What does the future hold for companies in the business of manufacturing, marketing and selling discretionary products - those things that people desire but don't need? How can new insights about why people buy things they don't need help companies sell more of their products? How can companies divine the future for the sales of discretionary products and develop plans for action that will increase sales and build market share? Tracking trends is one method many businesses use to foresee the future. Here are the major trends on the horizon that will have the strongest impact on discretionary product manufacturers.

A SHIFT FROM BUYING THINGS TO BUYING EXPERIENCES

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Baby boomers have dominated American culture for nearly five decades. Likened by demographers to a pig moving through a python, boomers account for one-third of Americans80.6 million of the 250 million U.S. residents. They are the children born during the baby boom of 19461964, the offspring of women who had more children than those in either the generation before or after them. In 1946, for example, the first of the baby boom years, 19 percent more babies were born than a year earlier. During several of these years the birthrate approached 120 births per thousand women, compared to 67.2 in 1988. At its peak in 1957, mothers of baby boomers had 3.8 children, in contrast to just 1.9 children today. And of course, in the business world, the boomer birth explosion has been a retailer's fantasy, an absolute windfall.

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The traditional view that older people significantly reduce shopping has been challenged by new research in the latest "How America Shops 2004" study of consumer habits. The percentage of older shoppers, ages 55 to 70, who are "heavy shoppers," (making four or more shopping trips weekly) increased significantly from 2002 to 2004, moving up from 22 percent to 35 percent, according to the ninth bi-annual How America Shops® study conducted by consulting firm WSL Strategic Retail.

"This increased shopping behavior likely reflects the mindset of a new generation of older shoppers, the baby boomers, who are taking their middle-aged spending habits with them," said Candace Corlett, director of the 50+ Marketing Directions practice at WSL Strategic Retail.

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