what is obvious, however, is the intensely local and even individual nature of today's
marketplace. Clearly, each respondent has a unique view of today's marketplace and what it
is likely to be in the future. The concept of mass' no longer seems to be uppermost in the
minds and actions of these senior managers. One can probably argue these are unique views,
given the emerging markets from which they were gleaned. Yet, if these types of market
make up 80% or so of the world's population, it may well be that today's established western
market approaches may be the tail wagging the dog. What seems to be critically important
is that, often, in our search for best practices and discovery of commonalities among markets
and marketers, we overlook the marketer's ability to create and implement individually
focused marketing communications programmes that are unique and have the potential to
be incredibly successful.