1
min read

Trend Synergy Leads to a Shining Hailo

by Luiz Freire , 18.07.2012

As soon as I got my new smart phone, one of the first apps that popped up on my screen was the Hailo cab service. Last weekend I had the chance to try it and it really works!

The great thing is you don’t have to provide references, nor even the address itself. The phone identifies where you are and automatically tells the company. It means that I just had to open the app, tell it where I was going and in 10 minutes the cab was there for me – quick, easy and stress-free.

According to the latest Roper Reports Worldwide data, over a quarter of UK cell phone users have downloaded an app in the last 30 days, a figure that rises to 50% in South Korea. If nothing else, this shows that smartphone users seem to never get enough and tend to keep their apps repertoire updated.

It seems to me there is a growing potential market that still has a lot of scope for development, supported by the fact that a third of the global population, again via Roper Reports Worldwide, says that they, “find new technology exciting and use it as much as they can”, so any app that follows the same formula as Hailo – that is to say simple, effective and always available - surely has very good prospects.

One reason why I think this app works so well is that it successfully addresses two of the 12 trends from GfK’s TrendKey framework of global consumer trends - Instant Everywhere and Streamlined. This synergy of convenience and simplicity means that two growing areas of consumer needs are addressed at once. This underlines the idea that by exploring the synergies between these and other trends, in the context of your category or market, it is possible to unlock new and winning ideas for products and services that meet and exceed the growing expectations of consumers globally.