Someone told me the other day that their company policy doesn’t allow them to check their personal email accounts such as Yahoo! or Hotmail on their computer at work. Looking at my network of friends and colleagues, who often not only own one but two smartphones, I really wonder what difference it would make to them.

In today’s connected world, we increasingly have the possibility to check our emails on smartphones – according to GfK Roper Reports® Worldwide, our annual global study across 25 countries, 31% of global households already own at least one multifunctional device that is e-mail capable such as Blackberry, i-Phone or HTC.  And most importantly, we can do much more with our phones than just emailing! In a typical day I use my phone to read my emails of course but also to search locations on Google map, browse for products, check my bank account, buy my cinema tickets and organise nights out with friends via Blackberry messenger, standard text messaging or even via the ‘WhatsApp’ application. I also check the news, I like to read tweets and give my opinion on Twitter, I check in on Foursquare and I am curious about what my friends have to say on Facebook and now Google +. The list seems endless!

Like many other consumers and in line with the ‘Instant Everywhere’ trend (the ‘Instant Everywhere’ trend is part of our GfK Roper Consulting TrendKey 3.1 product), I believe that being constantly connected is great, it allows me to be independent, to get things done within minutes and to stay in touch with friends and families at all times. My favourite pass-time at the moment is to scan Twitter for instant and tailored news and I certainly consider my Blackberry to be the one thing that I would never leave the house without.

However, as my friend has recently pointed out to me, this might also be exactly my problem. I’ve come to a point where watching TV, whilst playing ‘Angry Bird’ on my I-pad and tweeting on my Blackberry at the same time is just a routine thing for me to do. But I’m told, probably rightly so, that this is just a step too far. Reality is that technology has started to dictate how I live my life rather than me being in control; in less than two years, mobile technology has completely changed my everyday routine.

The way mobile technology has invaded my life is becoming increasingly obvious to me. I am often distracted; I feel that I am constantly bombarded with too much information which means I often will simply forget about the details. I find it hard to memorise things and to recall places and names (it is all saved in my Blackberry somewhere!). I get nervous if I don’t find a good network connection or if I don’t get replies instantly. I suffer from sleep deprivation because my mind hasn’t had a chance to switch off before going to bed. Generally I feel surrounded by clutter everywhere, but I am too scared to get rid of information because of fear of missing out! And it seems that I am not the only one. The fast development of mobile technology has an impact on how we perceive the world, our world. According to a 2011 Ofcom study, 37% of adults and 60% of teens are ‘highly addicted’ to their smartphones in the UK. And psychologists are increasingly discussing a new syndrome called FOMO – the fear of missing out, brought on by being aware of so many alternatives, by seeing other things that you could be doing, or having, or being. This fear of missing out is often fuelled by social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn as they are platforms for social comparisons and make it more apparent to people what they aren’t doing or achieving.

There is no denying that there are exciting times ahead for technology fans and smartphone users. Some of the latest application such as ‘Plane Finder AR’ and augmented reality apps such as ‘Wikitude’ are simply breath-taking and give us a glimpse of how exciting the future of mobile technology will be. Some of the apps are also very functional and will make our lives much easier and less cluttered, such as the British Airways Check-In app, the Urbanspoon app or the electronic promotion vouchers on Foursquare. These apps have a very promising future as consumers increasingly and actively look to simplify their lives. Any products and services that help them focus on the essential will be increasingly important in a world of massive complexity and choice (this ‘Streamlined’ trend is part of our GfK Roper Consulting TrendKey 3.1 product).

But there is also increasing proof that mobile technology impacts our life much more than we intended to. Mobile technology has infiltrated our lives and has impacted the way we interact with the world around us. It has also brought us more fear of social exclusion as we are constantly looking with envy at others on social media platforms wishing we were them. We tend to multi-task and our work-life balance is increasingly blurred. This often stops us from enjoying what we do right now in the moment. For myself I have decided to consciously reduce my obsession with constant updates, emails, and instant messaging. Almost like fighting an addiction I find it tough but I know I will be worth it. And the evidence is there. Even little things such as freeing up my inbox from clutter have been very mood-lifting and liberalising. But there are other benefits too. By taking just a tiny bit of distance from my phone and tablet, I am finally in a position again to fully enjoy shared experiences of all kinds that I and my friends and family can always treasure. And this has brought me to the conclusion that there is nothing better than the joy of shared and uninterrupted experiences with our loved ones.

The world’s fourth most populous country is definitely one to watch, says David Crosbie

Two media reports in the past week have served to underline the increasing importance of Indonesia and its consumers to the global economy.

Firstly, an article in Bloomberg Businessweek highlighted the fact that many economists are calling for Indonesia to either be added to the BRIC group – Brazil, Russia, India and China: the four nations identified by Goldman Sachs in 2001 as likely to be the world’s biggest economies by 2050 – or to replace Russia altogether.

The rationale behind these calls is that in contrast to Russia, whose GDP figures have been lacklustre of late and whose population is ageing rapidly, Indonesia has a booming economy (with year-on-year GDP growth of nearly 6%, according to Bloomberg) and a young and vibrant population.

Secondly, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported, under the headline Why Indonesians are all a-Twitter, that according to a study by ComScore, the country has the highest proportion of Twitter users on the planet, with 20.8% of online Indonesians aged over fifteen posting messages on the microblogging site. Brazil comes second, with an equivalent figure of 20.5%. This suggests not only that Indonesian consumers are increasingly tech-savvy, but also that their ability to spread the word about new products and services is on the up.

Indonesia has been one of the ‘Core 25’ countries in GfK Roper Consulting’s Roper Reports Worldwide research since the study’s inception in 1997, because even before the country’s economic advances during the 2000s it represented a formidable group of consumers. Today, Indonesia has the fourth biggest population globally, and is the largest Muslim democracy in the world.

Our ongoing insights into the attitudes and behaviours of Indonesian consumers point to an increasingly promising environment for marketers. Long trend analysis shows that the confidence of Indonesian consumers overtook that of the global average in 2009, and now stands ten percentage points clear. What’s more, according to GfK Roper Consulting’s Consumer Recession Index, which combines a wide range of indicators to determine the extent to which consumers are affected by prevailing economic conditions, Indonesians were the third-least affected of 25 markets in 2010.

It’s clear that Indonesia will offer increased opportunities in the years to come, but these can only be acted upon with a clear insight into the attitudes and behaviours of its consumers. To find out more about how GfK Roper Consulting can help you to achieve this, please contact us. All that’s left now is to settle on a name for this new group. BIIC has been suggested. Or would anybody like a BICI?

Elmo Roper, creator of The Influentials

The Blink author’s latest pronouncements should be viewed in the context of broader consumer trends, argues David Crosbie

We at GfK Roper Consulting are particularly proud that it was our illustrious predecessors who created the concept of the Influentials – the one in ten citizens who tell the other nine how to vote, where to eat and what to buy.

The concept of Influentials was first coined by Elmo Roper in the 1940s, in a segmentation created for Standard Oil. Starting in the US in 1973, and then later globally, we have identified and profiled those well-informed and trusted individuals who are sought out for and disperse advice on a whole host of topics, and who are so valuable to marketers. As traditional forms of advertising are trusted less and less, and as technology develops, we have also monitored the steady growth of ‘word of mouse’, as it supplements traditional word of mouth.

It’s in this context that I was particularly interested to read Malcolm Gladwell’s controversial article on social networks in the New Yorker magazine last month, and to monitor the fierce debate it ignited on the Twittersphere and elsewhere. Of course Gladwell is something of an Influential himself, with books such as The Tipping Point and Blink selling millions of copies and influencing countless marketing strategies.  In his article, Gladwell warns that the motivational power of social networks is being over-estimated, explaining that a Facebook friend (or other virtual relationship) should not be equated to a real friendship, as some have tried to, because the ties are much weaker in nature. His argument related particularly to social activism, but it certainly caused me to reconsider the relative worth of ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ ties.

Our GfK Roper Reports Worldwide data show how virtual relationships are the fastest growing form of interaction globally, with 20% of consumers in our 2010 study saying they had been in touch with someone they only knew online in the past month. We also know that online sources are increasingly trusted as a source of information on which products or services to buy. As the growth in popularity of product review sites has shown, strong personal ties are not quite as necessary when it comes to deciding what to buy or where to eat, though the views of a friend will still count for more than those of a stranger.

As we see it, not only do the myriad social networking sites make it easier for traditional Influentials to carry out their business of spreading the word about products and services they like or dislike and responding to requests from acquaintances for advice, but they also encourage others who may have never previously considered doing so to review a hotel on TripAdvisor, say, or to consider the opinions of fellow consumers via a product review site.

As Gladwell argues, Twitter and Facebook may not be as suited to organising revolutions as more conventional forms of social activism, but in the world of retail they undoubtedly strengthen the hand of the global consumer, and as such their power should not be dismissed lightly by marketers in any sector.

Consumer power is here to stay in 2010

By David Crosbie

Perhaps it’s a telling indictment of my general apathy and lack of moral fibre, but I was not one of the half million Britons who helped to strike a blow for creative diversity by buying a copy of an expletive-ridden 1990s rock song in the run up to Christmas.

Allow me to explain. As you may be aware, the race for the coveted ‘Christmas Number One’ in the UK music singles chart was enlivened this year by an online campaign run through Facebook. For the past four years, the Christmas Number One slot has been taken by the winner of the popular TV talent contest X Factor, which is similar in format to American Idol and shares a judge in the form of Simon Cowell.

Jon and Tracy Morter, a regular couple from just outside London, decided that they had seen enough of this dominance and therefore started a campaign on Facebook encouraging people to buy the 1992 track ‘Killing in the Name’ by Rage Against the Machine instead of X Factor winner Joe McElderry’s cover of Miley Cirus’ ‘The Climb’. Their selection of this track may have had something to do with the recurring lyric, “I won’t do what you tell me” as well as the liberal sprinkling of offensive language. The campaign, begun on 13 December, was successful – particularly after Cowell branded it as “stupid” and “cynical” – and ‘Killing in the Name’ gained the top slot on 20 December.

Besides the schadenfreude to be gained from seeing a powerful media mogul being taken down a peg or two, this incident was just the latest and most striking example of consumers around the world using the power of online social networking to influence events. During 2009, this power was exercised in more serious circumstances by Iranian citizens, who kept the outside world informed via Twitter when traditional media were suppressed during a period of instability.

Another example from the UK was the reaction to a column by journalist Jan Moir in the right wing Daily Mail newspaper. In commenting on the death of singer Stephen Gately, who announced his homosexuality a few years previously, Moir made comments which were perceived to be homophobic. A campaign orchestrated via Twitter led to the UK’s Press Complaints Commission being inundated with over 25,000 complaints – a record number by some margin – in a very short space of time. One interesting aspect of this incident is that it gave rise to a new (if perhaps short-lived) verb, to be janmoired, which has been defined by media commentator Roy Greenslade as being, “condemned by a collective of tweeters demanding censorship.”

All of these examples underline the speed and ability of online campaigns to make a big difference very quickly. They relate to the Consumers in Control trend – the tendency of consumers to harness the power of the internet and word of mouth to inform their purchase decisions and brand choices – which GfK Roper Consulting has been tracking for a number of years. What these latest examples suggest is that the ability of individual consumers to influence many others is set only to grow during the new decade. While this force has been harnessed in many positive ways in the past few years through viral marketing campaigns, it is more important than ever to be careful not to incur the “rage” of an increasingly empowered and demanding global consumer. Particularly given that, according to annual global consumer study, Roper Reports® Worldwide, fully 64% of global consumers say they complain when products or services are not of expected quality. Happy New Year!

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