... a “think tank approach” to their findings, which were unveiled at the FMI's professional development conference in Olando Florida.

During the conference FMI president/ceo Leslie G Sarasin presented an overview of the FMI's future analysis in her address which posited a sobering reality - yet one poised for market possibilities, offering data analytics from interviews with CPG executives and retailers.

Although consumer demand has remained flat, which is modestly disproportionate to the population growth over the past 15-20 years, the industry has witnessed an explosion in its capacity.

Ms Sarasin suggested that retailers will be evaluating alternative ways to address consumers’ need for value, convenience and safe foods by focusing their growth strategies on the overall shopper experience.

Discussing the FMI report's future vision, Sarasin said: “The leaders in our industry kept coming back to three key words to describe the future food retail experience: Personal, Digital and Virtual.”

A broad range of key drivers will determine the success of instore marketing and merchandising programmes over the next decade. Today, price and convenience continue to trump other consumer trends in garnering shopper attention in store.

Outside of health and beauty care and pharmacy, health and wellness–based themes are the third most common platform for displays, behind price-only and snack/meal solutions.

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... Condé Nast, The Wall Street Journal and Univision presented ambitious slates of original programming to advertisers for the first time. 

Additionally, companies like Yahoo and Hulu, that already produce web content, announced greatly expanded offerings.

As a result, US viewers are being bombarded with an array of new internet programs — eleven from Yahoo, fourteen from AOL and a whopping thirty from Condé Nast, including one that will let viewers watch a Vogue editor, Hamish Bowles, as he shops around the world.

Advertisers and agencies, however, are less than enthused at the trend - expressing concern that audiences for individual shows will become even more fragmented and microscopic than they already are.

Says Group M's chief investment officer Rino Scanzoni of the new video offerings: “I don’t care how good your attention span is, I think it becomes all a blur.”

Karen Cahn, general manager of AOL’s online video arm, says the company monitors viewers' comments closely to see if they are uncomfortable with the video brand placements. “So far, so good,” she claims.

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... ideas of society, nationhood and business.

Their theme is that technology is just a tool, albeit an incredibly powerful one, and the good or evil ends to which it’s put will be limited only by the imaginations of those deploying it. 

According to the co-authors: “The central truth of the technology industry - that technology is neutral but people are not - will periodically be lost among all the noise.

“But our collective progress as citizens in the digital age will hinge on our not forgetting it.”

But they also point out that while technology can mobilize citizens to mass in the town square, it provides little guidance about what to do when they get there, let alone once the despot is deposed.

According to Mr Jaroslovsky, China, in particular, comes in for something of a drubbing by Schmidt and Cohen.

Citing the 2011 crash of a high-speed train in Wenzhou, when microbloggers widely questioned the sanitized official version of events, the authors predict that the clash of a technologically advanced citizenry and tight government control is “exceptionally volatile,” and could lead to “widespread instability.”

They also criticise the Chinese government for allegedly organizing cyber-attacks on offending US companies (notably Google) and insufficiently respecting intellectual property rights. They also hammer Chinese telecom giant Huawei for doing business with authoritarian regimes such as Iran’s.

M Jaroslovsky is also critical of other elements in the book's content.

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... on a tablet or large touchscreen. 

The camera and projector forming the system are built into a stand that sits on a tabletop and monitors documents and the fingers of users in front of them.

The cameras spot where fingers are placed and uses software to interpret what people want to do to the map, sticky note, photograph or other paper document.

A projector displays virtual buttons on to the tabletop that people can press with a fingertip to start copying or to perform other actions. The projector also illuminates the sections people want to highlight and projects copies of the text or image they want to grab.

Virtual copies of items can be "stored" to one side of the table and then moved around, expanded, shrunk and manipulated by a user. Fujitsu said the system could be useful for helping to organise notes from meetings or research projects.

One key breakthrough is the use of cameras offset from each other slightly.

This helps the system to get a much better idea of finger movements, enabling it to accurately detect what a user wants to highlight or copy.

Fujitsu said it hoped to release a commercial version of the imaging technology in 2014.

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... one-third of stores already have a registered dietician at retail level, while 86% employ them on a corporate basis.

The trend is another sign that consumers are demanding more from their food providers as the Obama administration's health-care system puts a premium on preventive care. Moreover, it represents an increasingly powerful constituency for the nation's food marketers to win over.

While dieticians' primary mission is to assist shoppers, they are also a major brand asset for stores, many appearing on local radio and TV shows.

The publicity serves as a boost for supermarkets as they look to stay relevant in the face of increased competition from major drugstore chains such as Walgreens and CVS which have increased their food offerings.

Says food-industry analyst Phil Lempert who runs supermarketguru.com: "Supermarkets have lost 15% share over the past ten years, so they need to stave off and differentiate their offerings from drug, dollar and warehouse stores."

Today there are 500 - 600 retail dieticians, a numbert Lempert predicts will at least double within two years. The demand is so strong that he recently launched the Retail Dieticians Business Alliance to educate dieticians on supermarket operations.

It's a trend European giants such as Tesco, Carrefour and Sainsbury are unlikely to ignore.

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... placing billboards, advertisements and even truck-sized products in consumers' favorite TV shows and movies.

According to Forbes.com: "The degree of realism that MirriAd is able to achieve makes possible a new reality of advertising and promotion that could be hard [for viewers] to get used to."

Forbes recalls the video in which the Coca-Cola logo that appears behind Tom Hanks in one of the bench scenes in Forest Gump.

Rhetorically Forbes asks: "Did that not seem a tad grotesque? Was the Special K cereal box a little bit too front and center in the Cosby family’s eat-in kitchen?"

But "product placement is not a cutting edge concept, of course", Forbes observes. "Sporting events have used this type of technology for a while now, we see billboards and ads on almost every avenue of any city, and we’re surrounded by marketing almost all the time.

"Just walk through the main thoroughfares of New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong or anywhere people congregate. What makes MirriAd’s technology so scary is that it’s quite possible we ain’t seen nothin’ yet".

Should it prove profitable, producers may feel more and more pressure to fill as much space in film and TV scenes with brands, ads and digitally rendered products, cluttering screens with logos and primary colors.

Speaking of which, might politics get into the act as well?

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... sell it to marketers, agencies and other intermediaries.

Enliken, founded in 2011 by ex-Carnegie Mellon University friends, allows consumers to decide how their personal data is used, then use the accumulated points to pay for digital content without cash.

In other words, the service allows consumers to exchange data about their activities and interests in return for premium content from websites.

According to the GeekWire article: "It’s an interesting concept, but The New York Times points out that “people remain wary of anything related to online surveillance” and the ultimate value might not be that great to end users.

Nonetheless, there’s a movement afoot whereby consumers are attempting to gain more control of their personal data, as evidenced by Microsoft’s decision to make the Internet Explorer 10 'Do Not Track' option the default setting.

There's also a revealing GeekWire interview with Enliken co-founder Avniel Dravid, who is based in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood. The interview can be accessed from the link below.

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... (say) mass produced sushi into the finest such delicacy money can buy.

According to Oxford University experimental psychologist Charles Spence, the mere sight of exotic food or a fine cognac, when harnessed to a virtual reality headset, can simulate the experience of ingesting it - at a fraction of the cost of the real McCoy.

Among Mr Spence's bluechip clients are Unilever, McDonald's, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, BMW, Mars, Nestlé, Starbucks and LG Electronics.

The psychologist has just entered into a venture with WPP Group agency JWT and will act as that agency's head of sensory marketing, working with it's global clients.

Speaking at Advertising Week Europe in London, Spence discussed opportunities for marketers to use sensory marketing.

Manipulating the senses, and the way those senses communicate with each other, has long been used to enhance a product's appeal, but technology offers new ways for brands to interact with consumers.

Food and drink are naturally at the forefront of sensory marketing, but the focus is not just on taste and smell.

The crunch of Pringles is no accident – it is the product of nuanced research, where consumers were fitted with headphones and given a variety of "crunch" noises as they bite on chips. Their responses to the taste were affected by the sounds they heard as they munched.

Courvoisier cognac has developed a whole marketing program called 'Le Nez de Courvoisier' to exploit the various tastes and aromas of the brand.

An app and a website provide soundtracks to enhance the experience of drinking Courvoisier.

If you like the candied orange flavor, for example, you listen to a particular track to bring out that taste, and there are others for fans of crème brulée or ginger biscuits.

While for garment advertising, says Spence, "You can change the soundtrack according to what [clothing] you're trying on. Using winter music or sounds when you've got a coat, or sunnier sounds if you're trying on beachwear."

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... cars, bikes and other appliances which can be hired online on an hourly basis. 

According to Frank Pörschmann, the head of CeBIT: "Knowledge is the only resource that multiplies when it is shared. That's the core of what we are seeing today on social networks - in the age of Twitter and Facebook people are sharing knowledge, contacts and experiences.

"And that - what I call 'facebookisation' - is also a growing trend in the economy. Through it, the availability of knowledge as a scarce resource is widened - that can help the economy develop faster and bring about innovation."

Mr Porschmann is not alone in his enthusiasm for the concept. Mobile operators also want to be the drivers and beneficiaries of the shareconomy.

Because of the steadily falling prices of internet flat rates, mobile networks are forced to investigate other areas able to generate revenues in the future. Vodafone Germany, for instance, feattured at its CeBIT stand a new idea for a carsharing model.

Explains Vodafone spokesperson Kuzey Esener: "Using your smartphone, you find a car, book it, and open it."

Vodafone is also trying to offer integrated solutions to the working world because jobs are becoming more mobile, Esener says: "The trend spans many sectors. We are also linking the health sector and many other industries, which we're thereby making more efficient."

[Editor's Note: CeBIT is a German language acronym for Centrum für Büroautomation, Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation. Literally translated: 'Center for Office Automation, Information Technology and Telecommunication'.]

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... creative and media agencies to mobile and analytics firms.

It's a move that could empty the wallets of agency evaluation consultancies. 

In some respects the new service is analagous with consumer-oriented Yelp Inc, a local directory service with social networking and user reviews. 

According to CMO Club founder and president Peter Krainik, he often witnessed chief marketers swapping recommendations informally at the club's dinners and events. "This is us helping people behind closed doors," said Krainik of the new program.

"We're connecting people, that's what the club is all about."

Since the inception of the program at the start of 2013, between five and ten CMOs per month have added recommendations. Mr. Krainik says the listings are growing, with multiple reviews for some vendors, as well as reviews for some bigger agencies.

The group last week began the program promoting the scheme with a PR push.

Evan Greene, CMO for the Grammys, says he's a "big fan" of the vendor-rating program and has both submitted reviews and used the service for recommendations.

"It's really helpful to see what people in a similar role are doing. It's an open exchange of ideas and recommendations".

But the project begs a thorny question.

Will busy marketers - who are concerned with everything from product development to distribution channels to consumer awareness, and not just their agency relationships - have time to regularly log on to submit their recommendations?

Moreover, will they actually be willing to spill the beans? Especially as most marketers view the work done by their agencies as a competitive advantage.

Reassures Krainik: "The review process is not laborious" although it certainly is thorough.

Each entry has fifteen questions, with a mix of drop-down menus and open-ended questions, in addition to basic information like reviewer name and vendor name.

CMOs can rank vendors on quality of service, on-time delivery, price and customer service. Mr. Krainik says that reviews can't be anonymous, and notes that he has personally approved each member of the club.

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