Online Payment Provider PayPal now also offers the possibility to make payments through banks. With a PayPal account customers now have the choice between payments through credit card or through a bank account, for local as well as international payments (cc, Dutch). This way a brand taking care of all our payments slowly comes into being. Whether it is through a credit card or directly through a bank account (debit), PayPal takes care of it. Starting from this total package, PayPal has the possibility to grow into a financial coaching brand. It can introduce a home brand account. It can start offering additional services like instant loans. This way PayPal gets more and more meaning in our lives. This is a small step in that direction.

Through Dutch website Ilse Reizen (Ilse Travel) consumers now have all travel options available at once. Based on criteria like a golf course, the climate, or total travel time, you will get a list of potential destinations. Then you check the price and the availability, and when you're satisfied, you book it. Now this works for flights, hotels, travel packages, car rental and a combination of these. Later holiday homes, campings and related travel products will follow. You book with the organization offering the trip, and Ilse Reizen earns money through CPS deals (mf, Dutch; ilse reizen can be tested through login: ilse, and password: bloggerpreview). This way travel coaching brands slowly come into being. Now Ilse Reizen is complete. Later she will ask all customers for their reviews about their experiences. And they will connect with social networks, so that Ilse Reizen will be able to say: John has been here last year and really loved it. This way, publishers change into coaching brands. With huge added value in the lives of consumers. This is a great example.

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• Coaching brands

Hypolife is an intermediary for mortgages, pensions and financial planning, working with fixed rates. The provision Hypolife receives from insurance companies are given back to the customer, and then a fixed rate is billed. The rates therefore are much lower, according to Hypolife. This development is seen in many more fields. Products and services are easier to compare, provisions are made public, and with that the original added value of the intermediary (and its financial rewards) disappears. Coaching brands take their place. They compare all products and all services in a certain field, in a personal context. This is largely automatized, and sometimes a specialist connected to a coaching brand will jump in to help. For this service must be paid. In these kinds of developments, coaching brands originate.

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• Coaching brands

American Social Network MySpace splits off its video sharing to MySpace TV. Its structure strongly resembles YouTube (dc, Dutch). This way coaching brands get more focus. Facilitating contact, the main focus of social coaching brands, is very different from entertaining people, the main focus of home entertainment coaching brands. This split-off makes it possible for both brands to really focus on their core activities.

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• Coaching brands

Entertainment and movie brand MrMovie is now available through the mobile phone (mc, Dutch). He or she who wants to see the latest film news, see listings or find upcoming movies, can visit MrMovie's mobile pages. If in the future everybody has Messenger on their phones, we automatically connect to MrMovie's chat bot from the restaurant we're at, find what top movie they show in the neighboring cinema, and reserve directly. Then we finish our espresso and walk to the cinema. This is a small step in that direction.

Handyman site Werkspot asks customers, handymen, and home improvement stores to help them grow, by making them Werkspot Agents. Handymen can earn 25 euro by signing up another company or handyman, a store can place a special Werkspot display, and customers get the chance to earn a free subscription to a home improvement magazine. Besides, at the homepage a suggestion box is put in a prominent place. Brands involve consumers. The line between employees and consumers gets thinner. In the future, people together form the brand. This is an example of developments in that direction.

Telefoongids.nl recently has started its beta version of its own chat bot, named Finnu. Who adds msn@detelefoongids.nl to his contact list in Windows Live Messenger (still consequently called by its old name, MSN Messenger) can search for companies, services and people in a typed dialogue, and call them in one click. Telefoongids is the first guidebook in the Netherlands working with a chat bot (tc, Dutch). Brands have more and more dialogues with their customers. Now through a typed dialogue on the computer, more and more often through Instant Messaging on the mobile phone, and after that we will be able to talk to Finnu. If Telefoongids becomes a social coaching brand we will say: "Finnu..." "Hi Erwin!"; "call John for me please"; and John will be called. No matter if John is on our contact list, or has to be found somewhere else: that doesn't matter to the consumer. As long as he gets called. This is a small step in that direction.

At Udoo consumers can now design their own avatar, and show it on their mobile phone. Avatars are like the voice mail of the 21st century: they are electronic versions of ourselves. Like the tape on the answering machine, or the Out-Of-Office message in our mail program. We can let these smart avatars handle contacts with other people in our name. In the end they become so real, that for other people it feels like they have had real contact with you. Now they still look as characters, in the future they will really look like people. And the fun part is: we see a mirror image of ourselves in the avatar, only just a little fancier, a little smarter, a little more fun. When we communicate with this 'mirror', our avatar learns our way of speaking, our gestures, and our facial expressions. And our avatar this way can better and better represent us in the virtual world. This is a small step in that direction.

Online community MySpace now has its own (beta) version of Messenger (Instant Messaging). Earlier MySpace had a web version, and it looks like they keep developing this (dc, Dutch). This way social coaching brands evolve. Social coaching brands facilitate mutual contact between people, irrespective of through what display. They recognize you instantly, know in what dialogues you are involved with which friends, know who are your good friends and who are not. And they bring the contact to a higher level. It starts with facilitating contact in different ways. First a synchronized through pages, then through Messenger. And in the end we will also have live text, audio calling, and video connections through social coaching brands. This is a small step in that direction.

The fast growing Danish furniture chain BoConcept has consumers design their own furniture, and place it in the virtual version of their own home (through Dana Connor at DMN, Dutch). Here home coaching brands find their origin. Now the consumer still has to provide all the measurements, later home coaching brands will have those available for us, anywhere we are. Now we still have to draw our existing furniture ourselves, later these will also be available already. And the same for the lighting plan. Now we still do this through TV screens, later through every possible display, even in the shop. Now consumers have to design their furniture themselves, later they will be able to ask a designer from Canada, Taiwan, or India. This is a small step in that direction.

Google now has a hidden function with which the user can search for people's faces. By typing "&imgtype=face" behind the URL of the search results, Google will only show you faces. Who is looking for Johan Cruijff then doesn't get the Johan Cruijff cup, soccer fields, books, cars and other Johan Cruijff related things, but only faces. In the results you will also get faces of other people, but this is a good filter again (dc, Dutch).

This way we get better answers to the questions we ask. In the near future our question "I'm looking for a picture of Johan Cruijff" will be analyzed to: Johan Cruijff -> personal name. Picture of personal name -> picture of face. After that face recognition will be applied (Google bought face recognition specialist Riya back in 2005). For well-known people a database like Wikipedia will be consulted. For unknown people all pictures will be compared to each other, and the most likely person will be shown. After that, social coaching brands will search for names we know. There will probably be thousands of men named Jan Jansen, tens of thousands named John Smith, and maybe hundreds of thousands named Li Wang (in China there are only 100 surnames). An individual person however probably only knows one or two of them at the most. Social coaching brands will know exactly who we want to see, and will find the right pictures of these people right away. Google has laid the foundation to make this possible.

The new European video portal Babelgum has the ambition to make all content for consumers available. Meaning all content made by consumers themselves. The money is (still) to be made through advertisements (mf, Dutch). This way a new home entertainment coaching brand comes into being: a brand that entertains us on a TV night. A brand that knows how to deliver top-content specifically in our interest. A brand we will be willing to pay for. This is a start.

TomTom as a world premier makes it possible for motorists to improve their maps through its TomTom Map Share™ technology. All users of this system can change maps themselves, and at the same time take advantage of the changes made by others. This way they always have the most accurate maps (tt). People share their experiences with others, real time. Now for road maps, later for nice restaurants or new shops. We won't just see what people thought about it, but also what our friends thought about it. Coaching brands will assist us and will find solutions for the problems which then arise: a new shop that attracts so many people on its opening day, that it is too crowded to normally serve people. TomTom takes a step forward again in developing itself as a mobility coaching brand.

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• Coaching brands

Many clips of video-sharing site YouTube are not watched on the YouTube site, but on other websites, like here at erwinvanlun.com. YouTube now automatically adds recommendations for other related clips to these. If you move your mouse over the clips, a carousel of clips automatically appears. YouTube this way develops itself further as a home entertainment coaching brand. Now through related clips, later through related clips within our personal interest, background and related to the moment. After that also through interactive experiences. It is like taking a friend to a boutique: you like something you see, and your friend has some more suggestions based on what you just said. Because there is always more... This is a small step in that direction.

TomTom in its newest navigation systems has added a Help Me button in the main menu, which provides direct access to information about safety and road services. Motorists this way get direct access to local road services, they can get First Aid information, and they can get extended information about for example the traffic rules per country. Even the closest garage, pharmacy or police station can be found quickly. The user can call the number shown on the screen, while the TomTom system shows where he or she is at that moment (tt). mobility coaching brands this way further develop: brands that (safely) get you from A to B. Now the user still has to contact the helpers himself, and tell the location he is at, in the future TomTom will automatically contact police, ambulance or road services when you are involved in an accident. Now just in the car, in the future also when you are on a train, a boat, walking, cycling or in a trishaw. When we think of transport, we think of our mobility coaching brand. This is a small step in that direction.

Dutch funeral organization Monuta provides insight into the costs of graves through the grave costs meter (Dutch). Monuta published the rates of 500 cemeteries in cooperation with the national organization for cemetereis (Landelijke Organisatie Begraafplaatsen, LOB) (ms, Dutch). Monuta with this helps us select a cemetery. In the end this will be the task of social coaching brands, which will make sure we will be buried next to our friends, that our pictures will be found there, and that our favorite music will be played still. This way we add a couple of years to our lives in the virtual world. This is a small step in that direction.