Seven trends to watch in 2007

Implications | Opportunities

Remember, in 2007 every product or brand is, by definition, a global brand.

2. Proliferation & Customization

Our notion of choice is undergoing great transformation. Whereas we've always enjoyed lots of choice in the marketplace - new colors, new shapes, more interesting flavors, new sizes - our more complex, flexible, global economy ensures more diverse, more authentic and higher quality choices. Who cares about Coke, Tab or Diet 7-UP when you can choose between many hundreds of specialty beverages, many of which have themselves grown out of authentic cultural traditions (e.g., San Pelligrino, Orangina, Jones Soda, Frappucino, etc.).

Though variety is now expected, it can often contribute to consumers' sense of time pressures, confusion and stress. Consumers, therefore, are seeking greater connections with the products, brands and retailers they choose. In 2007, you can no longer differentiate yourself on health benefits alone, but rather you need to provide consumers with an aspirational connection to who they envision themselves to be. It's this kind of empowerment, ownership and investment that breeds brand loyalty. Jones Soda is an excellent example of brand loyalty by way of ownership. They relinquish so much control of the brand to the consumer that packaging is based on consumer contributions. Would you dare drink another brand of soda if a picture of your dog graced a Jones bottle (www.jonessoda.com)?

Implications | Opportunities

In the year ahead, diversity is the "norm" and extensive choice commonplace (selection, variety, experience, etc.).

3. Empowerment & Control

The trend toward empowerment and control is driven much by skepticism of traditional authority (physicians, government, media, etc.). Consumers believe it is possible and desirable to do most things by one's self, and to do them better than the "experts". Access to information systems and abundant choices make consumers more optimistic to prevent and manage their and their family's health and wellness.

While at first glance, one might surmise certain obvious and timely implications (e.g., consumers may be more willing to trust the advice of friends or family members over that of their family doctor on matters of nutrition), other implications are more subtle. To cite but one example, the increasing distrust of external authority structures suggests consumers will eventually come to rely on the participants within a given field or domain to accurately convey certain product information or specifications rather than turning straight to the companies responsible for producing or distributing the products. This is most evident in the case of Amazon.com's pioneering use of customer product reviews and also seen in the explosive popularity of YouTube where the consumer becomes not only the artist and the critic.

In short, people are no longer content to be passive consumers in a marketplace and increasingly utilizing the marketplace for their own creative ends. Consumers increasingly view consumer products as source material for creative expression, fun and productivity. Whether it's slipping a roll of Mentos into a Diet Coke bottle and watching the geyser fly or building furniture out of Fed-Ex boxes (among two of the most watched videos on YouTube this year: www.youtube.com), consumers are increasingly coming to value consumption not as a means to an end (fulfilling needs), but as a source of productive activity worthy in its own right.

Implications | Opportunities

The most successful brands will be those able to invite and incorporate their customers into the entirety of the brand.

4. Vitality

The trend toward vitality spans physical, emotional, mental and social domains. Today's consumers, lead by our aging population, are seeking to maintain and recapture fading levels of vitality. Focus on obesity has led to an attendant focus on energy and exercise, domains where vitality plays a critical role. Whether over-taxed workers or time-starved parents, consumers orient toward vitality in their health regimens.

Today, protein is a symbol for sustained energy in consumers' minds. Consumers are equating protein with energy, weight loss and weight management and are even beginning to differentiate between protein sources (soy, whey, animal, etc.). In 2007, protein can serve as a key touch point on product messaging and packaging materials.

Implications | Opportunities

As meal occasions continue to blur, consumers are intensifying their desire for solutions that deliver the "right" balance of fullness and energy. Protein will grow in importance as a key macronutrient.

We believe there are few brands even competing in the vitality space. In 2007, this is wide-open territory, especially given the dominant buying power Boomers are projected to have in the marketplace for years to come, the group reports.

5. Simplicity

We've all witnessed the recent explosive interest in design in all aspects of consumer culture - everything from housewares and furnishings to personal electronics and clothing. Increasingly consumers demand not just affordable stuff but affordable stuff that looks and feels good. As it happens, "good design" often focuses on the sleek and elegant - simple.

Likewise, consumers increasingly prefer their goods to be real; to appear "unpretentious, unadorned, or natural" - in a word, authentic. As a general rule of thumb, the less decorated or decked out an object is, the more real or authentic it seems - hence a push toward simplicity.

In food circles we find a trend toward "simple" preparations made from one or two local ingredients. For CPG companies, this trend is playing out by shortening ingredients list and using ingredients that consumers actually can read. For example, Clif Bar's Nectar is, as they called it, "the essence of simple," with five or fewer ingredients in each bar. This bar made of organic fruits and nuts and combines what they tout as "simple, straightforward ingredients" (www.clifbar.com).

Delhaize-owned Bloom represents a retail movement toward simplification of the shopper experience from both a store design and merchandising standpoint. Bloom stores feature wider aisles, lower shelves and information kiosks to help consumers find products, check prices and print out recipes. Products in the stores are grouped in families of food and non-food items aligned with the most likely occasions for shopping. To meet consumers' occasion-based shopping needs, Bloom features Table Top sections at the front of the store, which offer shoppers milk, bread and eggs as well as prepared meals including pizza, fresh pasta, sushi and refrigerated entrees (www.shopbloom.com).

Implications | Opportunities

Simplicity, in essence for 2007, becomes an antidote to the perceived complexity and stress of modern life. Simply put, to live simply is to live well.

6. Sustainability

Consumers are continuing their trajectory toward greater involvement with health and wellness. This trajectory has a cumulative effect - layering of attitudes and behaviors over time. As part and parcel of this layering, the next significant long-term trend in the health and wellness arena is intrinsically linked to sustainability. The Timberland Company, famous for its boots, cleverly mixed the two when it announced that it would be shipping all of its products with a "nutrition label" applied to the shoe box. The Timberland nutrition label defines the environmental "footprint" or impact the production of the shoe or boot has had.

How mainstream is the push toward sustainability? To answer that, we need to understand the adoption pathway: first, consumers focus on what goes in the body (local, organic, natural, free range, no GMOs); next they will consider what goes on the body (organic fiber); next they will turn to what goes in the home (natural household cleaners, energy-efficient appliances, solar-charged outdoor lights, natural pest control); and finally what affects the larger environment (renewable energy sources, renewable or recycled building materials, eco-tourism). The multitude of products, services and causes that fall under the moniker of sustainability, while fragmented, are nevertheless coalescing to the point that mainstream consumers are now picking and choosing from "green" options. The category pathway for mainstream consumers is currently developing and is just now beginning to show signs of real traction.

Implications | Opportunities

As we head into a New Year, sustainability is perched at the edge of becoming the next organic in terms of impact on the psyche of consumers and the marketplace.

7. The Trend of the Decade: Redefining Quality

What was once a paradigm of healthy eating habits and healthier food products is now a paradigm of high-quality eating experiences, of which healthier eating is but one of many important sub-themes. Other relevant sub-themes include organic and local, as well as various ingredient trends.

To be certain, consumers have not abandoned their interest in healthier eating habits or healthier food products. But what is important to understand is that before those attributes can even resonate with consumers, the experience must first qualify as quality food experience, and the rules for qualification are not necessarily what you might expect. Likewise, if the experience is truly sufficient to resonate as authentic quality, that resonance will often prove far more powerful - and contribute much more to your brand halo - than lower order attributes such as healthy, organic or local. In simple terms, the pursuit of authentic quality food experiences has subsumed what were once major trends (healthy eating, organic and local) and transformed them into more minor experiential attributes.

The chart above illustrates the future growth opportunity for new brands, specialty and particularly private label (store brands) as consumer demand for premium quality increases in parallel with the increased demand for "authentic food experiences" both from products and in the retail setting.

Within private label products, the consumer equation between the experience of a retail environment and the products sold by a banner are becoming the hallmark of the most revered and well accepted store brands. For example, consumers speak in loving terms about Trader Joe's (www.traderjoes.com), underscoring how the company has crafted a connection between the store and what are perceived as unique, high quality products. Target has called upon well-known designers to redefine "mass class" store brand products that combine discount pricing with appealing design to create a category now referred to as "affordable chic."

Implications | Opportunities

Consumer lifestyles will continue to evolve as consumers pursue new levels of interests and preferences that transcend products and brands. To keep pace with these rapidly changing consumers in the coming months, manufacturers, marketers and retailers need to adopt a different set of metrics more aligned to how consumers live, shop and use products within the contexts of everyday life.

Source: http://www.hartman-group.com/products/HB/2006_12_13.html