1. Consumers are researching the offer
Consumers will be putting more time and energy into finding good values, reading the labels and the service agreement and will be more informed on nutritional facts, environmental impact and ethical business practices

2. They are also looking for stability
While many economic indicators point to a light at the end of the tunnel , consumers will continue to be cautious and will be hesitant to commit when it comes to important purchases.

3. Necessity allows emerging market products to enter the developed world.
Products designed for emerging markets are increasingly becoming popular in the developed markets, where consumers are accepting them as cheaper and simpler alternatives to existing choices.

4. Green is entering our lives
As the ecological influence increases, producers will pay more attention to the environmental costs of packaging, and brands will increasingly switch to bottles, boxes and other solutions that reduce waste .The trend will be to reuse, recycle, remove and renew.

5. The disclosure trend is intensifying
Legal requirements and competitive pressures will force producers to fuller disclosure about everything from ingredients to carbon footprints and sourcing

6. Real time revolution
The Web is evolving into a constantly updating stream of real-time information, conversation, memes and images.

7. Products and communication will have an open eye for the older generation
As the world’s population grows older, we should be ready for a proliferation of products and services that cater to this demographic segment as they strugle to live independently for as long as they can. Communication will also be adapting to the habits and life style of this group.

During recessionary times, do-it-yourself is influencing not only home and office furniture but a whole range of categories, including food, entertainment, beauty and fashion. Examples are organizing and promoting our own parties and events and rushing to IKEA, to youth formulating their very own beauty treatments. Today we realize that the habit of DIY is becoming increasingly pervasive.
A number of factors is shifting this movement to the mainstream, chief among them the anxiety brought on by the present recession. Most of us realize that DIY is simply cheaper than the alternatives. DIY also seems like the trendy thing to do at a time when frugality and anti-consumerist sentiment are booming. Another factor that helps this consumer habit is the Internet and social media where dialogue and friendly discussions are thriving.And in a world where mass-produced goods dominate, DIY allows for a sense of discovery and a way to stand out from the crowd.
A recent JWT study explores how DIY ideas and attitudes are affecting consumer behavior and purchasing habits in a range of categories, and investigates what this means for marketers and their brands

Key Questions asked

• How is the DIY trend translating across a range of product categories? And how is it helping to encourage entrepreneurialism?
• What factors are driving this trend?
• What does DIY mean for brands and marketers?

Key Findings

DIY is a trend that was already growing before the recession, and the downturn is only helping to accelerate it.
This may sound as bad news for brands. If you DIY, where does this leave companies that sell ready-made goods?
However, brands and marketers can learn a lot and exploit this trend if they can understand how to become part of the trend and build the DIY experience into their own marketing plans
Indeed, as the JWT study concludes “DIY doesn’t mean consumers are opting out of the economy; instead, they’re reconfiguring it, taking a greater stake in the production process. Marketers that can complement consumers’ DIY efforts, serving as partners in this reconfiguration, will serve their brands best.”

For centuries since Guttenberg books have remained virtually unchanged.
But today the Internet has changed the way we process information, even the way we read and eventually all information will be digital. Publishers especially those who realize they’re in the story business, not the paper and printing business, have adopted the digital generation from social networking to mobile phone novels to multimedia add-ons, to electronic readers. The most recent example is Amazon’s Kindle.

A recent study by JWT has possed the following questions and then went on to answer them.

Key Questions
• How will books change format to fit the habits of generations of readers accustomed to on-demand access to information?
• How are authors and publishers experimenting with different forms of media? How are they digitizing to better engage readers?
• How is the digital age changing reading habits?
• How are authors and publishers changing their marketing strategies and tactics in response to these developments?
• Can the digital revolution actually help save the book industry?

Key Findings
Some of the results are mentioned below:
Internet and digital media is changing the way we process information. The image of the reader, the book and a quiet place is being replaced by a busy noisy environment where we are hearing music, driving through windows of info dozens of times in the span of an hour. Our minds have become reluctant to stop in one place for too long—the digital age has created an urge for diversion that one academic calls
“acquired attention deficit disorder.”

Some believe this spells the death of reading—but consider that literacy has always leapt forward when more information is made available to more people. And ultimately it’s not the thing book lovers are taken with, it’s what’s inside the thing—the ideas, characters, possibilities. Expanding a good story into the digital realm opens numerous opportunities to attract consumers. Authors and publishers are finding ways to engage the digital generation. And e-readers like the Kindle speak to consumers who increasingly expect information on demand, on the go and online.
Eventually, books will have to evolve even further, and even faster, if they are to survive. For example, Millennials (see my post ….) will demand content be made available digitally. Some might look at these developments with disdain, but ultimately an evolution will result in engaging more people in the written word.

Workplace culture and values are undergoing a major transformation.
The global recession has forced organizations to reconsider their business models and their workplace
At the same time it is changing people’s attitudes towards work vs private life and for many people, it is affecting how and how much they work.
Emerging trends including the rise of telecommuting and freelancing, the growing influence of the Millennial way of thinking (introduced by those who were born during 1980’s to mid 90’s), and the adoption of mobile devices and Enterprise 2.0 tools will create an entirely different work and office culture.
A recent study by JWT poses the following questions and findings

Key Questions
• How will the recession and new ideas about worker productivity affect the traditional eight-hour day and five-day workweek?
• How will the shifts we’re seeing in office culture affect workplace design and the physical office space?
• What factors are contributing to the growing rise of freelancing and contract work?
• How will companies need to change to accommodate Millennials? How are Millennials redefining professional success?
• How will Enterprise 2.0 tools help to drive changes in workplace culture?

Key Findings
The following summary of the findings illusrates the changes that are already happening.
“Today’s always-connected workers, the recession and new ideas about worker productivity are changing the traditional 9-5 workday. The recession has prompted some workers to reassess the why behind work and seek
greater work-life balance. Meanwhile, companies are reassessing scheduling—instituting shorter workweeks or ultraflexible hours—and focusing more on what people get done rather than how long they spend doing it.
Work-life balance is one factor fueling the rise of freelancing. While freelancers once mostly took on small odd jobs, now they fill contract positions for a growing range of specialties.
With more workers freelancing, telecommuting and working non-standardized hours, businesses are increasingly open to flexible workspaces and virtual offices; design focuses on easing flexibility and collaboration. Cost-cutting has also forced many companies to rethink their operations from the brick and mortar up. By allocating space more smartly, businesses will be able to shrink physically and make better use of their real estate.
Millennials, the newest entrants to the workforce, are motivated more by their passions than by paychecks or promotions. Given the sheer size of the generation, they are certain to force changes in the workplace; many
businesses are already adjusting in order to retain the strongest young workers.
Millennials are helping to drive adoption of Web 2.0 tools in the workplace; what’s known as Enterprise 2.0 will be key to the flatter, faster and more flexible business of the future. Smart organizations will put as much focus
on evolving a 2.0 culture as adopting the tools that go with it.”

One of the repercussions of the present economic crisis and the subsequent recession is the challenges it poses on the aspirations of millions of people especially in the developed world. People are forced to focus on basic needs rather than higher-level ambitions.

With economies transitioning painfully out of a long boom period—during which people came to take many comforts for granted—consumers will increasingly downsize their expectations, both in terms of material gains and hopes and dreams for the future.

We should answer the following questions:
• How will the financial crisis reshape the aspirations that will in turn reshape the world in the coming years? How likely are people to rethink what’s possible and what’s desirable?
• How will governments take on a new role in shaping aspirations?
• Recent aspirations have revolved around fame and fortune; what will be the new smart lifestyle aspirations going forward?
• How should marketers and brands respond to this shift in aspirations?

Some key findings from JWT’ recent study
For many decades, growing numbers of people worldwide have been raising their aspirations for more and better on every front. With the global economic crisis, however, people can no longer assume that the next 12 months will be as good as or better than the previous 12. It’s pushing people to review what they have and to revise their expectations.

We’re seeing a shift away from aspirations for fame and fortune—today, people are showing an urge to change direction and lead simpler, leaner and perhaps more meaningful lives.

As people find ways to live with and through the economic crisis, there will be great interest in finding ways to strip away some of the complexities of modern life. Consumers will embrace downscaled lifestyles, value the steady employment offered by the public sector, and seek greater control over their lives as trust in the system erodes.

Governments will increasingly be seen as the entities with the power to provide security and stability, aspirations that markets and the business world cannot fulfill. It will be up to leaders at every level—heads of households, businesses, countries and international bodies—to safeguard and steward the bigger, longer-term aspirations.

One of the macrotrends highlighted in J.Walter Thompson’s study
“10 Trends for 2009″, the “Collective Consciousness” speaks
to a new global mind-set: People are thinking less about “me” and more about what “we” can do together—whether for pure fun, for sharing resources or for addressing global issues like climate change.
The Collective Consciousness refers to a mind-set that’s common not among any one society or nation but rather among a group of global citizens around the world. These globalists are using digital technology
to connect, swap ideas and organize events. They share an ethos of responsibility and cooperation that’s markedly different from the individualistic party of the late 1980s and the 1990s.
This worldwide collaboration of smart, engaged citizens has the potential to produce viable ways to attack the world’s most difficult issues.
Key Questions
• What social and technological factors are enabling this trend?
• How do Web and mobile technologies help people share ideas and organize? How might people integrate their online and offline activities to accomplish collective goals?
• How might the collective consciousness trend evolve in the near future?
• What does this trend mean for marketers that want to tap into the collective mind-set?
Key Findings
People are pooling resources, sharing ideas and coordinating actions as never before. This trend is being fostered by several factors: the desire and ability to join communities based on fluid identities; the ease
with which Web technology allows people to communicate, exchange ideas and organize collectively; a new generation’s desire to be more active and engaged in their world; and the growing realization that
large-scale problems like environmental degradation need large-scale, collectively driven solutions.
Experimentation and innovation within the collective consciousness are flourishing as people integrate their online and offline activities to carry out collective goals.
Marketers can tap into the collective consciousness to create movement around brands. Businesses that successfully tap into the collective consciousness shift will have the ability to connect and form
allegiances with consumers that go much deeper than the superficial and transactional.

The big dilemma is that if a country loses its competitiveness, it certainly will not for long maintain the value system its people want. This harsh reality is often hidden by governments and their policies result in an exponential increase in public debt and the share of the public sector, resulting in deterioration the country’s competitiveness.
All developed countries will need to solve this dilemma, and this holds true even more for Greece.
When we consider how competitive is the economy of a country most of us take into account only economic factors. However, economic factors are the “hard” part of competitiveness and do not give us the full picture. The importance of the “soft” part of competitiveness as expressed by factors such as education, skills of management and the value system is critical in determining a country’s level of competitiveness
This is perfectly understandable if we look at the results of research on competitiveness prepared each year by the World Economic Forum.
The more developed a country, the greater emphasis it gives to the “soft” part of competitiveness.
It is striking how much attention the East Asian economies place on education and management of system values, and this because they realize that the competitive advantage of low labor cost is only temporary and soon will be lost, especially with the increasing importance of China.
The problem of the developed industrial countries and especially Europe is focused on the cost of the system of values that their citizens and the governments preach.
It is perfectly acceptable to want a more comprehensive system of health coverage, more unemployment and pension benefits. It is human to want to reduce working hours for the sake of leisure, as well as lower taxes and impose greater environmental protection measures. All these are understandable, but we must realize that they are accompanied with high costs for the economy.
For a country the cost of the value system it demands, is something like the overheads of a business. In other words, this cost must be paid before production starts next year and before the influx of revenue. The competitiveness of a country should be such so as to create the wealth required to cover the cost of the system of values chosen by its people.
The more demanding is the value system, the more competitive the countryshould be. This concept seems so simple but I am afraid that in our country escapes our attention, since we always demand to improve the system of values, without correcting our competitiveness and thus create the wealth required to support it.