Trends Identified
The end of gender generalization
Historically, when companies designed products, the first decision they would make was whether the brand was intended for men or for women. As gender becomes more open, inclusive, and nuanced, the overarching traditional gender decision is no longer the best starting point for brand personality. Gender roles will continue to blur and gender will often not be a helpful categorization for many brands.
2019
The top trends for brands to watch in 2019
Landor
Subscribe to the future
In 2019, we’ll see the sharing economy continue to give way to the subscription economy. Subscriptions that provide on-demand products and services will become the norm for a growing number of sectors and products. The subscription model can reframe the brand beyond the category, radically changing the business model and profoundly changing how marketers need to approach the entire product development, distribution, and go-to-market process. Subscription appeals to virtually every consumer, giving them access to highly personalized just-in-time inventory without the need to invest in big-ticket items. Older generations are generally accustomed to subscribing to a relatively small number of product categories—periodicals, cable television, smartphones, apartments, insurance—and those subscriptions tend to be static (you don’t get much flexibility in changing product preferences mid-subscription).
2019
The top trends for brands to watch in 2019
Landor
Redefine winning: The new rules for sports brands
A new global generation of fans and customers has emerged, with new tastes and new expectations, shifting definitions of what sports brands actually are. From the rise of eSports to the transforming face of fandom, there are new rules and new winners. From fields to phones, all sports are increasingly digital. And digital distinctiveness is ever more important—to stand for something can mean everything to the next generation.
2019
The top trends for brands to watch in 2019
Landor
Every company is a wellness company
Every brand should provide appropriate solutions for supporting physical and/or mental wellness. All companies—from retail to real estate—should offer some degree of a wellness experience to maintain a competitive advantage. Wellness options include physical health programs as well as offerings that support mental health and balance, providing stress relief or even addressing issues such as social isolation.
2019
The top trends for brands to watch in 2019
Landor
Marketing and HR: unlikely allies
Brand marketers and HR join forces to drive greater value from the inside out, from employee to customer.As demand for more connectivity increases across all touchpoints in our lives, the push for end-to-end experience design will require closer relationships between people and product. Employee engagement, employee satisfaction, and employee retention are key to those relationships. Marketing and HR departments that partner together and blur traditional functional siloes are better positioned to attract, engage, and outperform their competition.With the rise in demand for innovative, creative, and branded employee experiences, leaders from HR and marketing will be 2019’s most critical power team. This new emphasis on the integration between customer experience and employee experience will require diversifying and attracting new types of talent to those roles.
2019
The top trends for brands to watch in 2019
Landor
Don’t get stuck in the middle
Brands must strategically commit to either a high-end or low-fidelity value proposition. We are seeing a new polarity in brands: companies offer either a low-cost, low-fidelity value or a high-end experience. Consumers will pay a premium for brands that provide a unique über-experience but they also want brands that provide what they want at a low cost. Even mainstream brands need to offer unique experiences in order to influence engagement and commitment and to drive repeat purchase. In 2019, brands that operate in the middle, offering utilitarian value without a distinct point of difference, will die.
2019
The top trends for brands to watch in 2019
Landor
Move over, Millennials; it’s Gen Z’s time.
In 2019, Generation Z will outnumber Millennials, that generation you’ve loved to hate for the past decade. “Generation Z is now heading into the workforce in meaningful numbers and for the first time in modern history five generations will be working side-by-side,” says Michael Dell, CEO and chairman of Dell Technologies. Gen Z — which Pew Research Center defines as those born from 1997 onward — will be about one-third of the global population and one-fifth of its workers. What is this new generation’s work ethic? “My experience is that they lean in and lean hard,” says best-selling author Brené Brown. About half of her staff is Gen Z. “They are all very different people, but as a group I experience them as curious, hopeful, always learning, painfully attuned to the suffering in the world, and anxious to do something about it.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
The economy will slow down...
Economists are split on when exactly, but they know one thing for sure: a downturn is coming. “There is a confluence of deep-seated, structural headwinds that threaten to upend the global economy,” warns economist Dambisa Moyo, among them growing inequality, a workforce ill-adapted to rapid technological change, political instability and a massive debt burden on governments, corporations and individuals. “The U.S. has historically been the leader, and the U.S. is probably going to slow down this year,” adds CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger. China is already cooling. “World growth is much more likely to slow down in 2019, and it really looks like 2020 could be the year of a global recession,” she predicts.
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
... and companies will prepare with pre-emptive layoffs.
Executives know the good times won’t last and many will reduce their workforce pre-emptively to preserve profits through a coming recession, warns Danielle DiMartino Booth, author of “Fed Up.” General Motors announced 14,000 strategic layoffs in November, after 2,250 had already taken buyouts. Meanwhile, Verizon will let go of 10,400 employees via voluntary severance, the company announced Monday. These won’t be the last. “I guarantee you right now, consultants across the country are convening and discussing with executive teams at many companies what they also can do to get in front of the next recession,” Booth says. “Companies are taking unusual steps because they know how very long in the tooth this expansion is and they know what's to come.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
We are finally going to spend more time online than watching TV.
The lines will cross some time in 2019: Around the world, people will start spending more hours a day on the Internet than watching television. The glass-half-empty way to look at it is people are turning away from legacy media, says Viacom President and CEO Bob Bakish. The glass-half-full vision: “There is more content being consumed today than ever before in history,” he adds. For Viacom, that has meant expanding its intellectual property across many platforms or creating shows for third-party streaming sites. “We do work with folks that maybe didn't exist 10 years ago, and started getting into the media business five years ago,” he says. “It's a year of a mixed economy and a mixed ecosystem. And that's the world of the future.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn