Monday, July 14, 2008

Commuter bicycle trends

Here is an interesting article about commuter bicycling http://mysite.verizon.net/res6sdo1/commuter_bicycles.htm It is quite indepth and I will need to read and reread it to get the important information.
Basically the author is saying that bike shops have been slow in stocking commuter style bicycles, and then he proceeds to tell in great detail what comprises a good commuter bicycle. He does agree that it is a current trend for more people to bike to work or for chores in town. So how it affects the consumer is that we have to shop around, possibly purchase on line, know what we need and want.
This seems like a great opportunity for marketers to jump on this trend and focus on the consumers needs in this area. There are commuter bicycles available and I can't imagine it will take long for the market to catch up to the demand. We shall see

Friday, July 4, 2008

Trend paper

http://www.cyclelicio.us/2008/05/in-news-bike-shops-report-strong-sales.html. Here is the link to one article about the continuing trends in bicycle sales. The current trend in the bicycle business, is for commuters to use bicycles instead of cars because of high gasoline prices. I think this is only the current trend, because physical fitness and the emergence of specialized bicycles for mountain biking, racing, etc has created growth in this industry for decades. If you want to learn more about bicycles industry trends, well you will just have to wait a few weeks until I have written and presented my trend paper.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Marketing to Boomers

A lot of what I read in the first four chapters of Advertising to Baby Boomers, sounds familiar. It is true that the era of the 60s and 70s made an impact on the world and it will never be the same again. To a certain degree this is true of many generation, but I feel that the political activism of those times created a headset of "question authority" and marketers and advertising are a form of authority.
So Boomers as a group are generally suspicious, and don't believe everything they read. For this reason and just because it seems reasonable, I think the author Chuck Nyren is right on when he says the creatives need to be from the group that is being marketed to.