Abstract:

We realize that after years of benefiting from emerging markets and cheap products through cheap foreign labor, most Western countries such as Germany, France, the United States and Great Britain are now facing the negative effects of globalization: jobs keep wandering around the globe with a total loss for the lower educated ones and a constant push for trying harder and learning longer for the middle class and especially the youth. With the end of the industrial age in modernized countries as we know it, we are now facing a widening social and economic gap as the key societal frontier in the years ahead. This presentation will give an internationally comparative outlook on people's coping strategies and on how these will impact market research and brand management. It is founded on the key results of a qualitative, two-stage Delphi future study that provides a powerful tool to anticipate tomorrow's societal changes today.