Big Shifts Ahead: Demographic Clarity For Business

Inspiration and insights into the big shifts ahead. The demographics are profound factors in the economy. Karen Briscoe, author and podcast host 5 Minute Success

This book should be required reading for anyone whose business depends on understanding consumer behavior.Rather than using the same amorphous and - ultimately - unproductive generational definitions we've all become accustomed to, Burns and Porter approach the subject of demographics through the context of shared experience. It's a straightforward but potent idea: what was happening in the country and world when you were born and raised creates some degree of shared behavior and perspective, which informs consumer lifestyle choices.This context makes all the difference as it has the capacity to help root out useless or even damaging generalizations about how people make lifestyle decisions.Using a broad swath of carefully footnoted consumer data, plus the historical experiences and perspectives of real people born within each decade going back to the 30s, the authors craft a framework through which to view the future behaviors of these waves of consumers. When I applied this framework to several theses (business plans, product ideas, etc), the outcome was new perspectives on who might be the best buyers, and why. A couple of things in the book stood out for me:- Looking at four major variables (tech advancement, government policies, growth, societal norms) driving these consumers' shifting behaviors helps the reader understand how younger (larger) generations will behave going forward. Focusing on the changing patterns of marriage and birth is of particular interest.- The effects of foreign-born consumers in the US have been - until now - poorly understood and often discounted. Yet these consumers make up at least 15% of mature generations and tend to be better savers, so ignoring them is provably foolish.- Rather than just being a bunch of data and charts, the authors bring the data to life and make it actionable information, pointing out specific areas of opportunity in all the trends.All in all, having read many marketing strategy and demographic trends books, I recommend this book without reservation for readers seeking to understand and capitalize on the changing behaviors of consumers of different age ranges.

As an economist I am always on the lookout for more logical forecasts. As a businessman I need well-structured information that is carefully presented, backed by best-in-class data. Big Shifts Ahead delivers on both fronts.What drew me to this book was John Burns' ability to scrub and funnel massive amounts of high-quality data into timely information, using innovative categorization and lucid visualization. Big Shifts Ahead uses the same approach to derive expert forecasts and extract meaningful, concise conclusions from a huge pool of data.In Big Shifts Ahead, Burns and Porter use commonsense frameworks to make their points. They classify their demographic data into generations by decade born, which is a novel approach to mainstream demographic analysis. It seems crazy this hasn't been done more widely before. They identify the major influences on how these folks will spend their money in future, and then use trend analysis by life-stage (decade born) to predict the economic impact, both by cohort and in aggregate. The results are powerful and the conclusions are clear.The structure of the book is especially well suited to the businessman's needs. Conclusions are presented first in executive summary form. These are followed by discussion chapters, and then useful materials in the appendix. This structure makes the book readable and usable by a wide range of time-constrained business people, while also providing deep and detailed backup information for data-junkies (especially if you get into the nuts-and-bolts of the underlying data-references). As a bonus, Burns and Porter provide a free download of 115 pages of charts from the book for use in professional presentations.I recommend this book as a succinct, smart, and well-constructed demographic analysis.

The book provides an insightful overview of the current demographic landscape in the U.S. by analyzing generations in 10 year segments from the 1930s Savers to the 2000s Globals. Previous demographics research analyzes the ‘traditional’ generational groups, such as the Millennial group, which tends to over generalize, but this book provides the much needed detailed research. In addition, the book discusses the four key influencers that have shaped and continue to shape the overall demographics landscape in America. While the book provides rigorous and detailed data and research analysis, the authors managed to make it engaging by providing real life stories. It is definitely a fun yet informative read!I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in understanding current demographic trends in the U.S. and the drivers behind those trends.

I have been running an economic and real estate consulting firm for over 30 years. So, we are always looking at demographics and related information. John’s book is the best I’ve seen related to age demographics and their impact on housing. Usually, we have to search many sources to get the type of information he has complied in one place. In addition, his approach of looking at different age cohorts by 10 year increments instead of the usual 20 or so year groupings is cleaver. It gives one a much better perspective on things since someone born, say in 1982, will have a different perspective because of different life experiences than someone born in 2000. I highly recommend the book.