10 crucial consumer trends for 2013
“In whatever market or industry you’re in, those who understand the changing consumer needs will forever have plenty of opportunity to profit. A remapped global economy, new technologies, new business models…
Here an overview of 10 crucial consumer trends.
JWT’s 100 Things to Watch
JWT, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, just released its research digest “100 Things to Watch for 2013”. It is a substantial list predicting what will be big in the year ahead.
“Based on research across sectors such as travel, technology, food, retail and sustainability, the list reflects the major developments bubbling up. This year, technology takes the spotlight once more with “appcessories,” digital ecosystems, flexible screens, and responsive Web design topping the list.
Other top things to watch include new foods and ingredients like faux meat and chia seeds. Keep an eye out for quiet products, shopping hotels, mindful living, privacy etiquette, and adult playgrounds, which are just a sample of items also included.”
IKEA’s 2013 catalog enriched with augmented reality
Hands on of the German 2013 IKEA catalog by newgadgets.de. A software used to enrich a catalog like IKEA did is provided by Merlin Mobility.
Awesome, no? and very useful. More here.
The Freemium Model, or “Give away the razors and sell the blades”
This popular monetization model for app developers means that they give away their products and services free to build a customer base. Afterwards, the app developers try to sell premium features to their new customer base.
Some of the more popular companies using a freemium model are, for example, Skype or Dropbox.
An old model, which was made popular by Netscape in the 90’s. Back in time, this model wasn’t called Freemium, but related to a much older role model from another industry: “Give away the razors and sell the blades”.
The freemium approach doesn’t make necessarily sense for any business that can’t eventually reach millions of users. Typically only 1% or 2% of users will upgrade to a paid product, says the CEO of Techstars.
Here the basic steps to making Freemium work (as described by WSJ here):
1. Limit free offerings to avoid cannibalizing your paid customers. Expect your free-to-paid conversion rate to be less than 5%.
2. Promote both free and paid offerings, rather than focus just on acquiring paid users.
3. Create an incentive for free users to refer their friends to your service or product.
4. Clearly distinguish between free and paid plans, so users can see value in paying for more.
5. Create a natural progression from free-to-paid features, such as the option to buy extra storage space on a cloud service once a user runs out of free space.
Dig into Chris Anderson’s Book “Free - The Future of a Radical Price” to learn more about Freemium.
Teen Stores Try Texts as Gr8 Nu Way to Reach Out - WSJ
Teens don’t email. So some fashion brands are using text messaging as a faster, surer way to teens’ hearts and wallets. Brands like Vans and Charlotte Russe are finding that teens respond to marketing texts with alacrity and with far higher response rates than other methods, as Christine Binkley explains on Lunch Break
Trends - eMarketer’s “Key DIgital trends for 2012”
Excellent slidedeck presenting valuable data, which shapes the upcoming key digital trends. Enjoy
Smartphones Retail
Here’s a great showcase how retail can benefit from a clever smartphone strategy. Tesco, large UK grocery store is number 2 in korea and was looking how to become number one.
Tesco first rebranded, then they created panels as exact copies of the shelves in the shops on (advertising?) -panels in public space. a qr-code below the products enable the bypassing shoppers to order the product straight away and get it delivered at home.
what a great idea.
thanks for pointing me to this, christopher!
AD - APPLE’S 1984
Steve Jobs at a keynote in 1983 showing for the first time ever their famous “1984” ad, directed by Ridley Scott to an exclusive audience.
The ad was shown on tv shortly after that only once during the 1984 Superbowl and never aired again. It is considered to be one of the greatest ads of all time.
VISION - SIMON SINEK’S MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH
At the 99% Design Conference, Simon Sinek, author of “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” shows how to take action to turn the ego fixation from persons and companies into a golden circle of mutual benefit.
Turn that “…me…me…me…” into a “you…you…you” message!
Simon split between givers and takers. And of course the givers being the more authentical and therefore successful. He mentions a test he did with a homeless in New York. The homeless had a traditional “me me me” sign (i am veteran, i am poor, i have 12 childrens…). the homeless made between 20-30 USD a day.
Simon designed a new message board for the lady.. WIth the new sign, the homeless lady made 40 USD - in 2 hrs. Then the lady left!
The sign - what did Simon wrote on it? “If you only give once a month, please think of me next time!” A giver’s message. The lady was not taking money and giving a bad feeling, but giving a good feeling.
Great speech. Watch it and think how you can improve your communication to all our benefit.
“If you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business.” Fantastic 99% talk by Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
ART - GILBERT AND GEORGE RETROSPECTIVE.
Subversive, but not anti-establishment. “All artists today pretend to have all the same political views - boring!” Their glass works are unique. ENJOY.
INNOVATION - BLUECAVA, A GAME CHANGER IN DIGITAL ADVERTISING?
What is Bluecava? Watch the clip as it explains Bluecava the easy way.
In my opinion, according to its annoucements, it has the potential to be a game changer in digital advertising.
In the real world, you’re recognized and get personalized service. In the real world, you never need to guess whether the person you’re dealing with is a human or some sort of spambot. Our challenge: To show you how BlueCava can help you identify the fingerprints of devices that visit your site, making your corner of the internet safer and more personalized.
More about device profiling in this Wallstreet Journal article here.
