7 Rules for Marketing to Today's Consumer

FM Staff

Mass Affluence: 7 New Rules of Marketing to Today's Consumer

By Paul Nunes and Brian Johnson
Harvard Business School Press
(Cambridge, MA), 2004. $29.95
(hardcover).

Incredibly, given all the handwringing-about how Americans are spending too much and not saving enough,Nunes and Johnson actually posit that there is a"moneyed mass" of consumers out there who are not spending nearly as much as they might given their levels of disposable income. And their book is all about how to jimmy open the wallets of all those tightwads.

Whether you buy into their claim about holdout consumers or not, Nunes and Johnson have a few valuable tips to offer when it comes to successful marketing in today's competitive environment. Granted, their "moneyed mass" consists primarily of fairly affluent upper-middle-class consumers who "buy beneath their weight"(i.e.,they account for a smaller proportion of overall consumer spending than their share of the national income), and many are not typical onsite foodservice customers (except perhaps at highend corporate dining accounts and exclusive colleges and prep schools).

Still,the notions behind the book's seven rules have some broader application even for standard onsite foodservice environments where the imperative to increase retail sales is paramount. For that it might be worth a read.