trendwatching.com is an independent and opinionated consumer trends firm, relying on a global network of 8,000 spotters. Our trends, examples and insights are delivered to business professionals in more than 120 countries. Visit our homepage for more info »
Despite a global downturn, there are still plenty of trends out there that are begging to be applied profitably. In 2009, ensure you make the most of NICHETRIBUTES, LUXYOURY, FEEDBACK 3.0, ECONCIERGE, MAPMANIA and HAPPY ENDING...
Find the answers to 15 pressing trend questions you’re facing, from how to spot and apply trends, to where to find the best trend resources, to how to make the most of the current turbulence in markets around the world.
PERKONOMICS: A new breed of perks and privileges, added to brands regular offerings, is satisfying consumers ever-growing desire for novel forms of status and/or convenience, across all industries. The benefits for brands are equally promising: from escaping commoditization, to showing empathy in turbulent times. One to have firmly on your radar in the months to come.
More and more, the offline world (a.k.a. the real world, meatspace or atom-arena) is adjusting to and mirroring the increasingly dominant online world, from tone of voice to product development to business processes to customer relationships. Get ready to truly cater to an ONLINE OXYGEN generation even if you’re in ancient sectors like automotive and fast moving consumer goods...
There's more 'innovation' happening than ever before. New brands, new niches, new concepts, new products, new services, and new experiences are flooding an equally fast expanding number of markets. Here are 41 new business ideas begging to be copied...
At the heart of ECO-ICONIC is a status shift; many consumers are eager to flaunt their green behavior and possessions because there are now millions of other consumers who are actually impressed by green lifestyles.
As more brands (have to) go niche and therefore tell stories that aren't known to the masses, and as experiences take over from physical status symbols, consumers will increasingly have to tell each other stories to achieve a status dividend from their purchases.
FREE LOVE: the ongoing rise in free, valuable stuff that's available to consumers online and offline. From AirAsia tickets to Wikipedia, and from diapers to music. Blame an all out war for consumers' ever-scarcer attention, the post-scarcity dynamics of the online world, the avalanche of free user generated content, and an emerging swapping and recycling culture.
An economy inhabited by experienced, well-informed consumers, whose expectations are based on years of self-training in hyperconsumption, and on the biblical flood of new-style, readily available information sources, curators and BS filters...
Rest assured there won’t be a shortage of emerging trends in 2008. To get you going, here are eight trends to watch and capitalize on in the new year. You have no excuse not to be in the know!
A new generation of consumers largely being ignored by marketers, authenticity trumping the eco-trend, a shift from design and beauty to blandness, daring forecasts for 2011 and more...
With 2008 only months away, this is a good time to hone your trend watching skills. Find out about the 'why' of trend spotting, the mindset required, the resources needed, the process of embedding trends into your organization, and how to actually apply these trends...
Women. The Mega Niche. The under-served market of all markets. And so on. Just consider the fact that women, who comprise just over 50% of the US population, make over 80% of the consumer purchasing decisions (and in case you're wondering, consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of US GNP).
Many brands now actively target the gay community, as even the most conservative execs have come to realise that there's just too much money to be made from well-to-do, happy-to-spend GLBT consumers. And merely acknowledging consumers who sadly are used to being ignored if not vilified, does wonders for brand loyalty.
BOOMING BUSINESS is what baby boomers are. Anyone from Tom Peters to Faith Popcorn to Wikipedia will be able to shower you with mouth-watering numbers and indicators, highlighting the amassed wealth of baby boomers in mature consumer societies around the world.
“(STILL) MADE HERE encompasses new and enduring manufacturers & purveyors of the local. In a world seemingly ruled by globalization, mass production and ‘Cheapest of the Cheapest’, a growing number of consumers are seeking out the local, and thus the authentic, the storied, the eco-friendly, and/or the obscure...”
"Old economy fog is clearing: no longer can incompetence be obscured. In its place has come a transparent, fully informed marketplace. TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY for some, TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH for others." How about YOUR brand?...
The power of groups, the clout that crowds can exercise to get what they want, is nothing new. What is new, however, is the dizzying ease with which likeminded, action-ready consumers can now go online and connect, group and ultimately exert influence if not demand bulk discounts. Call it group power, call it CROWD CLOUT...
Freed from the shackles of convention and scarcity, immune to most advertising, and enjoying full access to information, reviews, and navigation, TRYSUMERS are trying out new appliances, new services, new flavors, new authors, new destinations, new artists, new outfits, new relationships, new anything with post mass-market gusto...
Five big trends/themes that are on our radar for 2007, dealing with status, transparency and consumer power, the online revolution, more adventurous consumption, and a shift to participation...
If consumers produce the content, if they are the content, and that content brings in money for aggregating brands, then revenue and profit-sharing is going to be one of 2007's main themes in the online space. Get ready for an avalanche of revenue sharing deals, reward schemes and sumptuous gifts aimed at luring creative members of GENERATION C(ASH).
TRANSUMERS are consumers driven by experiences instead of the ‘fixed’, by entertainment, by discovery, by fighting boredom, increasingly living a transient lifestyle, freeing themselves from the hassles of permanent ownership and possessions...
Well-known status symbols tied to owning and consuming goods and services will find worthy competition from 'STATUS SKILLS': those skills that consumers are mastering to make the most of those same goods and services (if not producing them themselves)...
Thousands of clever entrepreneurs, inventors, and marketers from all over are coming up with so many innovative ideas, that even innovation blogs have a hard time keeping track. There's an absolute INNOVATION OVERLOAD going on, and you have no excuse not to be part of it.
As a business professional, you can have the ride of a life time with YOUNIVERSAL BRANDING. There are interactive billboards to be placed, virtual product placement strategies to be executed, scripts to be written, friends to be made, avatars to be dressed, fed and equipped, and virtual stores to be opened.
The phenomenon of corporations creating goods, services and experiences in close cooperation with experienced and creative consumers, tapping into their intellectual capital, and in exchange giving them a direct say in (and rewarding them for) what actually gets produced, manufactured, developed, designed, serviced, or processed.
Experienced consumers are lusting after detailed information on where to get the best of the best, the cheapest of the cheapest, the first of the first, the healthiest of the healthiest, the coolest of the coolest, or on how to become the smartest of the smartest. Instant information gratification is upon us.
What if you're not in the business of exploiting BEING SPACES, like Starbucks, Manboo or Paragraph, yet you see the value of offering consumers a public place they actually like to be in, and not necessarily just to buy your stuff?
A special edition that's all about how to become better at trend watching yourself, including a detailed look at the resources, mindset and processes required. Start your own TREND UNIT today! (Note: this Briefing has been replaced and updated as TOP 5 TREND WATCHING TIPS »)
In a consumer society dominated by experiences in the (semi) public domain — often branded, designed, themed and curated to the nines, INSPERIENCES represent consumers desire to bring top-level, professional grade experiences into their domestic domain.
»