11 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2011
Amidst currency wars and defaulting nations, there are more opportunities than ever for creative brands to deliver on changing consumer needs. Trendwatching.com, an independent consumer trends firm, tapped its global network of hundreds of spotters to identify 11 crucial consumer trends for 2011. Here is an excerpt from this fun and informative report:
1) RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS: In 2011, expect companies to monitor consumers' public moods and act upon them with random acts of kindness. Fueling the R.A.K. trend is brands’ ability to actually know what’s happening in consumers’ lives (good or bad!), as people publicly and knowingly disclose (from Facebook to Twitter) more and more about their daily lives, their moods or their whereabouts.
2) URBANOMICS: Are brands ready for hundreds of millions of more daring, more experienced, urban consumers? In 2011, go for products, services, experiences or campaigns that tailor to the very specific (and often more refined, more experienced) needs of urbanites worldwide, if not city by city. And don't forget to infuse them with a heavy dose of ‘urban pride’. From Smirnoff’s Absolut Cities to BMW's Megacity vehicle, urban is the way to go.
3) PRICING PANDEMONIUM: While consumers have always looked out for special offers and discounts, new technologies and services mean that 2011 will see total price pandemonium. Brands will continue to respond with a host of innovative new business models and pricing strategies in the next 12 months, building on group buying, member sales, flash sales, local discounts and dynamic pricing.
4) MADE FOR CHINA (IF NOT BRIC): In 2011, expect an increasing number of “Western” brands to launch new products or even new brands dedicated to consumers in emerging markets. After all, it's where the money is right now, and Western brands are still favored over local ones, so the combination of perceived quality with a bit of local tailoring, love or exclusivity makes total sense. Check out the following examples: Levi's dENIZEN Jeans brand, targeting Asians/Chinese consumers with slimmer fits, and Dior’s very expensive Shanghai Blue Phone, only available in Shanghai stores.
5) ONLINE STATUS SYMBOLS: Online culture still is the culture, and thus we'll see a rise in online status symbols in 2011. What started with showing off the number of visitors to one's Flickr pages or blog now also encompasses the number of one's Facebook friends (or any other social network), Twitter followers, Foursquare check-ins and a host of other metrics that indicate one's “wiredness”. Brands can't go wrong supplying their customers with any kind of symbol, virtual or “real world” that helps them display to peers their online contributions, creations or popularity.
6) WELLTHY: As good health is now as important to some consumers as having the biggest, newest or shiniest status symbols, growing numbers of consumers will expect health products and services in 2011 to prevent misery if not improve their quality of life, rather than merely treating illnesses and ailments. In 2011, count on even more monitoring technologies becoming portable or even wearable, as well as getting cheaper (the smartphones held by many consumers are now more advanced than most dedicated medical devices).
7) SOCIAL-LITES: Watch as consumers become curators: broadcasting, compiling, commenting, sharing and recommending content, products, purchases, experiences to both their friends and wider audiences. Consumers will talk more about brands in 2011 than ever before, and opportunities for brands that create engaging content that consumers want to share, or that have personalities that actually engage consumers will also be bigger than ever.
8) EMERGING GENEROSITY: In 2011, brands and wealthy individuals from emerging markets will increasingly be expected to give and care versus just sell and take. And not just in their home countries, but on a global scale. It's a profound cultural change and a consumer demand that their counterparts in mature markets have had a few years to getting used to.
9) PLANNED SPONTANEITY: For connected, real-time loving, urban consumers who have little experience of making (or sticking to) rigid plans, 2011 will see full-on planned spontaneity. Expect to see consumers in 2011 rushing to sign up to services (the planned part) that allow for endless and almost effortless mass mingling with friends, family, colleagues or strangers-who-may-become-friends-or-dates (the spontaneity part). What's next? Look beyond Twitter, and expect (younger) consumers voluntarily opting in to passively and continuously share their location, in return for truly smart suggestions about what they could be doing or who they could be meeting up with.
10) ECO-SUPERIOR: The No. 1 challenge for governments, consumers and businesses (recession or no recession) in 2011 remains the quest for more environmentally sustainable societies and economies. When it comes to “green consumption”, expect a rise in eco-superior products: products that are not only eco-friendly, but superior to polluting incumbents in every possible way. Think a combination of eco-friendly yet superior functionality, superior design and/or superior savings.
11) OWNER-LESS: 2011 could be the year when sharing and renting really tips into mainstream consumer consciousness as big brands and governments put their weight behind this cultural shift. Take for example car sharing, one of the great successes of the owner-less trend, with car clubs springing up all around the world.
Click here to view the full trend descriptions, including examples of brands from around the world already making the most of these trends.