Six Modern term brief by Trendwatching

Will 2009 be the year in which all things ‘contextual’, ‘app’, ‘local’, ‘urban’, 'tags', 'lidar', ‘smartphone’, ‘convenience’, 'Cell ID', ‘spontaneity’, ‘infolust’, and ‘GPS’ come together in one orgasmic celebration of map-based tracking, finding, knowing and connecting?

ECONCIERGES are firms and services dedicated to helping households go green in any possible way.

FEEDBACK 3.0 (which is building as we speak) will be all about companies joining the conversation, if only to get their side of the story in front of the mass audience that now scans reviews. Expect smart companies to be increasingly able (and to increasingly demand) to post their apologies and solutions, preferably directly alongside reviews from unhappy customers. Expect the same for candid rebuttals by companies who feel (and can prove) that a particular review is unfair or inaccurate, and want to share their side of the story.

Reviews on FEEDBACK 1.0 AND 2.0

• FEEDBACK 1.0 (one of those early web phenomena) saw outraged individuals posting scathing reviews, feedback and complaints, often to the delight of other netizens. Brands remained unaware or chose not to listen, dismissing these outbursts the way they'd dismissed any kind of customer dissatisfaction for decades.

• FEEDBACK 2.0 (which we're in right now) is about these rants—and some raves—having gone ‘mass’(no, make that MASS!). The long-predicted conversation is finally taking place, albeit amongst consumers and not, as intended, between corporations and consumers. Companies have started to take note, but to a large degree still choose to listen, not talk back, trying to ‘learn’ from the for-all-to-see review revolution. Which is surprising, to say the least, since a quick and honest reply or solution can defuse even the most damaging complaint.

On to every brand professional’s favorite topic (or so it seems at times): The Future of Luxury. How will luxury brands fare in 2009? What will define luxury over the next few years? The answer to a large degree is, ‘luxury will be whatever you want it to be’. After all, what constitutes luxury is closely related to what constitutes scarcity. And while scarcity in traditional consumer societies was for decades defined by the biggest, the best, and the most expensive 'items', the consumer arena in 2009 shows a bewildering number of 'scarcities', some of them invented purely to overcome the abundance now found in traditional sectors. More than ever, scarcity is in the eye of the beholder, especially those beholders who are desperately trying to be unique. So in 2009, instead of worrying about missing out on the next big thing in luxury, focus on defining it.

Let’s begin with NICHETRIBUTES, which is about the power of making products and services relevant by incorporating ‘attributes’ and features that cater to distinct (if not niche) consumer lifestyles and situations.* This is not about NOUVEAU NICHE or the Long Tail: NICHETRIBUTES are attributes / features / additions to existing products, making them more practical for specific user groups, while at the same time signaling to those users that the brand 'gets it’, that it cares, and in some cases even pays tribute to their lifestyle

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