Jackie’s blog

Just been reading the latest update from www.trendwatching.com  If you are thinking of starting a business this is a great site to sign up to as it keeps you abreast of what is happening in the world - especially in the areas of consumer buying trends. The latest free e-bulletin focuses on status stories as being the next big thing. Consumers don’t just want things anymore they want experiences - and not necessarily run of the mill experiences that anyone can have when they buy a particular product or service. People now want to customise everything to themselves and have a story of their own to tell about their purchases. A couple of things that caught my eye in the bulletin - a company called Hubwear in the states produces T shirts that display a wearer’s favourite travel routes in airport codes (so when people ask them what their T shirt means they have a story to tell!) and another company called Yosimiya in Japan is selling bags of rice with a photo of your newborn baby on it, the name and date of birth and then, guess what, the bag contains the baby’s exact weight in rice. Think of the stories that will pop up when passing that around. How long will rice stay okay in a bag anyway - imagine ‘You weighed this much when you were born 20 years ago!’ Amazing. There are loads more examples in the bulletin so if you are thinking of starting your own business it is definately worth signing up with this site.