year for joiners. It’s a year in which followers sign on for brief respites of participation for the sole purpose of being recharged by the power of community: join a church for the monthly potluck supper; sign up for a half day of volunteering rather than commit to a long-term project; tuck a membership card from a political action committee into your wallet – no need to attend a second meeting. Informal networks are in; rigid institutions are out.
Next: Brands 2000
As a number of twentieth-century powerhouse brands battle to retain market share, new industries are springing up as if from nowhere to create power brands for the next millennium. Examples include Boston Market, creator of the home meal replacement industry; Starbucks, which turned coffee into a retail experience; and America On-line (AOL) which made the proverbial back fence a twenty-four-hour/seven-days-a-week opportunity for neighbourly chat and captured a share of coach potatoes’ minds and eyes from the networks. More trends to watch: convergence, as manufacturers and programmers of the boxes that run home and office create ever more indispensable products; edutainment, as we strive to make the next generation (and ourselves) more competitive; and relaxation as we pursue relief from the stresses of modern-day life.
Next: A Branded Existence
The world populace soon will have an all-too-clear understanding of the adage ‘everything communicates’, as marketers extend their reach beyond the usual platforms. Already in the testing phase: advertisements delivered via ATM and sampling offers based on smart-card purchasing patterns. Just as urban infill will eventually lay claim to every vacant lot in the urban landscape, so, too, will ‘brand infill’ ensure that every experience, thought, place and product is marketed to its utmost potential. As with marriage, some unions will be for life; others will be brief, even foolhardy. The unstoppable James Bond marketing machine – Tomorrow Never Dies drove high-speed visibility for BMW. Ericsson and Heineken, among others – is a ready reminder of the opportunities.
Next: In Praise of Parenthood
The death of eight-month-old American Matthew Eappen at the hands of his British au pair sparked heated debate about his mother’s choice to continue her professional career – albeit in a part-time capacity – rather than stay home to care for her children. The debate over ‘choice’ will no longer revolve solely around abortion; instead, more and more women will be faced with the need to defend their ‘choice’ to work outside the home – particularly when that home is in an upmarket community. Parenting will be touted as the most important profession of the next decade.
Next: Redefining Desirability
The new age of heightened desirability is thirty-six – the age at which Princess Diana will forever rest, frozen in time at the height of her sensuality. The fashion industry will continue to push parallel images of the heroin-chic sixteen-year-old model, mature beyond her years, and her counterpart: the youthful and innocent coquette. But the older, wiser, and much more sexy Diana archetype will prove a compelling alternative. Mature woman/young stud relationships will make headline news, supplanting the Jennifer phenomenon of the eighties, when twenty-something trophy wives were hunted and mounted by fifty-something tycoons. Look for Leonardo DiCaprio to partner with Sharon Stone, for the Francesca Annis – Ralph Fiennes romance to be duplicated again and again. Mid-youth now runs until the onset of menopause, with thirty-six marking the absolute age of power and those over forty-two still regarded as ‘hot’, bringing to relationships experience, enthusiasm, and – thanks to new fertility tricks – even the prospect of children.
Next: Greener Approaches
As this planet gets more crowded, consumers are recognizing their impact on the world, the world’s impact on them – and our communal responsibility to future generations. So far, the ‘pure consumer’ has embraced such green products as natural cosmetics, eco-friendly fabrics and organic food. Interest in sustainable architecture – with its emphasis on energy conservation, long-life materials, and environmentally friendly building techniques – is on the rise. And electric vehicles and their gas-and-electric-powered cousins, the hybrids, are poised to usher in an era of ‘green’ automobiles. Toyota, for one, expected to sell 12,000 models of its hybrid, the Prius, to Japanese consumers in 1998. As green thinking migrates from left to centre, consumers will increasingly demand environmental accountability from product and service providers.
Next: Aggressive Health Maintenance
Technology is coming that will ensure less invasive, more civilized and more humane ways to prevent, detect and treat disease. Ten years ago, magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) was an innovation which provided a radiation-free alternative to X-rays. The potential of this innovation will be extended far beyond testing for neurological disorders. MRI scanners will become far more accessible, and even primary-care practitioners will have direct access to such machines, enabling them to do everything from detecting breast abnormalities to determining the extent of knee and spinal injuries. At the same time, CT scans – which produce cross-sectional images by computing, using small doses of radiation – will facilitate virtual examinations of the lungs, bowels and other organs, without painful and dangerous invasion of the human body.
There is a yin and a yang to most trends, though, and this one is not without bad news. As disease screening becomes more prevalent, and more sophisticated, people deemed to be predisposed to particular diseases might be subjected to unnecessary medical procedures. Already we’re seeing healthy women submit voluntarily to radical mastectomies, simply out of the fear that a ‘high risk’ label creates in them.
As the health field grows ever more technical, and as patient choices continue to expand, expect to see a growing cadre of ‘medical advocates’ – professionals hired to guide individuals through the jungle of medical literature, ‘alternative’ medicines and medical options. In many ways, it will be these people who become the new ‘family doctor’ – despite the fact that they are not practising physicians.
Next: Them and Us – Left vs Right
In the short time before the new millennium, expect a major global clash between the left/liberals and the right/conservatives akin to the one associated with capitalism vs/communism and socialism. This new Cold War will be fought with particular intensity over family values issues. The superwoman of the 1980s has been killed by innuendo and a backlash against feminism and the gains of the women’s movement. Next on the right’s seek-and-destroy list are those who want abortion available on demand. The overarching goal: to return religion to the centre of public life.
Throughout the Western world, where family life has been a lesser priority than issues such as economic expansion, taxation and even education, expect social clashes to erupt, with women – particularly working women – bearing the brunt of the blows. Immigrants and minorities also will be the object of increasingly violent debate, as global fears pertaining to everything from job shortages to the loss of national identity and culture fuel the fears of those who face an uncertain future in an entirely new millennium. Fundamentalist Christians and Muslims, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and other factions on the religious right will gather force as the millennium approaches, many of them using the Internet as a tool for recruitment, proselytization and denouncing the sins of the world.
Next: Desperately Seeking People Like Me
As a byproduct of this schism between left and right, expect more and more investors and businesses to seek partners with compatible political and social (even religious) points of view. Whether it’s Shell Oil being scrutinized by potential investors or home contractors incorporating scripture into their advertisements, business relationships will be based on far
