Brilliant!
As a professional copywriter, who lives and breathes branding every day, this book is a brilliant encapsulation of the last 10 years of consumer trends.
The "Death in the Middle" concept as consumers reach more and more for either high or low end products and complete sidestep and ignore the midpoint is likely to be even more apparent in the current recession atmosphere.
In a very real sense this book might be seen as a companion piece to the Millionaire Next Door by Stanely. The behaviors describe by Stanely are being presented by a growing community of savvy shoppers.
As the economy tanks, but people still opt for Apple computers, William Sonoma cooking wear and other high priced brands, this is the book that explains it.
Given the current economic environment, marketing executives have a clear choice. They can either read this book or wish they had.

Interesting reading!
Michael Silverstein explores the story of how people around the world are reshaping the consumer goods market by trading down to low-price products and services; trading up to premium ones; and avoiding the boredom and low value that increasingly characterize the middle. The author says that the consumers driving this change are mostly women, who have a sense of purpose and power when they buy and use goods and services.

According to the author, there are two rapidly growing pools of spending. At the high end, consumers are trading up, willing to pay a premium for top quality, emotionally rich, high margin products and services. At the low end, consumers are relentlessly trading down to spend the least amount possible on basic, low-cost goods that still deliver quality, reliability and, increasingly, an element of style. In between these spending poles lies a vast expanse of mediocre, often low-margin goods that lack distinctive emotional appeal or better value than their cheaper competitors. Companies selling these mid-priced products to middle-class consumers suddenly find themselves facing "death in the middle." Companies that succeed in this bifurcated market are those who understand the attitudes, behaviors and values of middle-market consumers and constantly alter and reinvent their product to satisfy the consumer.

The author says that today's consumers are highly skilled shopping experts. For them, consuming has become a treasure hunt--a constant search through the world's vast and ever-changing store of goods and services to find the perfect value every time. Such consumers spend their money with individuality---trading up in some categories, trading down in most and mixing upscale with downscale products--to create a customized lifestyle and standard of living suited to their own taste. For example, a $150,000 professional who buys $19 jeans at Target, flies Air Tran, and pays $100 for her dog to be groomed, as well as a $50,000 plumber who leases a $27,000 BMW and buys clothes at Kohls.

Trading-down companies have created 10 times plus the market value that trading up companies have created. Big winners include Target, Costco, Lowe's and Dollar General.

Whereas those at the top of the income ladder are rarely forced to make substantial trade-offs, and people at the bottom have few options, those in the middle constantly face difficult choices. In the United States, the middle class is defined as the 48 million households that earn between $50,000 and $150,000 per year. These people control 75% of discretionary spending, which means they control the market. They are not going into debt to trade up, nor is debt driving them to trade down. They do both because they can and want to. The purpose is not to just find the lowest price (if you are trading down) or highest quality (if you are trading up). It's to determine the right price for the right product at the right time and place.

Every middle-class consumer has a "want list" of things she wants to buy that is constantly revised. If you understand the want list of your consumers, says the author, you may discover that you are competing not only against other companies in your category, but also against completely different categories. For instance, if you make watches, your toughest competitor could be a handbag seller. If you sell flat-screen TVs, your toughest competitor might be a Caribbean cruise or a high-performance mountain bike.

Cheap used to mean bad. The cheap product was, by definition, of low quality. If you bought your clothes at K-Mart, it wasn't something you talked about. But the author correctly says that today, everyone loves a bargain and they brag about the low prices they get. It's a victory to spend the smallest amount you can, no matter how wealthy you are.

In 2004, 66 percent of households report having shopped at a dollar store, and higher-income households are the fastest-growing segment of customers. Retailers are looking for ways to fight back. Wal-Mart has been testing concepts for its own in-store version of the dollar store. One is called the "Hey Buck" section where food and soft goods sell for an average of 98 cents per item. Target has tested a concept called "One Spot" with merchandise priced at $1. The author says that the low-cost revolution will continue.

Best Value Inns (BVI), the fastest growing hotel company in the U.S., has become the preferred choice for business and leisure travelers who are seeking a clean room, free cable TV, swimming pool, mini-fridge and free morning coffee, and can only afford around $65 a night. A stay at a BVI is a smart use of money, according to the author.

Marriott seems to have mastered the difficult trick of succeeding at both poles of the market. Long known as a middle-market hotelier, they purchased the premium Ritz-Carlton hotels. They have also aggressively expanded in the trading-down market with Courtyard by Marriott properties for business travelers and low-price Fairfield Inns for leisure travelers. Marriott's biggest growth in rooms and revenue has come from its trading down brands.

All hotel owners are looking for ways to differentiate and respond to the bifurcation of the market. According to the author, the worst place to be is in the middle where average returns are below the cost of capital. The best place to be is at the bottom of the market.

LG, the $50 billion South Korean worldwide manufacturer of electronics, chemicals and industrial products, has accomplished what few companies in the world have done: transformed itself from a supplier of low-cost, poor-quality goods to a leading producer of home electronics and appliances that serve both trading-down and trading-up consumers. Today, their appliance division is possibly the fastest-growing and most profitable in the industry. They offer a $550 top-freezer refrigerator that competes with Frigidaire and Kenmore on the low end and a $3,100 model that competes with Sub-Zero at the high end. For LG, spanning the poles is about participating across the whole range of price segments in its market.

Then along came eBay. As more than 135 million registered users in 32 markets have learned, eBay offers the thrill of discovery every day. After just seven years of operation, eBay had created a market value of $42 billion--greater than the entire value of the department store industry of the United States which has been operating for a century. What eBay offers is a fantastic business model: an online community that brings 336,000 registered stores worldwide, many small or geographically isolated, into one global marketplace. The estimated average selling price is $36, so the population for buyers represents all income levels. Most users come from middle- income households who shop there for treasure.

People are looking for emotional highs. Winning companies invent new products that capture the consumer's imagination. The author says that taking action means innovating, not just more of the same, or considering acquisitions or increasing your advertising spending; but rather think about innovation as a series of waves of reinvention and change, each lasting three to five years and no longer.

Any Advertising Rep should read this
This book should interest you especially if you are in the field of advertising. This book gives you insight into the psychology of buying. I found it very interesting as to how the new consumer ticks. There is a reasson why people buy what they do and you'll find out the information in this book. I applied the knowledge I gained in this book to my business. Great insight.

Easy read
This is an interesting book if you are looking for some light reading. It reads as if it is geared toward business owners and manufactors but is obviously dumbed down for the general public. It makes me suspicious about some of the analysis of "consumers". Is this book just trying to make us feel okay about our consumption? It is a little too flattering at times. I tend to believe that a book written for manufactors and retailers might be much more harsh towards our out of control consumption.

Why we scrimp then spluge
The BMW in the Costco parking lot is the operative metaphor of "Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer." Silverstein describes the flip side of "trading up" -- the trend in the luxury sector that was the subject of his best-selling first book of the same name. Consumers are buying more pricey goods, he writes, but they are also "trading down" -- treasure hunting -- for bulk goods and items that do not have high emotional value.



The phenomenon creates huge opportunities for companies that figure out how to meet customers at the bottom or the top of the price continuum, and disaster for those stuck in the middle. Silverstein profiles the market, introduces us to consumers that exemplify a variety of buying behaviors, then shows us companies that have figured out how to adapt and win.



Laden with numbers, charts and examples, "Treasure Hunt" could be the treasure map for businesses seeking to understand better how their customers think and what they want. But it's almost more interesting to read it for the glimpses it gives of your own spending habits.