Digitalism and recent technological developments, like RFID and NFC, enable customers to interact with the product and allow them to purchase everywhere at all times. In this digital environment, customers ask for orientation, transparency and trust in the product.

In order to understand consumers’ individual needs in detail and ultimately enhance their shopping experience, we interviewed people on their typical shopping behaviours and came up with five different shopping typologies:

• The Inspiration Seeker
• The Duty Shopper
• The Recreation Shopper
• The Smart Buyer
• The Aesthete

Each of these typologies requires different store concepts and technologies to support the individual shopping habits and desires. The Berlin-based “Kochhaus”, for instance, invented a new and simple store concept, which is targeted towards the group of consumers that we identified as the “Inspiration seekers”. The shop is organised in various stations displaying a picture of a meal, the corresponding recipe, all necessary ingredients to prepare the food and the total costs. That way the customer gets cooking inspirations, can choose a meal and is able to buy all the ingredients and even kitchen equipment at once.

“Das Kochhaus” in Berlin, “Eataly” in New York where you can get your fruit and vegetables freshly sliced and the REAL Future Store where customers get to test new technologies like the “Mobile Shopping Assistant” are rare examples of how to meet consumers’ needs. The potential for new concepts and the usage of modern technologies is still far from being exploited, which leaves a lot of room for new innovative shopping designs.

Women and men don’t seem to believe in the perfect fitting jeans anymore. Who hasn’t experienced the “pains” of trying to find a new pair of jeans? Especially women struggle with a variety of sizes that barely match their body types. According to a survey by Levi’s, 54% of all women try on at least 10 pairs of jeans before finding the right pair. Interviews with female consumers revealed that 90% of all women want better fitting jeans compared to the ones they already own. In the past, people developed so called “workarounds” to deal with poor fitting clothes or just didn’t buy as much as they wanted in the first place.

We think that finding the perfect fitting jeans shouldn’t be the consumer’s problem; it is rather the responsibility of the fashion industry to deliver matching clothes for more than a small percentage of the German population. By doing so, fashion companies can differentiate from their competitors and unveil unexpected business potentials. With “Curve ID”, Levi’s has successfully developed an innovative female fit-system based on different female body types. In addition to the already existing different sizes in waist and length, Levi’s took women’s curves in consideration when developing three different body-shaped jeans allowing women to find the perfect pair of jeans for their individual body type. Hubble believes that the future of fashion will be highly influenced by these best practice cases.

The demand for custom-tailored clothing will be growing even more over the next years; and big fashion brands need to react to people’s desires in order to stay global players in their industry.

The traditional definition of entertainment is obsolete. – Media convergence, social networks and new technological possibilities have changed the reception of entertainment radically. These are just a few results of Hubble’s research about entertainment. In consumer diaries and in-depth interviews, we tried to investigate the understanding, the consumption and the role of entertainment in people’s lives.

Three different groups of people – youngsters, senior creatives and mid-ager women – were asked to write down their daily consumption-habits of entertainment for an entire week. They were also given a disposable camera to capture exciting entertainment-moments. The effort of the participants and the amount of entertainment in their lives were just remarkable.

When analyzing the diaries, it became conspicuous that the definition of entertainment seemed to be the complete opposite of what we found in dictionaries and encyclopaedias before.

1. Most of the traditional sources defined entertainment as the passive consumption of media. In the case of the diary-participants, entertainment meant an active participation.

2. Due to media convergence, the attention span for a single media channel has decreased in the past few years. Our participants, for instance, were using more than one device at a time when sitting in the underground or checking their mails while watching tv or listening to music.

3. In the past, entertainment was solely related to people’s leisure time. These days job and free time seem to overlap. We check private and work emails on the same device and facebook combines friends and colleagues on one platform.

4. Not too long ago gaming seemed to be just reserved for entertainment experts: men in the age of 10-20 years were considered to be the typical gamers. Nintendo’s Wii has proofed that new target groups, like families and older people, can be reached easily by using a simple interface that meet their needs. The age of semi-professionals and amateurs had started.

5. The classical definition of entertainment implies relaxation and amusement. In fact, people want inspiration and stimulation rather than just vegging in front of the tv. We want to emphasize that the perfect entertainment-experience of all participants had to be a real-life event. Despite or because of the growing importance of social networks and digital interaction, the meaning of live-concerts and public viewing-events with friends couldn’t be more significant nowadays. Sometimes even tv-shows like “Germany’s Next Topmodel” or “DSDS” give a reason to meet up and chat with friends.

Hubble’s research showed that the understanding and role of entertainment has changed significantly in the past few years. A new definition of entertainment requires new entertainment products. Examples for those products are still very rare. In the future, companies need to develop products that match people’s needs even better and more efficient than ever before.

Source: www.schoeneswissen.de

Most people need a good big mug of coffee every morning to open their eyes and get all set for the day. Coffee junkies even need it during the day to keep them going or just to enjoy the great taste. Unfortunately the window of opportunity to enjoy the perfect coffee is quite small, considering the fact that the temperature of fresh coffee is way too hot and then it turns way too cold, way too quickly. Two guys from the US developed a pragmatic solution to always have the perfect cup of coffee: Coffee Joulies. The beautiful little helpers cool fresh coffee down, store the heat and return it to the drink when it starts getting cold. Coffee Joulies make your coffee perfect, every time.

The iPad Extreme Sleeve, from G-Form, is a product that illustrate two of Hubble’s marketing paradigms; Product is the New Marketing and Creativity is the Most Powerful Force in Business.

In the age of social media, companies have to create a product that delivers on its promises and does so in a way that people will praise your product and spread the message.  The iPad Extreme Sleeve has one purpose: protect your precious iPad from the clumsiness of human beings.  So how did G-Form show that they delivered on this promise? First, they dropped an 8 lb bowling ball onto an iPad encased in their Extreme Sleeve, then they used a 12 lb bowling ball, then they said screw this, lets just throw it out of a plane.  And what do you know, in all three cases the iPad still worked.  Now product reviewers are joining in on the fun; posting videos of themselves doing such things as pounding the Extreme Sleeve with a hammer and even running it over with a car.

So what’s so creative about an iPad case that does its job? Well, its made by a company that specializes in sporting equipment.  The G-Form technology was developed as a lightweight solution to protect cyclers, skateboarders, and mountain bikers from injuries.  The owners of the company were smart enough to realize that the market for consumer electronics outweighs the market for athletic safety equipment and that if they have a product that can prevent bones from breaking, maybe it can protect an iPad, laptop, or cell phone too.  Knowing and understanding how to move existing offerings into new markets is one of the building blocks of innovation.

Inboxes are the new wallets–stuffed with too many receipts to even begin to organize.

That’s why Project Slice is today launching a new application that will automatically scan your emails and collect all your purchase information in a single place. You’ll be able to see a history of what you bought and when. And for online purchases, you’ll be able to see when your items shipped and what their tracking number are.

The new application, All My Purchases, is launching inside Yahoo Mail and will be rolled out to the service’s 89 million accounts in the United States. Project Slice is also beta-testing a version for Gmail. And mobile tools are in the works—so you can carry your purchase histories with you when you’re on the go.

Using sophisticated algorithms to interpret the content of emails, All My Purchases can identify which emails contain information about purchases. It pulls all that information into a single application that shows all the things you bought—whether it’s a big-screen TV from Best Buy or a box of candy from a Mom-and-Pop saltwater taffy shop.

www.fastcompany.com

It all started with buy ten get one free. The value was transparent for everyone. People would buy ten bags of sugar and get one free or buy ten roses and get one free. That was the first loyalty program ever and it’s still the dominant model.

In the 1950s Kaiser’s launched the stamp model in Germany. People got stamps with every purchase and glued them into a book. When the book was complete, people went to the store and redeem it for products or got some money back. This was basically the establishment of a virtual currency. It completely broke the users’ ability to keep track of the redemption. It used to be ten to one. With the virtual currency the customer had no idea how much he was gaining in the redemption process. The company knew how much every stamp was worth, but the end user could not keep track.

It was American Airlines who figured out that it’s not about virtual currency but about status. Status is what drives loyalty. Everyone who ever tried to redeem frequent flyer points for a flight to the US knows that. Redemption is not the core value proposition. That fact explains present models in which loyalty programs have merged like Farmville or Foursquare. In those programs you cannot redeem for anything in the real world. You cannot extract one dollar from Farmville. In fact it’s all money in, no money out. When Zynga initiated the very successful campaign with Seven Eleven in the US, the company did not redeem ones Farmville credits for every Slurpee (flavoured frozen drink). People had to buy a Slurpee and then got Farmville credits. Basically people they were putting money in and nothing came out, which is brilliant for the company.

The bottom line is, if companies don’t have a good status system to offer to their customers in exchange for their behaviour, they need to give them cash. And the worse the status system is, the more cash they have to provide. This is the gamification loop.

The NFC technology will finally enable us to connect virtual and real world – really! NFC is short for near field communication and it will become the single most important innovation in mobility since the launch of the first iPhone. NFC on modern smartphones will finally usher in the age of the “Internet of Things”. So what can NFC do for us?

The Tag reading apps know it all

Lets think retail. With an NFC tag it will be possible to check prices, get additional product information such as manufacturing details, origin and whatever will be relevant to the consumer. Besides retail NFC will provide a wide range a possibilities for tourism. Since the tag reading can take place and be useful long before purchasing takes off in force.

The Freedom of Purchase finally becomes reality

That’s the scenario talked about most often with NFC. The smartphone with NFC becomes a “mobile wallet”. For example, you could use your smartphone held near a payment device to pay your restaurant check, as made possible by Verifone and Micros Systems. And of course the purchasing scenario combined with NFC tags is even more compelling. It enables self-service shopping combined with a very fast and foolproof purchasing step, all enabled by each consumer’s ubiquitous smartphone. That will mark the end of the annoying queues.

The new way to manage Objects

Once tags are available on all of these objects, driven by these previous two steps, a final phase can begin, which hasn’t been discussed much so far: intelligent adaptation and management of everyday objects. Specifically most new products will be NFC tagged. This allows a whole host of new kinds of apps where the NFC tag on the object can enhance the smartphone user’s experience and productivity.

Ubiquitous smartphones equipped with NFC chips and world of “mostly NFC tagged objects” opens up huge new possibilities for apps, which are only starting to be imagined.

Human mankind moved from food hunting to food avoiding. In consequence of the convenience trend we lost the ability to cook and lost sight on what and how we eat. If you consider eating only, what your grandmother would have clearly labelled food, your next shopping trip will become an intensive search. And you will end up buying raw eatables instead of ready-cooked-meals.

Food is our fuel of life. We are what we eat. Food influences our health, our physical appearance, our intelligence and our wellbeing. So why do we pay so little attention?

Because it has become too easy to be lazy. The supermarkets offer everything for everybody. But this approach has actually led to a system where no one gets, what they really want. We have come to terms with excessive supply and the loss of orientation.

By taking a closer look at peoples’ needs and wishes, we can define five major groups. These groups have only one thing in common: they want to eat. But apart from this, there is no further match. It’s even worse: they constrain each other.

The Sprinter

The sprinter knows exactly, what he wants: all the ingredients for the Sunday roast or just  spelt muesli and milk. And he wants it fast. Yet, he is confronted with a system that is trying to confuse him and make him buy as much as possible. The elementary edibles are well hidden, the way is blocked by promotions and seasonal articles several times and the shopping carts are so massive, he feels bad about taking only his muesli and milk.

The Inspiration Seeker

This group is looking for some decent recommendation. What should I have for dinner tonight or what shall I eat with my friends on Friday? All they find are never ending storage racks offering three meters of jam, five metres of bread and endless chocolate varieties. But still they have no clue what to eat at night. At the end they might buy a package of chewing gum with a new ice flavour and decide for eating out in a restaurant.

The Socialiser

The socialiser wants to get in touch. He wants a little chat, some distraction or even a flirt. The attractive single nearby exposes his private life by the pack sizes and products he chooses. No childcare products in the shopping cart – great! But how to get in touch and where? Is the meat-shelf the right place to start a conversation or rather the noodles corner? PS: The “I’m-single-ribbons” to stick on your shopping cart are not a solution, they are just embarrassing.

The Penny pincher

The penny pincher is always on the search for special offers. Buy one get one free – he will. The hunter is ready to trade time with bargains. His shopping trips are well planned and organised in advance, nothing is left to chance. Considering the fact that this group is showing the willingness to invest a fair amount of their time to save money, it is the basis for a loyalty business-model. If you invest your time in my brand, I will offer you a bargain. Rather than boosting the time spent comparing different offers this will lead to loyal and engaged consumers.

The Health Advocate

They want to know everything: where it comes from, how it lived, how it has been raised and what exactly is inside. And they are ready to spend more money in exchange for transparency and quality. Listening to these peoples’ needs brought along the organic trend. First been smiled at and now they are the biggest driver of growth in the whole industry.

Are we ready for rethinking retail concepts?

I have written a lot about story value and storytelling and how embedding a story into a brand’s DNA can help make it successful in the social web (check out my most recent post story value – continued). This post is about where and how those ideas originate and that ‘selling’ the story starts way before the first consumer ever sees or hears about it.

A brief detour for those of you not familiar with the inner workings of an agency: Before anything we create reaches the consumer it has to be approved by the brand owners, aka the client. What the client gets to see has usually been created by a creative team who in turn usually works off of a creative brief or strategic concept developed by a strategic planner/strategist inside the agency.

So before an idea actually makes it out into the world it has to fight its way through the approval processes of a lot of opinionated people and it all starts with the strategic planner/strategist. To make sure that the basic idea survives various egos and motivates talented creatives to work on it, it has to be presented in the most inspiring, alluring, simple and motivating way. And it turns out that storytelling is the most effective way to do this. Just like great storytelling seduces the consumer, it can (and has to) seduce the creatives and decision makers on the agency and client side – or it will never make it out of the conference room.

In a recent PSFK article titled “Skills Of The Rockstar Planner: Communicating Ideas”, planners talk about how storytelling is one of the most important skills in order to articulate an idea, seduce people, simplify complexity and – most importantly – make other people want to bring the idea to life.

Source: www.hovding.com

We all probably have heard and read how wearing a helmet can reduce the chances of a serious head injury while riding a bike. Some countries even legally require the use of a helmet while riding on a public road. And still many cyclists refuse to wear a helmet. Why?

Because helmets are not cool, they aren’t fashionable, they ruin your hair do…and so on. There are just too many reasons for not wearing a helmet that we can relate to as opposed to having experienced a serious head injury.

But here’s something that will – hopefully – change our minds.

After several years of research and development a bicycle helmet unlike anything available on the market was launched yesterday. It’s bicycle helmet called Hövding (chieftain) that does not even sit on your head. The founders and inventors Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin showed up world news at the Technical Fair in Stockholm.

“We wanted to develop a protection for cyclists that take account of the requests we got in our investigations. The protection would include preserving the sense of freedom and not ruin your hairstyle”, says Terese Alstin which is one of the inventors.

Hövding is a discreet collar that the cyclist is wearing around his neck. The collar contains a folded airbag which is visible only at a collision. The airbag is designed as a hood that in case of an accident will enclose and protect the cyclist’s head. Release mechanism is controlled by sensors that register abnormal movements of the rider in an accident.#

See Hövding in action:

For six years, Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin have been working with the development of Hövding which is based on advanced technology and research. Both are trained industrial designers and it was during their degree project that they got the idea that laid the foundation for the development of Hövding. Today, twelve people work full time with Hövding. www.hovding.com

Content will have a huge come back. I am sure many people will cry BS and say that content was never gone. Maybe it wasn’t and maybe it’s just me but I feel like the discussion around content has been overshadowed by the discussion around social media in the past year or two. It was all about clever campaign mechanisms that utilize Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare, about the worth of a “like” and about new technologies and start ups like local response or adaptly.

While this surge of tactics and technologies is certainly interesting and allows for new ways to connect people with people and people with brands, we must

not forget one thing: At the end of the day these are all just delivery and propagation mechanisms for ideas (aka content). So now that even casual mainstream internet users and corporate america “get” the “how” of social media and now that we are all connected to the brim, it’s time to worry about the “what” again. What are we going to deliver to audiences that is relevant, entertaining and/or useful to them? What will make them tune in, listen to and pass on ideas and content?

This where the return of talent comes in. Real, professional talent that creates content for a living, not as a hobby. This is a big (and maybe the last) opportunity for entertainment content providers to come back and start what I would like to call “branded entertainment 2.0″. A few years ago branded entertainment was all about escaping ad-skipping devices like digital video recorders (DVRs), now it’s about creating content that is designed to be shared.

Be it music, film, art, gaming or just interesting stuff about things we like. The social web is hungry to discover and share professional entertainment again. And now that the social media infrastructure is ubiquitous, brands and content providers need to sit down and figure out how to create stuff together that will populate the infrastructure and carry the brand’s ideas into our culture.

To carry on a previous thread we find important, Creating Story Value Part I: Surfing the Social Web and Creating Story Value Part II: Products That Make Them Talk,we will explore some more examples of brands that have managed to embed a great story into their product, service or general way that they do business. Why is this important? Because since the dawn of civilization people have used stories and story telling to transmit information to their peers and from one generation to the next. Stories are a fundamental mechanism of the human mind to process, remember and pass on information. And that’s what makes stories one of the most important currencies in the social web: stories spread so much easier than facts because they leverage this key human insight.

I would like to start off this new series with a B2B example, the advertising agency Mistress. It is a relative new comer on the ad scene, LA based, complete with a story that most agencies new or old have never dared to consider.

How do you stand out in one of the most generic industries out there? How do you differentiate your offerings, when everyone is offering the same thing? Mistress, was probably wondering the same thing.

The name is no coincidence, it’s true, they don’t want to be your main agency, “the wife”, the committed relationship, they just want to be the Mistress, the always fresh, always exciting, creative agency on the side. This eases the pressures of relationship expectations.  The agency that gets to be fearless, that has the guts to make cool projects happen.  Only a year in, they are already working on their second TV show for a major brand and doing a world record stunt at the Indy 500 this month.

Mistress put their story in their name, their brand, their philosophy, and their success will stem directly from it.  They “built-in” the value of their story; a story that has, so far, proven attractive to clients and a conversational piece to the industry.

For Reebok’s Classics sneakers we have created an initiative called “We R Classic”. It is a global nexus for creativity and collaboration where artists, dancers, musicians, designers and other innovators come together, exchange ideas and get inspired.

This is an example for the concept of ‘brand utility’. It’s not about selling to our young, creative and culturally influential audience. It’s about being relevant to them by being useful and helping them achieve their goals. In providing a stage for young artists to show their work and share their passion we give them what they value most – a platform to connect with a larger audience. And since we are showcasing artists from around the world we can extend their reach way beyond their local scene and create interesting, international content for Reebok at the same time.

Aside from providing a stage We R Classic also enables and promotes collaboration for the community. Together they connect and combine forces, making an entirely new creative intersection of cultural pioneers worldwide.

Check out this example about Berlin-based artist Izzy Weissgerber:

At the age of 20, Izzy discovered that her unique way of seeing the world had less to do with her being a teenage misfit than with a rare condition that rocks an exotic name: synesthesia.

It comes in 60 reported forms. In one of the most common, grapheme, letters or numbers are perceived as colors. Furthermore, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. In Izzy’s particular case, every person is associated with a number and a color. This seems to be the DNA of her artistic vision, although she prefers to maintain some mystery about her work.

She started with portraits of friends and family in which she ‘protected the soul’ of her subjects by covering their eyes. That became her distinctive mark—along with her synesthetic interpretations of each individual. Her painting style mixes pop art, graffiti and photography, and talks to you in a language that you may not understand, but will surely dig.