Next year will present a huge opportunity for those who understand
and cater to consumers’ changing needs, desires and expectations in the remapped
global economy. Trendwatching.com, a leading global trend agency with research
teams and trend spotters in more than 100 countries, has revealed the 10
crucial trends you’ll need to know to stay ahead
in this new landscape.

1.
PRESUMERS
& CUSTOWNERS: Pre-ordering, crowdfunding and consumer equity
will be some of the new ways consumers embrace new products and brands they
love. Expect to see more presumers participate in the funding, launch
and growth of products and brands before they are even realized. Anticipate
more custowners—consumers who move from
passively consuming a product towards funding/investing in the brands they buy
from.

2.
EMERGING2:
Services and products from emerging markets for emerging markets will
add to the developed markets’ interaction with emerging market’s dynamic.

3.
MOBILE
MOMENTS: Mobile devices will be used to maximize moments as
consumers multi/hyper-task their experiences, purchases and communications.

4.
NEW LIFE
INSIDE: Products that can naturally grow something new will gain
from having an eco-status. Rather than being
discarded or even recycled (by someone else), these products can be given back to nature to grow something new, with
all the eco-status and eco-stories that come with that.

5. APPSCRIPTIONS: The medical
profession and its institutions will curate as well as “prescribe” health apps
as a course of treatment similar to the way traditional medicines are
prescribed. Case in point: There are over 13,000 health apps in the Apple
istore.

6. CELEBRATION
NATION: Global consumers will take interest in the newly offered
national and cultural heritage proudly exported and flaunted from emerging
markets. These Symbols, lifestyles and traditions were previously
downplayed if not denied.

7. DATA MYNING:
Consumers will look to create and control their lifestyle data, turning to
brands that can offer help and advice on how they can improve their behavior
and save money, as well as other proactive uses of this data. A recent example
is Movenbank, which created a financial services platform to encourage their customers
to improve their financial behavior, and rewards them for doing so.

8. AGAIN MADE HERE:
Consumers’ lust for newism and niches + the expectation of (instantly) getting
the perfect product + the desire to meet eco-concerns + the need for interesting
stories will all combine to trigger a resurgence in domestic manufacturing
in established markets in 2013.

9. FULL FRONTAL:
The mega-trend of transparency moves to proactively
showing and proving that brands have nothing to hide from consumers.

10. DEMANDING
BRANDS: Switched-on brands will ambitiously work towards a more
sustainable and socially responsible future by demanding that their consumers
also contribute to the cause. Respect and loyalty will be engendered by the demanding
brands.

Trendwatching shares its reports with more than
200,000 business and marketing professionals in over 180 countries. To review the
full report on the Top 10 Crucial Trends for 2013, please visit trendwatching.com/briefing/.