Global Shift in Wealth by 2016: What it means for Business Marketers

According to all major economic think tanks, the economies of China and possibly India are on track to surpass that of the U.S. by 2016.  With the demographic profile of India  as young and educatted middle class combined with English, we will see a growing shift in Wealth in Asia to unprecedented levels since the middle ages.  In fact, there are more billionaires in India than anywhere else except the U.S. with the return of many high level US trained executives to Asia in recent years and the rise of Asia focused MBA programs what will the Marketing world of 2016 possibly look like.
Frankly, with the emergence of web/social media  and soon the semantic web (think a learning web where your choices determine the brands, media and news channels that will be presented to you - as a personal segment of one) the world will be a truly, flat and wired world in lines with Thomas Friedman's well read series of books on the subject.  But I would argue, that with the increased  customization and specialization of information combined with the mega trends towards mobile and real time augmented tools, think a hyper version of google maps, comsumers will more and more fall into electonic tribes with marketing barriers that could be as real as geography and language were just a few decades earlier.
   I believe, as B2B marketers we must prepare to evolve with social media, cross promotional platforms that will strength our messaging, almost akin to a chorus strengthens the power and richness of the human voice.  There will be a continued evolvement of both media platforms and tools but the need to design and implement robust messaging that will engage real people where and when they could realistically evaluate, purchase and use our valued products or service offerings is essential.  The greatest danger I see for the future is complaceny, either in testing new media outlets and tools or ensuring  we are collaborating in the success of those who are using or potentially could use are products and services.  With this in mind the world of 2016 will be Asia focused, young, wired and multifaceted in both economic, cultural and technological needs, but it will be very familiar if we begin today to embrace the possibilities in terms of added consumer input, competitive intelligence and market responsiveness.