The Wannabe Market

The Exploding “Wannabe Market”
Target market niches are becoming broadscale mass markets because of the ease of modern assimilation. Four driving forces are behind this trend: technology, the globalization and ubiquitous nature of media, expanding middle classes, and the growing acceptance of made vs. found identities.

Technology:
• Entrepreneur wannabes around the globe have been made possible by online businesses that did not require large amounts of start-up capital. American- trained and -employed jet setters spread out across Europe, Asia and the Americas to “colonize virgin cyberspace”.
• Desktop publishing, manufacturing and production are made increasingly possible by cheaper, micro-miniaturized technology, allowing ordinary people to create what once only larger businesses could.
• E-training is emerging, and will make learning professional and expert skills easier and more available for larger segments of the population.
• Online communities are growing around common interests that transcend borders and national identity, allowing us to see and be anywhere
• The Web allows fringe populations to attract wannabes.
• The electronic gaming industry intends to be an omnipresent part of mainstream culture, portable and available everywhere. Role-playing games are the biggest category, and 61% of players are adults.

Universal Exposure to Media:
• The massive migrations of rural Chinese into cities has exposed them to media which make them aware of worker and other human rights, loosening the Communist Party’s control of the individual’s sense of his/her rightful place and role.
• Penetration of the Web, along with other media, has created a horizontal society, where identity is open and authority is based on celebrity rather than hierarchy.

The Expanding Middle Class:
• Russia’s middle class is growing. Many are entrepreneurs. About 10% of the nation’s 145 million could be defined as middle class. More are purchasing foreign cars, owning country retreats and buying private medical care.
• First-class students in China increasingly go abroad to upgrade their income prospects. About 150 million people worldwide live in foreign countries, double what it was in 1965, and they generally do so for economic reasons.
• African-American consumer buying power is up 86% since 1990, to $40.5 billion.
• Massive amounts of debts are enabling much more spending and risk taking.
• Millions of dollars in venture capital funding have flooded the Japanese market, fueling Silicon Valley startups and a new entrepreneurial class.
• The middle is moving up: 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 residence). More than 600,000 households have a net worth of over $5 million. More people are bypassing commercial airlines for charter flights or part ownership of small jets. The latest fad in Europe is upscale fragrances targeted at kids.

Growing Acceptance of Cross-Over Identities:
• Young and middle-aged men are having plastic surgery in record numbers.
• Mongrelization -- the mixing of races, ethnic groups and nationalities -- is at an unprecedented level, yet only in its infancy. Hybridity in the U.S. in 2050 will triple to 21% of the population.
• Using the increasingly mainstreamed language of self-identity and selfhood (self-discovery, self-expression, self-invention), wannabes can change the sense of who they are.
• The “global soul” falls between all categories, and sense of home is scattered across the planet. A new kind of being is evolving, made up of confusions and a porous sense of self, changing according to location.

Implications:

The wannabe markets are exploding. Core niches may be small in percentage, and even in absolute number, but those that aspire to those niche identities are growing geometrically. Luxury, deviance, demographic descriptors, profession, life style and even ethnic identity are all available to many more people who wish to affiliate with them than ever before, even if they cannot become them. Few people own Harley Davidsons, but many own the paraphernalia and feel themselves part of the Harley family.
“Trustmarks” and “brandmarks” are becoming more important than brand. These are distinctive names or symbols that emotionally connect the company with the same desires and aspirations as its customers. Those desires and aspirations now migrate across readily identifiable segments and merge into populations never before considered as customers, clients or members. Many years ago, Bride’s magazine (a highly upscale publication devoted to luxury goods and services in the bridal category) discovered that it had a huge readership among inner city minority girls who were neither wealthy nor brides-to-be. But for everything from ideas for sweet sixteens (which, in the Hispanic community, are as elaborate as weddings) to dreams of what will likely never be, the affiliative factor was significant. Importantly, the magazine could never recognize the wannabes in its pages, because, if it did, it would alienate its core market as well as lose its luster with the wannabe market. This is perhaps the most important implication of all -- wannabes want to feel authentically aligned with their aspirations. Any attempt to downgrade standards or image in order to be inclusive will have the counterintuitive effect of eroding the entire market.

Still, the enormous opportunities presented by this trend are exciting. We have discussed in the past the fact that people are now capable of taking on new identities. The significance of the wannabe markets is that they do not take on new identities, but will spend money, attention and effort to emotionally affiliate with them. Recognizing this could allow any institution to reach beyond its current markets and grow share without reorienting its core mission. This could be done through educational programs, aligned entertainment, peripheral products and services, discreet marketing in alternative media, and careful planting of “buzz” (spirited word-of-mouth or word-of-keyboard) that reach out beyond current markets.

Issues Analysis provided by: Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc.
© 2003 All rights reserved worldwide