Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Edvin Jurin
Whenever I deal with something, or do something with passion and dedication, I like to glance into a crystal ball, or rather – beyond the horizon.
Why? Because since my early days in the industry – first in tourism and then in external and internal trade – my belief was, and has remained, that you have to make an effort to see the world beyond the horizon and then, while returning back, to try to give yourself an answer as to what you need to do today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
Sometimes we call it – a scenario.
To reach a scenario, we need to understand the context or environment in which something is happening, and of course the profile of the person who is moving, working and living in that environment to the fullest.
New consumerism – a new nightmare on the asphalt
This ambience, or rather this atmosphere, is called today: THE NEW CONSUMERISM. Marked by a series of intertwined and sometimes discontinuous processes such as, among other things, the sharing economy, where consumers are more inclined to pay a good price for services in order to save time and make their lives easier in relation to purchasing and owning material goods, so they share and rent almost everything – from transport, like the globally famed Uber, to clothing and even expensive designer sunglasses. Then there’s the circular economy. In 2030, the world population will reach 8.5 billion people, which will lead to an increase in the global economy by about 67%, followed by growing pressures on the available global resources in raw materials and energy, and therefore more intensive reuse, recovery and recycling of so called durable goods. There’s also the experience economy: given the preference of doing, seeing and feeling beyond what is normal, personalized experiences become the main trend or mainstream. And finally there’s the gig economy, which represents a shift from the “life calling” and thus brings an uncertain future to permanent working relationships. It is characterized by short-term employment contracts, freelance jobs, as well as independent enterprise, which creates a new layer of “contractors”, opening up space for more flexible working hours and working from home or in public places such as bars or even in a working space rented for a few hours, which ultimately creates completely new needs and thereby services.
If we add to this the countless facets of globalization, localization, computerization, internetization and who knows what other “zations”, we come to an increasingly incomprehensible economic, social, cultural and communication jungle, or rather a nightmare.
Everyone is talking at the same time and at the same volume, as if we were in some village fair.
How to get noticed and survive – and if you survive, how to succeed in this jungle?
At first you run, and then you run faster, and faster, and faster … and then you collapse.
Remember the title “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” – the title of a movie for teenagers and adults.
Brand ambush of the future
If you can’t catch up with your competitor, then you have no other choice than to set an ambush for them. In the future!
Not in the TODAY – TODAY timeline, but in the TODAY –TOMORROW timeline.
One of the key solutions for the TODAY – TOMORROW type of ambush is, therefore, that you not only foresee, but create needs that the new contemporary consumerist is not even aware of yet. And when they become aware of it, this newly created need becomes a part of his daily life and then a part of the legacy that they bequest to the generations to come.
At the moment this is being done – according to available knowledge – by only about 10% of all companies and systems in the world.
In order to do this, you have to follow the new consumer like a shadow, analyzing them like a chess player, and, in accordance with everything said above, you then dare to project their every next move.
To bring all this even closer, imagine the office premises of the owners of brands, media and agencies as command bridges, like those on aircraft carriers. Let’s start for example with some possible models of the marketing agency of the future.
On a large main screen, in a bluish ambience pleasing to the eye, float visually ethereal clouds, with inscriptions: car buyers, tourists, wine and spirits buyers, fans of cigars and luxury delicacies, and so on, according to the areas that are in focus.
The side screens show live transmissions of a range of key TV stations and new media around the world, and a series of infographics that pop up at appropriate intervals, emerging from the algorithms of data collected in real-time, which are gathered in the aforementioned niche clouds.
On the floor below the screen, there are brand analysts in the front row, and on a podium behind them are the brand creators.
The analysts are feeding the system of clouds on the screen with data, which advances like a flood, and, like air traffic controllers, they identify the points and phases of possible contact with the new consumers.
From the lining of the clouds creatives pull potential attractive hooks (life necessities in the form of new products and services) and of course make appropriate communications for these ‘hooks’, which are forwarded to the next floor where communication distributors deliver them in different formats with different levels of complexity and intensity to reach the niche consumer, depending on the type of media.
Chief Future Officer
On the top floor, therefore, are the futurists. You read it right – Futurists (some even call them futurologists).
Yes. A brand, at the level of a producer of a material product, service or media, or rather a media agency, is now run by a CFO.
No, not Chief Financial Officer, but Chief Future Officer – for any brand or any specific demand.
Like the helmsman on a galleon or Columbus’s “Santa Maria”, he sets the direction and adjustments to the course, which the creators redesign into the future life needs of the new consumers, which, I repeat, they are not yet aware of. And they do it according to his order – in the time of TODAY – TODAY, or the conceivable temporal dimensions TODAY – TOMORROW, TODAY – TOMORROW TOMORROW and TODAY – TOMORROW TOMORROW TOMORROW.
Futurists are therefore trying to find answers to the economic, sociological, cultural, and thus brand chaos that comes from the future, in – which is extremely important – the already mentioned current time.
Thus, big data becomes relevant data; creative undergoes a transition into life content creation; and futurism (futurology) turns into creative life leadership.
The markets of the future are thus becoming environments of confrontation of brand scenarios of various timelines of the future.
Confusing? Orwellian scary? Today certainly yes – tomorrow, not so much.
After all, even George Orwell once said: “In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”