Philips has applied for a patent for a furry display. The display comprises areas of furry fabric. Through activation by the user, the surface of furry fabrics is electrostatically charged. The furs repel from the surface and each other vertically (like when your hair gets static). If the fur has a different color than the surface beneath it, the color of the pixel will change. When these new types of pixels are put together in a square, a completely new display emerges, which feels very soft (ns). This way we get more and more displays for interfaces with the virtual world. Pillows, sheets, hats, gloves: everything becomes interactive and connected. And through media like these we will communicate with brands. What brands will feel softest?

Hostbasket, the Hosting Solution Provider from Gent (Belgium), introduces Kim: the virtual assistant who can help clients with questions about or advice on hosting packages. It all works through natural language (selfservice company, Dutch). Brands more and more start dialogues with individual consumers. More and more of these dialogues are computerized, to be able to offer 24-hours-a-day service, and to reduce costs. Complex questions are still answered by real people. The consumer however is helped by the computer in most cases, and only rarely gets to speak to a live person. That person then is a real specialist. This is a small step in that direction.

Dutch newcomer Lootzy is a vertical search engine for jobs. Lootzy however doesn't search job sites: it searches companies' web pages. A company which has a job opening puts the job description at its own web site (this so happens anyway) and Lootzy puts it in its index (am, Dutch). This way, Lootzy will soon be on its way to completeness. Especially if through standardization of specific web pages (like a vacancy page) Lootzy will be able to gather very specific details of the jobs (full time or part time, exact location, what kind of organization, etc.). Offering the complete supply, Lootzy can then develop into a career coaching brand and have itself represented by a coaching brand agent. You can already see its face.

Through a paid account at Club Penguin kids can fearlessly game, chat and watch. There is a lot of attention for the safety of kids. Parents are updated by email about their kids' activities. (dc, Dutch) This way the (virtual) experience economy steadily takes shape. We will get high quality content and will pay a lot of money for that. With $5.95 per month this is a good example that it's really going in that direction.

Related trends

• Experiences

Albert Heijn (AH), the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, introduces a new service for its customers. When customers visit the new site of ordering service Albert.nl (a joint service by AH, Etos drugstores, and Gall&Gall beverages), they can immediately see the purchases they have previously made at Albert Heijn. A customer types in the loyalty card number, and a list of previously purchased products appears. With one click of the mouse these products can be ordered again, or advice can be obtained on other products. This is a very good way for retailers to recognize their customers in the physical world (the store) as well as the virtual world (the website). The advice we get in the virtual world is based on our shopping in the physical world. And the other way around: in the future we will walk into the AH shop, and through our mobile phone, the shopping cart or another display get advice about products we ordered at Albert.nl. The brand dialogue continues where the conversation between consumer and brand stopped the last time. This is a very strong indication that it is really going in that direction.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

Through webkoop.nl consumers get various one-day sales listed on one website (http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/online/10020/fromfeed" title="dc">dc, Dutch). This way all information is integrated and linked together. Today we get all one-day sales in one list, later they will be integrated in big virtual shops which contain ALL products and services in a specific branch. It will be the playing field of coaching brands. Including today's bargains, but also tomorrow's. We will shop hassle free (in the virtual world). We can even choose if we want to get our stuff at different shops, or get it all at the same one. If we want to get everything delivered at the same time, or in different batches. We will determine how we get it. And the easier it is made for us, the more added value is offered, the more we will pay. This is a small step in that direction.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Joost, the biggest and fastest growing video distribution platform which is still in beta, has reached agreements with independent film and television producers All33Media International, Alliance Atlantis, September Films and Wall to Wall, and also with the independent distributors IndieFlix and Shorts International (bm, Dutch). As up and coming home entertainment coaching brand Joost's focus is on being complete. That's why the company earlier signed contracts with the biggest producers from the US. In the end, Joost will contain all content that has ever been made, in all languages, no matter how old. Then Joost will help us select the right supply, or even better: "just give me something." This is a small step in that direction.

For the first time in history, China's export in the second half of 2006 outnumbered USA's. Over the whole year the US were still in the lead, according to publications from the World Trade Organization WTO. Chinese export went up 27 percent last year. As a result the Chinese will probably pass the United States this year. Germany will still be the biggest exporter in the world, however China will probably outnumber this country's export as early as next year (ld, dutch). The world's relations will slowly re-establish. In the virtual economy which steadily develops it is all about people and less about raw materials or good local geographical circumstances. In the end (around 2050) the top 5 will be China, India, the USA, Indonesia and Brazil. The Netherlands will drop to the 59th position (in contrast to the current very comfortable sixth position). This news clearly points in that direction. Is it a bad prospect, or should the Netherlands fully focus on European collaboration?

Through snap.com website owners have been able to show an automated preview from the website that will be shown after clicking (on this site we have been using it for a couple of months). This is now replaced by Snap Shots™, with which much more specific information can be shown. Try this: Information about Einstein for example (through Wikipedia), information about a specific fund like Google at the stock exchange (through Yahoo), a video clip about the very innovative Adidas Store in Paris and the like for movies (IMDB), audio (*.mp3) and products (Amazon.com) (snap). This way, the virtual world slowly takes shape. Currently the author still has to program a hyper link, in the near future we can point to what we want and get more information on command. We point our fingers and ask an oral question: What kind of bird is that? Who was Martin Luther King? Where can I order those boots? Our surroundings (read: coaching brands) will answer all those questions. This is a small step in that direction.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Two thirds of the Dutch population sometimes use comparison sites. Kieskeurig.nl is the best known comparison site in the Netherlands (67 percent have heard of it, 53 percent have used it). Consumentenbond (respectively 60 percent and 38 percent) and Vergelijk.nl (40 percent and 27 percent) are also frequently visited (mf, Dutch). People tend to have more and more faith in brands which compare the complete range of products, and less in the supplier of the product itself (who will always give his own product the highest ranking). These new types of brands can grow to be the strongest brands ever: coaching brands. Below you can read more about the survey.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

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