James Surowiecki thinks both high- and low-end brands are growing in this recession, at the middle’s expense. While it’s “well-priced adequacy” that helps value brands gobble upwards, high-end quality is worth splurging for, and the middle loses. IKEA, H&M and the Flip video camera do as well now as Hermès and Apple. Paradoxically, ignoring the middle can still appeal to consumers, but look at Dell, Sony and GM brands to see vagueness winning no one. Identifying key differentiators to develop a unique brand platform is crucial to any brand’s success today; see what Ideon has done for Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Fleishman-Hillard—and BP in Adweek (5-10-2010).
Brad Stone’s article “Old Fogies by Their 20’s” tells us how rapid technology innovation is fomenting wider generational gaps—and shows how words no longer have the same meaning as generational differences splice ever faster. When today’s infant identifies “kindle” as “book,” it presages a cultural shift in which younger generations are going to have “some very peculiar and unique expectations about the world.” How will we effect the change that’s crucial to the world’s survival with such differences between the generations and technology? How will global brands stay relevant across multiple generations sliced by 2, 3 or 5-year segments, and resonate with this multi-tasking, instant-access, non-commercial iGeneration.
Recently, a local Swedish IKEA showroom harnessed the photo “tagging” feature of Facebook into a genius social networking raffle campaign that built an interested network of friends for the store. Another brilliant social network brand builder is the Comparethemarket.com ad campaign where Aleksandr Orlov, an animated Russian meerkat, is the unlikely spokesman for a UK car insurance aggregator, but is one of the most acclaimed social media stars of the moment. Aleksandr has 600,000 Facebook friends and 30,000 Twitter followers, and an immortally limited edition replica sold through Harrods. On YouTube, Johnny Lee’s creative whiteboard workaround for public schools for less than $200 is still being shared two years later. Social networks sparkle like passionate clusters around any brand or idea but do they monetize? Perhaps, insists the successful head of Gucci Group: “The back and forth (of customers) – that is key to the future. I know it absolutely.”
A Milan-listed idea factory predicts we’ll become a generation of Homo-Zapiens by 2012, zapping through all kinds of electronic content with ebooks, ip-TV and wearable technology that keeps us constantly on the network. We’ll see a shift from “know how” to “know where” to “know who”, shaping the future of human connections. Even robots will range in empathy from extroverted to introverted, simplifying and freeing up our lives by 2020. While we’re inhaling nanomachines to stimulate the unreal, and accepting more humanlike behavior in robots with the “uncanny valley” effect, dreams are served up to order, much like IDEON does with our custom insights.
Consumers increasingly influence brand decisions—new flavors, new styles, new products. Crowdsourcing or community-based design can be seen in the Mountain Dewmocracy, Colors Magazine and sites such as Quirky, which bypasses tradition as an online community-based product development service to bring the most in-touch products to market. Ideate above-and-beyond traditional innovation development processes, with crowdsourcing or new combinations of big agency and boutique think-tanks like Ideon. Direct, ongoing individual involvement–as cognitive groups that deliver real results–brings the entire consumer dialogue to the next level.
John Gapper’s article in the FT reminds us that colonization helped Africa in some ways, but that Hong Kong-style economic zones such as the British created could provide the best possibility for sustainable growth across Africa. On the other side of is Dambisa Moyo’s book, Dead Aid. This Zambian-born ex-Goldman Sachs banker argues Western investment has failed for 60 years. Instead, she says Chinese investment, micro-financing initiatives, and milestones such as Seacom’s broadband undersea cabling investment across all of eastern Africa, are its future. This conflict of extremes is best expressed in the duplicity of Yinka Shonibare’s new exhibition, Different Worlds. Yinka shows how dress expresses power, and how dominance is viewed from both sides. Throughout history, Africa has been a land of extremes, subjugated by more taking than giving. Ideon asks if China’s resource quest could help a young, dynamic African continent of 1 billion people with fewer personal goods consume at a higher rate than China’s ever-modernizing infrastructure for 1.3 billion people?
We’re Debt junkies. In fact, over the past 3 decades, the majority of the working world fell for the biggest scam in history. While the rich got much richer, we bought into capitalism’s story that we too deserved things beyond our reach, like houses, branded goods, and BMW’s in the driveway, and more. Time to pay the piper. Or, we could all default. Why haven’t we complained? Because Debt was there to soothe us. “If you couldn’t earn it, you could borrow it. Cheap financing was made widely available,” Ben Funnell argues in the FT. Innovation, education, ideation and the opening of new markets for new products and services are our most feasible solutions. [Asking the über-rich to shoulder more of their due burden can’t hurt, either.]
Richard Nisbett’s new book, “Intelligence and How to Get It” shows how early nurture creates higher IQs for life. Harlem charter schools and Finnish primary education achievements are just the beginning. With Obama pushing strong early education, what bright future is in store for young minds? A balance of left and right brain thinking at all times, nurturing how to find true insights—the gems that truly change us—takes flexible approaches and smart new directions. Real brilliance comes from openness in every interaction, every lesson. Superbaby IQs soon to come.
Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Bronman catalog the progression of information technology and how the world is changing faster than we can cope. As our common global destiny will rely more and more on science and technology and collaborative international efforts, the fastest growing 21st century companies will market their intellectual savvy alongside those offering physical products and services. Ideon owns visionary tools to solve marketing problems we haven’t even imagined yet in our information-loaded world.
Jonah Lehrer’s new book, “How We Decide” is the latest entry in a growing field forming the science of decision-making. He says, “For the first time, neuroscience can be applied to everyday life. The research on the neurotransmitter dopamine, for instance, can teach us why we play slot machines and overuse our credit cards.” Finally, science is proving that our decisions are made not only with our rational mind, but with the fuel that fires them. Ideon fuels brilliant marketing decisions to spark your business growth, lift you out of a rut, and propel you forward to new opportunities.
