10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2010
Trendwatching.com highlights the year’s cultural trends that every company should be aware of.
Trends encompass such a wide range that they can mean everything from global warming to spring 2011 skirt lengths. They don’t start on January 1 or end on December 31, and they are constantly evolving. Here, we’ve listed 10 consumer trends that are going to be important in the upcoming year, trends such as Real-Time Review, Urbany and Eco-Easy. Obviously, these trends don’t apply to all consumers, but for every company that deals with consumers, they are worth tracking and applying. Here are the 10 consumer trends we believe will be most crucial in 2010.
1. Business as Unusual
This year, prepare for ‘business as unusual.’ For the first time, there’s a global understanding that sustainability is the only way forward. How that should or shouldn’t impact society is still part of a raging debate, but at least there is a debate.
Meanwhile, in mature consumer societies, companies will have to do more than just embrace the notion of being a good corporate citizen. To truly prosper, they will have to "move with the culture." This may mean displaying greater transparency and honesty, or having conversations as opposed to one-way advertising, or championing collaboration instead of an us-them mentality. Or, it could be intrinsically about generosity versus greed, or being a bit edgy and daring as opposed to safe and bland.
2. Urbany
A defining trend for 2010, 2011, 2012, and so on: urbanization on steroids. A century ago, less than 5 percent of the world’s population lived in cities. In 2008, for the first time in humanity, that figure exceeded 50 percent. In the last two decades alone, the urban population of the developing world has grown by an average of 3 million people per week.
This extreme push toward urbanization means a forever-growing number of more sophisticated, more demanding, super-wired urban consumers snapping up more ‘daring’ goods, services, experiences, campaigns and conversations.
And thanks to near-total online transparency of the latest and greatest, those consumers opting to remain in rural areas will be tempted to act (and shop) online like urban consumers, too.
A sub-trend of this is Urban Pride. Basically, in thriving mega-cities inhabitants’ identities will be closely tied to a city’s culture, its brand, its heritage, its being. This means that companies can deliver city-specific products, services and communications that truly incorporate a city’s character.
Some examples:
• Absolut Vodka launced its Cities Series in New Orleans by developing a special mango and black pepper blend inspired by the city. Later, it released the taste of Boston, a black tea and elderflower vodka that has a backdrop reminiscent of Fenway Park’s Green Monster.
• Since August 2009, people using five Bank Machine ATMs in East London have been able to opt to have their prompts and options given to them in Cockney rhyming slang.
For you, consider bringing in product unique to your area, highlight scents, sounds or designs that evoke your surroundings. Appeal to your residents’ character traits in your marketing.
3. Real-Time Review
With even more people sharing, in real time, everything they do, buy, listen to, watch, attend, wear and so on, and with even more search engines and tracking services making it easy to find and group these ‘live dispatches’ by theme, topic or brand, this year will see ready-to-buy consumers tapping into a live stream of (first-hand) experiences from fellow consumers.
Consumers’ lust for instant gratification is being satisfied by a host of real-time products, services and experiences. Consumers are also feverishly contributing to the real-time content avalanche that’s building as we speak.
As more people are reviewing and contributing, the sheer mass of opinions will lead to a real-time stream of information. This will lead to real conversations between like-minded customers and potential buyers, without the brand even being able to monitor what’s being said about its products, let alone being able to respond.
How to deal with Real-Time Reviews? Either outperform so reviews will be positive, or involve customers in your development processes from day one, eliminating the possibility of out-of-the-blue bad reviews upon launch.
4. (F)luxury
Luxury. Is it a family of six? Owning a SUB instead of a SUV? Needing nothing at all? What will define luxury over the next few years? The answer is "luxury will be whatever you want it to be." Today’s consumers determine what they will spend big bucks on. You can further focus on defining that luxury by finding and coining the right trigger for the right audience. Create a need for a unique item that only you sell.
We know you all know about limited editions as an enduring luxury-strategy. Why not introduce limited locations? This year, just sell something special, something premium, something desirable in just one location. Sell a special item only online, offer a specific line only during a certain month, or make a product only available during your open house. The limitation this will put on distribution opportunities will be compensated for by enthusiasm, PR and premium prices.
5. Mass Mingling
More people than ever will be living large parts of their lives online in 2010. Yet, those same people will also mingle, meet up, and congregate more often with other ‘warm bodies’ in the offline world. In fact, social media and mobile communications are fueling a Mass Mingling that defies virtually every cliché about diminished human interaction in our ‘online era.’
Basically, the more people can get their hands on the right info, at home and on the go; the more they date and network and twitter and socialize online, the more likely they are to eventually meet up with friends and followers in the real world. The mobile web has bridged the gap between either being offline in the real world, or being online but in one location.
Next for Mass Mingling will be even more impromptu, temporary meet-ups of strangers, mobs and crowds with similar interests, hobbies, political preferences and causes. Many of these meet-ups will revolve around generating public attention, or getting something done. Use this concept to create a crowd of volunteers at your shop, or to bring people with similar interests together at your event. Make it even easier for customers to meet up in any possible way.
6. Eco-Easy
While the current good intentions of corporations and consumers are helpful, serious eco-results will depend on making products and processes more sustainable without consumers even noticing it, and, if necessary, not leaving much room for consumers and companies to opt for less sustainable alternatives to begin with.
Think anything from thoroughly green buildings to a complete ban on plastic bags and bottles—anything that by default leaves no choice, no room for complacency, and thus makes it "easy" for consumers (and corporations) to do the right and necessary thing.
Some recent Eco-Easy examples:
• The small town of Bundanoon in Australia’s New South Wales has banned the sale of bottled water for environmental reasons. The community voted to replace branded water bottles with empty bottles labeled “Bundy on tap” that can be filled and refilled with water from taps and fountains on the main street.
• San Francisco enacted an ordinance in March 2007 that gave supermarkets six months and large chain pharmacies about a year to phase out plastic bags completely.
7. Tracking & Alerting
Tracking & Alerting is the new searching, as it saves consumers time, makes it impossible to forget or miss out, and thus ultimately gives them yet another level of control. Count on everything being tracked and alerted on (there’s more than FedEx packages!).
Tracking & Alerting is something that consumers actually need and want, that delights them, that they crave. They are quite literally asking for relevant information, even giving you permission to provide them with more. What’s not to like? Learn from examples below, then start thinking up ways you can Track & Alert.
• A Box Life is an initiative by the Columbia sportswear company to promote the reuse of boxes used to ship purchases made from their online store. The program allows consumers to track the path and life of their boxes through Columbia’s A Box Life website. Customers can enter a box’s unique tracking number and see where it’s been, how far it has traveled and find out about the other people who have passed the box on. In just over one month after A Box Life’s launch in 2009, over 66 percent of all Columbia’s orders were being shipped in reused boxes.
• Launched in San Francisco in early August 2009, Curtis Kimball’s mobile Crème Brûlée Cart has attracted more than 8,000 Twitter followers, who rely on his tweets to find out exactly where he’ll be, and what flavors are on the menu.
• The Warm Cookie Radar from Specialty’s Cafe & Bakery sends customers e-mail alerts when batches of just-baked cookies have rolled out of the oven.
• Launched in October 2009, Lufthansa’s MySkyStatus lets passengers keep their friends and loved-ones up-to-date on their travel progress. The online service sends automatic status updates on location, altitude, departure and arrival to passengers’ Twitter and Facebook pages.
8. Embedded Generosity
Embedded Generosity incorporates all giving initiatives that make giving and donating painless, if not automatic. On top of that, with collaboration being such an integral part of the zeitgeist, expect lots of innovative corporate giving schemes that involve customers by letting them co-donate and/or co-decide.
It’s already occurring on a basic basis (“purchase this item and we’ll donate 10 percent of our profits”), but check out these more innovative examples:
• Australian Baby Teresa manufactures and sells a variety of 100 percent cotton onesies for babies, and, for each one purchased, donates another to a baby in need somewhere in the world.
• Still going strong, Procter & Gamble and UNICEF have joined forces for the fourth year running, in an effort to raise money for tetanus vaccines. Each time a pack of the Pampers or Fairy brands bearing a “1 Pack = 1 Life-Saving Vaccine” logo is purchased, P&G will donate the cost of one vaccine to UNICEF.
• Sage Hospitality is encouraging consumers to complete 8 hours of volunteer service in exchange for 50-100 percent off published room rates in their 52 hotels. To take advantage of the ‘Give a Day, Get a Night’ scheme, customers must present a letter from the organization they worked for.
• Give a Day, Get a Disney Day aims to celebrate and inspire volunteerism. Disney is working with HandsOn Network to highlight a variety of volunteer opportunities. Starting in January 2010, those who contribute their time can have it verified by HandsOn and they’ll receive a voucher from Disney for one day admission to a Walt Disney World or Disneyland theme park.
• Servus, a Canadian credit union, began handing out CDN 200,000 in ten-dollar bills, giving 20,000 people the opportunity to create a Feel Good Ripple by spending the money on someone else. By pledging CDN 200,000 to the effort, the company hopes to start a ‘ kindness movement’ that will positively affect at least 20,000 people. Servus is distributing the bills through its branches throughout Alberta, and asking participants to write up stories of their kindness online.
• Chicago’s Hotel Burnham launched the charity-based initiative ‘Casual Blue’ in 2009. A $10 room credit is given to patrons who leave a pair of (old) jeans, which are then donated to local charities.
9. Profile Myning
What insights can we possibly add to the avalanche of intelligence available on where social media is going? Here’s one modest attempt: the importance of owning and making the most (financially) of personal profiles.
Now that hundreds of millions of consumers maintain some kind of online profile/presence, there’s likely to soon be a company that acts as an intermediary representing consumers who are willing to disclose (parts of) their purchasing intentions, and then invite companies to put in bids.
With personal profiles (which are the nucleus of one’s personal brand) representing an ever-greater emotional and financial value, expect a burgeoning market for services that protect, store, and, in case of emergencies/death, arrange handing over of one’s digital estate to trusted others.
10. Maturialism
Let’s face it: this year will be rawer, more opinionated, more risqué, more in your face than ever before. Your audiences (who are by now thoroughly exposed to, well, anything) can handle much more quirkiness, more daring innovations, more risqué communications and conversations, more exotic flavors and so on than traditional marketers could have ever dreamed of.
So, this year, the question is how far you can/should go as a brand, when mirroring societal beliefs that are about anything but being meek. And no, we’re not saying you have to be rude or nasty or inconsiderate; this is about being a tad more daring and diverse if you want to move with the culture.
Some examples include The Icecreamists, a UK ice cream brand that has positioned itself using premium, X-rated flavors, and Wine Cellar Sorbets, which sells a range of unique sorbets with varietal wines as the main ingredient.
Afraid to offend and even lose some customers when jumping on the Maturialism wagon? Just think of those future, less-uptight generations you’ll definitely lose if you don’t.
Applying What You Learned
It’s fine to know about the trends, but if you don’t apply them, you don’t benefit. The four ways to apply these consumer trends, and make some money from the innovations they spawn, is to just ask yourself if they have the potential to (and if so, how):
1. Influence or shape your company’s vision.
2. Inspire you to come up with a new business concept, an entirely new venture, a new brand.
3. Add a new product, service or experience for a certain customer segment.
4. Speak the language of those consumers already ‘living’ a trend.
It’s as easy as that!
Trendwatching.com is one of the world’s leading trend firms. It reports on its findings in a free, monthly newsletter, “Trend Briefings” that is sent to 160,000 subscribers worldwide. For more information, or to subscribe to Trend Briefings, visit www.trendwatching.com.