Connectivity measures how people and businesses get in touch with each other. In particular, this is an expression of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and transportation infrastructure. In terms of accessibility and performance how many mobile phones are there, how many people use internet, how long does it take to get from A to B and how much does it all cost? Answering these questions reveals social and business traffic, areas of growth and decline, opportunities, clusters and flow. It also tends to point out the degree polarization in society between the haves and have nots, it may also reveal preferences, tribes and opportunities for disruptive technology and political action. City marketing, urban planners and economic departments use this term to relation to promoting business activity both internally and and as an export product. Brands use it to monitor their image coherence and promote public relations. We are in a time now where connectivity is is getting higher and higher. Affordable and public access to information via internet and consumer ICT products has proliferated connectivity into customized social media networks, online company booms and the democratization of information reporting and sharing. Weather banal, disruptive or brilliant the norm is that we can get connected to what we want from anywhere at anytime.

But what is stickiness?

Stickiness answers the question ‘Why should I stay here?’ In a time where mobility is high our attention or loyalty is a scarce resource. It’s so easy to switch, unfriend or start over because of the very fact that connectivity is so high. This goes deeper than changing toothpaste because you have a coupon, buying your flight online, clicking yes or no to a friend request. As compared to just ten years ago, think about how much easier it is to change countries and jobs. Similar operating systems like Windows or Mac, integrated financial systems that carry over accounts and pensions, time space compression by transport and communication networks, homogenization of product semiotics and the proliferation of the english language make the western world more recognizable. Finding niches in new towns through the help of social media and augmented reality can make you as savvy as a local in months instead of years. The one company town and a life long career with the same firm is rare, flexibility and change is abundant therefore making relocation and job hunting a necessity.

Who is concerned about ‘Stickiness?’ Brands are, they are fighting for your attention. This means that they will empower their customers to use their social networks to promote the brand via personal endorsemnet. The brand will offer incentives to loyal customers in the form of micro payments and VIP privielages. You become a brand champion. Cities and countries are brands too and they compete with other locations for your investment, tourism and tax. The city dynamic is more complex, on the one hand they want to stimulate connectivity and peer to peer relationships but will come into a situation of falling tax revenues when barter and value exchange between trusted networks eliminated money transactions. And you are a Brand too, you want to be in the loop, feel a sense of belonging yet customized, assurance with a healthy chance for serendipity and above all convenience.

Your are the next Brand Manager

Everybody has the opportunity to develop a coherent social media profile and trusted network that one way or another fits into a niche, tribe or lifestyle. That profile coherence coupled with proven community activity, that means you organize events and actively blog makes you head huntable by a brand champion scout. 2010 is an exciting year for both personal and business life. Which brands will strengthen their customer relationships? Will they use social media to create dialogues with you, will they become your ‘love brand?’ Will the office space become as mobile as our mobile phones who’s computing power will double how many more time this coming year? What remains our anchor in this highly connected and flexible world; will culture and tribes be increasingly important and will that then imply the emergence of iconic leaders and or a return to tradition? I doubt it, de-traditionalization is normalized, I can be Christian or Buddhist, eat boeren kool or Chinese, wear a tie or spiked hair to the office and change that as many times a week as I like. Iconic leaders will be replaced by trusted filters and friends and family will be dear and intense in short bursts of time.

With all the choices and creative possibilities for our lives this year a sticky constant will be only that brilliant idea you had on a post-it. Hold on, I’m running away with ideas like a wave information overload. Lets take a deep breath and get grounded, connectivity strengthens us and brings us to where and with who we want to be with. Just because there are more options doesn’t mean I have to take them. If there is a flood of information that is drowning me, or at least distracting or annoying, I’m going to build a damn. In that way, stickiness might even be strengthening because if I enter the realm of trust with the damn I built, which in ICT world are social media filters, I’m going to keep myself in the place I want to be. So there will be a double dynamic for stickiness, yes we will leave and join with casual ease but at the same time our core preferences will get dearer. This means direct marketing as done by the mass communication models like Tv, Magazine and Billboard are decreasingly affective. Direct dialogue and friend recommendations are what brands need to develop. For a brand to be a love brand means it needs to go past the obvious role of selling you stuff but rather engage in in dialogues that sometimes sell and sometimes imply, inform and enrich the lifestyle and or brand experience realm. It’s true that I can casually dump a ‘friend’ on facebook, but those are the types of friends I never meet or share and experience with.

Let me introduce myself
drs. Carl William Kerchmar, a renaissance soul and world citizen. With European DNA and an American education his repertoire includes economics, culture studies, trend-watching photography, graphic design. Professional interests include event choreography, scenario planning and concept visualization for conferences, mobile technology and urban planning.