Trends that will grow for 2008

January 6, 2008

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A lot of people are posting their predictions for 2008, so I thought I would get mine in too. These trends are not ground breaking as they are already occurring, but these are all factors that brands will need to start taking into account when planning communications to consumers. These are in no particular order so enjoy.

Conversational Marketing: Long gone are the days when a consumer would write a letter to an organisation to express their delight or disappointment at a product or service. With the increase in the number of personal blogs that are being produced, brands must monitor the buzz around their offering and engage in a two-way conversation with consumers.

Microblogging: Through the increase in the number of `social networks’ popping up like Twitter, Pownce, Dopplr, Upcoming etc. we are able to write shorter posts and send to a select audience in addition to the existing blog model for a more in-depth thought pieces.

Real virtual communities: The web is now starting to be used as a facilitator to connect people based of their geographical location. We are able to communicate with our neighbours through sites like Town Connect and LifeAt where residents of buildings and residential streets can find the contact details of their neighbours and post notices on a virtual notice board. Other ways that we can connect with people within the same geographical location are through mobile enabled apps like Plazes, Socialight and of course Google’s MyLocation.

Brand favourability through experiences: It is no longer good enough for a brand to push their message at a consumer and expect them to be loyal to that brand. Each day consumers are targeted with thousands of advertising messages, that in order to compete for a person’s custom and loyalty, brands must start rewarding consumer’s in return by offering them a beneficial experience. Last year, Wrangler placed a Laundromat at the Lowland’s festival in Holland where festival goers could take their mud ridden jeans, have them washed and dried, then receive a text message when they were ready to go and collect. Another great example in from P&G’s Charmin who at the end of 2006 placed a suite of 20 toilets in Times Square that promised to be clean ready for every visit. Also more recently and something that personally increased by favourability toward Becks was through their Beck’s Fusions series, when The Chemical Brothers played a gig in London’s Trafalgar Square. It’s not difficult to see how through these experiences, the love felt towards a brand is increased.

The pulling power of a crowd: Whether you want to call it Crowd Sourcing or Crowd Mining it all leads to the same thing. The increase of crowds coming together to take over the roles that were once occupied by a single person or an organisation, is spreading across a myriad of disciplines from managing a football club through My Football Club, to sponsoring an unsigned band with Sellaband. The financial industry appears to be taking the biggest hit from this trend through the increased popularity of peer-to-peer lending. Sites such as Zopa and Prosper allow consumers to bypass the high street banks, and borrow money from other consumer, usually at a much better rate.

Eco friendly: We all know it’s important and we all know that companies are starting to change their ways to ensure they are doing their bit through the Bahrain World Trade Center including wind turbines within it’s design to M&S giving it’s Bournemouth store a “green” makeover. I don’t want to teach you to suck eggs, but felt this subject needed a mention somewhere.

Using new senses through communication: Traditionally marketing communications have always reached consumers through sound and sight however, we are starting to see an increase in scentvertising. In addition to posters used at bus shelters to promote “Got Milk“, Arcade Marketing placed strips of tape that released the smell of chocolate chip cookies to people waiting at the bus stop. Similarly, Saatchi’s campaign, Don’t call and Drive disguised itself as a fragrance commercial through posters, magazines and postcards promoting Accident for women and Crash for men. The ads released a scent which was a fusion of burnt rubber, brake fluid and excrement which unsurprisingly proved to be highly effective.

Advocates 2.0: Firstly, please forgive me. I loathe people who whack “2.0″ onto every subject heading to make themselves appear to know what a pixel is, but it was the first thing that sprung to mind. What I mean by this heading, is how brands are starting to realise that they can find an ally in the newly empowered blogger who are an advocate of their brand who in turn will then share their experiences of the brand with their trusted followers. In September 2007 Chanel invited 15 top fashion bloggers from across the globe to go to Paris to tour everything Chanel including the brands history. Likewise, GM invited blogger Lyle J. Dennis, founder of GM-Volt.com to meet with their top executives and hear the latest developments of the model’s design ahead of launch. It’s not a hard concept to grasp, but by offering these experiences to key influencer’s who regularly communicate to a large audience, building advocates won’t be difficult.

Wi-Fi Communications: I have deliberately not narrowed this down by platform as there are many new technologies coming into the market within this field. Starting with the most obvious one, mobile communications will see the launch of Google Android this year enabling programmers to develop mobile applications through an open source platform. US-based Autonet Mobile have developed a mobile in-car router that enables passengers and screaming children in the back to happily surf the internet etc. via laptop in the hope of a happier car journey. Lastly German airline giants Lufthansa and T-Mobile have joined forces and are in the process of developing an airborne Wi-Fi hotspot that will enable passengers to surf the internet en route so you need never have any down time simply because you are in the air.

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Marketing, newsRight  | 1 comment

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  1. Internet blog » Trends that will grow for 2008 on January 7th, 2008 2:20

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