e-spaces

03 May 2007

By David Abrahamse 

A New Economic Revolution: 

There have been 3 major economic revolutions in human history on our planet. Being the agricultural, industrial and the information technology. We have recently entered into a new one that is going to have major implications as we evolve and innovate exponentially. I call it the experiential revolution, it’s been referred to as the experience economy  (The Experience Economy by Pine and Gilmore), the new economy and also the knowledge or design economy. Whatever you call it! It’s been driven by progress and innovations. We all need more! Design! from product, packaging to interior design and branding.

From the beginning of time human beings as with babies have been obsessed with two things communicating and travel. Essentially we can communicate anywhere at any time via various means for free (The Economist, The world in 2007 Don’t bet against the internet Page 124). One day, travel will be the same! Oil has been the main contributor in holding back the innovation. Bio-energy (Green) will change this and thus get ready for various new design inventions to get us around. The UAE is obviously aware of this and have started making other plans in different industries, again contributing to design. They are building islands at an alarming rate, the latest is an island in the shape of the world and you can buy
Africa.

The world has never been wealthier, healthier and wiser than we are today, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, there are five levels; the first being basic needs like food clothes and shelter and the top been self actualization. The world in general is a lot closer to the top of the hierarchy then at the bottom right now.

With the advances we have made and are making in science, medicine, technology, engineering and design. The world is going to be a very different place within the next 10 years. In the future humans will be living a lot longer than they are today (The Economist, The World in 2007 Towards immortality, Page 141) and have very different designs on the planet.

Picture a world with no televisions and print media (The Economist, The World in 2007 The Web is a serial Killer Page 119&120). Instead digital wall paper, flying smart vehicles with renewable energy able to take you into space, smart skyways with collision avoidance systems, super every thing from trees to food, peer to peer banking, team buying and virtual shopping. (The Economist, The World in 2007 Industries, Energy Page 105-108)

Lots of new products mean lots of new things to design. Products of the future are going to have to be multi functional and atheistically pleasing (MFA).

Sensory Branding: 

But it’s not all about things. It’s about your image, which is your brand and your brand is everything!

In the future we as consumers will demand that all our senses are engaged (Brand Sense by Martin Lindstrom) That means companies will need to have there own unique look, feel, taste, smell and sound. Look and feel have been around for ages. Sound, taste and smell to varying degrees but on a very small scale unless that’s the product. Only 4 of the Fortune 500 brands have there own sound. Smell is the one sense you can’t turn of, why do so few companies not have there own smells? Without smell you can’t taste.

Sight is unquestionably our most powerful sense. But when it comes to garnering an emotional response, scent is a much more powerful trigger. “75% of the emotions we generate daily are affected by smell,” says Lindstrom, author of Brand Sense. “Next to sight, it’s the most important sense we have”. What’s more, people can recall smells with 65% accuracy after a year, while the visual recall of photos sinks to about 50% after only 3 months”. For years the world’s advertising and design agencies have been creating the business world’s visual identity, honing brands to a precise combination of colour, photography and typography. But the retail experience has catapulted into a new era. No longer is it about dropping into a store for necessities. Now it’s about the whole retail experience from start to finish. The media makes us want the perfect lifestyle, with the perfect house, car, body, relationship. Now we want the perfect shopping experience.  With this in mind and their 30 years combined experience in therapeutic aromatherapy, Aromalogo™ is a new pioneering business, creating a new dimension for marketers and brand custodians to engage the customer in an all round customer experience. Like a visual identity is created, an aromatic identity can express the brand. And, Aromalogo™ has created the technology to sustain an aromatic presence in retail environments, underpinning the brand experience with comfortable, elevated experiences. With Aromalogo™ creating the pheromones for your brand, the benefits are obvious, more dwell-time and enhanced brand loyalty.The aromatic solution involves the formulation of an Aromalogo™ (signature aromatic brand identifier) to reflect the identity and personality of the brand and create a brand presence in a retail environment. Then the installation of a dispensing chamber that is a dry dispensing mechanism located in key contact points, as in the store entrance. Which dispenses at an appropriate ambient-aromatic level Consumables are volatile essential oils, non residual and recyclable and organic.
 Social Responsibility:But it’s not all about branding and engaging all the senses. It’s about social and environmental responsibility!In the future consumers will only deal with brands and their products that give back to the environment and the people. Brands are going to have to be green with no or limited carbon emissions. Packaging and products will have to be organic, reusable and 100%  recycleable.Brands will have to find ways to make their business models profitable by using a lot less energy and other natural resources. Brands will have to offer a lot more to all their stakeholders including the communities they operate in. They are going to have get innovative and creative.For a brand there will be nothing more important, more lasting, or more wealth creating than having the insight required to transform their environments and thus their customer’s environments and therefore their experience. There will be no economic value more tangible, more palpable, or more worth well than achieving this.