As Venice Sinks, It’s Time To Surf.
So I wonder what all those pigeons in San Marcos Square think of this?
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Trend 3: The Return of Girly Glam.
Last year I noticed that women were once again proudly displaying their breasts.
No, I’m not gay and no, I’m not some kind of pervert. My world has simply been so permeated by the ‘business casual’ of faded jeans, indy-band T-shirt and scruffy runners or the Dockeresque chic of Mommalution uniforms that the mere sight of curve-hugging fabric and plunging necklines was a smidgen of a shocker. Yet second-skin tops and stilettos were suddenly everywhere, along with the enthusiastic return of fishnets. Photographer Monica Michelle is swamped with bookings for Boudoir sessions while ‘Bliss Pleasure Party’ entrepreneur Chrystal Bougon can barely keep up with demand for lacy lingerie and sexy toys.
At a Girls in Tech event in San Francisco, my fellow panelist the bodacious author Sarah Lacy, was mobbed afterwards by fans who were as likely to have questions about her fab boots as her fab book.
In May, Sex and the City smashed all box office estimates. We saw it at a theater in Santa Monica that was sold out from the first showing straight through midnight. Glam girls lined up in their Jimmy Choos, giggling with their own Samanthas, Charlottes, Mirandas and Carries. It was full court femme power, and I realized that girly glam was not just a budding trend but was in full lush bloom.
Several recent ethnography projects have yielded an emerging Persona — the Girly Green or the Glam Green, if not quite the Sexy Sustainable. This intriguing psychographic is as apt to be interested in Day to Night Barbie as she is a non-toxic ingredient. Can we have sparkle and shimmer and wrap it all up in natural green tea and shaved ginger? Can we have a Girls Night In, with organic spa smoothers and fragrant Lush balls melting in the tub? Can we forever lose the image of Berkeley granola ‘crunchies’ in Birkenstocks and replace it with the ’sexy, smart green living’ of new site EcoStiletto?
Fashionista sites like Style Hive, the 44-million-unique viewers per month strong Glam Media, and runner-up, the Sugar Network,continue to morph into Internet power players. Even newcomer BettyConfidential, initially positioned as a forum for women across many life stages, has reinvented itself with uber-girly stories about lipstick, sex and harem pants.
And then there’s Project Runway, the hit reality show that made sewing machines and tape measures sexy. “Fashion is the new food” declared one publication. Icon Tim Gunn chimed in with ‘It’s crack. It’s addictive.” Ratings continue to rise with each successive season.
So does all this girly glam mean that voila! women have finally achieved so much equality that we can now afford to literally let it all hang out? That women no longer need to dress or behave like men? That we have choices — every permutation of chic from chictini to Hillary’s custom pantsuits to Sarah Palin’s much ballyhooed booty from Saks?
Some thoughts:
For Marketers:
- Make no assumptions.Just when you thought that those 82 million Moms with their 85% of US purchasing power are marching into stores lugging their big green eco-purses, you may discover they’re actually clutching Kate Spade’s shiny new thing and tottering on their Naughty Monkeys, thanks to Zappos’ 400 employees’ persuasive customer service tweets.
- In the early days of the Internet, we could get away with creating one persona –e.g. ‘Abby’ aka Mrs. P&G. No more. Women are schizo, splintered and trying to have it all, if only for as long as they can get a babysitter.
- If you had a solid Social Media Research program in place, along with an evolving Social Media strategy, you wouldn’t be wondering what this trend means. You’d know.
For The Rest of You:
The generations that grew up on the Marlo Thomas mantra Free to be you and me are doing just that.
Guru’s Note: If you’ve enjoyed this excerpt, stay tuned for my upcoming book, the trend guide: Rock Your Future.
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The New Potluck Economy: What Will You Bring to the Table?
The old-fashioned, Leave It To Beaver, church-basement concept of the Potluck Supper is back in style.
For those of you who missed this very 50’s ‘harvest gold, Kraft Recipe way of life: a Potluck supper is one in which everybody brings a ‘covered dish’ to the table. Usually this is a family favorite, a specialty of each particular cook. One woman may bring her Sunday best chicken casserole; another brings his homemade wheatberry muffins; yet another bakes up a sumptuous Red Devil’s food cake. And so on and so forth, until the table is rich with the imaginative recipes of each of the chefs.
A potluck gives everyone a chance to shine in their own special way. No one dish is the star; no one cook dons the apron. Which is why, even if you haven’t potlucked in eons, you ought to think about the enduring idea behind it.
In life, we all bring something to the table. Some of us are talented artists, others excel at sports, others are savvy in business. No one quality is necessarily greater than another– no one talent whups another. Sometimes we meet someone and say ‘Wow, look at the way she aced that serve. I can’t do that!’ Or ‘gee, he’s really great at closing a deal. Sure wish I was that good.’ We tunk ourselves because we feel we don’t stack up. Sometimes we let this stop us from trying, from going further, from expressing our own abilities — whatever they are, wherever they may be on the path to excellence.
That’s when we need to remember the concept of Potluck. Each of us, every single human being, brings something unique to the table. Each of us brings something worth sharing. Whether it’s boundless ideas and energy (Adryenn), an eye for making everyone look their photographic best (Monica), the gift of loving support (Allie), creative business savvy (Claire) or style to die for (Corinne) . . . all are making an important contribution. It takes everyone, every flavor, every taste and texture, every dish to make a Potluck.
Today, more and more people are RSVP-ing a resounding YES to the new Potluck Economy. We’re bartering, trading, link-exchanging, Freecycling, donating, giving of ourselves and our stuff in a myriad of imaginative ways. New technology is letting us collaborate, communicate, co-work and co-create. We’re couch surfing, ooffoo-ing and crowdsourcing. We’re innovating breakthrough ways of working, living and being. It’s definitely not business as usual. Thank God.
This then, is the new Potluck Economy. Welcome to the table. What will you bring?
Guru’s Note: This is an excerpt from my upcoming book: Rock Your Future. The New Trends, Tips & Tricks.
Guru’s Update: Here’s a good article on bartering from the Monterey Herald.
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Improv Everywhere Strikes Again. This Time at JFK Airport.
Their slogan is “We Cause Scenes.” And that they did, as comedy performance masters Improv Everywhere flash-mobbed at JFK, apparently on behalf of Absolut. Their stated mission is to cause ‘chaos and joy.’ I would so love to see them do another Freeze like they did in Grand Central, only this time on a glacier as First Dude Todd Palin zips by on his snow machine.
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Trend Alert 1: WWGD? What Would Grandma Do?
From the upcoming Trend Report: OH SNAP! How To Snap Back During These Unsettling New Times.
TREND 1.
It was no surprise President-Elect Obama gave so much credit for his success in life to his beloved late Grandmother ‘Toot.’ Grandmothers have long been the rockbed of solid values, common sense and abiding love. Some 2.5 million children in our country are being raised by their Grandmas, ensuring that new generations are growing up with daily nudges about thrift, frugality, common sense and substance, along with hefty helpings of broccoli and roast chicken with too much limp parsley.
If Grandmothers had been in charge, Wall Street would never have imploded, gas would never have hit $4.99 a gallon, little Johnny would never max out his Visa and no one would have heard of IndyMac or AIG. No one would be subsisting on high fructose corn syrup, partly hydrogenated fats and maltodextrin. No one would be suffering from an extended case of Affluenza, feverishly fed by what Grandma would call “stuff and nonsense.”
This is why so many savvy folks on the brink of life and business decisions are asking themselves one key question: WWGD? What Would Grandma Do?
Here’s a SNAPSHOT from OH SNAP! on Grandma’s Financial Policies:
- Grandma would applaud KMart for its return to the Layaway Plan.
- Grandma would mourn the Sarah Palin who shopped at Saks while applauding her for (formerly) bringing the whole family in to buy at Anchorage’s Out of The Closet secondhand store.
- Grandma would applaud the rise in trust of local banks — 66% of consumers in a recent study said they had confidence in local banks, versus fewer than 25% trust US banks.
- Grandma would applaud signing up for the local bank’s Christmas Club. Remember Grandma put $5 in her Christmas Club account every week or month –frugally setting aside her ‘egg money’ (okay, sorry that was Aunt Bea) so by Christmas she would have a nestegg to spend on really scratchy sweaters and odd wooden toys for the grandchildren.
- Grandma gave you US Savings Bonds on your birthday. (Okay, not so fun)
- No credit cards, no interest rates, no late fees. Cash is king, especially when saved painlessly week by week.
- Grandma knew no one in Nigeria, much less a Prince who left her money.
Here is a smattering of folks who asked WWGD? — and mashed up Grandma Values with Social Media so we can all snap back together in these unsettling times:
If things get really tough, Grandma would find herself a part-time job, probably by social networking with her canasta group. She could always take up knitting, like these famous Swiss Net Grannies, who will personally knit you a pair of socks. Just pick your Granny!
Guru’s Update: Sears has now joined the Layaway revival trend.
Stay tuned for Trend 2: The New Potluck Economy.
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We’ll Always Have Belgium. Where to Get Married in the Post Prop 8 World.
Now that (boo!) Prop 8 has tanked here in California, where will lovebirds go to get married? Why Belgium, of course, where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2003. And now there’s even a cool new kind of wedding: Marriage in the Sky.
Marriage in the Sky is hosted on a platform, where 20 guests are strapped into aircraft-like seats and suspended at a height of 50 meters. The wedding ceremony can be customised to every couple’s wishes, including spectacular elements like bungee jumping off of the platform after vows have been exchanged. A second crane can be used to suspend another platform at the same height, making room for entertainment or more guests, especially if one’s friends tend to work for Cirque de Soleil.
Guru’s Note: Just don’t invite me unless I’m issued a parachute and my own case of champagne.
Thanks, as always, to my fellow trendspotters at Springwise.
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Trend Spotting For Springwise at San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival.
Frequent Guru of New readers know I love tuning in to cool-hunting site Springwise for my fix of droolworthy new business ideas.
Springwise is powered by the Springspotter Network, a team of global marketing-savvy spotters who recognize a juicy new trend when they come across one.
Are you surprised to hear I happen to be one of those Springspotters?
Today I was jazzed to discover one of the ‘hot spots’ I contributed is featured in this week’s edition:
It’s one thing to offer luxury portable toilets for hire at private events, the way Igloo does. For a company like Visa to sponsor similar upscale conveniences as a privilege for its customer members, however, is quite another matter.
Yet that’s just what Visa did this summer at San Francisco’s Outside Lands music and arts festival, where it set up a VIP Signature Lounge reserved exclusively for the use of its cardholders. Those in possession of a Visa Signature card could gain access to private luxury restrooms a far cry above the porta-potties provided for the masses, along with a private bar and a free blanket gift for visiting the lounge. For entry, cardholders had simply to present their Visa Signature card, their ID and any valid festival ticket.
In addition to sympvertising—infusing one’s advertising with a dash of sympathy for consumers’ current plight—Visa’s effort provides a nice illustration of what our sister site trendwatching.com would call a brand butler offering, giving consumers some free but relevant assistance (branded, of course) to make their lives easier. Whether it’s a luxury loo or laundry service at a festival, consumers today are more likely to accept help from your brand than they are to listen to your ads. So put your money where your customers are, in their real-world lives, and give them a hand! They might just repay your kindness sometime. 
Website: www.visa.com/signature
Contact: https://corporate.visa.com/ut/contactus.jsp
Spotted by: Sarah Browne
Guru’s Note: Visa also happens to be smartly creating a presence on Facebook with its Visa Business Network. The network has 1753 fans, largely thanks to a terrific $100 ad credit, which gives businesses an opportunity to experiment with the increasingly effective Facebook’s mini ads.
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