Quote of the Week:

An economist is someone who, on being shown something that works in practice, wonders if it would work in theory.

Erm! Well. Where'd I get this from?

3000 of the leading economists gathered last week. Spent a collective 30,000 hours talking/thinking about how to get the economy going.

Not one of them spoke of new ideas for product or service that people desperately want now or in the future. Fucking egg-heads haven't a clue about what you and I face everyday in our business and personal lives.

Here's 3 ideas from me (a bloke that spent 20 years in the Design Lab):

1.For consumers, anything practical and useful will go down well in more austere times, while anything that speaks their language (and thus ultimately shows that a brand cares about its customers' interests) will be reciprocated with appreciation and goodwill. Which in today's harsh business climate is like, well, gold dust.

2.For businesses, adhoc-attributes can often be imagined and introduced at very low costs (which doesn’t hurt when budgets are tight); the only resources needed are creativity and a good feel for the consumer trends that matter most over the next 12 months.

3.Most important of all: ultimately this is not about gimmicky fingerless gloves: it’s about integrating the 'now' into your activities this year, achieving relevance for and goodwill from your customers, in an environment that has never been more about the 'now' than, well, now