>One of the books listed in the right column of the site is RenGen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer. As it's been a while since I've read the book I will re-read it and post some thoughts here as it relates to Dayton. In the meantime check out this interview with author Patricia Martin as she explains how Absolut vodka broke barriers and made a name for itself by supporting the gay community. (Given what just happened with Proposition 8 in California I have to admit I think she missed the mark with her last response).
The paragraph below is the lead-in to the interview. Click on the Advocate link for the full interview/story.
From The Advocate December 2, 2008
In her book RenGen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer -- and What It Means to Your Business (Platinum Press/Adams Media), Chicago marketing maven Patricia Martin, president of LitLamp Communications Group, argues that America is entering a renaissance phase equal to the European original, in which “a new social order is emerging based on a more enlightened sensibility.” But while Da Vinci and Michelangelo were more concerned with culture than with the marketplace, today’s renaissance generation -- or “RenGen,” as Martin calls it -- is focused on both: They want their aesthetic tastes and personal values reflected in the things they buy and the companies they work at. All that high design at cheap prices that Target hawks? That’s the RenGen in action, Martin says. Starbucks’s Make Your Mark program, which gives employees time off to do volunteer work? RenGen principles too. It’s a recent trend, to be sure, but Martin credits Absolut, a company that pioneered marketing to gay consumers beginning in the 1980s, with helping to plant the seeds. Indeed, as she discusses here, gay people have been on the leading edge of the RenGen all along.
For the interview click Here.
Gay people are the builders of society.
Posted by: Kevin | December 04, 2008 at 08:19 PM