Slow Corporation

Companies grow to become more competitive, more efficient. But recently I observed that the big disadvatage of all of that is the detatchment from the actual consumer, as the the business world is moving from market orientation, to what I believe consumer orientation. Another problem that I observed in terms of Microsoft corporation is that they are a little late at everything. The Apple i-Pod becomes a huge success, yet Microsoft just started to jump into that whole market with the Zune now. Skype (www.skype.com) takes off in terms of free online telecommunication, and finally Microsoft is incorporating this feature into messenger. It seems that the whole bureaucratic system of the corporation is not agile enough to serve the market well. So I think that in the future, more small companies will dominate the market, rather than a few large ones. Even though that might not be the current development and experts say it might be differe. What do you think?

Color Branding

In the world of too many brands, with even more logos, brands have to take a new approach to being recognizable in the clutter. There is a trend to using just a special color rather than trying to conquer the consumers mind with yet another logo. Examples of this include the Moleskine notebooks (www.moleskine.com), Banana Republic's (www.bananarepublic.com) signature orange color about 2 years ago, and who could possibly forget Tiffany & Co. with the turquoise gift boxes. It seems to work, and the consumer seems to respond possitively to this change in branding. So in the future the consumer will no longer endorse brands that are plastered across merchandise, but endorse the color that is associated with a certain brand. Personally I love the fact that colors are gaining in importance.

No Logo Products

Whereas it used to be all about showing the brands one could afford, there seems to be an increased movement in the oposite direction. In my opinion it has to do with the oversaturation of the consumer, and the wave of too many logos, slogans etc. One of my favourite products that flows will the current issue of Viewpoint (www.thefuturelaboratory.com) and the Nu Austerity trend is the Moleskine products (www.moleskine.com). The notebooks that were the favourites of Picasso, Chatwin and Hemmingway. They tell a story, and whenever I hold one of my Moleskine notebook, I feel that maybe someday it is going to say: "Moleskine notebooks were used by Nicolas Kundig". Well maybe that is too dreamy, but the point is, is that it feels great to write down notes in the same kind of notebook, with which great European thinkers and visionaries changed the world. There is no massive logo on there, while everyone is starting to recognize the trademark design - black.

Fruitholism

Fruitholism - People are now craving the exotic fruits in their diet. Acai from the Brazilian rain forest, Kombucha from China or the newest fruit on the block the Goji Berry from Tibet (www.gojiberry.com). I believe that the beginning of this trend started with POM Wonderful (www.pomwonderful.com), the company that brought to heart beneficial pomegrate fruit in a bottle to the consumer, and now dominates that market. People all over the world started to buy into the promised benefits of this juice from a fruit people know little about. Further people feel poisoned by their lifestyles. So fruits such as Acai, Kombucha, and Goji berry promise anti oxidant properties, rejuvenation, anti-aging, metabolism enhancement, improvement of cardio vascular health. Any health issue that the consumer might have, whether the person feels fat, or has a weak heart, those exotic fruits from around the world hold the solution. But does it really work? I made a human experiment on myself with Acai and Kombucha (unfortunately I have gotten my hands on Goji berries). Did the sweet-tasting Acai juice give me the promised benefit of detoxification? Maybe, or the vinegary taste of 30 day aged Kombucha make me look younger? Probably not. But in my head I felt that I did something good for my body regardless of whether it really works. I am just curious what the next big fruit is going to be, and what amazing properties it possesses.