Karma Queens, Geek Gods, and Innerpreneurs

Meet the 9 Consumer Types Shaping Today’s Marketplace

Ron Rentel with Joe Zellnick

McGraw-Hill, May 2007

What really makes consumers tick?

It’s a question every marketer, innovator, entrepreneur, or trend-watcher strives to answer—especially in an age when certain types of consumers are increasingly instrumental in shaping national and even global buying habits.

Karma Queens, Geek Gods and Innerpreneurs is your hands-on guide to getting inside the minds of the people who are setting the trends in art, music, technology, fashion, health, and every kind of consumer product and service. Based on thousands of hours of consumer research conducted by Consumer Eyes, a prominent New York-based marketing firm, this book uncovers nine influential consumer types and reveals how to connect with them, market to them, and create the products that will not only win them over, but their entire social networks as well!

Consumer Eyes founder Ron Rentel takes an entertaining yet serious look at today’s most emblematic consumers, analyzing everything from the products they buy, to the activities they enjoy, to the behaviors and attitudes they exhibit. You’ll meet such real-life characters as:

  • Karma Queens-women of a certain age who combine a desire to be in harmony with the universe with an appreciation of material pleasures
  • Parentocrats-who act out of love to assure their kids security and happiness, yet often deny them the classical joys of childhood
  • Denim Dads-for whom family involvement means more than climbing the corporate ladder
  • Innerpreneurs-chief managers of their own “brand,” they find their inspiration within themselves

By using C-Types-rich, three-dimensional consumer portraits combining quantifiable data with expressions of personality,Rentel identifies and illuminates the consumers who set the trends. He not only helps you understand Karma Queens, Geek Gods and other consumer types on a deeper level in order to reach them more effectively in your marketing and advertising, he also offers fresh insight into managing your brand and your business.

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About the Author

Ron Rentel is a veteran of the new product world with over 25 years’ experience in the innovation and marketing industry. He founded CE in 1991 after 6 years with Gerald Schoenfeld, Inc., a pioneering innovations/brand development company. Continuing to reach out for new ways to explore consumers’ minds and motivations, he co-founded BuzzBack, Inc. (an online market research company) in 2000, and Semiovox (a semiotics agency) in 2014. In addition, he is on the Board of Directors for LINC (Literacy, Inc.) which works to inspire and enlist communities to create a better future for children through literacy. Ron is an avid foodie, a devout traveler and has been playing in a monthly poker game for more than a decade. He currently resides in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, with his wife Barb and four kids.

Joe Zellnik, a graduate of Duke University, has been a member of the CE team since 1995. Foremost among his accomplishments here is the book Karma Queens, Geek Gods and Innerpreneurs, co-written with Ron Rentel. In addition to his work at CE, he is a professional composer (the 2010 off-Broadway hit Yank!) and author (the Libby Seale series of historical mysteries). A Manhattan native, he now lives in Long Island City with his husband.