I did a presentation in Tønsberg last week. I’m not going to put up the whole presentation here. But instead I would like to put up a few pictures and links I’ve found the last weeks. First up is Aftenposten (Norwegian) who wrote about a new book by Jesper Bo Jensen called “Future Consumer Tendencies and Shopping Behavior”. Jensen thinks that people in the near future not will use material goods to show their wealth.
Tid: Afkobling, have tiden til sin egen rådighed
Opmærksomhed: En luksus at være massemedie-fri – at kunne være fuldt sammen med et andet menneske
Rum og plads: Udfoldelse, der hvor ingen andre kommer, væk fra bilkøer, monkey-class, forsimple sin bolig
Fred og ro: Fravær af larm og støj
Natur og renhed: Ren luft, rent vand, mad uden gift
Sikkerhed: Fuldkommen tryghed er en ny luksus – næsten alle steder er risikobetonede
In English (my translation):
Time: Relaxing, to decide over your own time
Attention: A luxury to be free from massmedia, to be with another human being 100%
Room and space: To be where no one else comes, away from traffic, monkey-class, simplify your home
Peace and quiet: No noise
Nature: Clean air, fresh water, food without toxics
Safety: 100% safety is the new luxury, almost all places involves risk
Have a look at his presentations, where you’ll find lots of interesting statistics on the new luxury, like this graphic called “The new phases of life”:
Future homes
The National Association of Home Builders did a study to find out what our houses will be like in 2015. Washington Post reports:
“The formal living space isn’t as important,” said Andy Rosenthal, president of Rosenthal Homes in Potomac. “As a baby boomer, when we grew up, we all had living rooms, but we weren’t allowed in there. Now we don’t want living rooms because we weren’t allowed in there anyway.”
Local builders did agree with the survey’s findings that “green” methods will become more widespread. The builders association predicts that the home of the future will have water conservation devices and energy-efficient appliances, among other features. “The cost of energy is going to continue to rise,” Paul said. “It will encourage essentially green building and efficient building.”
Women rule
I showed this graphic at the presentation, with numbers from Tom Peters (click to enlarge):
It shows that women make all the most important economic decisions in a family. And my point was: Pay attention to your female customers, or you will loose lots of money! I have studied couples shopping tvs and games, records and movies, toys, clothes and kitchen stuff at a local mall, and could easily see that both male and female sales people paid more attention to what the male said, than to the female. Even in Norway, where women are more liberated than any other country in the world. “Dine Penger”, a Norwegian monthly on personal economics, ran this in their September 2007 edition (click to enlarge):
The shopping experience
I also made a point about shops have to understand that experience is becoming more and more important for shoppers. If your shop looks like thrash, well… My example was the highly successful Apple Retail Stores, and also Amoeba Music – which looks very basic, but has an amazing selection and staff that know just about anything about music.
A clips that shows this trend, from Aftenposten again, about BMW’s amazing new store in Germany – BMW Welt:
Picking up your new BMW is almost as important as owning it. BMW makes it a big experience, and people love it.
Expect the unexpected
Finally a Ludwig Wittgenstein qoute, which I got in a paper from one of the fonds I invest in, Skagen Fondene.
Which proves a point in itself: I’m certain I would not have qouted a Skagene newspaper if all they did write about was funds and investments. But when they try to see out of their usual circle, it gets interesting.
Also on the subject of predicting the future: Read the excellent book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
And finally; this one from Wired Magazine, the September 2007 edition:
40 degrees and hungry
The people who saw my presentation were dead tired after six hours at the golf course. The dinner was waiting, and the room was 40+ degrees Celcius. Not the perfect conditions for a presentation. But I got some nice feedback afterwards, and some angry looks from record and movie executives. 😉