Homepage | Our Spotters Network | Archives | Tell a Friend | Subscribe for Free!

Warning: this edition is PACKED with trends and new ideas! Forgive us if we're clogging up your inbox, but what trend watcher worth his or her salt would be able to ignore FEEDER BUSINESSES catering to online dating sites, Comme des Garcons joining the POP-UP RETAIL trend, a USD 5 billion Gulf Region version of Disneyland, or the first long-haul, no frills airline headed for the skies? Just quickly scan the below, or print and peruse later for a healthy dose of global inspiration!

For those of you who want even more, we're finalizing the itinerary for our exclusive afternoon seminars in more than 20 countries around the world. Make sure you're the first one to find out! >>

P.S. Please don't forget to tell your co-workers about us, it will make you look in the know, and will make us happy. Thanks! The next edition of the newsletter will go out 6 April 2004.

What do a drop-off shop for online auctions, a photographer specializing in flattering snaps for dating sites, and tasty sandwiches sold at airport gates have in common? They're all part of an ongoing surge in FEEDER BUSINESSES; small, sometimes tiny, new businesses and services that feed (off) New Economy (there, we said it!) stars like eBay, Google, Match.com, or Amazon. FEEDER BUSINESSES often create a win-win situation: they make it easier for consumers and businesses to use a key service that, thanks to its popularity, reach and depth, has become so sophisticated that getting the most out of the service requires help from specialists.

Is this a brand new phenomenon? No. Is it picking up speed? Yes. With the dotcom crash becoming a distant memory, and the ONLINE OXYGEN and MASS CLASS revolution just beginning, even the most specialized of specialized FEEDER BUSINESSES will now find a sizable local or global consumer audience. In fact, the economic uncertainty that has been nagging mature markets like the US, EU and Japan over the last few years has obscured the fact that innovative new products and services are popping up faster than ever before! And it's not just the online world: entire industries from travel and transportation to retail to food & drink are experiencing the forces of creative destruction on an ever grander scale (just think no-frills concepts in aviation, or super-short product cycles in fashion. From easyJet to H&M to Zara!).

However, we're not going to bore you with in-depth economic analysis, or lengthy musings on Porter's 'clusters' (we'll actually save that for the soon-to-follow trend update ;-). For now, just ponder these examples of some of the latest FEEDER BUSINESSES out there, and get inspired to dream up some new businesses of your own:


Before (small) and after pics from soulmatepics.com

• ONLINE DATING: servicing Match.com customers (and other mega-online dating sites) are FEEDER BUSINESSES like Profiledoctor.com, which edits customers' ads to attract more potential dates. Want help writing an enticing dating profile? e-cyrano.com is at your service. And as a picture says more than a thousand words, Soulmatepics.com does photo sessions in 15 US cities from USD 129. They have a competitor in SingleShots.com, going after the same niche market. May TRENDWATCHING.COM humbly point out that the prospects for FEEDER BUSINESSES servicing ever-expanding online dating and social software services are BIG, on a worldwide scale?



• AIRLINE MEALS: we've gone from free, lousy on-board meals to pay-as-you-go food that's still not so great. Now, clear the runway for FEEDER BUSINESSES that sell high quality meals, at the gate or ordered online from your home or office, including delivery ON the plane. Case in point: Alpha D'lish. Passengers flying on a number of Virgin Express flights from London, Brussels or Amsterdam can now choose and order from a menu on the Alpha D'lish website (up to 48 hours before their flight), which includes delectables like the 'Fresh Start Breakfast' and the 'Oriental Feast'. Pre-ordered meals are then served on board by the crew during the normal meal service, and come in an environmentally-friendly box that doubles as a tray.
UK-based Alpha D'lish is actually a division of Alpha Catering Services Limited, a company that currently provides tens of millions meals a year to around 100 airlines, which means that more travelers may soon be able to try out the Alpha D'lish service. Not to be outdone, stylish US no-frills carrier Song recently started offering meal pre-ordering up to 12 hours before departure (making use of flightgourmet.com, who also work with Danish Maersk Airlines). Airport-based competition is starting to emerge as well (literally at the gates!): HMS Host offers ready-to-go meal packages at Schiphol Airport, at the cross section of Piers B and C. Expect FEEDER BUSINESSES in the no-frills arena to expand rapidly, from catering to entertainment rentals.



• almighty EBAY: selling on eBay these days is quite an endeavour (feedback ratings, product descriptions, price strategies, PayPal accounts!), so what started out as the ultimate do-it-yourself service has turned into something better left to professionals. At DropShop in Munich, Germany and AuctionDrop, i-SoldIt, AuctionWagon, and Quikdrop.com in the US, consumers and businesses can now drop off items they want to auction. Staff will evaluate the goods, take professional photographs, and prepare an attractive, detailed listing on eBay. They'll then track the auction, answer questions from prospective buyers, and process payment when the auction closes. Once an item has been sold, they'll ship it to the winner, and send their customer a check minus the shop's commission, which ranges from 20 to 40% of the final selling price. Items that don't sell are returned. Also witness the massive growth of eBay's Trading Assistants Program, which allows individuals to leverage their eBay selling experience by selling and buying on behalf of others. More than 21,000 people worldwide have registered. How's that for FEEDER BUSINESSES promoting re-intermediation?!

OPPORTUNITIES
The above is obviously just the tip of the iceberg. We are still in the early stages of a 'Creative Revolution', and the e-Fortune 50 emerging now will be an e-Fortune 500 in 5 years, with an equally big increase in accompanying FEEDER BUSINESSES. Nevertheless, it's never early enough to start asking yourself: could you or your clients 'feed off' successful new businesses in an unexpected way? Could you create a company that would immediately attract feeder businesses (and thus help you grow the business rapidly)? More on this trend in our April edition, including some innovative Google-inspired FEEDER BUSINESSES. >> Email this trend to a friend.

RELATED TRENDS
MASS CLASS
GENERATION C
ONLINE OXYGEN
OLDBIES
SECOND .COMING

WANT TO LINK TO THIS TREND?
www.trendwatching.com/trends/FEEDERBUSINESSES.htm

"From gallery-like shopping spaces with one-off exhibitions to mobile units bringing innercity chic to rural areas, TRENDWATCHING.COM has noticed an increase in temporary retail manifestations around the world."


Picture: NYT

We introduced our POP-UP RETAIL trend a short while ago, including examples like Vacant's traveling store, Song Airline's eight week SoHo outlet and Target's Christmas 'galleries', and now it seems high-end fashion brands are getting into the game as well. Comme des Garcons just opened its first temporary Guerrilla Store in Berlin, which will be open for business for only one year, whether it's a hit or a miss.

The 750-square-foot Berlin store, located in a remote neighborhood in former East Berlin, is more or less raw space: just clothing racks and merchandise, no architectural wonders, which sits well with the USD 700 a month rent (source: NYT).

The whole concept gives consumers something that can be perceived as exclusive, discovery-driven and ‘get it while it lasts', while Comme des Garçons taps into an entirely new channel for quickly introducing new items around the world, in funky areas catering to a funky clientele.

Meanwhile, Song (the Delta Airlines' owned, chic no-frills airline) is about to have its second Song Store 'pop-up' in Boston (near the Prudential Center), which, like its predecessor in New York's SoHo, will stay open for only 2 months. (source: Boston Globe).
Will it sell the airline millions of extra tickets? Maybe not, but if an airline can open up pop-up stores and create some buzz, so can other industries normally not associated with the business of retail experience. Yours, perhaps? >> Email this trend to a friend.

WANT TO READ THE ENTIRE TREND DESCRIPTION?
www.trendwatching.com/trends/POPUP_RETAIL.htm

"The GENERATION C phenomenon captures the tsunami of consumer generated content that is building on the Web, adding tera-peta bytes of new text, images, audio and video on an ongoing basis."

As promised last month, when we introduced GENERATION C, here are a few more telling observations related to this massive trend of consumers creating content, and companies equipping them with the required professional tools at amateur prices.



•  Apple demands (and deserves) the main GENERATION C spotlight this month. The company recently launched GarageBand, which is an integral part of iLife 2004, Apple's suite of creativity software. GarageBand is everything from a home recording studio to a practice tool for musicians. It complements Apple's iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD programs, and definitely deserves the award for GENERATION C software of the month. A good one for FEEDER BUSINESSES too, but more on that in April!



And in a series of brilliant moves combining GENERATION C, retail and the Experience Economy, Apple opened up yet another one of its flagship Apple Stores, this one in San Francisco (long overdue!). Definitely a big event for Apple lovers in the Bay area: an estimated 1,200 people were in line at the 10 a.m. opening, and nearly 6,000 more passed through the store later that day. Besides showcasing Apple hardware and software, these shrines to creativity offer popular in-store workshops and presentations, helping customers make the most of Apple's latest content creation applications. So, for our San Fran subscribers: there's a GarageBand workshop every Friday at 1:00 pm!



•  Want to feel the power of GENERATION C in the world of travel? Spend a few hours this weekend perusing sites like trekshare.com, which allows travelers to post travelogues, and which boasts 10,000 members, 75,000 photos and 15,000 postings. The site is enjoying a monthly 20% growth rate. Of course, you could also travel vicariously by checking out igougo, sharemytrip.com or mytripjournal.com (source: Newsweek). TRENDWATCHING.COM would be willing to pay a few bucks for some of these postings, as they deliver the holy grail in travel content: exclusive, up-to-date, real-world travel tricks and tips, from real travelers. Our hunch: GENERATION C is about to get paid!

•  And finally, for stats lovers: the Pew Internet & American Life Project recently released a study showing that 44% of US adult internet users (53 million people aged 18 and over) have created content for the online world through building or contributing to web sites, creating blogs, and sharing files. Some quick findings: 21 percent of internet users have posted photos on web sites, and 20 percent say they have allowed others to download video or music files from their computers. Seven percent have webcams that let others see live pictures of them over the net. Now imagine what these stats will look like once the younger crowd (a digital generation if there ever was one) turns 18! >> Email this trend to a friend.

WANT TO LINK TO THIS TREND?
www.trendwatching.com/trends/GENERATION_C.htm

"Millions of global citizens will want to -- and be able to afford to -- live in communities stripped of crime, bad weather and bad housing."

TRENDWATCHING.COM's favorite NATIONS*LITE* poster child, Dubai, continues to push the envelope. A slew of new billion dollar projects has been announced, thereby further cementing Dubai's status as the world's first five-star 'nation resort'. Las Vegas and South Beach are working hard to catch up. Fasten your seatbelts:



• Dubailand, a USD 4.9 billion tourist city aiming to be the largest AND most popular entertainment/tourism hotspot in the world, will house -- amongst others -- the Mall of Arabia, which of course will become the largest shopping mall in the world. (Source: Sara D'Amore.) Dubailand will consist of six themed worlds and over 200 individual projects; from a space exploration exhibition and full-size dinosaur enclosure to several new five-star hotels including one built in sand dunes, an indoor ski-slope(!), a complex of sports stadiums, and an ecological dome to grow vegetation in the heart of the desert.
Add to that an equestrian center, aviation display, modern art gallery, water amusement park, and pyramids, and what you get is the Gulf Region's answer to Disneyland and then some. The scale of this project is immense: Dubailand will be almost as large as the present built-up area of Dubai, with the first attractions to open their doors in 2006. In their own words: "Dubailand will soon become the biggest, most varied, leisure, entertainment and tourism attraction on the planet." Just so you know.

Meanwhile, in the US, the NATIONS*LITE* trend seems to have evolved from Disney's less than edgy Celebration village to the hustle and bustle of sunny fata morgana communities like Las Vegas and South Beach. No longer just a quick-visit destination for indulging in gambling, partying and sunbathing, dozens of fully catered residential towers are being erected to house well-to-do consumers who want to reside in Vegas and South Beach for extended periods of time, if not all year round. A few developments:



• The Residences is a condominium hotel enclave built on the MGM GRAND grounds in Las Vegas. Suites come with the pleasures of being an owner and a pampered hotel guest: from spa facilities to restaurants, and from the enormous casino to the Studio 54 night club. Real estate developer Turnberry Associates is behind this latest example of 5 star hotel living; other projects include their Vegas Turnberry Place (a fourth residential tower is going up soon, with serviced apartments priced from USD 450,000 to 5.9 million), and Miami's Porto Vita, Fontainebleau II and the Turnberry Ocean Colony.



And there's more NATIONS*LITE* building going on in the Sunshine State: from Canyon Ranch Living, a residential community located on over 750 feet of oceanfront in Miami Beach (five-star residential services include an acclaimed oceanfront restaurant and a full-service, 60,000 square foot Spa and Fitness Center) to the Tower Residences situated above the new Four Seasons Hotel Miami. Last but not least, Mr. 'you're fired' Trump is behind the Trump Grande Ocean Resort and Residences, located at the midpoint of the Miami Beach - Ft. Lauderdale corridor. Will we all be calling room service in the future to request breakfast before going to work?



OPPORTUNITIES
Disclaimer: some of these NATIONS*LITE* examples may be bewildering. Yet this IS all happening as we speak. For now, the important insight to be gained is that most consumer goods and services that we now consider to be mundane and commonplace, were initially introduced by pioneers of luxury and lifestyle.
And thus, while not all future residences will have access to their own 60,000 square foot health spas, the trend of providing hotel-style services to residential owners or communities, will trickle down to the MASS CLASS in a less sumptuous version, yet on a much larger scale.
For everyone from sociologists to marketers to service providers, there's more to NATIONS*LITE* than insane shopping malls in the middle of the desert and high-rises filled with scandalously rich people than meets the (privileged eye)! >> Email this trend to a friend.

WANT TO VIEW THE ENTIRE TREND DESCRIPTION?
www.trendwatching.com/trends/2003/09/NATIONS-LITE.html

RELATED TRENDS
MASSCLUSIVITY
FLORIDASATION
MATURIALISM

"Smart governments are putting their former citizens to good use. We're not talking manipulative religious plots to use immigrants as evangelizing outposts, but about establishing strong business and cultural communities that promote the best and brightest from the 'motherland' in their new countries of residence. Forget embassies. This is where business gets done."

India is HOT. Its economy grew 8% last year, its movie industry and celebs enjoy success on a global scale, and its bustling outsourcing centers actually make it cheaper for American and European firms to do business (and force white collar workers around the world to be even more creative and innovative). So the mood at the second, New Delhi-hosted Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Indian Diaspora Day) this January was more than upbeat. The Indian diaspora, now 22-million strong, is doing well, and India's success at home should make things even better for them, increasing the opportunities for cross-border trade and initiatives.



Some of the (telling) announcements and statements making headlines during the three-day conference, which was attended by 2,000 delegates from all over the world:

• Virtually the entire services sector in the Gulf, which is one of the world's richest regions, is handled by Indian technicians, nurses, teachers and scores of other professionals.
• The average income of an Indian American is 50 per cent higher than the national average in USA.
• Indian corporates will now be freely permitted to make overseas investments up to 100 per cent of their net worth, whether through an overseas joint venture or a wholly owned subsidiary. Overseas Indians in 16 countries now have the possibility of applying for dual citizenship.
• A compulsory insurance scheme, called the Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana, is now in place for Indian workers migrating to the Gulf region and South East Asia.
• A permanent center for dealing with the needs of the diasporic community (Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra) will be set up in New Delhi, for which the government will provide a plot of land and a seed grant of Rs. 250 million. The responsibility of running the center will be entrusted to an autonomous body, which will also raise additional resources from members of the Diaspora.
Next year's Indian Diaspora Day should be no less interesting!

OPPORTUNITIES
So, with India putting its diaspora to work for the country's greater good, and the Thai introducing an exclusive 'country membership' program (see below), isn't it time for non-Asian nations to start managing their own worldwide networks of descendants more innovatively? And you don't need to be in government to profit from this: think everything from IMMI-MERCE ideas to HOME TROTTING services! >> Email this trend to a friend.

RELATED TRENDS AND NEW BUSINESS IDEAS
IMMI-MERCE
HOME TROTTING

WANT TO VIEW THE ENTIRE TREND DESCRIPTION?
www.trendwatching.com/trends/2003/03/
DIASPORAMANAGEMENT.html

"700 million consumers worldwide are beginning to see online access as an absolute necessity, and there are no signs that the pace of integrating online access into daily life is slowing down. "

Tracking a massive trend like ONLINE OXYGEN requires constant readjustment. Here are the latest sightings from a world that in only 7 years' time went from denouncing the Net as a 'hype' to embracing online access with such ferocity that now even the world's largest cruise ship, the brand new 1,132 foot-long, USD 800 million Queen Mary II, has wireless access points installed throughout the vessel. It's one giant floating hot spot!



• The largest 'WiFi Office Tower'? The entire Sears Building in Chicago, all 110 floors of it, will soon be WiFi enabled.

• Amtrak and AT&T will put wireless internet service in six of the railroad's busiest train stations along the Northeast Corridor, from Boston Route 128 Station to New York and Baltimore Penn Stations, serving ONLINE OXYGEN to more than one million weekday passengers, commuters and visitors.

• Paris has announced that it wants to be the WiFi capital of the world, aiming to have 3000 hot spots by year end. This will include all of Accor Groupe's 250 Parisian hotels, from Sofitel to Formula 1, and 12 hot spots along RATP's bus route 38. All 400 metro stations are next. As we reported a while ago, Gare du Nord already has its Gare WiFi. C'est magnifique!


• McDonald's has expanded its WiFi program to 400 restaurants in the US. Of all its WiFi users surveyed, 60% said they wouldn't have gone to McDonald's if it wasn't for the online access now being offered. McDonald's UK is following suit, installing WiFi in more than 560 restaurants throughout the UK, in cooperation with British Telecom.

• More British ONLINE OXYGEN: British Airways just announced that it will have installed wireless internet connections in 80 of its main customer lounges around the world by the end of May 2004.



• As wireless service was the most requested new service in surveys of departing guests, the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas has begun providing wireless internet connections in all of its 5,034 rooms (source: LVPress.com).

• And truly going all out: hot spot pioneer T-Mobile wants to increase its number of hot spots in Europe from 700 to 4000 by year end, while growing from 4000 to 6000 hotspots in the US in the same period. Wow.



• A trend in a trend: what happens if people have your website at their fingertips non-stop, whether they're out on the streets, or in their office, or in any room at home? Popular sports site ESPN.com is tailoring features to customers with WiFi, adding live chats with sports experts, and more video clips of big plays and tools to help fantasy football fans track their teams; this after focus groups said they were using WiFi to take their wireless laptops into the living room. Like most sports sites, ESPN.com was designed around users watching games on TV in the living room, then dashing to an office PC to check scores or stats. No more!

And cooking sites Allrecipes.com and Epicurious.com, initially designed for users who would print out recipes and then take these to the kitchen, now find that laptops increasingly take place next to the chopping block. In anticipation, recipes now fit on just one screen, and the number of how-to videos has been increased significantly. Food for thought?

Last but not least: Yahoo TV recently signed a partnership with Television Without Pity, a TV gossip site that features real-time chats about shows as they air (source: USA TODAY).


• And for those of you who dig ONLINE OXYGEN statistics: BIGresearch's latest Media Usage Survey amongst 13,000 US men, found that from August 2002 to October 2003, television viewership dropped 8.8 percent for men 18-24 and 12.2 percent for men 25-34. During the same period of time, BIGresearch found internet usage among men 18-34 shot up about 7 percent and video game usage rose 5 percent. >> Email this trend to a friend.

WANT TO VIEW THE ENTIRE TREND DESCRIPTION?
www.trendwatching.com/trends/2003/06/ONLINE_OXYGEN.html

"Exclusivity for the masses can be an instant add-on and revenue booster for many goods and services. When was the last time you felt privileged? "

Consumers love their loyalty cards, frequent flyer perks and restricted access VIP lounges. Now what about the ultimate in MASSCLUSIVITY: becoming a privileged member of the country of Thailand (mind you, not citizen, but member!), including your own Thai Elite Card?
A world's first, membership earns card holders benefits and discounts all over the kingdom, ranging from fast-track immigration at Don Muang Airport, heavy discounts on Thai Airways (buy one, get one free), special rates at five-star hotels, free golf at several courses, free limousine transfers, 24-hour concierge service, free spa treatments and medical check-ups, and five-year multiple entry visas that allow the cardholder to stay in Thailand for 90 days.



And it gets even better: next year (2005) will see hotels like the Thailand Elite Boutique Hotel, golf clubs, and entertainment centers that would be exclusive only to card holders. Perhaps most intriguingly, members can also 'purchase' second homes in Thailand. As foreigners aren't allowed to own land in Thailand, purchases would be in the name of Thailand Privilege Co., the entity that runs the Thailand Elite program on behalf of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). The state tourist body, which is overseeing the promotion, hopes to sign up at least 10,000 wealthy visitors to the program by the end of next year. Thailand's president, Thaksin Shinawatra, has predicted that 200,000 members could eventually join. That's a lot of newly minted Thai ambassadors!

On a lighter note, we spotted what must be one of the smallest business lounges on earth: the Private Air lounge at the Crown Point Airport on the island of Tobago (Southern Caribbean), which is about 15 sqm but does have its own hostess. MASSCLUSIVITY truly IS a global phenomenon these days!

OPPORTUNITIES
Maybe you're in government. Or in tourism. Or in loyalty management. Or in anything that could do with a healthy dose of privilege for customers floating in the ever expanding 'sea of sameness'. This Thai initiative may inspire you to re-assess your assets and determine which could carry a premium by making them available to members only. >> Email this trend to a friend.

WANT TO VIEW THE ENTIRE TREND DESCRIPTION?
www.trendwatching.com/trends/2002/11/MASSCLUSIVITY.html

"Making spontaneous decisions to go somewhere or do something is becoming the norm; in fact, often the only thing consumers are willing to plan is to be... spontaneous!"

Two months ago, we explained how online dating, urban positioning and international low cost travel were all part of a burgeoning virtual and physical network enabling people to be spontaneous in an almost planned manner. Here are four more new ideas that build on the PLANNED SPONTANEITY trend:

•  Emeryville-based WaveMarket, a specialist in combining blogging, time-location context, communications and community, has introduced the following new services that will spur the reach and depth of PLANNED SPONTANEITY:



'WaveSpotter' turns cell phones into location-enabled broadcasting and viewing devices. Users can zoom around the map-based interface and interact with location-based content, like other blog posts, or even yellow page listings relevant to their location. Use it to immortalize when and where you proposed to your spouse, where you sighted a celebrity, or just where to get the best donut in town.



The 'WaveBlog' service is a company-hosted super blog serving as a multiple channel informational clearinghouse. So, if you want to know where the hippest place in town is tonight, just check out the entertainment channel. Or, for how to get there, there’s a traffic channel. The number of posts, pages, and channels hosted by WaveMarket is unlimited, but it’s all organized by place and time so you can get to where you want in just seconds.

Last but not least, 'WaveAlert' is a wireless operator infrastructure that enables wireless operators to notify their customers when they are near something important to them, from a speed trap to a good friend who happens to be in their area.



Sounds ambitious? It doesn't hurt that WaveMarket is backed by Nokia Venture Partners, Intel Capital, and Telecom Italia. And they also did quite well by closing a recent deal with SK Telecom, Korea’s leading mobile operator, which purchased WaveAlert software to power the first-ever location-based alert wireless service. The Asian carrier will deliver the first products to the Korean market in the next calendar quarter. Which European carriers to follow?

•  Across the pond, in Copenhagen, location/community start-up Hvem er ibyen (Danish for 'who's in town') has developed a positioning service that should gel with the SMS generation worldwide.
When entering a participating bar, club, coffee shop, lounge or restaurant, Hvem members scan their free ID-card at a terminal, which then automatically notifies a pre-selected group of friends about their whereabouts by sending them a SMS/text message with the card holder's name, the time and the venue he or she just entered. The same information can also be tracked on a dedicated website, only accessible to the same group of friends. In Hvem's own words: "They know where you are, and you know where they are – and then it's easy for you to go party together!"



•  Accommodation costs often ruin the PLANNED SPONTANEITY fun that comes with scoring a 9 euro flight on ryanair.com, especially if you want to stay at a happening boutique hotel, mingling with trendy locals and fellow jet-setters. But a new breed of affordable-yet-chic-and-well-designed hotels may be emerging: TRENDWATCHING.COM spotted new Hamburg-based 25-hours Hotel, where very stylish rooms start at EUR 90 per night.
In their own words, "25-hours Hamburg was designed with a consistent orientation towards current design trends, as well as providing moderate accommodation prices for a group of hotel guests that maintain a spontaneous lifestyle."
The hotel's open spaces, aptly named the Lobby, the Day & Night Bar, the Common Living Room and the Roof Terrace, have been modelled to form the backdrop for a permanent get together. PLANNED SPONTANEITY Hamburg-style has never been more stylish and affordable!

•  As predicted by TRENDWATCHING.COM (and by others, of course ;-), new players in the low-cost airlines/buses/cruise ships/accommodation revolution -- which is still very regionally inclined -- are now eyeing the long-haul market. Claiming 'first to market' status in this new arena is US-based RivieraJet Airways. Still in its final planning stages, RivieraJet will operate on transatlantic routes (like Florida to Nice or Rome), modelling itself after no-frills yet comfortable US domestic carrier JetBlue.



The airline plans to grow its network by developing three strategic gateways on the US East Coast, with one located in the Northeast, one in the mid-Atlantic region and one in southern Florida. It will offer flights to "major destinations" in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the Benelux. Godfather of low-cost, long haul flights Freddy Laker (yes, someone did try to do this more than 20 years ago, but got sabotaged by the big boys, in what was then a virtually monopolized market!) is also on board, as an Executive Advisor. We won't know whether RivieraJet will 'fly' until this summer, but somehow we suspect 2004 and 2005 will see quite a few long-haul PLANNED SPONTANEITY initiatives.

OPPORTUNITIES
The global network enabling PLANNED SPONTANEITY -- from online dating sites and positioning services to low cost airlines -- is still expanding rapidly (almost daily, we hear of yet another low-cost airline revving up its engines in markets previously controlled by backward state regulation). So keep a close eye on related changes in consumer behavior and do some spontaneous strategic planning yourself: customers expecting instant gratification 24/7 may soon become the norm! >> Email this trend to a friend.

RELATED TRENDS / IDEAS
Backpackers Xpress

WANT TO READ THE ENTIRE TREND DESCRIPTION?
www.trendwatching.com/trends/2003/11/
PLANNED_SPONTANEITY.html

Want even more inspiration? Our April 2004 newsletter, which we'll send out on 6 April 2004, will bring you new trends like "DEATH OF SATURATION" and "POCKET PATTERNS". And in the mean time: DO check out our just-launched series of TREND IMMERSION SEMINARS, from New York to London to Shanghai to Sydney. It's going to be exclusive yet affordable, and very, very inspiring! More >>