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Update – Two weeks after this post was originally published, Trader Joe’s issued a new statement sharing that they do not consider these brand names to be racist and instead will be keeping them intact. I believe brands should act in human ways and have a personality. In fact, I wrote a book on it … Read more
For the past ten years I have gone through an annual ritual of publishing a book about trends that describe our shifting culture and business environment. Over the past decade, my team and I have identified and written about well over 100 trends covering everything from the rise of the #metoo movement (a trend we … Read more
Last summer comedian and actress Mindy Kaling did a series of ads for McDonald’s with a curious omission – she never mentioned the brand. Instead, they would use phrases like “the place where Coke tastes so good” to allude to the brand. It was an interesting strategy and turned a few eyebrows. This week, Heineken launched an entire … Read more
I remember last year I was walking past some trendy retail stores in NY and I saw a few handbags with the Pan Am logo. Apparently there is a whole historical foundation and store featuring all kinds of retro products like t-shirts and travel kits. The airline may have died but the brand is alive. I … Read more
Forget using tech and big data for personalization – Snickers has a better idea … just let people tell you how they are feeling. The new versions of their “hunger bar” (as they are now calling their product) which will come out in June 2018, branded along with the emotion that they might fit with (like Salty&Sweet … Read more
Earlier this week when Netflix sent a surprisingly human cease and desist letter to the folks who decided to create a “Stranger Things” themed popup bar without permission, people offered credit to their lawyers. It seemed to me like a better example of something that happens all too rarely in business: a brand deciding what … Read more
Apparently the shift towards swear words in book titles and content has not gone unnoticed by researchers. As Cory Doctorow notes in this article: “books are getting swearier and [researchers concluded] that this is a bellwether for a growth in the value of individualism.” I have definitely noticed this shift in non-fiction books (The Subtle … Read more
The world is angry and people are holding on to plenty of rage … so it’s perhaps no surprise that “Anger Rooms” are taking off. The reason why is perfectly summed up in this quote from the founder of one of them: “I think that part of what’s going on here is that breaking stuff … Read more
Nothing says the future quite like robots, and this week there were plenty of interesting stories of how robots are being used in important, curious, quirky and sometimes terrifying ways. From robots replacing advertising agencies to virtual home tours to an edible robot that could soon crawl through your insides, the stories this week touch … Read more
It is hard to get away from the feeling that we are being manipulated all the time. This week there were plenty of new stories of divisive characters losing their audience, brands trying new ways to be more truthful, and talk show host John Oliver trying to define reality itself. The theme this week is the … Read more
Non-Obvious is my Wall Street Journal bestselling trend series about learning to use the power of curation to transform your business and predict the future.
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator, founder of the Non-Obvious Company, and the author of six best selling business books including the Wall Street Journal best seller Non-Obvious.
Rohit Bhargava is on a mission to inspire more non-obvious thinking in the world. He is the #1 Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of eight books and is widely considered one of the most entertaining and original speakers on disruption, trends and marketing in the world.
Rohit has been invited to keynote events in 32 countries … and over the past year, given more than 100 virtual talks from his home studio. He previously spent 15 years as a marketing strategist at Ogilvy and Leo Burnett and also teaches marketing and storytelling as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
He loves the Olympics, actively hates cauliflower and is a proud dad of boys.
For more than a decade, Rohit Bhargava has been inspiring audiences at NASA, Disney, Schwab, Microsoft, SXSW, Coca-Cola and hundreds of other clients with his signature non-obvious keynote presentations. He is a master at weaving recent stories into his talks in a way that helps audiences better understand the world today, while also preparing to lead the future.
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Rohit is the author of 8 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.
