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2. PREMIUMIZATION

London's St. Pancras International railway station is now home to Europe's longest champagne bar (96 meters)

Definitely part of the 'traditional sphere', PREMIUMIZATION is not going to go away in 2008. Basically, with more wealth burning holes in (saturated and experienced) consumers' pockets than ever before, quick status fixes derived from premium products and premium experiences will continue in full force next year.

In other words, no industry, no sector, no product will escape a premium version in the next 12 months. Some poignant PREMIUMIZATION examples for that sign of the times feeling:

OK, so we've done wine, coffee and tea, which leaves water to get its much-deserved PREMIUMIZATION moment. And we don't mean of the Pellegrino or Perrier kind: those 'upgraded' bottled water brands have become too mainstream to excite truly premium-obsessed consumers (who don't care about carbon footprints, but we'll get back to that later on). So make way for Evian's limited release Palace bottle, only available in high end bars and restaurants. Features a specially designed pouring top and is accompanied by a stainless steel coaster, selling for £8-10 per bottle.

Bling H20 is bottled water that comes in limited edition, corked, 750 ml frosted glass bottles, embellished with Swarovski crystals. Established in 2005 by a Hollywood writer-producer who noticed that “you could tell a lot about a person by the bottled water that they carried,” Bling H20 is designed to be as much a fashion accessory as a drink of water. Aiming to be the Cristal of bottled water, it's been spotted at everything from the MTV Awards to the Emmys. The bottles cost from £10 - 220.

Carlsberg 900 launched this summer in a very limited number of selected bars in Stockholm. Developed in collaboration with 12 top Swedish bartenders, Carlsberg 900 is “brewed from refined virgin hops and selected crystal malt, and triple filtered with a longer cooler fermentation process to ensure a pure, delicate taste.” Carlsberg 900 is priced at the premium end of the market, about the price of a decent glass of champagne.

Now, even though the food and beverage sector definitely leads the PREMIUMIZATION trend, there's much more going on:

Portuguese paper products company Renova sells Renova Black, lauded as the first fashionable toilet paper. Price per roll is EUR 2.17. Renova Black is also available as Renova Red, Renova Orange, and Renova Green.

Hauzen is Samsung's new premium home appliance brand. Products include a washing machine, kimchi cooler, fridge and air conditioning system. Some of the appliances are designed by well-known Korean designer Andre Kim (that's right, a premium edition within a premium edition). Not available outside South Korea. Yet.

The KABE Royal Tower is a double-decker caravan. The 8.2 meter long camper is 4.4 meters high, allowing people to stand up straight even on the top deck. The lower deck features a living room, kitchen and breakfast dinette, plus a bedroom with single beds, while the upper deck has a 'lounge' with an L-shaped sofa and a cocktail cabinet. A door from the lounge leads out onto the roof of the front section, which serves as a sunbathing terrace. The new double-decker caravan is fully equipped with air conditioning on both floors, a dishwasher and more. Price: EUR 105,000.

Lenovo now offers the ThinkPad Reserve Edition laptop, encased in leather. The Reserve Edition is based on the recently released 12.1-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X61s, and comes with 'Blue-Button Instant Access' for instant messaging with dedicated support staff. Price: USD 5,000, sold by invitation only.

Clearly, the list goes on forever. In 2008, no self-respecting brand, even those who market the most mundane of commodities, will fail to introduce at least one premium version of whatever it is they're peddling.

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