I just saw this copy on a Dyson display case and I really like it for a number of reasons.

• It echoes the brand’s strategy – to do things differently than the competition.
• It helps reinforce the brand’s positioning and sales strategy at the retail level (among those) who probably will never be exposed to the high level Mission, Vision and Values of the Dyson brand.
• The short, well written, provocative copy encourages you to stop + think.

I’m posting this little gem because it’s a rare retail example of a clean, simple and practical (communication) alignment between what the brand claims to be, its market positioning, and its retail voice. 

Charlie died at 7:00 PM, Saturday June 24, 2017. In our last eleven years together I worked from home. Charlie hung around my office as I worked, was at my side on our three daily walks and at Michelle’s feet at night. We took over 14,000 walks together and covered over 25,000 kilometers.

For the time we had together I’m eternally grateful. 

For those of you who believe that your SWOT™ and SoWOT™ research recaps, leading into your annual planning meeting represent a solid overview of your future business terrain, check this out + then start over with a few new and more insightful questions.

In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide.  All medical X-rays used Kodak film. Camera's, both commercial and industrial,  security camera's- imaging of all sorts. Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt. What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next 10 years - and most people won't see it coming.  Did you think in 1998 that 3 years later you would never take pictures on film again? Digital cameras were invented in 1975. The first ones only had 10,000 pixels, but followed Moore's law. So as with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment for a long time, before it became way superior and got mainstream in only a few short years. It will now happen with Artificial Intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture and jobs.

Welcome to the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Welcome to the Exponential Age.

Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years.

Uber is just a software tool, they don't own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world.

Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don't own any properties.

Artificial Intelligence:

Computers become exponentially better in understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Go player in the world; 10 years earlier than expected.

In the US, young lawyers already don't get jobs. Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans.  So if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% less lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain.

THIS IS PROBABLY THE BEST EXTINCTION OF THEM ALL.

Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 times more accurate than human nurses. Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than humans. In 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans.

Autonomous cars:

In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for the public. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be disrupted. You don't want to own a car anymore. You will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You will not need to park it, you only pay for the driven distance and can be productive while driving. Our kids will never get a driver's license and will never own a car.

It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% less cars for that. We can transform former parking spaces into parks. 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. We now have one accident every 60,000 mi (100,000 km), with autonomous driving that will drop to one accident in 6 million mi (10 million km). That will save a million lives each year.

This will increase world over growth and populations.

Most car companies will probably become bankrupt. Traditional car companies try the evolutionary approach and just build a better car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will do the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels.

Insurance companies will have massive trouble because without accidents, the insurance will become 100x cheaper. Their car insurance business model will disappear.

Real estate will change. Because if you can work while you commute, people will move further away to live in a more beautiful neighborhood.

Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil. Energy companies are desperately trying to limit access to the grid to prevent competition from home solar installations, but that can't last.

Technology will take care of that strategy.

With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water. Desalination of salt water now only needs 2kWh per cubic meter (@ 0.25 cents). We don't have scarce water in most places, we only have scarce drinking water. Imagine what will be possible if anyone can have as much clean water as he wants, for nearly no cost.

Health:

The Tricorder X prize will be announced this year. There are companies who will build a medical device (called the "Tricorder" from Star Trek) that works with your phone, which takes your retina scan, your blood sample and you breath into it.

Over time it will be able to analyze a broad spectrum of  bio-markers that will identify the most common diseases. It will be cheap, so in a few years everyone on this planet will have access to world class medical analysis, nearly for free.  Goodbye, medical establishment and their absurd medical fees.

3D printing:

The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100 times faster.

Some spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote airports. The space station now has a printer that eliminates the need for the large amount of spare parts they used to have in the past.

By 2027, 10% of everything that's being produced will be 3D printed.

Business opportunities: If you think of a niche you want to go in, ask yourself: "in the future, do you think we will have that?" and if the answer is yes, how can you make that happen sooner?

If it doesn't work with your phone, forget the idea. And any idea designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the 21st century.

Work:

70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20 years. There will be a lot of new jobs, but it is not clear if there will be enough new jobs in such a small time.

Agriculture:

There will be a $100 agricultural robot in the future. Farmers in 3rd world countries can then become managers of their field instead of working all day on their fields.

Aeroponics:

This type of agriculture will need much less water. The first Petri dish produced veal, is now available and will be cheaper than cow produced veal by 2020. Right now, 30% of all agricultural surfaces is used for cows. Imagine if we don't need that space anymore.

There are several startups bringing insect protein to the market right now. It contains more protein than meat.

Psycology:

There is an app called "moodies" which can already tell in which mood you're in.  By 2020 there will be apps that can tell by your facial expressions, if you are lying. Imagine a political debate where it's being displayed when they're telling the truth and when they're not.

Finance:

Bitcoin could become the default reserve currency. Of the world.

Longevity:

Right now, the average life span increases by 3 months per year Four years ago, the life span used to be 79 years, now it's 80 years. The increase itself is increasing and by 2036, there will be more that one year increase per year. So we all might live for a long long time, probably way more than 100. But over population will create severe food problems.

Education:

The cheapest smart phones are already at $10 in Africa and Asia By 2020, 70% of all humans will own a smart phone. That means, everyone has the same access to instant world class education.

Every child can use The Khan Learning Academy for everything a child learns at school in First World countries. Khan Academy reaches all corners of the globe. While 70% of our students are from the United States, the rest hail from countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and beyond. Their resources are being translated into more than 36 languages including Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Hindi, Polish, German and Turkish versions of our site, too. Since 2008 they have delivered more than 580 million lessons and learners have completed more than six billion exercise problems. 

The agencies I work with like to brain-storm. Or have ideation sessions. Some work better than others.

Here’s some insights as to why.

Brainstorming 101 takes a “free-for-all” approach to the act of exploring options. It’s a great approach if the challenge is very open ended: “We won $10,000. What should we do with the money?”

Brainstorming 201 is more akin to identifying all of the ways that something can be done. Moving a one kilo box from point A to B for example. Then comparing and ranking the options against your objectives + conditions.

Regardless of which approach you use, here are a few tips that will help you achieve better session outcomes.

• Don't start "storming" until all participants understand what your objectives, conditions and performance metrics are.
• Is the agency process, strategy and logic sound?
• Don't be a yes-(wo)man - even if you're the most Jr. person in the room. 
• Be vigilant and employ active listening + critical thinking skills.
• Have you had time to "think" about ________________ or are you blindly being asked to agree to something without having the time to think about the longer term implications - or the slippery slopes?
• Are participants confusing enthusiasm for wisdom. Many agency practitioners don't know the difference and lose accounts as a result.
• Is what we're doing + thinking really on brand?
• Do those in meeting know the brand well enough to recognize if the brain-storm "fall-out" is on or off brand?
• Will the recommended path(s) forward be good for the brand both short + long term?
• Is this going to be an easy sale to the client? If not, it may well be off-brand, or you missed something (in your logic chain).
• What's the best manner in which to present the creative ideas?
• Which creative team member is the most appropriate creative idea ambassador relative to the client(s) that you're presenting to?
• Are you "speaking in tongues" - or speaking plain English?
• Are you speaking to yourselves, to the client, for the brand, to the general audience, or those who enable change for the better (relative to your brand)?

This piece of Diablo sandpaper (made in Switzerland) is a WONDERFUL example of the strategic use of one colour to defend their brand position.

Diablo uses the colour red to distance the brand far away from all the other brown (wood) and grey (metal) sand-paper options out there (mostly from China).

The brand also uses the same red for all their cutting tools - making it easy for users to connect “the dots” and to help reinforce brand loyalty: it quickly sorts the world into two piles: a small one with the correct red Diablo parts in it, and a very large one with everything else in the world in it.

Simple + brilliant.