Consumers in this future use a spectrum of venues and social media to voice their wants and define spaces that need new brands. The fastest and most innovative companies respond to this crowd expression with tailored products. This amplifies a trend that began in the early 2010s, in which companies used social media to test…
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By the end of the next decade, as the pace of consumer change accelerates and social media matures, a stronger, deeper linkage between consumers and brands has driven brands to change more quickly too. For example, brands have shifted their messaging or morphed key attributes to compete effectively in a world of viral memes. Some…
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In the wake of World Water Day, there has been a meme floating around social media stating that “More people have access to mobile phones than toilets.” The statistic behind this (which is not usually cited on social media) comes from a UN report on access to toilet sanitation which states 6 billion people have…
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I am by no stretch of the imagination an economist. But a recent paper and a recent book on the long-term prospects for sustained US economic growth—and the discussion they generated—captured my attention, perhaps because it makes a forecast that builds on centuries of history. I’ll do my best to briefly describe the paper’s thesis…
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Earlier this year the polling firm YouGov undertook a survey for Professor Benjamin Valentina at Dartmouth. The results offer some interesting insights into how Americans view our country’s future interactions with China and broader role in the world. Staying on top — Fifty-three percent of Americans say that is is “very important” for the United…
DetailsI’ve just finished reading The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love, and Family, by Liza Mundy, a Washington Post reporter. Mundy closely examines what she calls the Big Flip: the rapid trend toward millions of women in the US, Western Europe, and East Asia becoming the primary breadwinner…
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Tiny houses are an American tradition, dating back to the 150sf cabin where Thoreau wrote his masterpiece on simple living. Now they’re back in vogue, driven by foreclosure woes, boomers downsizing, and eco-consciousness. According to an interesting update in the New Haven Advocate, at least two consulting firms—Rightsize by Design and Tumbleweed Tiny House Company—now…
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As a futurist, I’m amused when people say ‘no one could have predicted that’. I’m currently spending time in Bulgaria. A week in, I notice things that soon will stop registering in my consciousness as the novelty of the experience wears off. My old neighbourhood has changed quite a bit, in a good way.…
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