Listen to this man's advice

One of our favorite trendspotters (and former boss) is Peter Francese, the founder of American Demographics magazine. Although the magazine has now been incorporated into Advertising Age, Francese still occasionally writes articles about demographic trends.


His latest, which you can find by clicking here, talks about the changing face of the American consumer and the difficulty that many businesses are having responding to these changes.

One of the principal trends is that the average U.S. head of household is just six months shy of age 50. This means that households are entering the age of maintaining the status quo, as one of our other favorite trendspotters, the editor-in-chief of New Strategist publications, Cheryl Russell, has pointed out many times. When consumers enter that phase in their lives, they are less likely to take risks to try new products or spend money that they don't have, and they are concerned about things that seem to them to be changing the status quo--such as immigration.

With the aging of the population is coming renewed interest in baby boomers, since they are the group driving the aging trend. We've seen an increase in the number of people ordering books on this topic, and it's not just established business people. A significant number of baby boomers are interested in entrepreneurship and they are doing more research to find out what kinds of businesses and services might appeal to their fellow boomers.

Paramount Books helps them out with titles like Marketing to Leading Edge Baby Boomers, Advertising to Baby Boomers, and Baby Boomers and Their Parents.