Heinz organizes a recipe contest (in dutch). People can vote for recipes, and the recipe with the highest number of votes will win a cooking workshop (mb, dutch). Brands experience their brand coming out, a process of change in which the boundary between consumer and provider fades. Terms like co-creation, user-generated content, user-generated products, open source marketing and even crowd sourcing: they are all part of this process. Consumers now invent recipes, next they will check, change and approve recipes, design new bottles, new sauces and even new forms of distribution. And the brand just grows stronger and stronger. The brand manager however is not in control any longer so most brands will need to change. That is exciting. These are amusing times!

Related trends

• Brand coming out

Through Intellifit's newest scanner we can now get automated brand advice. You are in a clothing shop, you step in a scanner (with all your clothes on), you push a button, step out of the scanner and your advice is right there. With 200.000 measuring points the form of your body has been determined, right through all your clothes. Your sizes are printed on a small card (via fc). This is the starting point for fashion coaching brands. Once they also start recording our skin structure, eyes, hair and lifestyle, then we can get real personal fashion advice. Video clip below.

Dutch marketing community MarketingFacts is starting its own e-mail newsletter. This illustrates the turnaround of the publishing process. It starts with a community: a group of people with shared interest, being marketing in this case. MarketingFacts selects the most important items that have been written on its web log in a week's time, and publishes these in its newsletter. The next step will be a (paid for) MarketingFacts printed magazine, for which professional journalists will do in-depth research on items which obviously interest the community. Traditionally printed magazines follow the other way around. In the end, communities will be leading, and paper copies will just be there for entertainment and more in-depth information. The brand however will be stronger than ever before. This is a first step in that direction.

If companies become more and more international, and their interests in strategy, creation, production, and distribution are globalized, how can a labor union still be a valuable discussion partner? How can a company that increasingly has to compete with India and China, listen to ONE labor union that has only one goal: to keep its members in the Netherlands (or another western country) satisfied. In this situation it is merely impossible for a company to keep a lot of people employed in only one country. It is all about adding value to the lives of people world wide, as an employer as well as a supplier. National labor unions will lose their power as discussion partners, and it looks like there is only one solution: an international labor union. A point of focus for career coaching brands?

According to Ph.D. student Ronald van den Hoogen, through e-justice it should be possible to make some judgments completely computerized in the future. Just provide the facts and the circumstances, and the verdict can be made. This way, IT can take over simple and repetitive actions from overbooked court rooms. At the moment, various courts experiment with digital files, they test the possibility to hear suspects and witnesses through video connections, parties can electronically send their process files to court, and more and more judgments can be found on the internet (uu, Dutch). The world keeps developing. There are cameras everywhere, so we feel safe, we discover that punishment-on-the-spot works best, and at the same time we computerize jurisdiction. The time is coming close when we will directly see a fine when we drive our car too fast, when we drive drunk, or when we drive too close to other cars. Or when we bother other people, when we illegally go into certain places, or when we use discriminating words. Anything the majority of people thinks we shouldn't do, will be checked automatically. This way 'Big Brother', although originally forecasted for 1948, continuously comes a small step closer, and might finally be there in 2048. These developments from the legal world also contribute to that.

Dutch consumer organization consumentenbond has recently started to show all of its tests online. The organization originated in a time we saw many products on the shelves, of which we didn't have more information than the information provided on the box. In those days, people had less money, and consumers wanted to reduce the chances for a mis buy. A gap in the market the consumer organization jumped into. These days we have much more information, reviews of our friends and other people available to us through our mobile at any time. Besides, we can compare many more products than just the pre selection of the consumer organization. To my opinion, the consumer organization will have to extend their database (include all products), mark the products that have been tested and those that haven't been tested, invite consumers to add information to tests (or further involve them in the testing), and at the same time facilitate purchasing, for example through testing stores and linking to them. In the end, a business model only survives when it adds value to the lives of people. And once you have made your choice, you want to order directly, and get help in that process. If the consumer organization then also splits its activities in different brands, a nice foundation is laid for the development of several coaching brands.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

In almost half of the countries in the world (194 in total) physical abuse of children in schools is allowed. In 31 countries (about 16%) the situation is so bad that children can get whipped or even amputated as a disciplinary measure. This is the outcome of research from Unicef, the children's fund of the United Nation, which was presented in Berlin yesterday. According to Unicef it is a paradox that abuse of grownups is prohibited in most countries, while they make exceptions for children. Only in fourteen countries (less than 10%) there is a complete ban on abuse of children. The UN-research furthermore shows that 150 million girls and 73 million boys are abused sexually (ld, Dutch). Every country still has extremely different norms, and totally different opinions about what is normal. The UN-research proves that again. What will happen if we connect these worlds in a way through which it looks like we are really there? The world will probably not become more stable. At least not in the short run. The future will show us.

Sony patents a hand controller with which each finger separately can 'feel' pressure (gb/uw). This is an important difference with for example the controller of the WII which 'only' determines the position of the controller in the room, or which reacts to fingers without touching a screen. It adds the dimension of tangibility. We try to make the virtual world more and more real. So that we feel, smell, see, hear, or taste something that is actually not there, that doesn't exist, at least not at this location. A world in which brands will keep reinventing themselves. This is a small step in that direction.

Vodafone in research discovered that women call Customer Service more often then men, that they call longer, send more text messages and more often have their voice mail on (tc, Dutch). That is, women (in general) communicate more and (again, in general) better. Like they do in the physical world. As the virtual world starts to look more and more like the physical world, our behavior in the virtual world will also become identical to our behavior in the physical world. Thus, in the virtual world the division of roles also comes through.

Dutch broadcast organization BNN is going to make people smarter. Presenter Katja Schuurman in the show Get Smarter in A Week will show it is really possible to become a little bit smarter. Famous and infamous Dutch people will get intensive training and spectacular exercises to learn to use their brains anew (ld, Dutch). TV programs are virtual experiences: experiences from a distance. They become more and more personal. Now still for big groups of people, in the future we will follow a personal training with a small group of people, live or not live. A training maybe 10,000 people will follow at the same time, and pay for with big bucks. But we will get smarter through the training, so it is worth it. Now it is still content for big groups of people, on a small budget; in the future content will deliver meaningful experiences for people to carry on with. The selection of the right experiences in this area will be the point of attention for career coaching brands, brands which help us in our personal development. This is a small step in that direction.

The Holocaust Museum Washington now shows videos of the civil war in Darfur at Google Earth. Pictures and reports of ordinary people can also be seen there. We imitate the real world, real time, in the virtual world. In the future we will be able to experience everything from a distance, while feeling we are really there. Today, last week, one hundred years ago, a mix of those, or even in the future. This is a small step in that direction.

KPN is becoming more and more informal. Earlier employees were called by their first name (Dutch), now consumers are given a leaflet 'we're happy with you!' In this leaflet the consumer is addressed completely with 'je', while the site still uses 'u'. (Dutch, like French and German, still distinguishes between a formal and informal second person pronoun.) Two developments can be seen in this. Firstly brands are experiencing a 'brand coming out' in which they become more equal, more transparent and start to develop, operate and communicate more openly with the consumer. This is shown by being on a first name basis amongst other things. Secondly brands will enter the dialogue with individual consumers and maintain a consistent tone like people have when they speak with one another. 'Je' on the site means 'je' on the telephone and 'je' in a leaflet. Other people who'd rather keep their distance will be constantly addressed with 'u': on the site, in the leaflet, on the phone. By that time you'll be welcomed into KPN's virtual world by a brand agent who recognizes you instantly and continues where the dialogue left off. Currently brands are struggling with this, but the looking for the right tone and equality is a step in the evolution of brands.

Related trends

• Brand coming out

Subscribers of Dutch Psychologie Magazine received the anniversary issue with their own picture on the cover. Through Printing On Demand (POD) more than one thousand subscribers received their own personalized version of the magazine. A selection of these covers can be seen in an exhibition in the 'Kunsthal' (Art Exhibition Center) in Rotterdam (mf, Dutch). Even magazines become more personal. The internet becomes leading, paper is for learning and entertainment. But the more personal, the better. Especially when it is shown on the coffee table, then it is part of you. If you then can adjust it to your own taste, consumers will not turn their backs on magazines.

Scientists are working on shoes which make you feel like you're walking forward when you wear them. Through small wheels in the shoes turning in opposite direction, it feels like we move forward while in reality we stay in the same place (fc, Dutch). We try to imitate the real world as much as possible, so we can experience everything from out of our own homes. So that we can jump from experience to experience. These experiences in the future will be provided by brands. This is a small step in that direction.

Google Labs are testing their Voice Local Search, with which consumers can select a local service through voice recognition. When you call 1-800-466-4411, first needs to state the city and (US) state, then the name of the company (Giovanni's Pizza), or the category (pizza). Sometimes you'll get more choices which you can all respond to through speech. In the end you are connected (for free), or you'll receive a text message with the contact details. It works pretty good already, although Google sometimes does make mistakes in the voice recognition. It is a very difficult process, but step by step brands make the leap to understand our spoken word. This is a small step in that direction.

Since the publication of my book 'Van Massamerk naar Mensmerk' (From Mass Brand to Personal Brand) in August 2005 many people have asked me if the summary was available in English. I have always wanted to do that, but because of my focus on the Netherlands I never really got to do it. Very recently however I have started working on a new, more international book, and I am looking for international cooperation. For this I very much needed the English summary of my first book: see the translation below (in cooperation with Winning Letters). The new book by the way has the same theme: the future and its impact today, but it has a very wide scope (society, economy, marketing, with much more attention for the human species) instead of a very narrow scope (brands). Brands will still make an important part of the book, because I think they will gain a lot of importance in the lives of consumer compared to their importance in the 21st century. To be continued...

Related trends

• Coaching brands