INSIGHTS
The Purpose of Brands Beyond 2020 Ninth Space is a brand strategy and design company with a mission to build brands with purpose – brands that have a positive influence on our world. As a new decade starts, the Retail People Magazine speaks with Habib Beaini, Managing Director of Ninth Space, who shares his insights on what we can predict for the role of brands. How will they find their purpose in a world of hyper-aware, conscious individuals that expect positive contributions to the advancement of society and action that cares for our planet?
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s we move into a new decade we can see many predictions for the future of retail, and chief amongst these global trends is AI and big data – using data to drive better brand experiences, loyalty, value, and market growth. Accurate predictions allow for great efficiency in getting the right product and service to those who want it most. This means that brands are more relevant to and resonate better with their consumers. However, trust, privacy, and data protection are already becoming major influencing factors for many consumers.
their communities. There are warning signs, however, in terms of the ROI of some of these retailtainment installations; many may draw large crowds, but the conversion into retail sales isn’t clear. Neither is their longevity; technology advances can render them obsolete quicker than anticipated. Convergence between the real world and online worlds is becoming progressively less segmented; retailers mix all mediums to create more enhanced, customized, and direct experiences. The advent of mixed reality now takes advantage of technology that enables users to touch and feel a real product, yet experience it in an augmented world (sitting in a car in the showroom whilst experiencing it on a racetrack), taking the purchasing experience to a whole new level. With the ability to co-design products, people will also be able to develop their own individual versions.
Dubai Fountain at Dubai Mall attracts crowds from all over the world. A great example of successful retailtainment.
Amazon Go brings together the convenience of online shopping with supermarket pickup.
Retailtainment is another massive buzzword. Enhanced technology, real participation, events, and customization are how brands are resonating with their audiences through brand activation programs. Malls are able to program their spaces and collaborate with retailers to become more vibrant hubs for
16. RETAIL PEOPLE . JAN-MAR 2020
5G technology will be a game-changer over the next few years, allowing brands to create an array of valuable and exciting opportunities. Faster data speeds and the cheap cost of data will enable brands to connect technology and people in more meaningful and effective ways. However, all these are tactical tools used to enhance the shopping experience. Without a doubt, they will help create more engaging, personalized, and augmented methods that consumers can enjoy, yet none of them will address the real challenges brands will face over the next decade. We live in an age of hyper-awareness, and this acute awareness of our role in the world, its ecology, economies, societies, and cultures have changed the way we think, act, and how we imagine the world we live in. Today, people know the effects of their purchases on other people and the world’s resources that are evolving the idea of capitalism. Growth for profit will fade as people’s expectations for more personally and socially meaningful products and
