How do advanced manufacturers create global demand? They look to the trends and build their products and services around them. They don’t do market research. As Steve Jobs told Fortune: “So you can’t go out and ask people, you know, what the next big [thing]. There’s a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, ‘If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse.’”
Think for example of the boom market in telematics, electronics systems that fit into cars that enable the consumer to drive effortlessly and safely, tap into the grid and check what’s going on around them New hybrids, micro hybrids and electric cars will have telematics features. Toyota has announced its new models will have such features as emergency assistance location and stolen vehicle notification. The new Chevy Volt will have features that allow consumers to program when they want to charge the vehicle much like they operate home heating and cooling system.
They can charge their cars during the off period. The Indian-produced Reva NXR is a lithium-ion powered electric car and will go into production early 2010. It will be a three-door, four-seater hatchback. If a customer runs out of charge, they can SMS or call the customer support centre. The advanced telematics feature will assess the car’s batteries remotely and activate a reserve amount of energy. Within minutes, a few extra kilometres of range is made available and driver can continue their journeys.
The point with telematics is that it exploits the growing trend of convergence between telephony and computers.It also exploits the sustainability trend.
So what big trends are now reshaping society? In a nutshell, there are four. With an ageing boomer population, there is increasing focus on health and well being. Climate change, the introduction of emissions trading regimes around the world and soaring fuel costs are focusing attention on renewables and sustainability. More attention is being placed on productivity because of the global financial crisis. And finally, the growth of the middle class combined with technology means that people are using their leisure time differently, exploring new worlds and taking opportunities.
Futurist Jim Carroll has identified 10 big trends which include growth, transformational thinking, speed to market where consumer choice is changing all the time, shorter product life cycles, and constant innovation.
The hybrid car, smart phone and “intelligent textiles” containing embedded sensors designed to monitor body fluids such as blood and sweat, which doctors can use to remotely check on the health of recovering hospital patients and those with chronic illnesses are all part of these trends to create demand.
How else can manufacturers create demand?
