Non-Obvious 2017 Edition: How To Think Different, Curate Ideas & Predict The Future by Rohit Bhargava
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator who believes in sharing “non-obvious” ideas. He is the author of five best selling business books including Non-Obvious and Likeonomics.
Rohit has advised hundreds of global brands as a former executive at Ogilvy and is currently founder of the Influential Marketing Group – an independent strategic consulting practice based in Washington DC.
A popular and non-boring keynote speaker, Rohit has been invited to headline events in over 30 countries where his popular talks have inspired audiences from 10 to 10,000 people to lead with personality, create more human organizations and even learn to predict the future.
His blog has been named one of the top 25 marketing blogs in the world by AdAge magazine. Rohit also teaches marketing at Georgetown University and is regularly quoted in The Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, and NPR.
He is a lifelong fan of anything having to do with the Olympics (he’s been to four so far!), actively avoids anything having to do with cauliflower, and has dedicated his career to helping brands and leaders be more influential by embracing their humanity and personality.
The Host’s Perspective:
When my kids were growing up, I was always surprised when people I hadn’t seen for a while commented on how much the kids had grown. I was surprised because since I was with the kids every day, I never noticed the change.
That’s sort of the sensation I experience when reading Rohit Bhargava’s bestselling annual “Non-Obvious” books. Because we live in this always-on age of information abundance, or information oversaturation, it’s become even more difficult to separate all the signals from the noise.
Rohit Bhargava’s “Non-Obvious” is the antidote to that.
Throughout each year, he closely observes the world around us and methodically curates the trends that matter.
He categorizes them into 5 broad areas with three trends in each:
- Culture & Consumer Behavior
- Marketing & Social Media
- Media & Education
- Technology & Design
- Economics & Entrepreneurship
And in the book he shows you exactly how he does it so that you can learn how to better observe, think differently, and identify trends that mean something.
So you might be wondering, how accurate is he?
Well, with each edition he looks back and reviews all the trends from previous years and grades his previous predictions. And you know what? He’s got pretty good grades.
In this year’s edition, one of the marketing trends Rohit has introduced is “passive loyalty.”
He explains that “as switching from brand to brand becomes easier and technology empowers consumers – a new understanding of loyalty challenges brands to get smarter about earning true loyalty.” He argues that there is a huge difference between a satisfied customers and a loyal one. He goes on to explain why it matters and how to use this trend.
My favorite marketing trend profiled in this year’s book that was first identified in his 2014 edition is that of “lovable imperfection.”
What’s lovable imperfection?
“As people seek out more personal and human experiences, brands and creators intentionally focus on using personality, quirkiness and intentional imperfections to make their products and experiences more human, authentic and desirable.”
Just a suggestion to the marketing world out there – when a trend first identified three years ago is brought back, if you haven’t already, you might want to work this insight into how you communicate with your customers.
Most of us have our heads down throughout the year working really hard and fast and we don’t always have the time to slow down and think about the larger trends that are occurring.
If you only do that once a year, “Non-Obvious” is the chance to help you profitably discern the overall patterns from the mass of detail in our everyday lives.
Listen to the Interview:
Show Notes:
“Non-Obvious 2017 Edition: How To Think Different, Curate Ideas & Predict The Future” by Rohit Bhargava
“Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends” by Martin Lindstrom and Chip Heath
“Persuadable” by Al Pittampalli
“Tools of Titans” by Tim Ferriss
Holiday Gift Guide: The Most Significant Content Marketing Books Published During 2016 (ContentMarketingInstitute.com)
Rohit Bhargava Website (RohitBhargava.com)
The 15 Best Business Books of 2016 Article (RohitBhargava.com)
Rohit Bhargava’s Weekly Newsletter (RohitBhargava.com)
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