Worth Our Time? J. Walker Smith @ NAMP
November 3rd, 2007 at 01:16pm Rebecca Borden
In his keynote kickoff of the NAMP conference, J. Walker Smith (a.k.a. Research Rockstar to Julie Peeler) explained that time is the new currency in a time-starved world. He studies lifestyle trends and ultimately seeks to understand the ways in which people understand the ‘good life’ what people want to get out of their lives. To marketing directors and brand developers, this information is the Holy Grail. But it keeps shifting and, in fact, Walker proposes that the extent and range of this change in consumer behavior has not been seen since World War II.
I liked 90% of what he said but the missing 10% gives me pause and I want to stir the pot a piece.
I was troubled by some of his points, or more accurately, the blind spots in his lens. My radar went up immediately when he talked about the ‘good life’ and was confirmed when he cited example after example of digitally-savvy, highly educated people as being the drivers of this change. I worried how much the empowered consumers of this new marketplace are perpetuating the cultural divide between mainstream cliques and disenfranchised peoples and communities. Put another way, the ‘good life’ is being defined by whom? And, who is being left out, who is not at the table (or even knows that the table even exists)? Walker would argue that the participants in this frontier are everyone, everywhere, and there is a true democratization of information and of meaning-making in our society. And yet, I would counter that only those with the money, education and resources as they are the keys that unlock online participation conform to Walker’s concept of the empowered consumer. I am questioning who has access to these participatory consumer driven opportunities. I wonder how much of Walker’s construct is a revisioning of the same constituents, the same usual suspects? Am I alone in thinking this?
As Walker would agree, we need to follow our instincts, not experts; need to see through exaggeration and hype; need access to information and not feel overwhelmed by it; need to be viewed as giving smart advise. He did have some good points, after all.
