Category: Uncategorized

Every generation has its nostalgia. And businesses find a way to profit from it. But the need to look back intensifies when a culture is stressed, depressed, out of work, or otherwise discontent. The memories of our past help shape our society, breeding equal parts unoriginality and fleeting excitement for days gone by. But in...

As we enter 2015, the mystery continues. Why hasn’t a more inspiring generation of products and services for older people been created, marketed and raking in the big bucks? The market has never been more ripe for the taking. But marketers and product designers must switch their focus from creative marketing to creative aging to...

In the year ahead, the era of Selfie Journalism fully takes root. Reporters on the local, regional and state levels, in particular, will be judged more by their social media footprint than by the quality of their journalism. As traditional newspapers become fully digitally-driven and attempt to cover their markets with fewer resources, robust coverage...

An unprecedented diversity of energy sources and players will come to market this year, reflecting the underlying, long-term trend of the world’s shift away from fossil fuels. A hundred years ago, coal was dominant. Since then, it’s been oil. But this year, energy markets will be marked by innovations that improve the value of traditional...

Is there an independent anything these days? Small businesses crop up around the country only to be swallowed up by larger corporations, consolidating operations and increasing profitability. These corporations are swallowed up by even larger conglomerates, which do the same on an even larger level. Massive international trade deals are signed before the public is...

One of the fundamental tenets of capitalism is supply and demand. But what happens when there is too much supply and not enough demand? You get Price Wars. This holiday season, big chains were packing their stores with ridiculous deals at minimal mark-up under the assumption that this would stimulate demand for their product. But...

Bankism is a financial Ponzi scheme fueled by government debt and cheap money. In Bankism, too-big-to-fail banks don’t rise or fall on their own merits. Instead, they get saved by governments that in turn force the public to pay for banks’ mistakes by imposing austerity measures and higher taxes upon them. Bankism has replaced capitalism...

The Grand Manipulation is a new and dangerous trend. The manipulation of free economic markets worldwide is not a repeat of the past. The ability or, rather, the audacity of the US and other governments to manipulate the major financial markets is new. Governments and economists take their hats off to free markets. Yet, the...

Until marketers and product designers switch their focus from creative marketing to creative aging, they will not find the sweet spot from which flows new products and structures attractive to the valuable senior demographic. Turning from creative marketing to creative aging will entail a real thought shift, focusing on graspable ways to enhance older adults’...