President, 4Seee LLC |
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“We’re
all raindrops in this room. We hear, see,
touch, smell, and are personally engaged with
life, products, and services. Then, we drop
back into our ponds and repeat and resonate
what we’ve learned. Our experiences
become part of our story telling at the office
or the dinner table. They impact our audiences,
even impacting the buying choices they make.
That’s raindrop marketing.” Paula
Silver, President, Beyond the Box Productions |
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“When we
recruit, we evaluate on IQ, education, and
EQ, how we use our emotions to make decisions.
I think we need a third measure, SPQ, sensory
perception quotient. This is very important
for potential leaders, because it measures
how they use their senses, and intuition is
increasingly important in business.”
Judy B. Rosener, PhD, Professor, Graduate
School of Management, University of California,
Irvine |
| |
Our sensory input
and responses are filled with paradox. We
are living in a time of unparalleled self-gratification,
spending more money than ever on things that
delight our senses. Yet, politically we are
more aware and vigilant, and, technologically,
our senses are being dissected and explored. |
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People do not perceive
the world through five separate senses, but
different sources of energy are interpreted
and exploited simultaneously. Genetics, gender,
environment, seasons, and social conditions
impact perception, and this patterning may
begin when we’re embryos. |
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Sensory input impacts
well-being and health, and industries –
from the virtual to manufacturing –
are being transformed by what we are learning
about our sensory perception. In addition,
improved understanding of the human being
will enable us to make the workplace more
suited to human comfort and productivity. |
| |
Even when it comes
to taste, we all experience the world differently.
Super-tasters live in a neon rather than pastel
world of food taste. They have no binding
sites on their tongues and prefer sweets and
fats, but find vegetables and fruits very
bitter. Their ability to taste is enhanced,
so they often eat less and are thinner. This
puts them at lower risk of cardiovascular
disease, but at greater risk of certain cancers. |
| |
Women are likely
to be super-tasters. However, we’re
all born liking sweet tastes. That’s
hard-wired in our brains. We’re also
wired to love any flavor that comes associated
with calories, because that’s a survival
mechanism. |
| |
If you want to
attract consumers, engage their senses. Surprise
them with the unexpected, yet familiar. Find
the common denominator that brings people
together around an issue. Let consumers see
where their lives intersect with your product
or service. |
| |
As we pay more
attention to our senses, we are learning more
about how we interact with the world. We’re
learning, for example, that we can’t
trust eyewitness testimony because we all
process information heavily and differently
based on our past experiences and our judgments. |
| |
After 9/11, we’re
all looking for something that will make us
feel better. We’re looking for comfort
in food, surroundings, and clothes, but, at
the same time, we’re also in apocalyptic
mode. The fashion industry, in response, focused
on color this year. We experience color as
happiness, so color is selling like crazy,
and helping us to deal with our anxiety. |
| |
Men believe they
are not intuitive. That’s not true.
If we suspend belief, pay attention, and trust
our feelings, we can all have “hunches”
or gut feelings that prove to be accurate.
That said, women and men do sense things differently.
Our hormones are different, as is our brain
function. |
| |
Women are more
attuned to their environment than men. We
have to pay more attention to get ahead at
work, and we have to be careful of attack,
so we always need to be able to locate the
closest exit. |
| |
Automakers used
to sell cars on horsepower and speed. Now,
they’re sold on how they make the driver
feel and how they appeal to our senses and
identity. In this area, we equate quality
at a good price as value, and we want green
products . Buying green is a label that says
we are making a difference. |
| |
Sound is the new
frontier. Black holes sing – there is
sound in a vacuum – and the presence
or lack of certain sounds make us more productive.
We use constant noise to drown out our pain,
to keep us medicated or drugged. Some people
can’t function without the sound of
a radio or television. Sound overload is changing
our brains. |
| |
“My Big Fat
Greek Wedding” was a success because
it was about family, ethnicity, and the fact
that we’re all different. The film was
heavily marketed to the Greek community and
to brides. The marketers went to the Greek
community and challenged them to make the
film a success, and, because the Greeks are
proud, they met the challenge and showed up
at the box office in record numbers. |
| |
| |
CLOSING REMARKS
Alexandra
Lebenthal, President & CEO
Lebenthal & Co. Inc. |
| |
“We’re
not all in the kitchen today as we would have
been 50 years ago, but I’d like to think
that we’re in the communal living room,
exploring issues not just about women, but
about life and the lives that we lead in the
world. Today was a wonderful opportunity to
get out of the office for a day, to get away
from the challenges, and to learn.” |
| |
“The
presentations focused on the ‘wannabes’
and the challenges of brand, core business,
and differentiation. Water touches our lives
every day, but today we looked at it in
ways I’d never considered before.
The five senses were a key topic of discussion
from many points of views – continuous
partial attention, stress, depression and
medication, and intuition, our sixth sense.
I do predict that as women continue to become
stronger and stronger in the world and in
the workforce, that intuition will become
a more powerful business and marketing tool.” |
