Lifestyles

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As the twenty-first century begins, consumers are demanding advancements in business operations to help simplify their hectic lifestyles. The progression of lifestyle changes, in combination with technological evolution, will influence the way business and marketing operations function. This article focuses on how family, job, cultural background, social class, social activities, and employment have revolutionized business and marketing operations.

Family life has changed quite a bit over the years. In the 1950s in the United States, it was not uncommon for children to grow up in large families with several siblings. It was also the norm for the mother to stay home to care for the children while the father worked to support the household.

More recently, family size has gotten drastically smaller, and mothers are not always home for the children: They are out in the work force pursuing careers and helping to support the family. In addition, there are many more single-parent homes. Because of both of these trends, many preschool children stay with day-care providers and many older children are at home alone for two or three hours after school until a parent gets home from work, making today's children more self-reliant than children in the past.

The amount of time that families spend together thus has changed significantly from previous generations. Parents do not have the time to do the errands and housework that were once part of their everyday life and still have time to spend with their children. Now, however, because of technological advances, businesses are providing time-saving services. For example, shopping—from grocery shopping to clothes shopping—can be done on-line and the purchases delivered right to their door. E-commerce businesses, such as Shop link and Homeruns.com, are providing services that allow working parents to avoid spending time in the grocery and other stores.

In the past, businesses were managed very differently than they are today. New technology and its rate of advancement have revolutionized the way job objectives are met in business operations. For example, higher education has changed drastically because of technology. Distance learning is one response to adult learners' need for flexibile class schedules. Because today's students can attend classes from their homes, the jobs of faculty and the business operations of higher education have changed notably.

As discussed earlier, families spend less time together today. To remedy this situation, more and more working parents prefer to work out of their homes, and many companies are recognizing this reality and reorganizing their business operations to accommodate it. According to the American Home Business Revolution:

Estimates show that a home-based business starts in the United States every 11 seconds. That's 8,000 Americans starting a home-based business every day. At the beginning of the 1990's 24.3 million Americans worked either full time or part time from their homes. The trend has only gone up from there.

Job structure has clearly affected the way business operations function in the twenty-first century.

It is difficult to describe the culture of any country, but this is especially true of the United States because of the many different national and ethnic backgrounds of its citizens. But despite the evident diversity of American culture, there are distinct characteristics that are part of culture.

One significant cultural influence or business operation is the Christian religious calendar. Numerous offices recognize Christmas Day (December 25th) and Good Friday (the Friday before Easter) as two of the ten holidays during the calendar year. Indeed, many school vacations revolve around these same two holidays.

The overall culture of an organization is reflected in behaviors that are considered to be the "norm" as regards both verbal and non-verbal communication. Americans tend to speak directly to one another, maintaining eye contact with the person they are talking to. Hand gestures are commonly used while making presentations or in one-on-one conversation to better explain a point.

Generally, upper management determines any organization's corporate culture. Proper business attire was considered to be suits and ties for men and business suits for women. That is no longer the case in many organizations, where the business environment is more casual and jeans and slacks are now considered to be acceptable.

Then there is the role that gender plays in U.S. culture. Women, once relegated to more administrative and support-staff roles, are now upper-level managers alongside men. Jobs are no longer gender-specific in U.S. culture. For example, men now become nurses and women work on construction sites and as forklift operators. The point here is that gender no longer predeter mines a person's role in business as it once did.

What comprises social class? Is it the neighbor-hood one lives in? The occupation one has? The income one earns? The wealth one has acquired? There is no generally agreed-upon definition of social class, but most people agree that social class does exist. Grouping people together and assigning them a status in society is as old as society itself.

The social class of a particular group of people influences the role of business and marketing operations. The key to success in business and marketing operations is twofold. First, identify the market for your product. Second, identify the social class you are dealing with in that market. Businesses must become familiar with the customs and culture of the particular social class they are trying to do business with.

Marketing to a particular group often incorporates depictions of social activities as a part of the advertising campaign. For example, Mountain Dew commercials portray young teenagers riding mountain bikes and engaging in extreme sports. A commercial for Grey Poupon mustard portrays high-class adults using the product while being chauffeured in a Mercedes. In both examples, the business first needed to verify who the constituted market was for their prod uct. Second, it had to learn the characteristics of those people.

Jobs today have changed significantly because of technological advances and global influences. Many companies do business at an international level, which requires travel abroad for many employees. As virtual conferencing becomes more widespread, travel will most likely decline. Technological developments, such as the Internet and CD-ROMs, and global influences, have major implications for business and marketing procedures.

Business operations must integrate new and different marketing procedures to keep current with the changing job market. These changes in the job market require life long learning by both employees and employers. Vice President Al Gore embraced this life long learning process through his work on the national summit on twenty-first century skills for twenty-first century jobs. He asked more than three hundred leaders from the fields of training, labor unions, government, and management to establish a set of recommendations that would help ensure a pre pared nation in the next century. Lifelong learning has a direct effect on businesses and their employees, particularly on marketing operations.

Workers, whether white-collar or blue-collar, are becoming increasingly technically savvy. Today's leaders recognize that each customer's needs are unique. With the cost of sales increasing and the product life cycle becoming shorter, the Internet will enable better and more economical customer service no matter what job market one is a part of.

Marketing operations must embrace e-commerce, internal links via intranets, and Internet marketing and retailing because these tools can extend operations and create new opportunities for businesses. As technology, lifestyle, and employment change, business and marketing operations must also change in innovative ways— or be left behind. It is a matter of survival.

Consumers today are demanding convenience to help simplify their hectic lifestyles. This requires business and marketing operations to be aware of the impact of such demographic variables as family, job, cultural background, social class, social activities, and employment.

All these demographic variables play an essential role in business operations. Lifestyles and technology have both changed radically, and the global marketplace is a reality. The key to business success is to understand the diversity that exists in the global marketplace and to respond innovatively to society's changing needs.

Companies that understand the shrinking amount of time families have to spend together and provide services that modern parents need in order to work at a full time job and still maintain a stable home for their children will succeed in the twenty-first century.

"An Efficiency Measure for a Sustainable Quality of Life." (1999). Global Ideas Bank. http://www.globalideasbank.org/SD/SD-94 .HTML.

"The Power of The Internet." (2000). American Home Business Revolution. http://www.web-hits.net/ahbr/index.html .

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