Kevin Roberts interview

Came across this at work today.

"It's horrific, isn't it? Two-thirds of people over the age of 70 live alone [28% of people in the U.S. age 65 and over are in
single-person households, according to the 2000 U.S. Census—tpc]; they're going to die alone. The average length of a
marriage in the U.S. is seven years. One in two kids in urban America is born out of wedlock. You're seeing people not
having kids.
So what are you seeing? You're seeing people hungry for relationships, hungry for intimacy. They've lost trust in all our
institutions. Does anybody trust the Church anymore? You gotta be kidding me, right? Does anybody trust government? You
sure as hell don't trust the company you work for, right? Because that's going to be Enron, or they're going to lay you off
anyway next week and outsource you, etc., etc. So there's no trust. You can't trust the family unit because you probably
haven't seen your father. People are looking for relationships, they're looking for intimacy, they're looking for bonding.
They're not interested in transactions.
They're frightened s**tless by the fact that we're at war, by terrorism and brutality, and who knows what's going to happen
next. They are looking for a relationship, whether that's with an author, an idea, a brand, a product. If you don't give them
that, you're certainly never going to be able to charge a premium. You've got to remember, brands are only invented to
charge a premium. That was the purpose of a brand; it didn't have any other. "Recognize me, desire me, have faith in me,
trust me, pay more for me."

check out the entire interview