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The CEO view: predicting the future of brands
At FutureBrand, we care about the reality of brands and business today. With the rise of social media, it has never been more important to develop a real-time view of brand strength, consumer opinion and the forces driving the global economy. But as future-focused thinkers, our passion is influencing tomorrow: a source of constant preoccupation for business leaders in these unpredictable times.
Harnessing our global expertise
Prediction is notoriously difficult, especially when it comes to the future. We have always been informed by macro-trends and the work of futurists to develop brands that drive their category forward, rather than simply responding to today’s realities. But new technologies are emerging that help us go further – forecasting which brands have the potential to be truly transformative.
As a global business, FutureBrand has experts on the ground in developed and emerging economies across the world, building a collective view of new and established global brands and the forces driving their success. We have been working on ways to harness that knowledge through social technologies to build a body of intelligence our clients can use for competitive advantage.
A virtual stock market for brands
One answer is the FutureBrand Index – an online virtual stock market of global brands. It works in real-time and has traders on 5 continents investing in 400 brands across 19 categories. From Apple to Zopa, FutureBrand’s global brand experts buy and sell shares hoping for a strong future return. By definition, this produces a bias towards brands they feel have hidden potential or momentum, and offers us a prediction of the brands they think will grow in the future, not just those that are dominant now.
Current performance is no indication of future success
Most indices of brand strength assess current performance and perceptions. They present a picture of today that quickly dates as the world moves on. But global brands are dynamic and their strength shifts as each day passes, particularly as reputation ebbs and flows across the social web. So we need new ways of assessing brands in real-time, and the patterns that form which hint at what might happen next: just like weather prediction.
It’s early days for our predictive tool, but some interesting patterns are forming. Watch this space for our emerging FutureBrand Future50 – you might be surprised by what the future holds.
Patrick Smith
Worldwide CEO
FutureBrand
