Here's cheers to a millennium dream of alcohol without the hangover

ALCOHOL that doesn't give you a hangover, food that makes you more intelligent and robotic lawnmowers that take the hassle out of gardening may sound like science fiction but they are just some of the products which may be available to consumers in the 21st century.

As the millennium draws closer, a growing number of blue-chip companies are hiring professional "futurologists" to help them identify future consumer trends and to sort the science fact from science fiction.

BT has its own in-house futurologist, Ian Pearson, who predicts that we will see the introduction of a wristwatch computer by 2007. He says: "It is vital for BT to watch for new and exciting technologies which will change the way we live. It is better to have a future vision of this type than none at all." Consumer electronics group Philips has an international design team researching and developing future products as part of its Vision of the Future programme. Meanwhile, a host of advertising agencies are setting up futures departments to advise clients on what may lie ahead. Among the biggest is the Brand Futures Group at Young & Rubicam. Marian Salzman who heads the unit and travels the globe tracking future trends, says she provides an "early warning system" for companies, identifying how changing lifestyles will affect their brands and ultimately profits. Salzman says that an increasing number of companies are taking a long-term view about what the future will mean to them her clients include Ford, Sony and Perrier. "Marketers have always needed to understand consumers' current concerns and experiences with their brands. But if they are to thrive in the years ahead, they must anticipate where technology, social trends and a myriad of other change agents are leading, so that they will have a place in the consumer future," she says. However, some in the ad industry are cynical about the value of "futurology". One agency chairman says: "There are lots of crystal ball gazers out there and I am not sure they have any more idea of what will happen in the future than the average man in the street." However, Paul Edwards, chairman of the Henley Centre for Forecasting, owned by WPP Group, says that even "pop futurology" is useful. "The value is not in the predictions themselves but that it challenges straight line thinking and makes companies look at new areas."

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