The New Chameleons: How to Connect with Consumers Who Defy Categorization

by Michael R. Solomon

Overview

WINNER: NYC Big Book Award 2021 - Marketing & PR

Consumers are changing but the marketing categories used to identify them have not. Engage with this new generation of consumers who increasingly take for granted that products and advertising will blend their multiple brand identities rather than market to them as a specific subculture.

Male or female, work or play, online or offline. These and other market categories are no longer relevant as modern consumers defy traditional boundaries and identify as members of multiple subcultures. The New Chameleons reveals how to engage with this new generation and how to stand out among the competition.

Global consumer behavior expert Michael R. Solomon directs marketers to move beyond their traditional categories and communicate with consumers as individuals rather than as a market segment. He explains how traditional marketing is based on the assumption of boundaries between us and them, the individual and the collective, producer and consumer, work and play, humans vs. computers, and editorial vs. commercial. He then shows how those boundaries are blurring: people identify with members of multiple subcultures; individuals seek collective advice before making a purchase; consumers no longer distinguish between purchases online or in-store; consumer-generated content becomes the norm; gender identity is fluid; gamification strategies turn work into play; and identity marketing becomes more popular.

Combining history, data, experience and examples, The New Chameleons is written for every marketer (or reader) who wants to offer products and services that resonate with consumers now and in the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781398600041
Publisher:	Kogan Page, Ltd.
Publication date:	02/23/2021
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 8.66(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Michael R. Solomon is professor of marketing in the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph's Universityand he resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He advises global clients in leading industries on marketing strategies to make them more consumer-centric. He is the author of several leading textbooks on marketing, consumer behavior, advertising and social media.

Table of Contents

** Chapter - 00: Introduction; ** Chapter - 01: The evolution of marketing categories; ** Chapter - 02: Consumers who defy demographic labels; ** Chapter - 03: Consumers who defy traditional purchasing behavior; ** Chapter - 04: Consumers who defy the bricks vs. clicks debate; ** Chapter - 05: Consumers who defy buyers vs. sellers; ** Chapter - 06: Consumers who defy traditional sex roles and gender stereotypes; ** Chapter - 07: Consumers who defy the separation of brand and identity; ** Chapter - 08: Consumers who defy boundaries of traditional media; ** Chapter - 09: A fond farewell to dichotomies we love;

Editorial Reviews

"The original chameleon himself, Michael Solomon has again provided the consumer research industry with a timely jolt to our established thinking into how brands can best uncover new or unmet needs. With an abundance of new tools, techniques and technologies at our disposal in 2020, The New Chameleons gives a pragmatic overview of the challenge and opportunity presented if we take a fresh perspective on segmentation...what would once have been classed as an "outlier" in research data could become your next big opportunity."

Sue Temple

"After blowing up our decades-old model for understanding consumers, the first thing Michael Solomon does is, thankfully, give us everything we need to rebuild a new one. Even though we marketers knew deep down that consumers didn't fit so neatly in the "cages" we put them, we didn't have a better way of thinking or understanding them. But that's what this book does: by walking us through a series of the black-and-white thinking that got us in the mess in the first place, Solomon shows us the depth, breadth and opportunity that lies in all the beautiful shades of gray in between."

Tamsen Webster

"When commercial borders between nations disappeared, so did many brands who could not adapt. Now that the borders between just about everything else in our culture are evaporating, how do you make sure your brand doesn't go the way of the dinosaurs? A great starting place is Professor Solomon's The New Chameleons, which provides insights and opportunities that could mark the difference between success and failure for anyone involved in marketing."

Martin Bihl

"Michael Solomon skillfully articulates why today's brands must understand the postmodern consumer to remain relevant. The lines between consumer categories have long been converging, and The New Chameleons establishes the need for a brand's horizontal appeal and offers practical examples and actionable takeaways."

Asma Ishaq

"Human beings have escaped biology and, thus, gender. We have stepped beyond politics and nationality. The boxes they try and fit us into no longer work. Michael explains why the modern market researcher, census taker and pollster are getting it wrong - especially in a PostPan world."

author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping Paco Underhill

"Enabled by technology and accelerated by transformations of our global cultural and social ecosystems, traditional categorization of consumer behavior is out the window! Michael Solomon brilliantly helps us understand and navigate the continuously evolving and rapidly morphing intersections of marketers and consumers. This is a must-read not only for marketing professionals, but for all stakeholders in their brand's future in every function and at every level."

John Greco

"Michael stiches the trends of today to the future of consumerism in a way that is both provocative and inspiring. This book should be required reading for every Marketer; it's a wake-up call to the undeniable truth that we need to think and attack our challenges in a profoundly new way."

Patrick Rodmell

"Today's consumers are tough to classify. But thankfully we have Michael Solomon's new book to show us the way. Fun to read and deeply insightful, it's useful to anyone who wants help navigating this new world."

Author of Contagious and The Catalyst Jonah Berger

"To use a term of Michael's, constellations from interfaces to services to physical goods make marketing today far more complex than even just 10 years ago. En masse is long over, and this rigorous dissection and complex reading made me feel like a got a Master's in marketing."

Industrial Designer Karim Rashid

"Michael Solomon proves yet again why he's such a trusted and insightful consumer behaviorist. In The New Chameleons, he explains why traditional segmentation is too blunt an instrument and outlines, in very practical terms, what marketers should do about it. This is a great read for marketing's modern age."

William F.N. Gullan

"Simple lifestyle categories are gone for good; no consumer wants to be locked in category cage with a cute label. Michael Solomon introduces us to a new way of understanding and appreciating these new chameleon consumers. Brands should be branded with a label; consumers shouldn't."

Laura Ries

"Michael Solomon introduces readers to two very different worlds: the real world where individual consumers float seamlessly from one connection to another, defying classification. And an alternative universe where marketers are still trapped by strictly defined consumer segments and media categories which bear no relationship to real customer behavior. It's time for marketers to make a quantum leap to the real world."

Leslie Zane

"If you're still marketing like Mad Men, you're missing tremendous opportunities in our newly fractured world. Michael shows how to reach real people instead of targeting stereotypes."

Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Fanocrac David Meerman Scott

"The New Chameleons brings marketers to the edge of tomorrow, revealing deep insights for building the next generation of leading brands."

The Blake Project and Branding Strategy Insider Derrick Daye