How urbanisation is changing the face of brand marketing

This industry is as broad as the market we're trying to reach. What is definitely worth doing, however, is a fly-over, looking at macro-trends that are influencing micro environmental behaviour...and how we can roll with these punches.

The global move towards mass urbanisation has been gaining momentum for some time now, what with more than 50% of the world's population living in urban areas according to the Anthropocene Journal; an increase of more than 20% since the '70s. Sure, we can go on and on about how cities are booming and more and more people are flocking to them, but what does all of this mean for us as marketers?

How will we anticipate the changes this hardly-languid movement will bring about in the industry and, even more importantly, how will we help our clients brand themselves in a manner that enables them to grow their business? Without trying to sound overly dramatic; the faster we can identify those monumental - yes, monumental - shifts in consumer behaviour and reciprocate with structured yet fluid strategies, the easier it will be to meet urbanisation head on.

Here are a few global trends and their effects on brand marketing worldwide:

Mobile connectivity

By no means a humdinger, but the development and rapid expansion of mobile technology challenges us in both content and design. As cities grow larger and denser, office and retail space shrinks. What does this mean for your brand? Well, if you're going to get your material out there you're going to have to start designing your marketing material to render well in the only arena that's expanding faster and faster. Yup, mobile real-estate comfortably places your product on that smartphone or tablet screen.

What we need to remember when punting our products to mobile consumers, however, is the look of it. With Retina and AMOLED displays abound, high definition mobile screens can be incredibly unforgiving. A good example of this is how fine font types become harder to read and, of course, getting your pages to a point where they're responsive to screen size.

As branding goes mobile, content and design becomes ever more intertwined.

The social generation

According to Frost & Sullivan's Bricks and Clicks study, the amount of digital natives worldwide will have reached 2.5 billion by 2025. Those dubbed "Generation Y", will have become hyper-consumers; digesting information at light speed and making flash-decisions based on how attractive, socially aware and valuable the products gracing their screens are. Value for money will become ever important as more and more products do exactly the same thing, just in a different package. This is evident in Samsung's move towards more high-end materials in its smartphone devices so as to compete with Apple and Sony's handsets.

Niche markets

As the generational shift towards technology speeds up, so will the empowerment among previously disadvantaged groups; demographics are already changing and as marketers we must take into consideration that brands no longer carry the symbolism they used to. Empowerment among women and minority groups bring new purchasing values - especially on cultural and emotional level - into play and if we are to keep growing with our new audiences we should take their background into consideration.

Put the effort into your design, and throw in the hours when researching content for your campaigns. A little goes a really long way and making use of the tools granted us through globalisation is a perk we should take advantage of at any given point.