Dirk Knemeyer is a Founding Principal of Involution Studios LLC, a digital product design firm located in Silicon Valley, and strategic partner of gotomedia.

Lifestyle brands in the digital world

By Dirk Knemeyer

The importance of lifestyle brands - companies and products that gain extraordinary market share by becoming an integral part of people's self-identity and lifestyle - is hardly new. Innovated in the 1990's by companies like Saturn and Starbucks, this approach to winning markets by paying attention to the needs and desires of customers has spawned various imitators, and changed the way companies try to build their brand. The good news for all of us as customers is that companies are paying more attention to what we actually want, and doing what they can to stimulate our mind and touch our heart. But what is the next level? If lifestyle brands are the trend of today, where are we headed tomorrow?

Digital innovation is changing the way we live. While this has passively been true for many years now, first through the personal computer and later by the Internet, recent innovations are taking that change to a whole new level. Yes, personal computers changed the way we work, making it easier to create communication tools and automate low-level tasks like scheduling. And the Internet changed the way we think, removing information barriers and revolutionizing how we communicate. But now mobile technology is fundamentally changing the way we live our lives.

A good friend of mine has spent time in Japan, doing exploratory ethnographic research. Her stories about the behavior and lifestyle of people there is a revelation. Walking down the street, most everyone is armed with a mobile device, held close to their face, ostensibly SMS'ing (Short Message Service) with other people. But this remarkable cultural behavior only begins there. A great example of how companies are leveraging this is in high-end boutique fashion. Stores will stock only a small number of super premium priced - even one-of-a-kind - fashions. These releases will be announced or made available only via the mobile web, and a veritable feeding frenzy will commence: the many people who are passionate about this store or that designer or this activity will attempt to virtually "buy" these exclusive releases. And this can be a daily occurrence!

Because of the sophistication of the digital devices and network, because companies have taken aggressive advantage of it, because the Japanese culture has so widely embraced enthusiastic adoption of a mobile lifestyle, it is completely changing cultural behavior. Not just in the house or workplace as with earlier innovations; this is changing the very way people go through their lives.

While the adoption of a mobile culture is progressing far more slowly in the U.S. than in Japan and other parts of the world, the future of what is today lifestyle branding will happen at an entirely different level thanks to these technologies. Indeed, whereas now it is enough for a Starbucks to make buying a morning latte part of the morning ritual for millions of people, leading companies in the future will use these soon-to-be ubiquitous mobile devices and environments as the fulcrum for changing how we act and think. The shopping example in Japan is only the beginning. Mobile will be ground zero for real innovations in marketing and communication, and through that innovation we will see ourselves and our culture change. It is an exciting - if somewhat uncertain - time. But it will be the investments and decisions that are made in the near future that will determine the next generation of market leadership - particularly for consumer companies. Ultimately, their brand strategies will play a prominent role in defining our mobile lifestyles.