The Future Consumer

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Feather is rapidly building a reputation as one of Canada’s leading
futurists. He is best known for originating the insightful phrase
“thinking globally, acting locally” and giving voice to the concepts
it summarizes. In this, his fifth book, he goes further down this path,
flogging “glocal marketing,” a repulsive term for putting a local
spin on global marketing strategies.

“Glocal” means paying attention to the forces affecting consumer
behavior. These include demographics (there’s more to the market than
baby boomers), multiculturalism, the convergence of communications
technologies, and increasing demand for both “high value” and
“high virtue” (ecologically sound) products.

The volume opens with a lengthy, tedious, fictionalized tale of
shopping in the year 2004, intended to set the stage for what consumers
can expect. Unfortunately, it is very poorly written and puts a damper
on the rest of the book.

Once past this unfortunate start, Feather’s in-depth explanations of
the components of “glocal” marketing are intriguing and
discussion-provoking. The didactic style is monotonous and the
presentation of the material is rather choppy. Nevertheless, the book
could play a practical role as preparatory reading for anyone entering
into a strategic planning process. Or it could become a blueprint for
restructuring a business to be more customer-driven.