What concert to see tonight? Whom to casually meet or date within the next hour? Which Southern European city to fly to for the weekend? Consumers soaking up the entertainment economy are increasingly taking advantage of a burgeoning physical and virtual web of no-frills airlines, always-on phones and PDAs, affordable hotels, last-minute/find-and-seek websites, and so on. TRENDWATCHING.COM has dubbed this trend of acting on a whim PLANNED SPONTANEITY: making spontaneous decisions to go somewhere or do something is becoming the norm; often the only thing consumers are willing to plan is to be… spontaneous!
And whereas these individual acts and purchases are fast becoming commonplace, focusing on the interconnectedness of a much larger web of instant gratification options and services will reveal some interesting insights into future consumer behavior. Sound slightly vague-ish? Then consider these random yet telling numbers:
In Europe, chat and SMS dating are becoming the preferred way for teenagers (and increasingly, 20 and 30-somethings as well) to meet other love-seeking individuals: from sites like and www.tmf.nl (the popular Dutch equivalent of MTV) to , there’s no stopping the already massive USD 16.3 billion Western European SMS market from becoming the glue that holds together an insatiable need for mobile grouping and disbanding, be it for 24/7 romantic encounters, spontaneous dinners and parties, or the gathering of instant mobs that create or crash impromptu parties.
For now, may we recommend that you assess the goods and services you currently offer and map them against PLANNED SPONTANEITY. If they are difficult to tailor to last-minute needs, or difficult to locate whenever/wherever a last-minute consumer might want them, plan for some spontaneous strategy development ;-)
Read the full article from Trendwatch: https://www.trendwatching.com/trends/2003/11/PLANNED_SPONTANEITY.html