All Avenues Open: Growing in a Post-Trust Marketplace of Smaller Worlds

The economy has finally cycled back, but not consumers.  Consumers have pivoted not cycled.  The predicate of trust, something that had long been eroding, collapsed in the aftermath of the financial crisis.  The old sources of trust are no longer available for consumers to cycle back to, so consumers have pivoted in a new direction instead, and that is where brands will find growth opportunities in the future.

The guidance people turn to and rely on in their lifestyles and the marketplace has pivoted to smaller worlds of connection and engagement.  There are sharp elbows associated with this, so acrimony is said to be the tenor of the times.  Yet the reality is that people have never been more connected than they are today.  People are more networked, more engaged and more joined up.  People are looking for meaningful ties and relationships like never before.  They are finding them in the new preserves of smaller worlds not in the old bastions of institutional authority.

This is a different kind of marketplace for brands.  Growth opportunities...