Future View

Future View™ is a model for identifying those people who will shape the future of any given market.

A series of questions helps to identify those consumers in a specific market who are future-influential. These are the people that will most shape the future of your market. They will lead the way, talking to and influencing other consumers. More than anyone else, they will act as the engines of profitable growth.

The 7 habits of Future-influential consumers:

• They value Authenticity and Originality in all that they buy and experience.
• They are well Informed and hugely involved in the products, services and brands that they buy.
• They are Individualistic - they do things "my way" - and increasingly demand companies do too.
• They are Time Poor and value anything that saves them time.
• They are Socially Responsible and exercise their ethical awareness via their product and brand choices.
• They are Curious - open minded and receptive to new ideas.
• They are Advocates of new ideas - they spread the word!

The Future View™ Model:

What's the difference between an Early Adopter and a Future Shaper?

• Early Adopters are classically defined as those people who are the quickest to take up new ideas and new products. However, these people are all too often Early Abandoners too. Their interest in a new product is often a passing whim, based primarily on its novelty value - once the novelty has worn off so does their interest. For this reason Early Adopters can be as much Fad Creators as they can be Trend Creators - a far too transient type of consumers for most marketers.
• Future Shapers, as defined by the FutureView model, are similarly curious BUT they also:
  • a) advocate new ideas to other people, thereby spreading the word about them; and
  • b) are New Consumers whose attitudes and behavior put them at the forefront of some of the biggest macro-trends influencing consumer behavior globally.

This deeper definition of future influence ensures that Future Shapers have an impact on markets in an ongoing, rather than merely transitory way. As a result, they have a more permanent worth to marketers.

The benefits of identifying your Future Shapers:

• 1. They drive product adoption - they not only try new products, they become strong advocates
• 2. They are the growth engine of your brand and products - they are the lifeblood of the market - essential to long-term brand survival
• 3. They are profitable - various studies demonstrate this, including a UK Cold Drinks Study (2004), in which Future Shapers were found to be 83% more profitable per head than other consumers. And this did not take into account the $ generated by their advocacy to others!