Popcorn, Faith
Identification Marketing consultant
Born February 11, 1947; New York, New York
Named the “Nostradamus of marketing” byFortunemag-
azine in the early 1990’s, Popcorn was the most famous
prognosticator of trends in that decade.
The head of the market analysis firm BrainReserve,
Faith Popcorn achieved success through advising
powerful corporate clients on consumer behavior,
consolidating her reputation as a baby-boom
prophet with her 1991 national best sellerThe Pop-
corn Report. She was famous for her identification of
such trends as “cocooning,” the inclination to with-
draw into the security of home, which pointed to the
growth in home delivery, home business, and home
shopping. Popcorn was also adept at formulating
colorful words and phrases—such as her own catchy,
invented surname—that captured the imagination
of the public; additionally, her identification of
trends appealed to a general wish on the part of her
readers for greater clarity and control over their
lives.
As much intuitive and emotional as scientific,
Popcorn later in the decade published a second
book,Clicking (1996), with Lys Marigold, which
identified such tendencies as a suspicion of author-
ity, or “icon toppling,” and the search for a spiritual
dimension to life, or “anchoring.” The identifica-
tion of the latter trend demonstrated the way in
which Popcorn’s analyses of cultural developments
moved beyond market trends and addressed issues
that were less secular in nature.
Impact Popcorn’s identification of trends not only
had a major impact on the business decisions of her
corporate clients but also spoke to the baby-boom
generation as it entered middle age and pondered
the upcoming new millennium.
Further Reading
Popcorn, Faith.The Popcorn Report: Faith Popcorn on
the Future of Your Company, Your World, Your Life.
New York: Doubleday, 1991.682 Popcorn, Faith The Nineties in America
Faith Popcorn. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images))