The Ondus Digitecture by Grohe is a slim, wall-mounted panel that adds a futuristic dimension to your bathroom. The newest addition to the award-winning Grohe Ondus Digital Faucet Collection, the Digitecture, includes temperature control, touchpad operation, an attractive faucet, and holders for soap and cups, all in one place.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In the next step our taps will be the media panels. We’ll instruct them for the experience we want and they’ll adjust not only the water and the soap, but also the light, the odor, the music, and match the bubbles to our mood, as this is measured too. The interesting thing comes when we can also visit a hotel bath in a foreign country and our health coaching brand recognizes us and continues our bathing experience in a total different atmosphere. It never seems to stop…

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• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Koopinfo, a new Dutch comparison site, doesn't just compare electronic products, but also takes into account the consumer's personal situation. In the so-called 'Kijkwijzer' (viewing guide) the consumer can enter this situation pretty precisely. You can think of such things as the distance from the couch to the tv or the way the light falls in the room.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

It’s a nice example of how comparison sites are growing into coaching brands. Later on we’ll buy everything from such sites, but which ones? That’ll be the comparison site that knows most about us, that has helped us best in the past and which our friends have good experiences with. So with which we have a relationship. This example shows how that relationship is created.

In a next step, Koopinfo will combine with housing sites that know your house completely, including the furniture, and you see and hear the effect of a tv in 3D perspective. Through the computer, the tv, mobile phone or holographically projected in the store. This is a step in that direction.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Dutch housing site Jaap.nl is now also available on the iPhone. If you're somewhere near a house and your Jaap application is active, all you have to do is shake your iPhone. Jaap will then determine which houses are available in the area. You can then look up pictures, the price, surface area, description immediately. You can also call the real estate agent.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Coaching brands are at your side 24 hours a day, world-wide. Through the iPhone or any other device. Later on all we have to call is “Jaap, would this be something for me?” Then Jaap will appear, visualized as a character, and we’ll enter a spoken dialogue. And Jaap will be able to advise you, with your background and wishes in mind. You won’t have to boot up an application. This is a step in that direction.

Dutch housing site Zuka lets house-sellers in the same price range trade homes too. People who offer their home up for trade can use the description to tell others what they're looking for, for example in which area or what price range a new house is sought. Interested parties can then approach the people behind a home themselves.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Home coaching brands will be at our side for all elements of living, so house trades too.

This thermostat by EcoBee has an especially high gadget-appeal. The colour touchscreen has an iPhone-like interface with which you can optimalise everything, but because the thermostat is connected to the internet through WiFi you can control everything from your computer (or wherever you are) using your personal web portal. If you've also linked up the energy meter, you get a very accurate image of the amount of energy you're using.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The next steps won’t be so difficult to come up with: the link to the alarm clock so that the thermostat turns itself on exactly so much earlier that your house will be warm exactly on time. Ideal for people with irregular hours. And the link to the navigational system (or your mobility coaching brand) so that the house will feel comfortably warm then too. And finally the link to the energy company, so that you can keep track of the costs. This is how comfort, saving costs and ease (when everything anticipates you; you won’t need to do anything again) go hand in hand. This kind of thermostat will eventually be found in every house.

Using HuizenZoeker's (Dutch) housing market monitor, people looking for a house can keep track of actual figures and trends in the market. They can search by province, municipality, city or the type of house. The detailed page of the house has the median of the asking price and the average asking price per square meter in the municipality. For example, the average asking price per square meter in the Dutch municipality Bloemendaal is €5,188. A drop of 0.8% compared to last week.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Anything, absolutely anything in the physical world, will become transparent and mapped overseeably. Based on this information new companies, which enjoy the benefit of the doubt, will start to advise us individually. They earn from adding value to this information. This is a nice example in this direction.

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Peek & Pompe (Dutch), a Utrecht real estate agent, is the first agency in the Netherlands to place a quick response-code on a house. Special posters on the windows of the houses which are for sale have an extra large qr-code. Passersby who are interested can aim their cell phone and read the two-dimensional bar code. Then they'll automatically be transferred to the mobile website of Peek & Pompe. They won't have to enter a URL. The exploration will continue on the mobile website.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is a nice example of product-activation. It fits in the trans of the dialogue in which the subject of discussion returns, in which both parties (the brand and the consumer) recall which product they’re talking about. Currently with qr-codes, but later we’ll walk along the street, spot a house, hear in our earphone that it’s for sale and can enter directly into the virtual house, while we’re really standing still.

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• Brand-dialogue

HuizenZoeker.nl, a new Dutch housing site, collects the offers from the various other housing sites (Funda, Huislijn, Dimo, Vbo, Era, Remax, Makelaarsland, LMV, Garantiemakelaars) and combines them into a complete overview. For more information on a house one is referred to the site where the house was found. If a house is available on multiple sites, the consumer can choose which site they want to look at then.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

At this time, the creation of coaching brands is still all about completeness in the category: give me a site which lists everything. Only those sites will survive, only those brands will survive. Then it’ll become an art to offer added value. That’s the basis on which home coaching brands can be created.

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The Dutch living concept Stay or Go calls the members of its community on Grohe Rainshowers to test a special kind of shower head. This was sent to the members through email. By clicking the link in the email a personal page is created where the users only need to add their zip code. The rest is already filled out and users can then click 'send'. That's all you need to do to sign up. Then Grohe selects people based on their profile, including their zip code.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands that have access to the consumer (coaching brands, Stay or Go a home coaching brand in the making) catalogue the demand in name of the consumer. The testing of products is a part of this. This time Stay or Go is making a general call (or was it because I once said I wasn’t happy with my bathroom?), soon it’ll be able to select the consumers open to this kind of thing accurately.

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• Coaching brands

Through Dutch housing site Zuka buyers and sellers can chat with one another directly. Typical questions that aren't (as) easily caught in a database - for example 'from what time will the sun be shining in the garden?' or 'when was the exterior painted for the last time?' - can easily be answered in this way. In an extreme case one might even be able to make an offer from the chatroom.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

You can sell or buy a house just like any other object. We used to need all sorts of complicated things for this, but in the network economy that’s being created it’s all about allowing two parties to meet. In a next step, Zuka could arrange for a notary, sort mortgages and arrange the move. Sometimes you’ll need a physical, real person, but that’s going to be the case less and less. This is a development in that direction.

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• Network economy

The new housing site Brixter (Dutch) helps consumers appraise their own house or that of others. Based on an address (or looking it up through Google Maps) Brixter makes an initial estimate. By adding in further details (state of the kitchen, isolation, state of the paintwork, etc) Brixter comes up with a better estimate. The consumer can then publish this indication and the details of the house on Brixter. Brixter can also show actual housing offers.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how home coaching brands are slowly taking shape. Soon a house will be worth more automatically when you’ve renovated it; the home coaching brand will take care of it for you. If you want to move, all you have to shout is: ‘What’s my house worth now and are there potential buyers?’ You’ll have an immediate answer to that question. That’s something completely different from first orienting yourself on an estate agent’s selection.

Housing site Jaap (Dutch) now also offers a renovation service. People who stop using Jaap (e.g. cease looking because they want to renovate their own house first or people who want to renovate their new home) are redirected to a separate page on Werkspot.nl. There the consumer can look for a renovator through an auction principle and the renovations can begin.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Currently you switch brands and get redirected to another, but soon Jaap will be able to organize that for you perfectly well too. Jaap will organize the renovation (help you make a choice between renovators), insurance companies, stylists until you’re living wonderfully, but after two years your needs change. Again Jaap will be at your side. Because Jaap knows your situation precisely and knows whom you’ve worked with in the past. Until you want something else again seven years later. This is how home coaching brands are slowly taking shape.

Dutch housing site Moviq lets you 'flirt' with your house. You can set your house to 'flirt' and people searching for a house can make an offer. You don't have to accept, just like you don't have to accept an offer in a real flirt.

Housing site Miljoenhuizen.nl (millionhouses) shows houses that have been for sale for a specific period. It has, for example, the ability to show only those houses that have been for sale for over half a year, or have been added just under a week ago. The archive offers all 750.000 houses (in the Netherlands) that have been for sale since May 2005. A so-called heat-map shows in one glance where the market is tense and where it's going downhill.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Home coaching brands reason from the consumer’s point of view. All the information that the consumer needs, even if that advice is ´just stay nicely where you are´, is given individually. The origin of this type of brand can be seen in developments like these.

House specialist Immospy, known in the Netherlands as miljoenhuizen.nl, is now available in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. By focusing on Europe (instead of individual countries) almost 4 million houses for sale are made available.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Europe is increasingly being treated as one market. Soon we will be able to arrange mortgages over international borders (why should the provider have to come from our own country?), choose Europe wide internet providers, Europe wide insurance companies and internationally operating home coaching brands. These stand by to help us enjoy living, wherever we are in the world. This is a step in that direction.

Zoek Alle Huizen, a Dutch housing site, answers all questions consumers have about real estate agents. Questions such as: "Which real estate agent gets the best prices for the houses sold?" or "Who sells the fastest?" Based on objective data, from the city hall amongst others, the answer is given. Through the addition of a zip code the user will be given a selection of real estate agents. The information is sent through email and costs 25 euros for the data of 3 agents. Personal brands stand beside the consumer. They add value by looking up information the consumer doesn't want to look up, or simply can't look up. People will pay for this added value. This example fits seamlessly into this long term trend.

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