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In the 1987 cult hit film Mannequin, a chronically unemployed artist landed a job decorating a department storefront window after saving the owner’s life. His partner is a mannequin who comes life at night – and together they create storefront window displays that get people stopping in the streets. It’s a tale of fantasy, but … Read more
Last week no one cared what my Twitter name was – and I was thrilled about that. At dozens of social media centric events, the Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or Pinterest question has become the de facto proof of purchase. People write their Twitter names on their nametags. They try desperately to distill their … Read more
Aziz Ansari wasn’t planning to stick around after his show for photos. Most of the people in the packed theater in Washington DC where I saw him perform his Buried Alive Comedy Tour last week probably weren’t expecting that anyway. Despite social media breaking down virtual barriers to conversations with unreachable people (and Aziz has … Read more
It is tempting to search for the next big thing. There were no shortage of journalists sent to SXSW this past weekend for their annual quest to answer exactly that question. And this year many came up empty — or at least indifferent. Some even skipped the event completely. Of course we like to see … Read more
There are exceptions to every rule. That’s what we like to think, isn’t it? We are all unique in our own way. No two people (or snowflakes!) are alike. There’s no shortage of cliches to describe the same thing. The Snowflake Mindset says that everything is unique and we should never forget our differences. The … Read more
Looking back, it’s fair to say the launch strategy Google used back in 2004 has become legendary. When the new platform first came out offering an unheard of 1 GB of free storage space, it was only available to an extremely limited group of people. As a result, having a Gmail account became an early … Read more
How much time do you spend trying to convince your target audience that you have the best product or service for them? Probably a lot. After all, that’s what most of marketing is supposed to do, right? So now imagine everything you’ve done is working. Your customer believes that you offer the best experience. They … Read more
What’s the Trend? Design takes a leading role in the introduction of new products, ideas and campaigns to change the world. For several years, leading companies have started to see design as a competitive advantage, but in the coming year design may hold the solution to the world’s biggest challenges. Partially because the solutions themselves … Read more
What’s the Trend? New services and technology makes it easier for anyone to invest in local businesses and buy from local merchants. The consumer desire to “shop local” will have plenty of help in the coming year from a suite of online tools, innovations and personalization technology that help anyone in any location around the … Read more
What’s the Trend? Organizations uncover that one of their greatest assets to inspire loyalty can come from taking people behind the scenes of their brand and history. Every business has someone who is the legend behind the brand – and some are lucky to have that person still working. At large companies, employees can get … Read more
Non-Obvious Thinking is my upcoming book about the 4 secrets of becoming a non-obvious thinker - coming 09/24!
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator, founder of the Non-Obvious Company and the 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of ten books.
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Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.
