Trends for 2009: #20. Growth Areas - You can't do without them!

There are some parts of our economy that will continue to grow - regardless of the economic blahs we're faced with in 2009. In fact, they might grow in spite of the blahs, or even because of them.

People don't have a choice in consuming some of these things, and these are also things that Governments will throw money into in 2009 to help prop up the sagging economy. Those things are:

• Health Care. This is a really broad market. People want to get & stay healthy - so there is a lot of opportunity in things that will help them achieve that, ranging from running shoes to the Wii Fit. People also end up in Hospitals. So - anything serving this market will do well.
  
• Education. When the economy fades people need to reinvent themselves. Enrollment at MBA schools is a good economic indicator in that sense. So - anything that provides educational services will probably do will.
  
• Government. Governments spend their way out of economic downturns. So - responding to Government RFPs is a great hobby during a recession.

What is a Marketer to do in 2009? Strategies to follow include:

• Develop products and services that have health benefits.
• Develop products and services that have educational benefits.
• Figure out where to look for Government RFPs and watch for opportunities.

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Nintendo Wii Fit Balance Board - I wish I'd thought of that first

Don't tell my wife (shhhh...). For the last week I've been looking for a Nintendo Wii Fit Balance Board for her for Christmas.

Congratulations to Nintendo for creating the MUST HAVE Christmas gift for three years running. For the last two years the Wii and a wide variety of their games have been THE hot item at Christmas. This year it is the Wii Fit Balance Board.

I've tried searching the web. I can't find any Balance Boards anywhere for their real retail price of about $100 Cdn. I could buy several of them on eBay for about 3x that price. And, I could buy them from Amazon's resellers (again for several times their actual price). I found a couple of US-based e-stores that are selling them for several hundred dollars as a kit with different types of software and accessories. But, I just can't bring myself to do that!

Then I searched every retail store in town. Strike out! They are sold out everywhere. A few stores pointed me to other stores when they heard a rumor that the other guys might have the Wii Fit. My hope soared. I checked. NOPE.

But, I did find out the other day that a Toys 'R Us location was going to have 50 of them this morning. They expected line ups. They didn't even advertise it. They only went with word of mouth. By 9am the line had about 300 people in it. I wasn't one of those 300.

Going back nearly 20 years, one of the jobs I held down while in school was front-line retail. It just happened that those were the years of the Care Bear frenzy. I remember line ups in front of the store, and people literally fighting for their space in line.

So - aside from the fact that my Wii Fit Balance Board search continues, and I only anticipate it to get more desperate (and I expect that I'll have to change out my gift giving aspirations sooner rather than later) - at some point I want to be involved with the opportunity to help create a brand like the Care Bears or the Wii that absolutely changes consumer behavior.