The luxury of the flexists
Futurism: Time is increasingly becoming a status symbol and, as such, marketable. There was consensus on this point at the 8th German Trend Day.
Future research Time is increasingly becoming a status symbol and therefore marketable. There was a consensus on this at the 8th German Trend Day: "He only knows what time is as long as he is not asked about it", confessed church father Augustine over 1600 years ago. For the aphorist Karl Kraus, "time" was one of those miracle words for which the following applied: "The closer you look at them, the further back they look." It is no easy task, even for trend researchers, to get to grips with this phenomenon that is as fleeting as it is fundamental - even though this guild, which is particularly affected by the rampant loss of trust, pokes around in the fog of terms by profession. "Eigenzeit: Aufschwung durch eine neue Zeitökonomie" (Self-time: Upswing through a new time economy) was the promise of the Hamburg conference program, which was demonstratively bathed in optimistic magenta. However, the color scheme turned out to be a miscalculation on the part of the Trend Office in charge of the event, as the company responsible for this corporate
Color associated Deutsche Telekom had just announced the day before that it wanted to cut its marketing budget by 100 million euros.
Janus-faced timeNorbert Bolz opened the series of speakers with the thesis of an already existing two-tier society. If you believe the Berlin marketing philosopher, the guiding principle of the old economy "time is money" can now be interpreted in two ways: "The winners of the new economy sacrifice money in order to save time; the losers, on the other hand, invest time in order to save money." In concrete terms: while some spend hours searching the internet for the ultimate airline discount, others book the first business flight that comes along. Or have it booked.
So instead of "time is money", in future it will be "time or money". As unequal as these basic resources are: Ultimately, at least every social class seems to retain its class-specific luxury - in the sense of what one always lacks. In the case of stressed managers (new German: flexists), this is known to be health sooner or later. This inspired bestselling author Reinhard K. Sprenger to say in his lecture: "First we run after money with our health and then we run after health with our money."
In addition, the plank of the consulting business pleaded for more creative inefficiency, i.e.: own time during working hours. Sprenger cited his former employer 3M as an example of the success of this paradoxical concept. Its then revolutionary "Post it" glue was the result of such "free time in the service of the company", which is why the company is considering increasing its own time quota from the current 25 percent to 40 percent of attendance time.
The applicability of such freedoms to creative sectors such as agencies or editorial offices is debatable. Accordingly, the most useful of Sprenger's advice also applied to the hospitality industry. "Free beer tomorrow": his favorite pub has been advertising with this bar sign for years - and is (nevertheless? because of this?) full every day.
Dynamic pricing on the riseIn the afternoon, however, the audience of around 500 people from marketing and the media, which was trimmed for practical orientation, still got their money's worth. David Bosshart, Director of Trend Day sponsor GDI, garnished his observations on the economization of time with a few examples of how to manage this supposedly banal resource. Using "dynamic pricing" and "yield management", according to the trend slang, time is already being successfully charged for today.
In the center of London, for example, with "traffic flow management", which adjusts the toll for road use to the volume of traffic. The strategy of Coca-Cola, whose products in US vending machines cost more on hot days than on cold ones, is equally plausible. And it is almost self-evident to Bosshart that American restaurant chains structure their pricing policy according to occupancy and time of day (keyword "early bird" tariff).
At first glance, the rather academic-sounding idea of a "marketing of catechontics" (Greek for anachronism), which Norbert Bolz presented to the reporter on the fringes of the Trend Day, also seems less exciting. This essentially refers to the discovery of slowness for or by advertising. Bolz illustrates this principle using the example of Montblanc International. The writing instrument manufacturer consistently communicates with its entire corporate identity "I write with a fountain pen = I take my time (for you) = I am cultivated". It is quite conceivable that this equation also works for other cultural assets such as quality German newspapers, top French wines or English luxury cars.
Taking my time: the Mont Blanc embassy is outpacing the trend by a thin margin.
Color associated Deutsche Telekom had just announced the day before that it wanted to cut its marketing budget by 100 million euros.
Janus-faced timeNorbert Bolz opened the series of speakers with the thesis of an already existing two-tier society. If you believe the Berlin marketing philosopher, the guiding principle of the old economy "time is money" can now be interpreted in two ways: "The winners of the new economy sacrifice money in order to save time; the losers, on the other hand, invest time in order to save money." In concrete terms: while some spend hours searching the internet for the ultimate airline discount, others book the first business flight that comes along. Or have it booked.
So instead of "time is money", in future it will be "time or money". As unequal as these basic resources are: Ultimately, at least every social class seems to retain its class-specific luxury - in the sense of what one always lacks. In the case of stressed managers (new German: flexists), this is known to be health sooner or later. This inspired bestselling author Reinhard K. Sprenger to say in his lecture: "First we run after money with our health and then we run after health with our money."
In addition, the plank of the consulting business pleaded for more creative inefficiency, i.e.: own time during working hours. Sprenger cited his former employer 3M as an example of the success of this paradoxical concept. Its then revolutionary "Post it" glue was the result of such "free time in the service of the company", which is why the company is considering increasing its own time quota from the current 25 percent to 40 percent of attendance time.
The applicability of such freedoms to creative sectors such as agencies or editorial offices is debatable. Accordingly, the most useful of Sprenger's advice also applied to the hospitality industry. "Free beer tomorrow": his favorite pub has been advertising with this bar sign for years - and is (nevertheless? because of this?) full every day.
Dynamic pricing on the riseIn the afternoon, however, the audience of around 500 people from marketing and the media, which was trimmed for practical orientation, still got their money's worth. David Bosshart, Director of Trend Day sponsor GDI, garnished his observations on the economization of time with a few examples of how to manage this supposedly banal resource. Using "dynamic pricing" and "yield management", according to the trend slang, time is already being successfully charged for today.
In the center of London, for example, with "traffic flow management", which adjusts the toll for road use to the volume of traffic. The strategy of Coca-Cola, whose products in US vending machines cost more on hot days than on cold ones, is equally plausible. And it is almost self-evident to Bosshart that American restaurant chains structure their pricing policy according to occupancy and time of day (keyword "early bird" tariff).
At first glance, the rather academic-sounding idea of a "marketing of catechontics" (Greek for anachronism), which Norbert Bolz presented to the reporter on the fringes of the Trend Day, also seems less exciting. This essentially refers to the discovery of slowness for or by advertising. Bolz illustrates this principle using the example of Montblanc International. The writing instrument manufacturer consistently communicates with its entire corporate identity "I write with a fountain pen = I take my time (for you) = I am cultivated". It is quite conceivable that this equation also works for other cultural assets such as quality German newspapers, top French wines or English luxury cars.
Taking my time: the Mont Blanc embassy is outpacing the trend by a thin margin.
Oliver Classen
