TomTom is launching a free Online Route Planner. With this travelers can plan a route before leading and receive exact traveling and arrival times which take into account current and historical information regarding traffic flow during the day. HD traffic with 500 billion historical speed measurements of roads across the world is integrated too.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are disconnecting from screens and enter the dialogue through every possible one. That dialogue goes on. Where a conversation ends on one screen, it continues on another. Currently for two screens (nagivational system and computer screen), soon for every screen you can imagine. You just call ‘TomTom’. You’re recognized immediately and the dialogue is continued. This is a nice example of this development.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

T-Mobile offers business clients discounts and group discounts (Dutch) when they develop a long term relationship: the longer you're a client, the higher your discount. This loyalty discount can go up to 6%

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

It’ll be increasingly more difficult to get new customers in the medialandscape that’s developing. When it used to be the rule that it’s five times as difficult to get a new customer than it is to keep an existing one, this ratio is only going to get worse. Finding new customers is going to get increasingly more difficult. Because of this brands are forced to do their utmost to keep existing customers. With service, but also with price. This is a nice example.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

Two iPhone application, Trein (Train) and iNap, will start to work together. Using Trein you can see up-to-date time timetables for your stations, you can look up disruptions and construction work and plan train journeys that are remembered. iNap wakes you up (gives you a signal when you reach your final destination). The integration means you only need to tell it your final destination and you'll get a signal when you need to get off or switch trains.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how the travel coaching brand is slowly shaped. Currently as an iPhone application, but soon you’ll plan your journey from every possible screen. And if you need to take a cab ride too, you’ll be helped with that too. Whether the brand is called ‘Trein’, ‘iNap’ or something else, eventually there’ll be a buddy for traveling from A to B across the whole world. A buddy we’ll be happy to pay for. That’s the big development.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

In 2050 the labor force in Africa will have tripled to 1.12 billion. This is evident from the World Migration Report (Dutch).

At EZ My Styling, a Japanese company, consumers can upload a photo and then try out different hair styles.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Ever more brands are starting to personalize their advice. Eventually we’ll have an exact 3D replica of ourselves and we can try all sorts of possible hairstyles, clothes and accessories. We can make our virtual self walk, exactly how we walk, and then ask our friends how it looks. While you’re lying on the couch. This is an example in that direction.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

There are over 200 million immigrants in the world. That's about 2.5 times as many as in 1965. That's what's been concluded in the World Migration Report (Dutch) released by the International Organisation for Migration.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’re taking away more and more hurdles for people to travel across the globe and find a new spot. Security, costs and language barriers. Or the lack of contact with the home front. It’s all becoming increasingly easier, and this trend shows that.

Related trends

• De-nationalizing

Erwin van Lun's Mensmerk.nl and ErwinVanLun.com's category structure has been radically revised. The most important reason for this change was the continual confusion at the term 'personal brands'. I use this term to describe a new type of brand that burrows itself into a specific area, knows all about it, then study the individual consumer and guide them in their area. This was often confused with 'presenting yourself as a brand' under the term 'personal branding'. That's why I made a call to people in the TrendUpdate that led to an interesting discussion. As a result from now on I'll use the term 'coaching brand'. At the same time I've made more changes to make my work as a futurist and trend analyst clearer at a first glance.