Economic & Business Focus: Mega Shifts Remake Marketing

Global population and wealth distribution will change dramatically over the next decade, forcing businesses to recast their objectives.

By the end of this decade, Nigeria will have a larger population than Russia. Citizens of the Congo will outnumber those of the United Kingdom. Ethiopia will have more people than Germany, and Morocco will be more populous than Canada. The countries of Africa have the highest population growth rates on the globe and constitute the only region of the world that has doubled in population since 1980.

The next decade will see enormous changes in the world's population and wealth distribution, with profound implications for corporations everywhere. India and Africa will match China in population growth; the United States, Europe and Japan will shrink and age. These new demographics and the seemingly unshakable problem of global poverty are forcing new approaches to marketing for corporations ready to recast their objectives. Executives who restrict their demographic thinking to Western operations will be left far behind.