The Hummer and the Mini
By Robyn Waters
Portfolio, 222 pages, $31
Green To Gold
More Report on Business Stories
Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston
Yale University Press, 366 pages, $28.50
If you're looking for economic success next year and beyond, seek contradictions. That's the New Year's message from two recent books.
In The Hummer and the Mini, Robyn Waters, the trendsetter who helped Target stores find their lucrative niche by bringing high profile designers to work for the discount chain, says the hottest trends today often contradict one another. "For every yin there is a yang. For every trend there is a countertrend," she writes. "Companies that have embraced change and accepted the idea of the contradictory consumer have found delightful ways to reframe their business propositions."
Just as sales of video games skyrocketed, old-fashioned board games took off, too. Modern microwaves and retro-inspired Viking ranges co-exist in some kitchens. Hummers and Mini Coopers dot our highways.
Ms. Waters boils it down to eight countertrends.
Everything old is new again: Consumers have a newfound fondness for such oldies-but-goodies as Vespa scooters, the classic designs of Ralph Lauren, Nike sneakers, Tupperware parties and John Steinbeck, who has returned to the bestseller lists thanks to Oprah's endorsement of East of Eden. The No. 1-requested recipe from Martha Stewart's website is macaroni and cheese.
Mass customization: In a global, mass-produced marketplace, many consumers want goods that meet their individual needs. We have custom-built Serotta bicycles, custom ring tones on cellphones, Jones Soda, which offers to put our picture on our pop, and MP3s, which allow individuality in music.
Luxurious commodities: Consumers seek affordable luxuries, be it high-end hot chocolate, Annie's macaroni and cheese, gourmet gas stations with massage chairs in Japan, or Christian Dior contact lenses with a unique design for your iris.
Less is more: In a "super size me" era with Big Gulp drinks and big box emporiums, some companies are finding success with mini-format stores, micro brewed beer and small-format magazines.
Healthy indulgences: We cope with stress by seeking out little pleasures that make hectic lives seem more bearable. We turn to chocolate, which has antioxidants to ward off cancer. We eat organic foods and visit healing retreats.
Counterfeit authenticity: Some people want authentic goods and others want products, services and experiences that are in-your-face fake, such as the imitation plastic deer popular on the lawns in Wisconsin, the mock Venice or Paris façades in Las Vegas, or the Rainforest Café's tropical environment.
Extreme relaxation: We're not only playing hard but relaxing hard, with Heavenly Beds and sleep CDs in hotels, MetroNaps midday rest facilities in some American downtowns, and a Stress Less badge for junior Girl Scouts, teaching them to relax.
Social capitalism: Some corporate chiefs embrace benevolent impulses because it's profitable. Examples include Burt's Bees products and Worthwhile magazine.
That last theme is echoed in Green To Gold, by Daniel Esty, a professor of environmental law at Yale University, and Andrew Winston, director of Yale's Corporate Environmental Strategy project. The book catalogues the many firms that are building competitive advantage by going green. From General Electric to Wal-Mart to Home Depot to Hewlett-Packard, leading-edge companies are going beyond the basics of reducing waste and saving energy to folding environmental considerations into all aspects of their operations.
What started as something they had to do has become something they want to do, because they recognize there is an eco-advantage. "They've evolved to the point where environmental management is second nature and their focus is now on mining the gold in environmental strategy," the authors state.
They follow the two classic strategies of Harvard professor Michael Porter for creating competitive advantage: They use their eco-strategy to reduce costs compared with the competition -- by cutting waste, for instance -- and they differentiate their product from competitors through an environmental approach. They also reduce risk to the company -- and its brand image -- that can arise from environmental arrogance or indifference.
Specifically, the companies:
Design innovative products to help customers with their environmental problems or even create new eco-defined market segments.
Push their suppliers to be better environmental stewards or even select them on that basis.
Collect data to track their performance on environmental matters and establish metrics to gauge their progress.
Partner with non-governmental environmental groups and other stakeholders to learn about and find innovative solutions to environmental problems.
Build an eco-advantage culture with ambitious goal setting, incentives and training to engage workers in the environmental vision.
Green To Gold is a comprehensive catalogue of those activities by the newly green companies, with advice for developing your own strategy. It's jam-packed with eye-opening corporate programs, defying the usual cant that environmental concerns will only hurt companies.
The Hummer and the Mini is a light, enjoyable and eye-opening excursion through the new consumer landscape.
Just In: The second edition of the encyclopedic Business: The Ultimate Resource (Basic Books, 1,973 pages, $69.95) contains original articles by prominent business luminaries, action lists, digests of important books, biographies of important gurus and explanations of 7,000 terms. I've dipped into the first edition over the past few years and have found it helpful.
Former talk-show host Sonya Hamlin tells how to become a more effective communicator in How to Talk so People Listen (Collins, 314 pages, $16.95).
In Break from the Pack (Financial Times, 299 pages, $32.99), strategic management professor Oren Harari shows how to compete in a copycat economy by innovating in even the most prosaic areas of business.
Thomas Cook explains how to manage risk and gain competitive advantage in a worldwide marketplace in Global Sourcing Logistics (Amacom, 378 pages, $87.95).
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