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I spent four years in a place that acclimatizes you to believe there is nothing strange about having a Diet Coke for Breakfast. I’m speaking, of course, of my time living in Atlanta doing an Undergraduate degree at Emory University which is sometimes known, thanks to it’s large endowment from the brand, as “Coca-Cola University.” … Read more
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
This week the dual themes of selfishness and unselfishness emerged in the stories I’m sharing below. On the selfish side – Instagrammers sharing tone deaf posts about the Bahamas, a study finding a disturbing portion of America simply wants to destroy things and the dire side effects of Amazon’s quest for faster delivery. On the … Read more
Why Jose Cuervo Wins With Its All-You-Can-Drink Tequila Train The temptation to create a “Strategic Spectacle” is popular for brands desperately chasing experiential marketing. Usually it leads to short term thinking and limited results. Not for Jose Cuervo, though, as their popular unlimited tequila train has been running for over 7 years. That is what commitment to an idea looks … Read more
The Hotel That Forces You To Take A Digital Detox In Sweden, one hotel has created a stunt designed to encourage you to stay off of Wifi during your stay … by only charging you when you use devices in the room. If you can exhibit self control for the evening in the “Check Out … Read more
Japanese Hotel Has First Round Of Robot Layoffs I first wrote about the Henna hotel, staffed entirely by robots, more than two years ago. It seems that the experimental property in Japan has discovered a hopeful truth: people sometimes prefer people. And so it may also be the first example in history of robots being … Read more
Every year my team and I read and review hundreds of books in the process of curating ideas to incorporate in our annual list of trends. Beyond using those books to inspire how we see the world, we also select our favorites each year to feature as part of the Non-Obvious Book Awards program. For … 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
British supermarkets are quickly becoming the unexpected pioneers in adding more empathy into retail. In January, Tesco introduced a “slow checkout line” for customers who have dementia or otherwise need more time to check out. This week, Morrisons, another British supermarket chain, announced it would have “quiet hours” to help autistic shoppers to have a … 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.
