Trends for 2010
For marketers and their consumers (read: everyone) the next year will be characterized by a new feeling of urgency toward sustainability, in every possible meaning of the word, according to global trend firm Trendwatching.
Calling the top trend of 2010 “business as unusual,” the group said “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.”
That culture, the group said, is shifting toward urban environments for innovation (and experiencing a corresponding spike in urban pride) wants easy charitable and “green” choices, and has a fluctuating sense of what constitutes luxury. Those consumers will increasingly be addressable through the internet, the group said, which will enable real-time reviews, in-person gatherings and automated alerts. It will also pose challenges and opportunities based on social networking profiles.
In a last note, Trendwatching said brands will profit from edgier advertising. The group highlighted marketing efforts from Air New Zealand and Chupa Chups, who rolled out advertisements featuring nude employees and a line of candy designed to resemble sex toys, respectively.
“2010 will be rawer, more opinionated, more risqué, more in your face than ever before,” the firm said.
Marketing to Millennials
Generation X has moved out of the spotlight. According to Information Resources Inc., Millenials – those Americans born between 1979 and 1989 (and mercifully no-longer called Generation Y) – will soon be shaping the consumer packaged goods marketplace. The new group brings $54.3 billion in new sales opportunities, but it also brings new rules.
Millennial households shop less often, spend more per trip, and do a greater share of their spending at Wal-Mart and other supercenters, IRI said. Due to the economy, they’ve reduced spending on indulgence and convenience foods, and 70 percent agree that store brands are typically of excellent quality even though they purchase private label products at a similar rate to older shoppers.
According to IRI, that acceptance of store brands illustrates that brands’ traditional marketing efforts have failed to reach Millennials. Compared with other segments, Millennial women also spend less time and effort planning their shopping trips and make less use of ad circulars and coupons. IRI also found that only a small number have a set grocery budget.
IRI also found that Millennial women report a stronger need for retailers to support their healthier diets and lifestyles. Weight-related issues dominate their concerns, IRI reported, with nearly half thinking they may have an unhealthy weight.
No Average American
Beverage marketers, already familiar with niche-targeted products, can no longer rely on their brand resonating with the “average American.” According to “2010 America,” a white paper commissioned by Advertising Age, that description no longer has meaning.
The report concluded that that the American public has fragmented into small groups that have become “quite isolated,” according to Peter Francese, a demographer at advertising agency Ogilivy & Mather, who helped write the report.
That isolation has been enabled by the internet, Francese told radio news show Marketplace. The result is the loss of an American mass market. Now, the U.S. is a collection of smaller markets.
“Most times they want to see images that are directed right at them, and they want products crafted for them.”