Book Summary

What do Disney, Bollywood, and “The Batkid” teach us about how to create celebrity experiences for our audiences? How can a vending-machine inspire world peace? Can being “imperfect” make your business more marketable? Can a selfie improve one’s confidence? When can addiction be a good thing? The answers to these questions may not be all that obvious. And that’s exactly the point. For the past 4 years, marketing expert and Georgetown University Professor Rohit Bhargava has curated his best-selling list of “non-obvious” trends by asking the questions that most trend predictors miss. It’s why his insights on future trends and the art of curating trends have been utilized by dozens of the biggest brands and organizations in the world like Intel, Under Armour and the World Bank. In this all-new fifth edition, discover what more than half a million others already have: how to use the power of non-obvious thinking to grow your business and make a bigger impact in the world. Non-Obvious is filled with entertaining insights like how a pioneering comedy club charging audiences per laugh may forecast the future of consumption or how a wave of tech firms hiring yogis and offering classes in mindfulness may change the overall culture of business. Other trends featured in the report include:

• The Reluctant Marketer - Why brands are focusing less on traditional marketing and promotion and more on content marketing and customer experience.
• Glanceable Content - How companies are leveraging our shrinking attention span to create experiences designed for rapid consumption.
• Small Data - How all the excitement about “big data” in business may be misguided and true value comes from learning to leverage the tiny focal points that matter.

In total, Non-Obvious features 15 all-new trends for 2015 across 5 categories including Culture & Consumer Behavior, Marketing & Social Media, Media & Education, Technology & Design plus Economics & Entrepreneurship. Each is designed to help you take a deeper look at the changing landscape of business and prepare your business for the future. For the first time ever, Non-Obvious also delves into the curation process the author has used for years to build his Trend Reports and takes readers behind the scenes of “trend curation” (much to the delight of past readers who have been asking about this for years), and show them the methodology they can use to predict the future for themselves. Finally, Non-Obvious takes a brutally honest look back at more than 60 previous trends from 2011 to 2014, providing an honest assessment of what came true, what was a dud, and why it matters. In the end Non-Obvious is a book that will show you how to think different, curate your ideas and get better at predicting what will be important tomorrow based on learning to better observe patterns in the world today.