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Here is some great food (drink
actually) for thought about success guidelines that can help your international
business and international investing.
There is a growing subculture
called the Ethical Cultural Creatives described in the book Cultural Creatives
by Paul Ray. Other messages have also looked at the growing market of LOHAS (Lifestyles
of Health and Sustainability) buyers.
Growing Alternative Investment
Business Power
Knowing who and what these growing
groups of buyers and investors are can have a dramatic impact on your investments
and business so this note below from an alert reader can really help our thinking:
Alternative Investment Business
Power Numbers
"Gary, I spoke to a researcher
at Natural Marketing Institute and she mentioned that Paul Ray's research ended
in 1996. As far as she knows, no one has continued tracking this trend.
"I did a linear extrapolation
of the two data points -- 1965: no Cultural Creatives; 1996: 50 million. If Cultural
Creatives segment continued on a linear growth path, their numbers in 2004 would
total approximately 33-35% of the adult population. Of course, this is not in
any way scientific and is not a sound way to project a trend. And I'm making the
modest assumption that moderns continue to be fed up with the rat race and switch
to more meaningful lives (Cultural Creatives). However, I don't think these assumptions
are unreasonable.
"LOHAS researchers say that
LOHAS and Cultural Creatives are different ways to measure different things that
overlap significantly, but they are still completely different things that are
being measured.
"My understanding is that
LOHAS data shows modest growth over this same period, which might infer that the
Cultural Creatives segment is not growing that much. Personally, I purchase LOHAS
products and services when I can and when they are priced reasonably, and use
'normal' stuff at other times. In other words, I'm a cultural Creative, but I
don't always purchase LOHAS products and services. And my consumption of LOHAS
products and services has not increased over the last 10 years. In some cases
decreased. Bottom line: I think Cultural Creatives are a much larger segment of
the population than the 50 million mentioned in the book.
If you have any additional insights,
please pass them along."
Another Alternative Investment
Business Power book
I have heard more. There is another
book by Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class. This 2002 best-seller
received The Washington Monthly's Political Book Award for that year and was later
named by Harvard Business Review as one of the top breakthrough ideas of 2004.
This work is about the creative class. Details at CreativeClass.org
I am ordering myself and will
report anything worthwhile I read.
Alternative Investment Business
Power Roots
Second look back at my messages
about the roots of this new market as described by Maslow's hierarchy of needs
causes markets to develop. Go to GaryScott.com
Alternative Investment Business
Power Thought
Think about this and you'll see
that it is logical to assume that the richer the world grows the more Ethical
Cultural Creatives or Lohas buyers there will be.
In short we have to have words
to define what we think we know. This is a shame because the word tends to paint
a huge number of very unique individuals the same color. The reality is we have
hundreds of millions of unique individuals we call the same thing.
To spot trends what we are trying
to do is identify common traits that these large groups might share. So all of
us may be called Ethical Cultural Creatives, but in reality we are part Ethical
Cultural Creatives, part Lohas, part Modern, part Traditional. Yet to know what
many of us do that is common and can be translated into the business and investing
market place in common is our goal.
Alternative Investment Business
Power Whole Picture
For example it was found that
the Ethical Cultural Creative likes to see the whole picture. For example when
Moderns go out for a cup of coffee they want the best coffee, served in the fastest,
most convenient way. The CC wants to know more. Where was this grown, what type
of coffee? What did the growing process do to the environment? How were the processors
and growers of the coffee treated? What will the coffee do to the body and environment?
Was the cup organic? Is the cup recycled and so forth?
Alternative Investment Business
Power Impact
We can see how this is affecting
the market place in a recent Reuters news release titled, Starbucks Seeks More
Socially Responsible Coffee.
This article said that Starbucks
has launched an aggressive plan to ensure that its coffee comes from environmentally
friendly farms paying workers a fair wage.
They are setting up strict rules
on everything from forestation to pesticides to labor practices.
Starbucks made this move because
they have suffered bad publicity most likely from the more vociferous end of the
Cultural creative subculture. A UK charity Oxfam hurt Starbuck's British business
in such a way and Starbucks buckled in and entered into a partnership with Oxfam
to work on a rural development program in a coffee-growing region of Ethiopia.
This is how this growing subculture
can affect your investing and business. Regardless of the name, CC, Lohas or whatever,
the element these people have in common is that they:
*See a bigger picture.
*Consume and invest in values not just material value.
*See connections.
*Are highly sensitive to being mislead.
*Are willing to pay a bit more for a whole product.
*Want authenticity.
*Are getting organized.
Alternative Investment Business
Power Protests
The same Reuters article mentioned
above stated: "Protesters have targeted global companies like Wal-Mart Stores,
Inc. and McDonald's Corp., charging them with squeezing out local businesses and
exploiting workers.
McDonald's has been affected
over some the fishing practices of suppliers that could mean fish population will
not survive over time.
Learn to understand what all
this might mean, because these buyers are more than statistics. They are people
and the way they live will continue to blur the distinction between customers,
workers, investors and management. They are the growing future!
Until next message, good ethical
alternative investment and business.
Gary
P.S. Learn another way to spot
trends and see truth at GaryScott.com
Gary & Merri Scott have
green investments in their North Carolina Farm (Merrily Farms) and Ecuador Plantation
(Rosaspamba) shown below:
"Merrily
Farms in the Fall"
"Rosaspamba's
Virgin Rain Forest" |
