‘Strange days indeed’
began the LS:N trend briefing presented by Martin Raymond and Peter Firth. Featured
as lyrics in John Lennon’s song ‘Nobody Told Me’, perhaps at the time of
writing the song in the 1970s, Lennon sensed that the world was changing at a
rapid pace, or that society was on the edge of a dramatic transformation and a
technological revolution. But whether it was intuition or merely coincidence, in
a short space of time, our world has changed more than most people could have
ever imagined. What was once considered
science-fiction is now our reality.
The hugely insightful trend briefing proposed one mind
blowing concept after another, and I was fascinated throughout the briefing by the
symposium of everything from the dawn of big data and mega-systems to the
conceptions of gated retail and physical-digital architecture. Unfortunately,
scribbling down over 12 pages of notes during the afternoon briefing, I cannot
possibly cover everything in this blog post. However, what I find particularly
interesting, and relevant to my area of study, is how brands are adapting to
changes in the modern world, increasingly using innovation over heritage to engage
consumers with higher ‘tech-pectations’. It is also interesting to observe how new,
young generations of people are adapting to technological advances.
Our world population is categorised by generation, with
generation gaps widening synonymously with the developing of technology. Perhaps the most fascinating generation to
look at is Generation I, children under 10 who have grown up with technology
and have a different way of thinking about how they interact with the world.
Where you and I grew up with books, they are growing up with iPads and smart phones;
expecting everything they encounter to be instant and interactive. It is common
for young children to swipe the television screen with their finger to try to
change the channel over, to touch a newspaper and expect to be able to zoom in
or turn the page and even to ask if they can pause a match whilst in the stands
watching a live football game. Because in the digital world they were born into,
all this is not only possible, it is normal.
The emergence of what LS:N global has coined ‘Phy-gital
spaces’ shows how digital interaction is increasingly incorporated into the
real world and brands are using this concept widely as a part of their in-store
retail. In fashion retail, the McQ London flagship store opened last year is a
perfect example of a retail space where old meets new and authentic, tactile in-store
luxury juxtaposes innovative, digital in-store technology. The main feature of the store is an interactive
table enabling customers to search, browse and share McQ looks and control a
video in the entrance of the store. There are also mirrors with inbuilt cameras
to allow customers to try on clothes, take pictures of themselves and then email
these to friends or share via social media.
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| McQ Flagship Store London |
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| McQ Flagship Store London |
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| McQ Flagship Store London |
Most bricks-and-mortar stores are now seen more as show
rooms, as consumers tend to browse in stores but purchase online from
elsewhere. However, for those ‘old-fashioned’ types such as myself who don’t
shop online but instead prefer to try and buy clothes in-store, brands are
aware of the importance of offline retail to create memorable consumer
experiences, even if the majority of consumers do leave the store empty handed
to purchase online.
Generation I is the future, so brands are looking at how
they can consistently engage and excite increasingly discerning and tech-savvy
consumers who rarely accept the digital world as it is offered to them but
recreate it in their own image to cater for their
needs. It is interesting that 73% of Generation I children already influence
their parents purchasing of clothes, holidays, food and technology. Would my parents
have let me choose a car or a washing machine at the age of 10? Probably not.
But then again when I was younger I did not possess the instinctive ability to
comprehend, recode and analyse technology as generation I do. At the age of 10,
I had probably only been on a computer a couple of times.
One of the key, underlying observations I noted from the
briefing is the way in which science, art and technology are increasingly blurring
to become the main driving forces of our society. Science was once considered
dull and intangible; I myself was never particularly enthusiastic about science
at school, yet now science is a driving force with technology as the enabler, and
the boundaries between science and art are closer than ever before. Science is
now more accessible than ever before, with a large number of citizen scientists
undertaking complex scientific research from their own homes. As an example, more
than 65,000 citizens are currently studying the surface of mars...
I’m not part of generation I; the generation with the world
at their fingertips who can’t remember anything else. But even at the young age
of 20, immersed in creative industries at the forefront of modern technology
and open-minded thinking, some aspects of society seem alien to me; the thought
of space travel scares me and I can’t help but question the consequences of continuing
to blur the physical and the digital world into one. Having said that, I am
intrigued by change. The future is uncertain, yet we are living in an age where
we have come to view uncertainty as opportunity to achieve the unthinkable;
these days may seem strange, but they are about to get a whole lot stranger.
These are capricious but exciting times.
Thank you to Martin and Peter for such a fascinating talk!
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