Marketing for a Vancouver Future

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The rules of marketing are changing. What will that mean for Vancouver in 2050?

If you’re a regular reader of this column, you know that it revolves around the world of marketing. But I was recently asked to be on the panel at a ULI lunch, and as such the developments that came out of this event are top of mind.

I sat alongside Glenn Miller, Vice President of Education and Research with the Canadian Urban Institute and the founding editor of the Ontario Planning Journal and Alan Boniface, architect for numerous LEED rated buildings and past chair of the Vancouver Planning Commission.

Here’s what we came up with.

We all agreed we would be a much older and larger population by 2050. In 2050, 27 per cent of our population will be 65 and over and 1.3 million residents will be 85 and over. As a result, there will be fewer babies and fewer first-time buyers. It was also agreed that we can expect a rapid rate of urbanization. In 2050, more than 70 per cent of the world’s population will be living in cities. Our population, especially in B.C., will also be much more multi-cultural. We will see an influx of immigrants from Asian countries in particular.

I learned a lot about what the city might look like in 2050 – undoubtedly there will be seismic shifts, but it also brought to light some illuminating messages about marketing.

Here are a few thoughts:

1) Advertising as we know it will probably not exist. Nobody wants to be sold anything. They want to be informed, educated and engaged. The interruption model of advertising that we are so used to seeing will be replaced by an invitation model. Good news, as far as I’m concerned. Less yelling and screaming. More thoughtful and useful discourse.

2) Technologies are sure to shift again. Today’s social media may be tomorrow’s teletype.

3) Brands and branding will stay the same. Communities, buildings, institutions, companies, individuals – they all have brands and they always will. As communicators we all need to stop beating people over the head with our messages and start being interesting – treat me well and I will return the favour.

4) To be great communicators we need to make great products. We need to build and sell what we would buy ourselves, and not just create hype for the sake of hype.

5) The shared and participatory nature of the web will only grow. How we access the web might change, but that cyber world isn’t going anywhere – for those who haven’t already – embrace it!

6) Now more than ever we need to find out what people want and create it rather than telling them what they want. Fortunately, consumers volunteer this information through various sites, conversations and participation. The web, and especially social media, provides us with a digital anthropology.

7) To quote George Bush (shudder) we are not “the deciders” anymore. We are not in control. We must collaborate with consumers – we are all in this together.

One thing is certain: there is still a lot of talking that needs to be done to get us from here to there, and a lot of unexpected twists and turns in the path which will undoubtedly present themselves. But regardless of the brand or the product category or the technological one-upmanship that the marketing industry will endure, there is a simple consumer-focused mantra that all would do well to start chanting in the boardroom: “Make their lives better, and they will reward you.”

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  • alan boniface, 
  • David Allison, 
  • glenn miller, 
  • Advertising, 
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