Investor's Business Daily, July 30th, 2007
People fail to spot trends because they don't target the right elements -- demographics and specific technologies.
"Those elements drive what I call hard trends -- the predictable future," said marketing consultant Daniel Burrus, co-author of "Technotrends."
He points to these technologies:
Change accelerators. Bandwidth, processing power and storage capacity are change accelerators "because they're transforming the way we live, work and play," Burrus told IBD.
Years ago, he predicted the increased capacities of these accelerators. "Yet even today, many firms aren't using them maximally" to boost revenue and profit, he said.
"So many firms use storage, processing power and bandwidth in a variety of ways, (but) they should be asking themselves:
'How can we leverage these accelerators to change how customers interact with us? How can these technologies transform how we communicate, collaborate, market and sell?'"
Digital marketing. Burrus says all ad campaigns should be supported by what he calls the five pillars of digital marketing: content, interactivity, search, personalization and community.
"In the old days, media and marketers created the content and viewers watched it," he said. "Yet the Doritos ad for the Super Bowl was created by viewers. Content is no longer a one-way component."
Interactivity will become increasingly common in marketing, as will search, product personalization and the targeting of online communities geared to niche interests.
Burrus doesn't say we should abandon traditional media. He suggests blending all media "to get better and faster results."
The 3-D Web. Burrus' advice to businesspeople? "Go get a kid who's into the most advanced video games and see the future of the Internet. The Web experience of the future will be an inner-spatial 3-D environment."
We'll still have a two-dimensional Web, but the Internet's new inner space will provide an endless range of options: "Totally virtualized 3-D trade shows, auto dealerships -- with 360-degree, 3-D tours of cars inside and out -- 3-D travel and real-estate sites, and more," he said.
Wireless e-medicine and virtual hospitals. "Increasingly we'll have devices like smart toilets that automatically do urinalysis, then wirelessly transmit any abnormal results to your doctor's office," Burrus said.
With virtual hospitals, "you'll have tests performed from home, the results will be transmitted to the facility, and if you need to be admitted you'll be assigned a room via your computer or TV screen," he said. "You'll then drive to the hospital and walk to your room."
With so many opportunities ahead, firms and individuals should spend an hour a week "scoping out hard trends in their industries," Burrus said.
The goal: "To harness the future now."
