Niels Bohr said that.

Now It’s My Turn

I’m sharing my observations on the recent survey from Future Proofing NEXT.

These notes were my preparation for the webinar below. A few of us from around the world were asked to respond to the just launched CUSTOMER ZEITGEIST survey.

It was great fun to reflect on them, a privilege to be asked - and I hope the below is interesting and helpful.

WATCH THE WEBINAR

NOTES ON THE SURVEY ITSELF

NOTES: It’s an abridged version of 100 customer trends - they’re focused on marketplace trends. Some trends and countertrends can appear on the list - the idea that people want more automation and more human authenticity in their lives may both appear and may be both true although they appear diametrically opposite.

Some trends don't appear on the list because:

Even though people say they are doing something, their overall behaviours don't support it (e.g,. shopping local) or vice versa
It may not be a global trend (e.g optimism for future is quite different Asia to NA to Europe)
It may not be a lasting trend for next 5 years post pandemic

MY THOUGHTS ON THE SURVEY

WE TACKLED THEM IN REVERSE ORDER

AND WE COULD ONLY PICK ONE OR TWO TO TALK ABOUT

TREND 20 -

EMPOWERING DIY & MAKER CULTURE

IN MY OPINION THIS BRINGS OUT MY INNER CURIOUS CREATIVE - THE CURIOSITY TO TRY.

MY EXAMPLE -

NEVER IN MY WILDEST DREAM WOULD I HAVE ORDERED UP A HUNK OF LAMB A DOZEN SMALL POTS OF SPICES AND SAUCES SOME BAGS AND INSTRUCTIONS TO BOIL THEM - SOME EXOTIC BREAD AND STAND FOR 30 MINUTES.
BUT I DID AND NOW I'M A FAN OF AFGHAN BBQ FOOD

MY STORY -

Afghan BBQ meal kits delivered to your door from local - Take Out is the new Take In - certainly not a McD experience - a feeling of making - the IKEA effect - made it ourselves so therefore.
The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created.
Not only does “assemble yourself” furniture save IKEA money and increase efficiency, but you value that Billy Bookcase even more because you had to put it together. The IKEA effect is simple: when you work for something you fall in love with it.
A big shift on behavioural change - usually takes 3 months to change a behaviour, but because this has lasted 9 months, cultures have changed.

TREND 12 -

FREEDOM FROM ANYWHERE

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE TREND - ‘DIGITAL CONFIDENCE’ FOR SOME.

MY EXAMPLE

COVID TAUGHT A LARGE PROPORTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS OUT THERE THAT THEY COULD WORK ANYWHERE. BUT DEFINITELY NOT EVERYONE - MANUFACTURING - THE SERVICE AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR - TRANSPORT WORKERS - I COULD GO ON.
OVERALL DIGITAL CONFIDENCE HAS FREED MANY MORE PEOPLE THOUGH - SO THAT'S A GOOD THING BUT WE HAVE TO ENCOURAGE THOSE LESS FORTUNATE AND REMEMBER WE LIVE IN THE WEST
DIGITAL FOR MANY MEANS THE TRAP OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR THOSE THAT ARE SUSCEPTIBLE - FREEDOM TO AND FROM ANYWHERE HAS ITS DEMONS TOO AND WE NEED TO DO SO MUCH MORE TO AVOID MENTAL CATASTROPHE, CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND THOSE USING SUCH FREEDOMS TO CREATE A NEXT GENERATION OF SLAVERY

EXAMPLE - PELOTON WORK, LIVE AND PLAY LIVE & DIGITAL COMMUNITY

MY STORY:

WFH - WFA - you do not need to be tied to your desk - many behaviour changes happen with this - trust from leadership being the most important.
FOR MANY BUT NOT ALL - This trend debunks everything about the industrial era of clocking on and off. Perhaps your best time of working is 10pm-3am - perhaps you work best walking by the sea - taps also into how we live in the West vs East - Feng Shui allows you to be in nature and the elements. Lockdown has meant you are more appreciative of the elements and a walk and talk meeting.

TREND 8 -

UBER CONNECTION

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE TREND - UNPREPAREDNESS

I’M WHOLLY UNPREPARED THE MINUTE I LEAVE MY HOUSE, NOBODY KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN LEAST OF ALL ME BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY MY EXPECTATION HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED THAT I NEEDN’T WORRY - I CAN DO LITERALLY ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING FROM MY DEVICE
THE TRUTH IS THAT I'M SO DIGITALLY NATIVE I NOW SPEAK TO A DOZEN DEVICES IN MY HOME - AND THEY ANSWER ME - PEOPLE ON ZOOMS CAN SPEAK TO MY CONNECTED DEVICES.
IN ONE SESSION I CAN BOOK A HOTEL, CAR, FOOD, CLOTHES AND INVITE ALL MY COLLEAGUES TO A CONVERSATION AND PHOTOGRAPH AND RECORD THE WHOLE THING IN ANY LANGUAGE WHILE MAKING A FILM OF IT ALL. AT THE SAME TIME!
SURGEONS CAN PERFORM SURGERY (OR PEEL A GRAPE) FROM OTHER COUNTRIES

MY STORY

Picture the scene - MOSCOW - STRANGE PLACE - all alone in a foreign country, not being able to read the street name or speak English to anyone.
I thought thank goodness FOR TECHNOLOGY 3/4G - I DIDN'T' CARE - BECAUSE I COULD GET ONTO AN APP -
With 5G the possibilities seem endless, ACCELERATED BY Covid - operations being done in one part of the world from the patient - example ‘grape being stitched up’ - situations where we can can’t afford ‘buffering’ - needs solid technology to be comfortable that it can be achieved.

TREND 1 -

THE SMARTER EXPERIENCE

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE TREND - ‘LOCAL LOYALTY TO MY OWN COMMUNITY’ - DRIVEN BY INNATE FEAR OF MORTALITY, LIFE, FOOD, SECURITY, WELLBEING AT THAT POINT IT WAS MOST DEFINITELY NOT ABOUT BRAND

MY OBSERVATION IS THAT COVID SHIFTED OUR MINDSETS AND GRABBED AN ATTENTION THAT WE COULD NOT HAVE ACHIEVED EASILY WITHOUT THE PLAGUE.
THE SMARTER EXPERIENCE IN MANY WAYS ‘SUMS’ 2 - 7 ANYWAY - I GUESS THAT'S CORRECT? - THESE THINGS ARE ALL CONNECTED - A SYSTEM.
THAT'S LIFE - WE LIVE IN A SYSTEM.

MY STORY/EXAMPLE -

Amazon failed - their online service was switched off. We had to search for food. It was a scary experience. War time conditions even though i've never been in a war. I remember the feeling of panic. Countless online searches became the order of the day.

FARMDROP NOT AMAZON - during the pandemic we chose local - it felt the right thing to do and it immediately won our loyalty.

Highly reliable and responsive. No plastic bags. Stories about the farmers. Exceptional food. Expertly sourced.All products sourced responsibly. Treat producers, animals, people and the planet with kindness and respect because it tastes much better.Sustainably produced. Fast and friendly personal delivery.

Drivers are so ridiculously friendly. They have tiny errors on their eCommerce occasionally which I forgive.”. TAPS into so many of the trends - especially, Hyper speed, expectation and delivery. They have a genuine purpose to it - they don’t want to waste my time - they are conscious, enlightened, moral and ethical. There are no silos in their organisation yet. They understand that business is a combination of the 3 M’s - working together

Management - Marketing - Manufacturing

MORE EXAMPLES

FURTHER RESEARCH

ALLBIRDS - THE TREND - ‘COUNTERINTUITIVENESS

For Black Friday the PUT THE PRICE UP NOT DOWN THEY GAVE $1 back to Greta Thunberg - their preferred charity on each transaction

PATAGONIA - THE TREND - DRIVEN BY CONTEXT (IN THIS CASE THE GLOBAL POLITICAL CONTEXT OF INSANITY - ENOUGH SAID.

Patagonia created their labels campaign to make sure people vote.
Backlash with marketing/advertising and data held in Facebook - election rig, fake news

SOME NOTES (via Dr Chris Arnold Linkedin post)

Ethical consumer spending has hit record levels, so it's no wonder brands are turning their attention to the lucrative, growing ethical consumer markets.
If you are not familiar with 'oceans' thinking in business strategy, here’s a top line. Red Oceans are markets that are highly competitive, lots of players so hard to make a killing.
A Blue Ocean is an unexplored territory in an uncontested market space, they are new markets, few players, so masses of opportunity. These can be any kind of market from clothes, food, toys, tech, cosmetics, etc…

The concept of oceans was created in 2004 by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD, who wrote the book 'Blue Ocean Strategy'.

Green Oceans are a new concept and specific to the new growing markets within sustainability, from environmental issues to fairtrade and healthy options and many other areas considered ethical, like electric cars.
It taps into a growing ethical consumer mindset, be it driven by genuine ethical values or even a desire to be seen to be more ethical.
Ethical consumer spending has hit record levels in the UK, growing to £41bn, so it's no wonder brands want a slice.
Ethical spending has risen almost fourfold in the past 20 years and outgrown all UK household expenditure.
Ethical food and drink tops the list and includes Fairtrade, organic, natural, plant-based alternatives, free-range eggs, organic meat, etc, with an annual spend of over £12bn.
Energy-efficient appliances, technology, boilers, cleaning products and green electricity tariffs have reached over £10bn. Green electricity tariffs are set to break through the £1bn barrier.
We now spend almost £5bn on eco-transport, mainly electric or hybrid cars and this is set to accelerate with the announcement of a ban on petrol and diesel cars from 2010.

TWENTY SIGNS OF THESE CUSTOMER TIMES

Niels Bohr said that.

Now It’s My Turn

I’m sharing my observations on the recent survey from Future Proofing NEXT.

These notes were my preparation for the webinar below. A few of us from around the world were asked to respond to the just launched CUSTOMER ZEITGEIST survey.

It was great fun to reflect on them, a privilege to be asked - and I hope the below is interesting and helpful.

WATCH THE WEBINAR

NOTES ON THE SURVEY ITSELF

Some trends don't appear on the list because:

Even though people say they are doing something, their overall behaviours don't support it (e.g,. shopping local) or vice versa

It may not be a global trend (e.g optimism for future is quite different Asia to NA to Europe)

It may not be a lasting trend for next 5 years post pandemic

MY THOUGHTS ON THE SURVEY

WE TACKLED THEM IN REVERSE ORDER

AND WE COULD ONLY PICK ONE OR TWO TO TALK ABOUT

TREND 20 -

EMPOWERING DIY & MAKER CULTURE

IN MY OPINION THIS BRINGS OUT MY INNER CURIOUS CREATIVE - THE CURIOSITY TO TRY.

MY EXAMPLE -

NEVER IN MY WILDEST DREAM WOULD I HAVE ORDERED UP A HUNK OF LAMB A DOZEN SMALL POTS OF SPICES AND SAUCES SOME BAGS AND INSTRUCTIONS TO BOIL THEM - SOME EXOTIC BREAD AND STAND FOR 30 MINUTES.

BUT I DID AND NOW I'M A FAN OF AFGHAN BBQ FOOD

MY STORY -

Afghan BBQ meal kits delivered to your door from local - Take Out is the new Take In - certainly not a McD experience - a feeling of making - the IKEA effect - made it ourselves so therefore.

The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created.

Not only does “assemble yourself” furniture save IKEA money and increase efficiency, but you value that Billy Bookcase even more because you had to put it together. The IKEA effect is simple: when you work for something you fall in love with it.

A big shift on behavioural change - usually takes 3 months to change a behaviour, but because this has lasted 9 months, cultures have changed.

TREND 12 -

FREEDOM FROM ANYWHERE

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE TREND - ‘DIGITAL CONFIDENCE’ FOR SOME.

MY EXAMPLE

COVID TAUGHT A LARGE PROPORTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS OUT THERE THAT THEY COULD WORK ANYWHERE. BUT DEFINITELY NOT EVERYONE - MANUFACTURING - THE SERVICE AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR - TRANSPORT WORKERS - I COULD GO ON.

OVERALL DIGITAL CONFIDENCE HAS FREED MANY MORE PEOPLE THOUGH - SO THAT'S A GOOD THING BUT WE HAVE TO ENCOURAGE THOSE LESS FORTUNATE AND REMEMBER WE LIVE IN THE WEST

MY STORY:

WFH - WFA - you do not need to be tied to your desk - many behaviour changes happen with this - trust from leadership being the most important.

TREND 8 -

UBER CONNECTION

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE TREND - UNPREPAREDNESS

I’M WHOLLY UNPREPARED THE MINUTE I LEAVE MY HOUSE, NOBODY KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN LEAST OF ALL ME BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY MY EXPECTATION HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED THAT I NEEDN’T WORRY - I CAN DO LITERALLY ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING FROM MY DEVICE

THE TRUTH IS THAT I'M SO DIGITALLY NATIVE I NOW SPEAK TO A DOZEN DEVICES IN MY HOME - AND THEY ANSWER ME - PEOPLE ON ZOOMS CAN SPEAK TO MY CONNECTED DEVICES.

IN ONE SESSION I CAN BOOK A HOTEL, CAR, FOOD, CLOTHES AND INVITE ALL MY COLLEAGUES TO A CONVERSATION AND PHOTOGRAPH AND RECORD THE WHOLE THING IN ANY LANGUAGE WHILE MAKING A FILM OF IT ALL. AT THE SAME TIME!

SURGEONS CAN PERFORM SURGERY (OR PEEL A GRAPE) FROM OTHER COUNTRIES

MY STORY

Picture the scene - MOSCOW - STRANGE PLACE - all alone in a foreign country, not being able to read the street name or speak English to anyone.

I thought thank goodness FOR TECHNOLOGY 3/4G - I DIDN'T' CARE - BECAUSE I COULD GET ONTO AN APP -

With 5G the possibilities seem endless, ACCELERATED BY Covid - operations being done in one part of the world from the patient - example ‘grape being stitched up’ - situations where we can can’t afford ‘buffering’ - needs solid technology to be comfortable that it can be achieved.

TREND 1 -

THE SMARTER EXPERIENCE

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE TREND - ‘LOCAL LOYALTY TO MY OWN COMMUNITY’ - DRIVEN BY INNATE FEAR OF MORTALITY, LIFE, FOOD, SECURITY, WELLBEING AT THAT POINT IT WAS MOST DEFINITELY NOT ABOUT BRAND

MY OBSERVATION IS THAT COVID SHIFTED OUR MINDSETS AND GRABBED AN ATTENTION THAT WE COULD NOT HAVE ACHIEVED EASILY WITHOUT THE PLAGUE.

THE SMARTER EXPERIENCE IN MANY WAYS ‘SUMS’ 2 - 7 ANYWAY - I GUESS THAT'S CORRECT? - THESE THINGS ARE ALL CONNECTED - A SYSTEM.

THAT'S LIFE - WE LIVE IN A SYSTEM.

MY STORY/EXAMPLE -

Amazon failed - their online service was switched off. We had to search for food. It was a scary experience. War time conditions even though i've never been in a war. I remember the feeling of panic. Countless online searches became the order of the day.

FARMDROP NOT AMAZON - during the pandemic we chose local - it felt the right thing to do and it immediately won our loyalty.

Management - Marketing - Manufacturing

MORE EXAMPLES

FURTHER RESEARCH

ALLBIRDS - THE TREND - ‘COUNTERINTUITIVENESS

For Black Friday the PUT THE PRICE UP NOT DOWN THEY GAVE $1 back to Greta Thunberg - their preferred charity on each transaction

PATAGONIA - THE TREND - DRIVEN BY CONTEXT (IN THIS CASE THE GLOBAL POLITICAL CONTEXT OF INSANITY - ENOUGH SAID.

Patagonia created their labels campaign to make sure people vote.

Backlash with marketing/advertising and data held in Facebook - election rig, fake news

SOME NOTES (via Dr Chris Arnold Linkedin post)

Ethical consumer spending has hit record levels, so it's no wonder brands are turning their attention to the lucrative, growing ethical consumer markets.

If you are not familiar with 'oceans' thinking in business strategy, here’s a top line. Red Oceans are markets that are highly competitive, lots of players so hard to make a killing.

A Blue Ocean is an unexplored territory in an uncontested market space, they are new markets, few players, so masses of opportunity. These can be any kind of market from clothes, food, toys, tech, cosmetics, etc…

The concept of oceans was created in 2004 by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD, who wrote the book 'Blue Ocean Strategy'.

Green Oceans are a new concept and specific to the new growing markets within sustainability, from environmental issues to fairtrade and healthy options and many other areas considered ethical, like electric cars.

It taps into a growing ethical consumer mindset, be it driven by genuine ethical values or even a desire to be seen to be more ethical.

Ethical consumer spending has hit record levels in the UK, growing to £41bn, so it's no wonder brands want a slice.

Ethical spending has risen almost fourfold in the past 20 years and outgrown all UK household expenditure.

Ethical food and drink tops the list and includes Fairtrade, organic, natural, plant-based alternatives, free-range eggs, organic meat, etc, with an annual spend of over £12bn.

Energy-efficient appliances, technology, boilers, cleaning products and green electricity tariffs have reached over £10bn. Green electricity tariffs are set to break through the £1bn barrier.

We now spend almost £5bn on eco-transport, mainly electric or hybrid cars and this is set to accelerate with the announcement of a ban on petrol and diesel cars from 2010.

CONNECTION

Not only does “assemble *yourself**” furniture save* IKEA money and increase efficiency, but you value that Billy Bookcase even more because you had to put it together. The IKEA effect is simple: when you work for something you fall in love with it.