On thursday 14th June 2007 I attended The Future Summit in Brussels' Surf House organised by Roularta Media Academy and Flanders DC. One of the keynotes was Martin Raymond, co-founder of the Future Laboratory.
I try to resume his views on today's consumer trends.
Cultural rebooting
- People are becoming more cultural, toughtful, and meditative. People want to reinvest in cultural matters, not in commerce. Consumers want something that is very personal and has an intellectual challenge.
- In an age of affluence and abundance, consumers are looking beyond acquiring stuff and searching for non-material stimulus.
- The 90's were about not having a brain, not disagreeing. The first decade of the new millennium is about the contrarians, disagreeing, debating and arguing. The return of salon culture.
- Corporate recruiters are visiting design and art institutions to recruit a new generation of right brain graduates better equipped to deal with the arrival of the Concept age and Wisdom culture.
- Last year graphic designers in the US outnumbered chemical engineers four to one.
- In 2006, in the UK, more than 42 million people visited an art gallery, more than attended a football match.
- Design is about thinking, being and doing not about functionality.
Blonde Cities and Brunette Cities
Most countries are confronted with geomarketing issues. Where should I go when travelling: Brussels or Antwerp? London or Manchester? New York or Seattle? Sidney or Melbourne? Those cities investing in culture when others were investing in commerce are now the most hype and trendy places to be. Blond cities are optimistic, bright, agressive and waving. They invest in art schools, galleries, fashion houses, tiny niche boutiques. Brunette cities are dark, troubled, poetic,... Policy makers should care about the emotional geography of their city, not only commercial.
Greentailing is the new buzzword
The continued rise of conscience retailing in the fashion and food sector. Consumers looking for tracable, clean footprint products: eco-friendly, with low-impact on the environment.
Mash Culture
Last year more people were uploading (48%) things to the internet than downlaoding. More people are creating than consuming. In the past it was about taking now it is about giving. There is a new phenomenon called mash up sites, created by combining content from two or more sources using API: Application Programming Interface. Software that enables users to use programmes for new and inventive uses. Ie: lego.com where you can design your own toy, send it to the Lego shop, and your personalised fantasy toy been delivered by mail.
Vanity Publishing
Technology is advancing so fast that we can capture a film of our life. This trend is called lifetime capturing. Vanity publishing creates a timeline of your life at www.dandelife.com. Use Flickr and Youtube to import pics and movies to make a videography, or try www.wikibios.com: a biography for everyone on earth.
New Guild Models
Just-in-case associations are being replaced by just-in-time unions. The former offer a constant safety net for when things go wrong, as trade unions have done in the past. Now the model is: "I get a problem, I go on-line, I create my union, I go to my employer, I solve the problem, I dis-assemble the union."
Sites such as linkedin.com and soflow.com act as crucial support mechanisms for those workers seeking to exist outside the sheltered environment of a traditional organisation and career.
Fractional Trading
RealContacts is a brand that enables people to distribute job information through their social networks. Zubka likewise offers individuals financial incentives for successful referrals. The virtual referrral market in the UK is now worth an estimated 7,6 bn £. (Expertize.be is a similar model on the Belgian market.-GVC)
Amazon has launched Mechanical Turk, an online service that brings toghether people with tasks thad need doing with people willing to perform them.
Wisdom Workers
Consumers expect instant information and instant answers from brands. Life Time Instant Response (LTR) is a new industry standard. But as the pendulum is balancing in the direction of the always-on, always connected world. CPA (Continuous Partial Attention) is to become a major issue. Brands will also need to arrest consumers with quiet zones, think spaces, even sponsored, cold spot or data-free areas.
Marketeers should get ready for the emergence of wisdom workers and wisdom culture. According to Linda Stone while the future of the web may be immersive, for those immersed in it the future will be about learning how and what to scan, and what to ignore, in order to see the bigger picture.
(Geert Van Coillie, C Box Communications)
