Follow a link to an ad in a sponsored email and, no matter your age or stage of life, you will likely be directed to a product that marketers believe is right for you. More often than not, the ad will target those with a younger, trendier, hipper lifestyle, offering you products you never knew you needed or wanted. Companies market to a younger audience because they believe that's where the money and the excitement are. But are they wrong? Perhaps very wrong?
This is only one of the counterintuitive arguments that Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, a world leader in opinion polling, tackles in his groundbreaking new book, Next. Not since Boom, Bust & Echo has a Canadian expert in what Canadians will want and need distilled the growing trends based on real and extensive demographic data and dared to forecast what will come next in a major publication. Why is Harley-Davidson making smaller motorcycles and changing the way they sell their bikes? Should restaurateurs be focusing on vibrant, frenetic restaurants offering the latest food fashion or on open, quieter restaurants that focus on tasty standard fare? What's the fastest-growing sector in the housing market? Where should companies plan on setting up shop? Why do we face a population crisis? Which provinces will become the haves and which the have-nots? Where will Canadians be emigrating from, and where will they live? Should we be building more hockey arenas or basketball courts, or even cricket pitches?
Next is the first book in decades that offers an honest, often provocative prescription for where we will live, what we'll be buying and who our leaders will be in the decades to come. Filled with stories of Canadians making critical decisions for their businesses and their personal lives, Next will appeal to a wide audience: anyone who is wondering where they should look for their next job or where they might plan on living in retirement--even how they will live in Canada's ever-changing future.
