New Profit Opportunities for Retailers and Consumer Product Companies

by  Cynthia R. Cohen

Trendfluences are major trends with significant influence on consumer spending and buying behavior. Capitalizing on these Trendfluences will catapult your business beyond this economy’s sluggish growth rate.

These thirteen Trendfluences are a mix of consumer behavior trends, future vision of the retail industry and Strategy Diva insights. Thought provoking and catalytic, they should shape your strategic thinking about your target market, new product development, channel sales, marketing, capital spending and corporate priorities.

1. Brand Dominance

Brands play a greater role in consumers’ purchasing decisions.  Consumers recognize and rely on a brand’s image; they want to buy more from brands they like and trust.  Brands serve as the consumer’s screener in this over assorted world.

2. Retail, Entertainment and Publishing Are Converging

The lines between these three separate vertical industries are blurring.  Companies in each of these industry segments are getting into the businesses of one another.  Entertainment and publishing have the intellectual property, content, and advertising impressions that retailers need.  It is a world of strategic partnerships and joint ventures among these big three industries.

3. Content is King

The Internet awoke the sleeping giant knowledge hound in the consumer.  Content is now a required accompaniment to products.  Consumers view information as their inalienable right before, during, and after making a purchase.

4. Individualism is Embraced

It is a time for the “me” approach, not the selfish me, but the individual me.  Consumers want vehicles that allow them to express who they are at each turning point or mood in their lives.  Individual expression spans their belief system, politics, home and personal fashion.

5. Mega Growth of Microsports and Hobbies

More than 200 cable channels and a plethora of niche publications and online communities have brought many unusual sports activities and hobbies to the forefront of the consumer mindset.  Although individual microsports may rotate in dominance, the trend of alternatives to golf and baseball will linger.  More leisure time allocation from Boomers and Grays drives new hobby devotees daily.

6. Dedication to Health, Age Minimizing, and Life Enhancing Practices

Makeover madness is here to stay and the medical industry is providing a Pandora’s box of opportunities. Health regimens dominate the media and have been embraced in every consumer group.  One or more of these practices is now an integral part of every consumer’s life.

7. Home Living Spaces are Reallocated

Consumers have either enlarged or downsized their homes, but the most pervasive adjustment in real estate is the way consumers are using their living spaces.  Underutilized space is now being reclaimed for current lifestyle interests, reflecting real living rooms instead of traditionally defined rooms.

8. Consumers Become Wireless and Stores Become Wired

Technological advances are quickly penetrating the mass consumer market, and wireless makes the devices more user friendly.  Smart cell phones and PDAs are becoming as commonplace as wallets.  At the same time, broadband is a store-building requirement, as important as the back receiving door in order to manage the new economy retail business.

9. Turbo-Scheduling is Adopted

“Stop and smell the roses” scheduled from 11 AM to 11:45 AM.  As consumers seek more balance in their lives and more quality activities, they look to their PDAs to manage the back-to-back scheduling of activities.  Labor saving devices create time that is immediately allocated to other activities.  Multi-tasking is a win-win in the consumer’s mind and is the norm for Gen Y and Speeders¹

10. Cravings for Community and One to One Interaction
The proliferation of technology devices and the pervasiveness of information online make human interaction even more desired and important.  Consumers feel personal energy and need it like sunlight.  When leaving a familiar neighborhood or a career, they need to quickly establish a community of people with similar interests to communicate with.  As consumers age and spouses die, community ties become even more important.

11. Retail Becomes Experiential
Stores aren’t going away because of e-commerce, but they are taking on a different role.  Stores will provide complete sensory stimulation and three-dimensional advertisement for products.  Consumers want to experience their product purchases, be engaged by the selling process, and connect to personal energy in the store.

12. Hispanic and Global Influx of Influence
Countries from around the world are influencing our style and fashion culture more each year.  The growth of the Hispanic population in the United States makes this the primary global influencer on the American consumer base.  It’s a small world and getting smaller as the Speeder generation sees few geographic or tradition boundaries.

13. Generational Divide
It’s the Boomers versus the Speeders. They are most impactful on consumer spending because of the large percentage of the population each generational group represents. Yet their differences are more than age, taste and style; they process data differently.  Speeders absorb information in a nanosecond and make decisions before a Boomer even has time to take their reading glasses out, given the same retail environment.  These are the early adopters of new technology, new shopping methods and innovative product demonstration devices.