Book Review: Karma Queens, Geek Gods, & Innerpreneurs
Rentel, Ron. Karma queens, geek gods, & innerpreneurs : meet the 9 consumer types shaping today’s marketplace. Twelve, 2007.
This guide to nine influential consumer groups is an entertaining analysis of what people are buying, what activities they enjoy and what attitudes they express. Using a system the author calls C-Types, consumers are grouped into portraits derived from key attitudes and behaviors, their social status, and demographic factors.
This reviewer’s personal favorite is named “Middlemen” and is primarily composed of a segment of the 21 to 35-year-old male demographic. The average MiddleMan is an unmarried college graduate, who refuses to grow up. The MiddleMan often makes a good salary, but lives with his parents, and if not them, he lives communally with other young people, sharing expenses. He has ample disposable income to spend on gaming at home. A MiddleMan owns an Xbox, Playstation, and/or Nintendo Wii. He participates in fantasy sports leagues. He still buys his clothes at American Eagle, just as he did in high school. He never cooks at home but primarily eats fast food, often late at night.
For marketers, this all adds up to products that appeal to immediate gratification, expensive products with cheap thrills and products with a strong brand identification. Eight other portraits in the book are similarly entertaining.
© Reviewer: Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business. All rights reserved.
Tags: Consumer behavior