Leisure Futures: A Summary of a Recent Study Commissioned by McCann-Erickson Ltd from the Naisbitt Group.

In 1986 McCann-Erickson commissioned a study called Leisure Futures from the Naisbitl Group, This paper summarises some of the general findings for marketing readers. We are moving from an industrial, manufacturing-based economy to a service, information-based one, and many of our basic assumptions and constructs will need to change. New ways of forecasting and managing the future will be needed and Leisure Futures represents a first application of thematic content analysis in five European countries. Leisure trends are compared between these countries and North America in some detail. Overall findings concern the changing consumer and his or her changing expectations respecting technology, convenience, globalisation , affluence, values, and many other related topics. Specific aspects of change are explored and some broad marketing examples and applications discussed. Many apparent consumer paradoxes are explored, and certain key concepts such as the search for balance, and the need to experience both the known and the new, are explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]