I went to Borders last month in search of a book to read and in spite of the old saying 'never judge a book by its cover', that's what I did and it worked! I spotted a book called 'NEO Power' (sounds like some sort of kitchen cleaner I know, but hear me out) with an attractive cover, so I checked it out and within reading the first few pages, I was hooked.

You're probably still wondering what's so interesting about a book titled NEO Power, so let me put you out of your misery. But before I do that, I'll bet you its not what you think it is.

Written by Ross Honeywill and Verity Byth, NEO Power, how the new economic order is changing the way we live, work and play, is a book about the changing social scene, and how to target this new social landscape successfully. So its a marketing book essentially (complete with all the oh-so-convincing-but-unsourced statistics), but I found it a lot more than that. For me, one of the most surprising things I got from this book was how often I was saying, 'that sounds like me', 'that sounds like <insert name here>', or even better, realising that's exactly what I do subconsciously.

The essence of the book is about documenting the rise of a new category of people in society, NEOs, and how they contrast with the Traditionals and the in-betweens, the Evolvers. This phenomenon is occurring around the world, and maybe the basic ideas themselves aren't new, but the way the book puts it in such a local context is, e.g. it mentions Southgate as a NEO hangout, and the attractiveness of the new Macro Wholefoods stores popping up to NEOs.

Without giving too much away (its very well written and organised too), NEOs aren't defined in any particularly age group, but generally exist in the younger generations. They are driven, aspirational, creative, free, life-focused (instead of work-focused), and highly individual, and feed on authenticity, edginess and experience. That may sound like a lot of life-coaching gooblygook, but its really just a bad attempt on my behalf at trying to summarise what the entire book is about.

Not wanting to resort to stereotyping, but you only have to look as far as the web to see NEOs at work - web 2.0 developers making their ideas real, blog readers seeking authenticity in their news, net banking customers wanting to save time and avoid the impersonal, robotic banking branch services.

Also, for NEOs, the price of the product lies below the shopping, after-sales and product experience as well as the design of the product when making up their mind. If between two alternatives, one is cheaper but the other is uniquely-designed and has experience built in from when the customer buys it to what they get from it afterwards, they'd go with the latter. For example, opening the iPod's packaging is an experience because its so well-designed, compared to the cardboard box that the nearest, but cheaper competitor comes in. Of course I'm not saying NEOs buy products solely because they have cool packaging, but that's one aspect of the overall experience.

NEOs strive to find new, intimate and authentic experiences as well, such as the dingy bar in a small laneway in Melbourne's CBD where the staff know exactly what they want and go beyond the norm to sustain a relationship with them. The place is not crowded or overly commercial, and people there think alike, giving NEOs an outlet who understand and connect with them. Traditionals however, are unlikely to find these places and even if they do, are unlikely to frequent them given the different shopfront, location and atmosphere.

The book contrasts NEOs vs. Traditionals over a range of topics including work, play, health, environment, shopping, eating, travel, religion, creativity and more. It's a must read if you're interested in marketing your product effectively, but even if you're not, it's still an awesome read if only to work out what you are and more about yourself. The book's official page has a bit more plus an intro chapter if you're still not sold. At the least, go in to Borders and read the Appendix, which summarises the differences in a list of dot-points. I'll bet you'll be intrigued enough to buy the book, or borrow it from the local library.