Here are some thought provoking trends for brands to reflect upon. 🚀
Photo Credits: Everybody & Everymind by Lucy & Yak is a collection celebrating neurodivergent experiences, UK
Consumers around the world have started, in significant number, to question traditionally Eurocentric, heteronormative and youth-focused views of history and culture in 2024.
CONSUMERS CAN SMELL PRETENCE
“Navigating culture wars should be easy for businesses invested in making inclusivity their core value. Consumers have their eyes on which ones are committed to empowering marginalised communities, from communications to recruitment and R&D, and those pretending. Brands planning to remain neutral in 2024, especially in the US, have picked a side already.” – Dan Hastings-Narayanin, deputy foresight editor, The Future Laboratory
IT’S TIME TO RECLAIM YOUR IDENTITY
“We’ve lost a lot of control over our land, we’ve lost a lot of control over the education that our children get; our own data and our own stories are kind of our last control over ourselves. If we lose that, if we lose sovereignty over that, it doesn’t bode well for the uniqueness that is Māori.” – Te Taka Keegan, Waikato University associate professor of computer science, in The New Zealand Herald
These shifts are empowering Black, Indigenous and other people of colour to reclaim their identities and rewrite their stories. They are also encouraging people from myriad underserved demographics to unashamedly be their true, individual selves – requiring brands to ditch consumer typologies that treat groups as monoliths.
IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT GEN Z AND MILLENNIALS
“A youth-obsessed culture is just boring. Casting people of all ages has always felt natural to me, as we design for people at all stages and moments of their lives.” – Rachel Comey, US fashion designer
Rather than thinking about growing old in terms of losing youth, it should be reframed around finding new ways to evolve and thrive. Rather than thinking about ageing, the focus should be on the new self you are becoming. Brands must embrace this with products, services and marketing communications that are empowering, celebratory and energising, rather than derivative and patronising.
To chat more about this hit me up at https://lnkd.in/gRJ38BVz ☕
Source: John O’Sullivan and Jessica Smith
#thesmilingstrategist #ministrategybites #miniculturebites #diversityandinclusion #brandstrategytips #marketingtips #strategytips #brandstrategist #creativestrategist #freelancestrategy #freelancestrategist #futuretrends #trends2024 #trendspotting #trends #insights #babyboomers #brandconsultant #strategyconsultant #brandgrowth #creativestrategy #trendingnews
