With each new invention, it becomes more evident than ever that the opportunity to re invent and integrate in the coming years is huge and it’s up to each individual to make use of it.
In this century, everyone will and can be an innovator, people are the users and they will have the final word on the product at the end of the day. As it is, there is an obvious shift of power from the corporations to the end users. People now search for the reviews from other people online on the product before buying. This shift of power has been possible by the greatest invention of this century and yes you guessed it, the internet. It is the people’s economy and somewhere in the present and the future, this shift of power will reflect a thinning line between the marketer and the consumer. Clever marketers are already realizing it and finding ways to win minds more than the hearts of the consumers, for a longer lasting brand loyalty. The strategy being “Please a customer and he will please you”. To truly be a part of this people’s economy, whether you work for a company or yourself, you must be genuinely interested in people and their lifestyles. And if you don’t have the time or the energy or resources to do that you can buy this information off the “trend spotters” or the “trend forecasters” or the “trend Surfers”. Watching trends (if you didn't already know this) has become a successful business where some insightful human beings watch other (busy to take notice of their own lives) human beings and add context to it and perhaps call it a fancy name like "DINX (double income no kids)" and then sell it to the corporate world which then uses this information as a guide for developing a new product or simply improving their existing ones. Needless to say, that this information could also be used by individuals wanting to set up new business. Reinier Evers (36), a citizen of The Netherlands, is an accomplished trend watcher, entrepreneur, and presenter who has made a fortune out of selling trends through his website trendspoting.com and while you are at it, take a look at this very inspiring sample report in power point for the trends of 2007.
In retrospect, I can’t imagine how much our lives have changed in the past decade. In 1995 I still hadn’t used a personal computer. I had seen the bulky pieces of faded white plastics, the 486 and the apples in our computer studio but never thought much of it. To be honest the advent of internet changed everything for everyone in the world (well, mostly everyone) and the industry because before that only “geeks” in our college used the machine to write software. In 1995, I was buying a phone card to make personal calls, “Tele card” that was then Pakistan’s premium phone card and the “it” thing in Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore. And the girls queued in front of the phone booth to make their 5 minute calls. It seemed like such a novelty for young girls to be able to make calls from a place other than your home without supervision. The people who invested in telephony at that time made billions, but those who brought about the “mobile communication boom” in the highly populated 3rd world countries, yielded unimaginable profits. In 1995 we had a single vehicle that was shared by the family of five. Now each one of has a car. While the commodities have become more affordable, they have also added other costs to our living like traffic and pollution changing people’s preference once again in favour of the environment friendly hybrid cars with no carbon emissions.
So in this constantly changing world the only thing that remains constant is the change itself. Those who are able to spot future trends and change not just with time but before time will be the “ideapreneurs” of this century.
In this century, everyone will and can be an innovator, people are the users and they will have the final word on the product at the end of the day. As it is, there is an obvious shift of power from the corporations to the end users. People now search for the reviews from other people online on the product before buying. This shift of power has been possible by the greatest invention of this century and yes you guessed it, the internet. It is the people’s economy and somewhere in the present and the future, this shift of power will reflect a thinning line between the marketer and the consumer. Clever marketers are already realizing it and finding ways to win minds more than the hearts of the consumers, for a longer lasting brand loyalty. The strategy being “Please a customer and he will please you”. To truly be a part of this people’s economy, whether you work for a company or yourself, you must be genuinely interested in people and their lifestyles. And if you don’t have the time or the energy or resources to do that you can buy this information off the “trend spotters” or the “trend forecasters” or the “trend Surfers”. Watching trends (if you didn't already know this) has become a successful business where some insightful human beings watch other (busy to take notice of their own lives) human beings and add context to it and perhaps call it a fancy name like "DINX (double income no kids)" and then sell it to the corporate world which then uses this information as a guide for developing a new product or simply improving their existing ones. Needless to say, that this information could also be used by individuals wanting to set up new business. Reinier Evers (36), a citizen of The Netherlands, is an accomplished trend watcher, entrepreneur, and presenter who has made a fortune out of selling trends through his website trendspoting.com and while you are at it, take a look at this very inspiring sample report in power point for the trends of 2007.
In retrospect, I can’t imagine how much our lives have changed in the past decade. In 1995 I still hadn’t used a personal computer. I had seen the bulky pieces of faded white plastics, the 486 and the apples in our computer studio but never thought much of it. To be honest the advent of internet changed everything for everyone in the world (well, mostly everyone) and the industry because before that only “geeks” in our college used the machine to write software. In 1995, I was buying a phone card to make personal calls, “Tele card” that was then Pakistan’s premium phone card and the “it” thing in Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore. And the girls queued in front of the phone booth to make their 5 minute calls. It seemed like such a novelty for young girls to be able to make calls from a place other than your home without supervision. The people who invested in telephony at that time made billions, but those who brought about the “mobile communication boom” in the highly populated 3rd world countries, yielded unimaginable profits. In 1995 we had a single vehicle that was shared by the family of five. Now each one of has a car. While the commodities have become more affordable, they have also added other costs to our living like traffic and pollution changing people’s preference once again in favour of the environment friendly hybrid cars with no carbon emissions.
So in this constantly changing world the only thing that remains constant is the change itself. Those who are able to spot future trends and change not just with time but before time will be the “ideapreneurs” of this century.
Posted by Nadia Aamer
© Viral Juice 2007
© Viral Juice 2007
Dubai
1 comment:
A very good round-up. I've followed Trendspotting.Com since I discovered it about a year ago. I invite you to visit http://sandlander.blogspot.com to see my take on media developments.
And www.aliceinparis2007.com is an experimental project which you might enjoy.
Post a Comment