UPDATE: 11 crucial consumer trends for 2011

| January 12, 2011

January 2011, Another new year, another roller coaster of threats and opportunities. We tend to focus on the latter as, amidst currency wars and defaulting nations, there are more opportunities than ever for creative brands and entrepreneurs to deliver on changing consumer needs. From Brazil to Belgium. No rest for the wicked!

Trendwatching’s brief overview of the 11 consumer trends for 2011:

1. Random acts of kindness

In 2011, expect companies to monitor consumers’ public moods and act upon them with random acts of kindness…marketing may never be the same 😉 Read more »

2. Urbanomics

Are you ready for hundreds of millions of more daring, more experienced consumers? Oh, and that’s just one side effect of rapid global urbanization… Read more »

3. Pricing Pandemonium

Flash sales, group buying, GPS-driven deals: this year, pricing will never be the same… Read more »

4. Made for China (if not Bric)

Expect an increasing number of ‘Western’ brands to launch new products or even new brands dedicated (if not paying proper respect) to consumers in emerging markets… Read more »

5. Online Status Symbols

This year, you can’t go wrong supplying your (online-loving) customers with any kind of symbol, virtual or ‘real world’, that helps them display to peers their online contributions, creations or popularity… Read more »

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 the next 12 months (and beyond) to prevent misery (if not improve their quality of life), rather than merely treating illnesses and ailments… Read more »

7. Social-lites and Twinsumers

Expect even more consumers to become curators: broadcasting, compiling, commenting, sharing and recommending content, products, purchases, and experiences to both their friends and wider audiences… Read more »

8. Emerging Generosity

Brands and wealthy individuals from emerging markets (yes, especially China) will increasingly be expected to give, donate, care and sympathize versus just sell and take. And not just in their home countries, but on a global scale… Read more »

9. Planned Spontaneity

With lifestyles having become fragmented, with dense urban environments offering consumers any number of instantly available options, and with cell/smartphones having created a generation who have little experience of making (or sticking to) rigid plans, this new year will see full-on PLANNED SPONTANEITY… Read more »

10. Eco-Superior

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… Read more »

11. Owner-Less

This 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… Read more »

 

Source: www.trendwatching.com

One of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

SHARE WITH: