Briefing trendwatching.com "5 most interesting trends in 2007."

I must say: this is a transfer of 80 percent, no more. Threw something, added something. He threw away all that is far-fetched, added to the best of his knowledge. Initially I publish everything on cornflake.ru . In the future, I will publish something here.



In this briefing, we briefly describe 5 trends that will be developed in 2007:

1. life styles and status;
2. tyranny of transparency;
3. web N + 1;
4. trysumers - consumer testers;
5. global brain.

Life styles and status

Both trend specialists and leading marketing specialists and other business professionals should agree with this: commercial interaction with people, sales, always boil down to the concept of status. In a traditional consumer society, the highest status is for those who have the best, the most fashionable, the most expensive, the most rare. However, in 2007, the owners of many brands realize (if they do not grumblingly accept) the fact that the “old” icons of the era of mass consumption, from the Audi Q7 to the jewelry collection of De Beers Radiance , are no longer the cherished dream of every consumer. The consumer society is growing up, it is dominated by abundance, saturation, impressions and experience, virtual worlds, individualism, complicity, guilt for the side effects of their intemperance. In light of all this, the status becomes something more. Status is no longer characterized by an outdated understanding of lifestyle, implying the possession of the largest possible number of luxury items. In 2007, life styles will emerge, defined by the following: Dynamics and changes A dynamic lifestyle is attractive to consumers who feed on the energy of discovery, adventure, and the fight against boredom. They are increasingly rejecting constancy, their status does not depend on the wealth they have gained, because such benefits are anchor for them. In November 2006, we (trendwatching.com) dubbed such consumer transumers — transmeryers, consumers denying constancy. In 2007, their number will increase rapidly. Transceivers want everything “here and now”, the period of receiving satisfaction from “testing” something new from them is short, like no one else. They are passionate collectors of sensations, experiences, experiences, stories. All this undermines the value and “status” traditionally attributed to all sorts of benefits. Participation Participation is a new kind of consumption. This statement is especially true in the case of young consumers. For those seeking to express themselves, status is determined by the size of the audience endorsing their public expression. It is not surprising that the development of creative potential becomes very important for such consumers. Do status symbols give way to skills defining status? Read the October 2006 briefing, where we describe the many brands that serve this new kind of consumer. Environment What do you want to “get” in the post-material world? Or, more precisely, whom? Other people. Forums, lists of friends and buddies, meetup.org, clubs with a strict membership ... Social status 2.0 - the status determined by your "tribe", those with whom you communicate, and those who want to communicate with you. Lifestyle dictated by the “tribe” refers to a wider set of online lifestyles, in which the status of a person depends on the number of views posted on Flickr photos, the total area of ​​real estate, which he / she owns in Second Life , the originality of the avatar. Ecology The issue of environmental protection has finally appeared on the agenda of the powerful, and millions of consumers are striving to green their lifestyle. Responsible attitude to nature - a symbol of a type of status gaining value, and the opportunities to exercise this responsibility become more and more. Crowds of consumers are turning in the direction of Prius type hybrids, looking with disdain at all sorts of jeeps. This process will gain momentum. At the forefront of the movement - eco-firms , who understand a lot about design and branding. Their goal is to make everything green, fashionable, simple, visible. And do not hesitate to point out the polluting alternatives offered by competitors ;-) What can you contribute to a variety of lifestyles? 2007 is the year when any sane manufacturer needs to ask: how do the products and impressions they offer, satisfy the masses of very different consumers who want to join their “tribe”. In fact, when you get rid of traditional stereotypes, you will see a huge variety of lifestyles, each of which has its own special status. And the Big Question will arise in front of you: what is the value and significance of today, and what is the perception of these things, and how many facets does this perception have in general.

Tyranny of transparency

Remember the promises that sounded from all sides a decade ago, when the network began to gain momentum? Promises a perfect match of supply and demand, unlimited consumer power? It cannot be said that during the past few years nothing of the kind happened - prices are already almost completely transparent to consumers, and there is also transparency and accessibility of opinions and feedback regarding things like music and travel. But 2007 can be the year when such transparency really becomes a tyrant, punishing producers whose goods are not good enough. Why? Because the network now has more than 1 billion consumers, and most of them know the Internet firsthand. These people are experienced dealers, the best of the best, always finding the best conditions. They are those who greedily absorb all the relevant information that their brethren fill the network. They are also independent critics, reviewers and reviewers, expressing their opinions, which is perceived as professional advice (there are already over 5,000,000 reviews of this kind on tripadvisor.com). What will the year 2007 add to this? Camera phones are becoming more common, their power is increasing every day. Critics, reviewers and reviewers who have such phones will “deliver” multimedia content to the network. What does it mean? As you know, the picture “says” more than a thousand words, but the video can express more than a thousand pictures ;-) ALL the movements of producers will end up on youtube.com, or youtube clone, entirely dedicated to consumer opinions about products and services. Phones again: very soon, any of them will provide access to the network (in Japan and South Korea this is already the case), and consumers will be able to publish their feedback online in real time. There are impressions that I want to share - do it right away. Accordingly, the time interval between experience, the breakdown of something and the submission of a report on this experience to the judgment of the whole world will be as short as possible. The tyranny of transparency knows no other time than the real one. Soon a simple increase in "critics" will provide a daily, if not hourly, update reviews of everything that you can imagine. As part of consumption, of course. Yes, do not forget about the pleasant side effect of this process: the fake positive reviews published by sinking companies will simply be crushed by a mass of real opinions of real people. However, there is a missing link in this beautiful scheme - user profiles. Transparency is also required in the rush of recommendations. After all, is the opinion of a person whose lifestyle is different from yours so valuable to you? In 2007, a number of resources will appear, earning on establishing order, filtering and creating profiles bases. Most likely, these resources will become partners of sites where user profiles are one of the principal elements. Examples of such sites are MySpace and Bebo.com . “Profilization” will become ubiquitous, and consumers will make more and more decisions based on the views of like-minded people. Then the most famous reviewers will demand their piece of cake: in 2007 they will want their authoritative opinions to be paid. What else? Anything that is becoming massive can be broken down into smaller elements, focused on any one detail. Accordingly, more resources will appear on the Internet, where comparisons are made within certain limits. An example is Red Roller , a site that compares delivery rates offered to small businesses by carriers. By the way, employees of companies also contribute to transparency: on youtube.com you can find a lot of materials published by “insiders”. Of course, in 2007 there will be even more. What about the expected rebirth of group purchases? In 1999, Letsbuyit.com was launched: a service that allows people to group and buy something with a significant discount. The group in this case is a wholesale buyer, working with both sellers and directly with manufacturers. Then, in 1999, the idea was not “shot” - consumers were not ready. But the potential of such an undertaking did not become less. Moreover, the task has now been simplified: the Internet is accessible to the majority, and social networks have decided to unite people. An enterprising businessman will be able to easily use the "power of the crowd" by creating a social network that unites consumers into groups of wholesale buyers.

Web N + 1 *

We continue the conversation on the Internet. If you do not see the difference between web 0.2 and web 2.0, you are out of luck. In 2007, a stormy debate will begin, what will be web 3.0, web 4.0 and, not excluded, web 5.0. So while the network is actively being filled with content published by the users themselves (one of the signs of web 2.0), Mobile Web , Internet of Things , INFOLUST , Exploding TV , the Metaverse, and so on will appear on the scene. In order not to fall victim to this online tsunami, try to always be on the crest of a wave. Tip: for starters, read / re-read everything that Kevin Kelly wrote, who never made a mistake predicting the next turns of the Internet. * The term Web N + 1 was coined by Stephen Pemberton .

Traysumers, consumer testers

Idiotic name, cool trend. Traysyumery - experienced consumers. They react vividly to many social and technological changes, applying them in their consumption practices. We have come up with the following definition for traysyumerov (beta-version): Tri-curators: consumers free from the shackles of conventions and deficiencies, who are immune to most forms of advertising. Traysyumery have full access to information, reviews, criticism, opinions; they are the "testers" of new household appliances, devices, new services, they "try" new tastes, first get to new places, get acquainted with new authors, artists. Interestingly, everything new is interesting, everything new, they do their “work” as people who have outgrown mass consumption as a whole. Why do more and more consumers turn into trans-curators? Here are some factors: In the baggage of experienced consumers - a lot of impressions already received. And they know that in the future they will be even more. Therefore, it is easier for them to cope with the disappointment that may follow the “approbation” of something unknown. For example, if the weekend spent on an exciting trip was spoiled by bad weather, the realization that there will be seven more such trips in the coming year will make this little misfortune even less. Today, consumers earn as much as never before. But that's not all: many of the goods and services required for testing by trannyumery are now amazingly available. For example, flights with Asia Air, EasyJet and Virgin Air, the prices of which are more than affordable. The list can be continued. Navigation, giving almost unlimited freedom. With Garmin or TomTom on hand, exploring new places, routes, areas is not so risky. In 2005–2006, sales of personal navigation devices doubled in the United States and Europe, reaching 10 million units. And the ever-increasing availability of GPS and the integration of this system with the Internet will make trouble-free terrain orientation a given for trans-curators. The above-mentioned tyranny of transparency is another ally of Transceivers. Reviews about everything that you can think of, available, anytime, eliminate the risk of buying "the cat in the bag." Traditional advertising is trusted exactly the same way as a certain president, who has a couple of years left before his resignation. Therefore, testing, testing a product is a new form of advertising. Already now, tryvertising (advertising a product by lending it (full or limited) to potential buyers) is not something new. In a briefing on Trivertizing, we stated that “presenting your product to people, giving them a try, is a very civilized and effective way to show respect.” Amen. Today, even TVs and irons sold at WalMart under unknown brands work perfectly. Another incentive to try something unknown. An entire generation of gamers is growing, and games involve growing courage, they require repeated attempts to find a solution that is always there. We develop the theme of disappointment: as we indicated in the briefing of Transientism , the system of consumer relations with the consumer (consumer to consumer, C2C) already has a place to be. eBay , classifieds (classifieds) are all parts of a system within which a trader can easily get rid of what they no longer need. Daniel Nissanoff, author of FutureShop , says: “ Someone shared an interesting observation with me: with the growth of eBay, people started to buy more musical instruments, especially guitars, because they are no longer concerned that they can choose the wrong tool, and torment him further. The principle of the auction gives consumers an advantage: they can afford more good things, because their price is reduced. Consumers know that the residual value will not go anywhere, there is always a way out, and if they make a mistake, it can be easily fixed. ” (Source: Daniel Nissanoff interview taken by Tom Peters.)

Global brain

Global brain: all the knowledge and the whole experience of the whole world, connected together, replenished not only by a famous group of different gurus, professors and scientists, but also by millions of smart consumers. Lack of talent is one of the things that frighten manufacturers in 2007 on all continents. In this context, connecting to the global brain is a natural reaction. Businesses of all sizes will hunt for that 1% of the most interesting and experienced people on this planet.