We at Brand Strategy never get sick of trends and Marian Salzman, executive vice president of JWT, always has some good ideas up her sleeve. So here is her end-of-year round up of potential trends for this year….
“1. Start with the ascent of China and India, now collectively referred to as Chindia. Smart, cheap labor has made these two countries, Himalayan cousins if you will, the offshore suppliers of choice for the U.S. computer industry. But that’s yesterday’s news. Today’s headlines reveal an educated class of professionals who no longer dream of snagging jobs abroad. Today they’re asking: Instead of making chips and assembling computers, why not create and manufacture high-end products? Why build prosperity for others when it’s possible to do it for yourself—and, in the process, turn the U.S. into the Old World? Yes, we’ll still see these countries churning out fake Polo shirts, but increasingly we’ll also see India and China rocketing up to challenge Japan and South Korea.
2. Move on to the globalisation of everything. Once, we may have taken globalisation to mean that the world would be America’s factory and marketplace. Now it’s clear that, to borrow Thomas Friedman’s phrase, the world is flat. Instant access to the internet around the globe means it doesn’t matter where you live. All that’s important now: what you know and how you can contribute.
3. And it turns out that just about everyone wants to weigh in, whether the topic is culture, politics, fads or celebrity follies. This universalises every news flash—let a big name stumble, and the entire world hits the keyboards to talk about it.
4. Time is becoming the enemy. “How do you know you’re in New York?” asks the sign at the copy shop. The answer: “Everyone needs it right now.” So much to do, so little time—to the extent that time has become more precious even than money, which has no inherent limit to its supply. Paradoxically, we lose more time whenever we accessorise with another handheld communications device designed to make our lives easier.
5. Life is good if you’re a brand. Better get busy if you’re not, because branding is no longer just for businesses. As an individual, you’re a cipher; as a brand, you’re instantly recognisable and respected. For what? For successfully branding yourself, of course! It’s the ultimate interpersonal shorthand. You may never need to explain what you “do” again.
6. There are no boundaries or straight lines today—just a blur. Nothing’s in sharp focus. Plastic surgery renders age meaningless; men use as many cosmetics as women; “reality TV” is cast as carefully as dramas; and product placement makes programming look like advertising. And it’s all served up so professionally, you can’t get a fix on anything. From now on, we’ll put quotation marks around “reality.”
7. Antisocial is the new normal. People on the street wear their iPod earbuds, or maybe they’re Bluetooth-enabled. Either way, they’re in their own private bubbles—turning public space into private. Who are their role models? On TV, they are House, the nastiest doctor in television history, and Entourage’s seething agent, Ari Gold. Clearly, the new message is “Do not disturb.”
8. We want real food. TV ads for foods laden with fats and chemicals used to amuse us; now they’re repulsive. We’ve elevated chefs to celebrities, turned cooking into an admired hobby and gone back to the past for edible inspiration. In a time of high-tech factory farming on one hand and all types of food randomly labeled “organic” on the other, the only word that rings true for us now is “authentic.”
9. We are steadily redefining family. The Ozzie and Harriet family of married mom and dad, two kids and no live-in grandparents may have reflected 1950s America but has long since ceased to be a demographic reality. Today’s families are defined only by affection, and they’re as individual as the people who create them: extended, single-parent, gay and unmarried couples with kids. Pets? Friends? Who says they’re not family?
10. We just might be coming around to the hard truth that global warming is no myth. Naomi Oreskes, professor of history and science studies at the University of California, San Diego, got tired of hearing claims that “most” scientists disagree with the notion of global warming, so she read every piece of science written on the topic—and not one scientist called it merely a theory. Ever since Hurricane Katrina, it’s become harder for skeptics to win converts.
Taken together, these trends suggest a world of paradox: convulsive economic changes in the global economy, more struggle for control and consistency in our private lives. We’ll be enclosed in our bubbles during leisure hours, in battle mode during the workday. Can these be integrated? Not likely. If there were a final trend, it would be that it’s extremely unpopular to look at the big picture.”
But if you’re sceptical about Marian’s trends then here is a round-up of her predictions for 2006 and her own personal look at how accurate they were…
“1. Sex with no apologies. In late 2006, think Britney Spears, minus Disney ears and her panties.
2. Faking reality and faking celebrity. It would be easiest to mention Britney again, but what about the TomKat wedding and their NBF, Victoria Beckham?
3. The timelessness of India and China. I miscast this one—instead of timelessness, how about the compulsive thrill of double timing? Today we call it “Bangalore envy.”
4. Disappearing downtime and downspace. Was that the T-Mobile ring I heard when I stood outside the Blue Mosque? And while we shopped Nanjing Road or the Bombay Store. I traveled a lot this past year, and there wasn’t much quality downtime or down space.
5. Natural disasters and eco-awareness. After Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, it’s clear the environment’s hybrid engine will continue to build pace exponentially. This year the warning is even clearer: Shades of green or go black.
6. Living with Islam. We still have a lot to learn, it seems, having witnessed the eruptions over the Danish newspaper cartoons and the protests over the papal speech that cited a 14th-century Christian emperor’s views on Muslims and violence.
7. Personal-control freaks. That aforementioned T-Mobile—it also happens to serve up 10 e-mail addresses of mine at once. And I sleep with it, on vibrate only (no links to unapologetic sex). Trend rising.
8. Brand sluts. According to Gallup, three-quarters of consumers define store brands as brands, and ascribed to them the same degree of positive qualities and characteristics as national brands. This trend is still rising, too.
9. Questioning the cost of mobility. We’re not prepared to give up mobility entirely, but we have started to question the yin and yang of getting from A to B, and the changes are tangible. Twelve percent of the U.S. workforce is now “distributed.” Could this be an extension our new awareness of environmental ruination?
10. Rising global health fears. Who eats spinach without thinking twice these days? And some South Koreans bid sad farewells to household pets as their government worked to clean out bird flu.”
Which means her 2007 predictions are probably worth thinking about!
