LSN Global and The Future Laboratory

At the LSN Global trend briefing last week I noted down the following:

The rise of the MAVIN nations (post BRICs, we’ll have Mexico, Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Nigeria as emerging global powerhouses)

42% of businesses see the recession as an opportunity not a hinderance, and that businesses will change for the better. They see that the next few years as a hotbed of opportunity around the following areas. These are what you should invest in! More sophisticated technology, advanced telecoms, hometech advantages, customer knowledge, the female workforce, social media growth (though probably niche, not broad), and increasingly ethical practices.

Rethink what is a “Status” brand. Companies like Howies, Toyota, Timberland are all making it plain and clear what they stand for. Their values are communicated in everything they do. Similarly, M&S’ Plan A is a business goal, but is also helping consumers with their own eco-goals.

People want to know about products and their provenance as considered consumption continues to impact society. There’s opportunity for “sexy data” – more like The Feltron Report, perhaps, but for supply data. Check out Daytum and Information is Beautiful

Check out Prefab Parasites (above).

Consider Monocle’s Quality of Life table or Mercer’s indices of “most liveable cities”, pushing the quality of life index higher up the agenda. People are considered with what’s Local, Authentic, Trustworthy, Traditional, Ethical (LATTE is the rather unfortunate acronym). Brixton’s Cornercopia – local shops for local people often with their own currency!

Watch the Story of Stuff below – people want businesses to be less flabby, to be clearer in their values: Lean, Efficient, Alternative, Neutral (LEAN. Ahem).

20% of the UK population works over 48 hours… but doing what you wonder! The average number of apps on an iphone is 67. How many are languishing? There’s an increasing desire for more meaningful connection. There’s increasing corporate and cultural de-cluttering going on as we search for cognitive simplicity. Clay Shirky talks about filter failure below:

Growing companies are specialising in producing less, not more, range of good. Andy mentioned plus minus zero recently. Check out their short but beautiful range of products. By making less products per year, using mapping and considered targeting to reach customers globally, with simplification at the heart of the design (“does it need ironing…” or “does it fit into my handbag”…) your company can be significantly help customers in their decision making process as we all shift to stripping down to the essentials in our lives. Consumersim will be the death of this planet whilst demand fuels needless and destructive supply.

Check out Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week for tips on how to streamline and make more efficient your life, or look at This Breathing Earth to understand the planet and our impact on it.

52% of people are working towards making a smartphone their only device. Sales of these are set to outstrip worldwide PC sales by 2011. Intel are developing “quiet time” technology such as email switch-off devices as people look to detune, switch off and streamline.

The net is clearly a hotbed of entrepreneurial thinking and products. The Kauffman Foundation was made to help innovators flourish as increasingly it is the small, continuously developed, networked, highly responsive, risk friendly businesses that will become successful in the 2010s. Stop having “think tanks” and start promoting “do-tanks”.

Squatters Ltd is an interesting shop that lets brands try out their products with consumers before a full launch. Ace Hotels know they’re best at running hotels, so rather than trying to be a retail stop too, they invite the likes of Opening Ceremony to run their gift shop. Icon Magazine have diversified from running a magazine but when it comes to their pub quiz, subjects range from, well Architecture to Art.. .and that’s about it! The Vinyl Factory realised that as digital music becomes all-powerful, people who really care about music will pay for premium products. Vinyl smells like music after all. In a heavily digitised environment it is smell, touch, weight, context that stands out from the rest, that becomes important. Tangible can be profitable.

Online retail wont die though – worth $1bn ten years ago, it’s now worth $20bn. But only 7.5% of purchases are made online still… that’s scary when you work out the rise of consumerism (as mentioned above) but for retailers it shows there opportunity too. The mobile money market is expected to be $8.6bn by 2014. We’re firmly in the second generation of e-retailers – the first experience of your brand will likely be online. People dont distinguish between online and offline shopping. Brands must be globally reachable and locally relevant.

Few. That’s that.

Ask me a question in the comments box if you want to know more about anything from the briefing… or you could ask LSN (but they’ll probably charge you!)