September 2004 - Why People Buy Things They Don't Need : Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior
We've lived through the age of cocooning (which perhaps peaked post 9/11). According to Pam Danziger, the author of this month's Readers' Choice award winner, we have now moved into a new era called "connecting," in which people's energy is migrating away from the nest and into the outside world. Few marketers are tapping into this new sensibility. In probably the best study of consumer purchasing trends since Paco Underhill's seminal Why We Buy, Danziger sends a meticulously researched wake-up call to product developers and marketers in virtually any industry.
