Mindsalt Magic '09 Ball Predictions

If 2008 was the year of turbulence, 2009 looks to be the year of trepidation.

To help cope with this uncertainty, Mindsalt introduces the Magic ‘09 Ball. Give it a shake and you’ll see our predictions for what will drive marketing, business and design in the coming year. We also invite you to add your own predictions for 2009.

Now, if only the Magic ‘09 Ball provided stock picks.

Checkout the Magic ’09 Ball here.

We've also included our predictions for this year below.

Happy New Year.

- Josh

Mindsalt’s ’09 predictions:

Honesty & simplicity drive consumer decisions.
2008 was a year of mixed messages. From politics to business, consumers are being bombarded from all sides with broad claims of little substance. In 2009, clarity will be key. Clear messages served up in simple, creative ways will be essential to building and maintaining trust with consumers.

Time-snippets replace time-slots.
Attention is the biggest hurdle for marketers to overcome. No longer do we carve out specific time for watching TV, reading the newspaper, or even surfing the web. We grab snippets of media throughout the day, 2 minutes here, 20 minutes there. Brands that are able to engage their consumers in short burst are the ones that will get the attention.

Action is essential.
To take a line from FDR, during these uncertain times "we need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary… but above all, (to) try something.” 2009 is a time for 'bold, persistent experimentation' both in business and marketing.

Expert jockeying becomes a pro sport.
Social media has paved the way to make anyone a so called ‘expert.’ This new focus on personal branding will become much more competitive as the overrun of job seekers saturates the already diluted marketplace. What this means is that individuals and businesses will need to do a much better job in positioning themselves as authentic and credible.

Employees become your best marketing asset.
Businesses are all struggling to create strong advocates for their brands, however, the best consumer advocates are actually all around you – your employees. Everyone in your organization is an ambassador of your brand. To create a word of mouth program, start by giving your employees something to talk about.

Businesses must give first.
To get attention in 2009, businesses must give something away first. Now we don’t mean for all businesses to go out and buy stress balls for their customers. We mean that businesses must deliver value prior to a sale through some means of education, entertainment or sample that reflects your business’ product or service offering.

Consumer insight still reigns supreme.
Your business can no longer be all things to all people. In 2009 you must focus on being the right thing to the right person. This starts by engaging your customers and finding out how their needs are changing and focusing your messaging so you are communicating with them on a more intimate level.

Your brand’s story will only matter more.
In 2009, wallets will remain closed for the most part. The meaning behind those fewer purchases will therefore become that much more important. Businesses will have to bring greater purpose to their brands and communicate it in ways that become relevant to their consumers.

Brand Tags

Recently ran across the concept of brand tags via an article in the Wall Street Journal.

"It’s called Brand Tags, and in just a few days the site has attracted more than 30,000 visitors and about 183,000 individual responses, according to Mr. Brier. His thinking: If a brand can be defined as the sum of all perceptions about it, what would he learn by asking people online to give their snap reactions to a bunch of logos?

Mr. Brier decided to show the results as a tag cloud–a format in which the size of the word corresponds to its frequency among responses. Frequently submitted words are shown in giant type, while rarely-submitted ones look tiny on the screen."

We all know that a brand is what your consumers perceive it to be. This experiment is a voluntary gut reaction. Interesting. Just for fun or will corporations use this as yet another resource for focus group chatter?

New chefs

mike and i would like to officially welcome our two newest faces at mindsalt.

ashley revlett. our resident web designer and self-proclaimed youngest person in the group. ashley joins us after several years of freelance and attending school at the University of Louisville.

ashley has picked up many a spilled plate for clients and comes out on top each time. we value what she has done in these first few months.

ashley can be found on facebook, the local coffee shop, listening to a new band that comes to town or relaxing on her couch dreaming of code.

the second newbee is josh beatty. we first met josh at doe-anderson (somehow which becomes our 2 degrees of separation). josh curageously left doe to pursue his own company greener way, which he still manages and runs today. strategic planning and new business are his strengths, but resident barista and smart-ass are close seconds.

thanks to you both for helping push mindsalt to the next level.

Role reversal

It's not easy being account manager in any size firm.  It is a delicate balancing act of client approval and expectation management mixed with in-house loyalty and honesty.  In other words, account managers work all day not to tick anyone off.

Recently, however, I went from account manager to client here at Mindsalt with my suddenly booming side gig -- Little Treasures Kid's Sale.  We needed re-branding from top to bottom and of course, I trusted no one but Mindsalt.  You must understand that I am a PR person here, but Little Treasures is my baby.  We've grown this business from as small and insignificant as you can imagine to now regionally recognized and drawing people in from 4 states.  

So that being said, I now have a much greater appreciation for what it's like to be in the client seat.  We have to trust branding professionals, designers and the like with truly knowing our business from the inside-out so that it can be captured across all mediums.  

I'll have to say, I'm 100% satisfied with my client experience at Mindsalt.  It was somewhat difficult to muster up the courage to ask my employee for some tweaks here and there (as the client).  But in the end, we were all happy with the result...designers, client (me) and account manager (me).  Check it out:  www.littletreasuressale.com.  Response to the new brand is excellent.

Convenience

It was on a recent trip to France and Italy that I realized how far behind America is in reducing its footprint in the world. What do these two country's do that we don't? The simple design of convenience. The convenience in having recycling bins on the street next to garbage cans. The choice to do the right thing and throw your plastic and paper in a recycling bin rather than a garbage can that gets sent to a landfill. Businesses use larger bins that were placed on the street to recycle wine bottles and plastic. Come on America, take a cue from France and Italy.