The marketplace has undergone a rather radical change in the past thirty years. Today’s consumer has many more options than have previously existed. This has in turn changed the way the consumer behaves. I hasten to add that that we human beings have not fundamentally changed but our options have. Therefore, we have changed our behavior to do things the way we prefer rather than having to do things the way the businesses and sales people prefer we do as has been the case in generations past.

The first change that gave us consumers more options was the availability of easier travel. No longer did we have to walk or ride an animal to the store. We could drive. That meant we could select from a larger number of stores. Flying gave us even more options. With better, cheaper transportation, we no longer had to order from catalogues.

Once travel was more available stores could stock more merchandise since the market area now included more people. First there were department stores and now there are the mega stores sometimes called “category killers” such as Walmart, Target, Lowes, and Home Depot.

Along with the improvement in travel came great improvements in communications. First we could order from the catalogue by phone. Now we have the Internet that can be used for research as well as online ordering.

The cell phone now has many more features than simple voice communications. It allows us to do enhanced surfing and shopping via the Internet. In a very few years, cell phone advertising will become a predominant form of reaching the customer directly in a very targeted fashion for the business owner.

If you are a business owner or marketer, it should already be obvious that changes in consumer behavior require many alterations in product or service presentation to appeal to the consumers’ newly discovered options. Furthermore, your adaptation must be rapid. To fail to do so will put you in league with Montgomery Ward, Circuit City, and other dinosaurs that failed to adapt adequately. Sears is another example of a huge company that failed to adapt rapidly enough almost too long to survive. Whether it will ultimately survive remains to be seen.

Of course, the Internet has changed the scene more than any of us could have imagined twenty years ago. Various estimates are that 25% of online searches have “local intent.” Google tells us that that figure is often 50% depending on the material being searched for. Now add in the cell phone searches and that figure jumps to over 75% in some areas. Also there has been an increase of 68% in searches with local intent in 2008 alone among cell phone users.

Add to that the knowledge that the Bell Telephone System is desperately trying to get out of the printed Yellow Pages, and you recognize that we are seeing another massive change rapidly developing. Like it or not, cell phones with their ability to search the Internet will dominate the market place in the next few years.

What is the local business’s take away? The only businesses that will survive will be those who have a website to promote their products or services, and they will begin using the Internet and cellular services as some of their important advertising media.

We will discuss other marketing methods and tips in later posts.