Crisis in mass marketing: social diversity is changing the face of marketing

ZURICH 14th March (PROTEXT/PRNewswire) - Globalization ismaking itself felt not only worldwide but also at the regionallevel. The growing diversity of modern society is radicallyaltering conditions on consumer markets. This issue wasaddressed at the first New Diversity Forum, which was held at theZurich airport from March 13-14. The event, which was jointlysponsored by Lowe Switzerland and the University of St. Gallen,was a great success, as the approximately 250 attendees and theworldwide renown of the presenters clearly showed. "We reallytouched a nerve here. The marketing and advertising industry hasbeen in a crisis for quite some time, with classic marketingstrategies yielding ever diminishing returns," noted KurtSchmid, Lowe Switzerland CEO and co-originator of the event.

"Low price strategies can only be short term solutions. ButNew Diversity offers the opportunity to develop future-proofmarketing strategies that really work," comments University ofSt. Gallen professor Torsten Tomczak. A broad range of country-specific and international scenarios were discussed at theevent. A number of Swiss companies have also taken steps to meetthe challenge of social change. Andreas S. Wetter, OrangeSwitzerland CEO had this to say: "We are using ourorganizational structure and expertise to reach populationsegments such as various ethnic groups, values, lifestyles,subcultures, philosophies, and attitudes. Orange's cosmopolitanimage is an ideal basis for ever growing market success."

Draft Cultural Marketing senior vice president CharleeTaylor-Hines emphasized that more than just populationstatistics have to be factored into strategies that aim to reachindividual population segments: "Many subcultures and smallergroups have a major impact on pop culture. In the USA, forexample, Afro-Americans are often trendsetters for young peopleand Hispanics have a major influence on the music market."

The New Diversity Forum was sponsored by Swiss InternationalAirlines, Orange Switzerland, Google, publisuisse, persönlich andGfM Swissmarketing.

For further information: http://www.newdiversity.ch

Source: The new diversity initiative

Press contact: Mathis Brauchbar, Tel. +41-(0)79-407-93-62, E-mail/// brauchbar@advocacy.ch

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