The Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business

By Rolf Jensen

Book Overview

"The Dream Society . . . provides dramatic insights into how marketing will operate in the 21st century."­­Atlanta Business Chronicle

A fascinating look into the future of business, as featured in Fast Company

The future is uncertain­­the world is constantly changing. While anything can happen, some things are far more likely than others. Rolf Jensen, internationally renowned futurist, provides readers with a tangible look at what the future will be like over the next 25 years.

By identifying what lies ahead, Jensen gives people the knowledge they need to make informed decisions and strategically align themselves to capitalize on the unknown future, a future Jensen calls "the Dream Society." This dream society is characterized by the commercialization of emotions.

In this provocative exploration, Jensen says that it will no longer be enough to produce a useful product. He shows that, for a product to be successful, its primary purpose will be the ability to fulfill an emotional need.

Those who understand the workings of this dream society will be the ones who create the new products, new markets, and new businesses that dominate the world of tomorrow.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071379681
• ISBN13: 9780071379687
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Inspiring!

First step for a more humanized world is dreaming about it. "The Dream Society" provides inspiring scenarios for different areas of human life that I would love to live!

A+

The text discusses the post-informational society and offers its readers a solid logical base to believe that the dream society is really coming. I have read this book several times. Although it is supposed to be general reading, I firmly believe that the book is VERY helpful for a number of professionals-strategists, marketologists, and entrepreneurs. What is more, it is easy to read. I am doing my MBA now, and I have successfully used concepts many times in my classes. Conclusion: Class A+.

Dream Society of the Future ? Its already here!

The concept of psychographic-based products services & offerings are already here both in the consumer marketplace as well as in job marketplace.We have been effectively using EVAL - Economic Value Addition to Lifestlye -- as a measure of the opportunities instead of salary, job content, work hours, work ethics, work environment, leadership & management.The book does a neat job of categorization... but with growing anesthetization of urban sprawl, this book will help define the basis for corporate planning, urban planning, government and the entire information economy where the currency is the *thought* itself.However, someone must write a book about the growing rift among the dreams of the various generational & economic strata of the population.

Imagine starting a business and a "story" at the same?

Rolf Jensen postulates an age where companies will have to differentiate themselves by creating stories about who they are, what they stand for, and who their customers will be when they become "part" of the story as consumers. Using the trends established by existing, successful organizations like Nike and Disney, Jensen paints a picture of marketing through consumer allegiance by imagination.For would-be futurists, this book is compelling. For ordinary business folk, this book gels all the trends and ideas you've been seeing lately, and makes sense of it all. For the rest of us -- the Dream Society articulates the need we humans have for stories, culture, and acceptance. This is an extraordinarily intriguing book. Even if you don't agree (or are afraid to imagine) the future scenarios Jensen presents, you'll be compelled to admit -- the Dream Society may really be here after all. A must-read!

An interesting book about tomorrow - reality or fiction?

Why do some people buy a watch at $ 10.000, when you can get a much more precise one at $ 10? Because time is not the essential thing - it's about dreams, lifestyles and adventure. Why is the automobile the "New Beetle" such a big success? Because it looks almost like the old one (apart from new technology). Why is the movie "Titanic" the greatest blockbuster of our time? Because it's a story about a ship, a journey into nostalgia, feelings and lifestyles of persons 87 years ago. Dreams, stories, lifestyles, feelings, adventure, nostalgia, care - you'll get all the questions and answers in this well-written and provocative book about the next 25 years in the affluent societies. It's difficult to find arguments against the many examples and facts in this amazing book. Just to mention two examples: according to the author, doctors will gradually be replaced by automation within the health care sector, but nurses will get their golden age because of the explosive need to provide for care in the coming years. And: "The story can be told with a whole range of products, the product themselves being secondary". This is the reason why people buy Marlboro, Nike, BMW, Rolex and other brands at a price many times the price for other more unknown products. There is always a story behind: adventure(Marlboro-man), lifestyle (Nike) or nostalgia (BMW-oldtimers). This well-structured book is not about utopia, it's about the changing patterns of our daily lives, and it's already happening...