Burning match setting fire to its neighbors

Future of Brands 2030: Actualizing Brands

While many brands were already values-driven in the early 21st century, by 2030 more brands have made consumer values central to their journey toward the future. Brand evolution is directed bottom-up by their customers’ aspirations, rather than top-down—co-evolving in sync with consumers’ advancing values and dreams. What’s driving this forecast… Branding is evolving. Standardized branding…

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Future of Brands 2030: Ultragamified

Fostered by Millennial interests, in 2030 game-playing is the leading form of entertainment among crucial consumer demographics. Brand managers respond by embedding their brands into gaming experiences that mix the virtual with the real. Ubiquitous adoption of augmented reality has made brand-oriented gaming as common as playing Angry Birds was in 2013. Consumers engage in…

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Future of Brands 2030: The AI Brand

Intelligent, customizable brands seek out consumers. With the influx of data analytics about consumer needs, sentiment, and lifestyle choices, by 2030 brands are seeking out users, rather than users seeking brands. Consumers no longer pay attention to brands because AI brands now know what consumers need, and present them with appropriate, individualized choices at the…

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Personalized Coca-Cola bottles

Executing on Personalization

Personalization has been on everyone’s list of important trends for more than a decade. But in high-volume consumer goods it’s hard to execute in a cost-effective way. Here are two prominent examples I ran into during travels last fall. Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign, including printed bottles with first names, debuted in Australia  in 2012…

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Do not enter_Vards Uzvards

Do Not Enter

Recent client work on the future of cars and auto repair had us thinking about Big Data (I know, I know) and driving, especially as the various streams of data generated by cars and drivers begins to be aggregated. What data is being generated and collected now? Car event data recorders (the so-called “black boxes”)…

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