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Latest trends | 2011
’business out of ZERØ’
Getting rich fast and easily has always been a tempting goal, and now – by following good examples – with the extension of time and space, and with the help of internet this everlasting goal has come within a closer reach. It is possible to start prospering businesses as sources, ideas and know how are obtainable for free by anybody. A good idea or a well-established conception can lead anyone to start successful businesses or even open new markets where free channels make selling much faster and easier. Communities help as they buy, rank or form opinion, and what is the most important SHARE (chances and experiences).
We live in the megatrend of FREEISM, the consumers can be motivated by the expression ‘for free’: free movies, music, films, books and science. The most important task is to find out how and from what sources we will finance the final ‘for free’…
’skeletonizing’
We have just started recovering from the recession, we try to evaluate its effects on our lives that affected our attitudes concerning buying and consuming. Our aim is not chasing the MOSTs but rather seeking and securing the optimum solutions and possibilities. A new kind of ascetism controls our attitudes: we rather abandon obtaining new goods. Producers are also obliged to follow these phenomena because of the decreasing demands on market, and the fast recovery from the recession is a question of life and death for them as well. For the sake of this, their production and supply must be put on a whole different basis. They have to return to the basic competences, get rid of the unnecessary functions, because nobody wants to pay for these any more. ’A la industrial’ is the trendy style. ’Skeletonizing’ might be the solution for brands to find the way out of this critical situation. Non-buying seems to be a relevant choice – we’d rather barter, rent, exchange…
’socio|control’
Society’s social control – that is how we can sum up this trend in short. Consumers, knit into communities, oblige companies into transparency and social responsibility. They use their communities’ force, to show resistance against companies and products. Communities are not only means of integration for the individual, but they give power to the basically weak individual. With the help of these ’unions’ those not following the group requirements and culture – with their opposing or too radical opinion - can easily get segregated.
Social shopping is spreading, and a new knowledge of community shopping is forming. Consumers move together to force out bigger discounts and reductions from the final price. To reach these goals they are ready to postpone their shopping and wait until the circumstances change to their advantage.
'share!’
Consumers would like to do their bit and take their share of the work, and not only as a consumer but as an active collaborator as well. In return they would like to have their share of the company’s profit for spending so much money and time buying their goods and obtaining their services or just popularizing them. Consumers want to take their part in the process of production, selling or popularization. It is a good sense of a ’ding-dong’, in which the consumer becomes a transferred marketing or sales co-worker who, in return for his/her work, expects to get allowance from the company. Clubbing is also a frequent phenomenon nowadays: on one hand groups of consumers form online communities for the sake of sharing profit, on the other, some companies like to be surrounded by such ’clubs’ and use their outstanding intellectual capital. Crowdsourcing is a new phenomenon in Hungary: companies choose the most appropriate ideas out of hundreds and pay for them. More consumers are able to share these profits.
’age-lag’
Everybody wants to be younger, wants to look youthful, and is ready to make sacrifice in order to get it. The well-known phenomenon of ’I’ll never get old’ is now completed with the ’I’ll never grow up’ phenomenon. Everybody wants to be in his/her twenties, and everybody is eager to remain 20 or 25 forever. There is a whole shift concerning age-groups: the desire for youth melts the different ages together, no matter if they are under or above the devoted age. Children grow young too fast while adults in their forties glow just like in their thirties…
’sustainable quality of life’
After recession consumers still want to sustain their standard of living while it is almost impossible on its pre-recession level. They have to look for new chances and optimum solutions by which they can conserve the given circumstances applying new resources. It is a new kind of vitality. Consumers set reachable purposes that they can take responsibility for and that have predictable consequences. They reject all obscure and vague promises, advantages and brands. This attitude results an earthbound and more local approach with tiny luxury items accessible in the local environment. Everybody thrives to get rid of the pressure of perfection and recognise that no use following those expectations that are forced by the media. We accept and seek those experiences, products and services that are seem to be like the old ones… or at least we try to get satisfied with such illusions.
’blind leading the blind’
Consumers want to find new sources of information instead of those with expertise. Companies lose control over consumers and over the information flow.
The acquiring of crumbs-knowledge, and the use of crumbs-information show that people turned their back on experts and professionals. Instead, their trust is shifted towards other consumers. They share their experiences and observations with each other and those having more knowledge and experience than the average excel. After reading a few books on a certain topic some louder consumers start their own consultative blogs to earn money and they share their ’knowledge’ via forums. Even celebrities can introduce themselves as experts of their previous hobbies.
’iconizing’
The expression ’iconizing’ shows an innovative approach namely that people’s attention has changed and became shorter in their stimulating environment. The sender of the information has only a few seconds in which it must grab the consumers’ attention. Only those can be successful in this rush who can adapt themselves to the requirements of ’iconizing’. All pieces of information must be put into an unequivocal visual environment with spectacular and interesting means otherwise nobody will notice it. The essence of this trend lies in the growing importance of visualisation.
Information is a ’design product’ just like other products surrounding us. Information must be precisely designed and its visualisation must be unique, concise and attractive. While nobody is interested in ’not nice’ information, the attractively packed and designed ones will reach their target groups.
’obli|ance'
There is an ‘ancient’ desire of the consumer: to find the best, the latest, the rarest… The clever-buyer’s main aim is to find the supply with the best proportion of price and value. For the sake of the best offer the consumer is ready to collect information and evaluate it before making a decision. One of the effects of the recession is the strengthening phenomenon of the so-called ’clever-buying’: consumers, experiencing their own boundaries, choose the most suitable offers. ’Clever-buying’ fulfils the desire of ’success-buying’.
A new phenomenon is that consumers expect their supplier to show the whole market-supply and that is how they force competitors into alliances. They do not only want fragments of information, they want comparable, transparent and full-scale solutions.
