Temporary Change of Address.

Hey, to anyone who's tried to email me presently brodie@newelement.org does not work. If you'd like to get ahold of me please use brodie@indiepedia.com.

2k3 Marketing Predictions

Ya see as much as any marketer, designer or other such scum cream their jeans over the concept, Branding™ has one central flaw: it's difficult to sell a lifestyle. As soon as a brand markets said lifestyle to someone it becomes hackneyed, trite and common place. I think the majority of people realize that those willing to be sold a lifestyle realistically live a different lifestyle. Those people are trendbots, sheep.. lemmings! As the 21st century starts to materialize into something more understandable... something seperate from the mania of the late 20th I'd like to see the following shifts in marketing:

• Customization over branding.
  
  If you're going to sell a lifestyle, why no sell one that's more individual? A good example of this is Threadless.com where a strong community of designers and hobbyists make design submissions for visitors of the site to moderate. The top moderated designs make their way into production. Theadless has no brand in the sense of a logo, it's lifestyle is it's method of commerce and the large groups of highly specific individuals.
  
  
• Highly specific groups of individuals.
  
  I'm sure some groovy term like "micro-branding" will develop, but whatever that's just spin used to sell books and magazines. This is part of customization, the development of groups usually thought too small to bother marketing to in the past. A by-product of the internet that could possibly cross-polinate into retail space, albeit with a lot of effort.
  
  
• Detailed consumer information on clothing goods.
  
  We're privy to content and nutritional information on food to help us make healthier choices about our diet, why not support good global business practice with our clothing purchases? The argument is often made that the majority of people don't care how goods are made as long as their cheap and available. A standard system for rating living condition, ecological impact of manufacturing and whether or not the labourers are unionized would be ideal although likely unrealistic. The point I'd like to stress however is that people desire the ability and freedom make these choices.
  
  
• Re-ignited interest in urbanization
  
  It's already happening, there's less giant department stores and more specialized Niche Warehouses in the suburbs. I frankly think the whole concept's environmental and social stance is deplorable, elitist and highly automobile centric. Public transit is often neglected to such remote locations and the result is the creation of a Consumer Suburb accessible mainly to the middle class and above.
  
  The Main St. metahpor of small, pedestrian accessible and specialized shops has been reduced to frou frou boutiques and cafés outside of already dense urban areas.
  
  Said Consumer Suburbs have popped up all over medium sized towns and suburbs in Canada and America. The way I see it people are gonna get pissed off at living in their cars whenever they need to go shopping for any item at all. Those who cannot afford cars are going to demand access. Oh, and the air will continue to suck as people drive around tiny buses to carry ther 128-packs of ass wipe, 64 can cases of Coke® and 31L of motor oil.