Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 78
February 3, 2017
Starbucks’ Mobile Crisis, Lego’s New Social Network, Realtor.com Invests In AR and How To Name Your Brand
Fascinating stories from the world of business this week included Lego’s bold move to finally create a safe social network online for kids, Starbucks’ growing pains from its mobile app that perhaps works too well, a new startup that will pay business travelers to skip the hotel mini bar to save money, and how augmented reality may transform home buying. And on the gadget side, a cargo robot that follows you around and carries your stuff. I’ll be back on Monday next week with a special SUPER B...
January 27, 2017
Professional Ghosting, Why We Prefer Serious Robots and the Secret Genius Of Trump’s Paid Applauders
A tequila maker cashing in on the craft drink phenomenon, the surprising reasons why vending machines are so popular in Japan, how drones are evolving to offer unexpected solutions and what Trump’s fake audiences should teach us about media consumption. Those stories and a highly entertaining ad that will show you everything you need to know about Bollywood – all in this week’s non-obvious insights!
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January 20, 2017
Tokyo Toilets, the World’s Rudest Billboard and Richard Branson’s Next Big Idea
This week’s stories span from a new design for the many buttons on Japanese toilets to a deeper look at the flaws inside one of the most frequently used metrics in business to measure loyalty: the Net Promoter Score. Other stories that stood out this week were a Swedish coughing billboard that may or may not actually work, an emotional Sci-Fi story that offers an interesting new take on storytelling, and two in-depth inside look articles at entrepreneurial ventures: Richard Branson’s new Virg...
January 13, 2017
Kodak Brings Back Film, How To Be Funny On Stage, and the Professional Snowball Fighting League
The stories this week offer a valuable reminder that while we tend to focus a lot of our attention on looking forward toward the future, there can be a beautiful resonance that comes from looking in the other direction from time to time. Kodak brings back film, the ultimate “device like no other” from a greeting card company and a league for professional snowball fighting are the perfect antidote to the world I saw last week at CES which was rocketing toward drone racing and sentient robots....
January 6, 2017
5 Ideas From CES 2017 That Should Get You Excited
I’m here in Las Vegas at CES checking out the latest in innovative technology, and so that’s going to be the focus of this week’s newsletter. Enjoy the latest from CES, and next week I will be back to curating the best stories of the week for you. As always, I would love to hear if there is anything I can do to help you personally in the new year or make this email more useful. Just let me know!
Want trend insights before anyone else? Join my email list to receive a curated collection of the...
December 22, 2016
Hasbro Saves Families, Amazon’s Uber Idea, CES 2017 and Marketing Lessons From Hatchimals
Given it is the end of the year, this week’s stories include several holiday themes, including an inside look at the PR strategy behind Hatchimals, a great strategic idea from Hasbro UK and an app designed to reduce food wastage. Other stories I selected this week include Amazon revealing its bold ambitions to transform the trucking industry and Oculus sharing new plans to socialize VR. This will be the final newsletter update of the year (I’m taking the week off next week!), but the first em...
December 16, 2016
Glow-In-The-Dark Hair, Secret NYC Trains, Nike’s Anti-Social Ad, and Citibank’s Flawed Strategy
First of all, thank you for indulging me for the past two weeks as I shared my favorite books of the year and also announced my latest book – this week I’m back with my picks for the most interesting and under appreciated stories of the week and they range from a brilliant new ad from Nike to the curious rise of neon glow-in-the-dark hair. There is also a cautionary tale from Citibank on a content marketing effort that misses the mark by forgetting to give people something to do next.
Want tr...
December 9, 2016
15 Non-Obvious Business Trends Shaping 2017 (Retail, Consumer, Tech, Marketing, and Media)
This week I launched the seventh edition of my annual trend report featuring all of my research from throughout the year on trends. Many of you have already picked up your copy of the book, but to spotlight some of the research in a more visual way, I wanted to share a short summary of every trend along with a visual and one story from the book to illustrate each one. I hope you enjoy this recap and if you haven’t already – please buy your copy of the book today and help support the release!
...The 15 Best Business Books Of 2016 | Non-Obvious Book Award Winners!
Every year as part of my trend research and idea gathering, I go through more than a hundred business books and select my shortlist of 15 best ones published in 2016 to share with you. These are all profiled in a short presentation along with a review of each and my selections for the Most Original, Most Entertaining, Most Important, Most Useful and Most Shareable books of the year.
A summary is below as well as a link to the full presentation. I hope you enjoy this list of books and find a f...
November 25, 2016
How To Avoid Getting Burned Out And The Most Important Thing To Buy (And Not Buy) This Black Friday
I hope you are having a week to be thankful for and spending it with family, whether you celebrate American Thanksgiving or not! My chosen stories this week range widely, from a potentially industry changing announcement from Airbnb to the rise of a new inclusive type of fashion that caters to people with physical disabilities. There is an article about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that will be live streamed in 360 degree video (which you can watch this morning!) and finally a piece on...
