Thursday, December 17, 2015

trendSCAN© - Shifts in how people live, learn, work, and play for 2016 & Beyond


(PR Buzz) --- Each December, Dr. Ellen O’Sullivan shares a list of shifting and emerging trends shaping the patterns and preferences of people and how they live, learn, work, and play for the coming year and beyond.

The list for 2016 includes…..

Healthy Pleasures. How could the pursuit of health become any more interesting than adding a touch of ‘healthy pleasures to people’s lives? Think of it as good times that are good for you.

Brand Stand. If you want to be around for 2020, you need to take a stand as to how and what your organization represents to and for consumers. Revisit or refine the clear, concise, compelling word or words that enable you to stand out in the minds of current and potential customers.

Millennial Parenting. No surprise that Millennials are doing what most other generations did at this life stage by becoming parents who intend to raise their children differently than they were raised. Helicopter parents give way to ‘drone’ parents. They are around their children’s world but certainly not hovering over them.

Density Intensity. U.S. Cities are home to 62.7% of the U.S. Population living on just 3.5% of the land area. Can you say living on top of one another?  Just imagine the outcomes when people are bombarded with inadvertent social contacts yet many remain lone or lonely amid the crowds.

Blending and Blurring. All segments as to how people live, work learn, and play has been subject to a blending of two previously unrelated concepts or the inability to separate previously distinct entities. Consider athleisure clothing, grocerants, and bleisure.

Multigenerational Aging. Shades of gray are everywhere and not only are there more older Americans than ever before but there are multiple generations of them. Baby Boomers at 60 years and the Greatest Generation at 85 years of age are not the same. Please note this trend applies in certain other parts of the globe.

Two Tiered (or even tri-tiered) Everything. It’s not just on airlines anymore as more services and experiences have at least two varying levels of what appears to be the same experience and oh, yes, you pay for the differences. Ski areas where you don’t have to carry your skis? Even Costco now has two levels of membership.

Engaging Experiences Required. The initial infusion of experiences into products and services was perceived as an added edge of promotion or enticement.  NOT anymore as experiences are becoming integral to consumer offerings. The new BMW showrooms and PowerAde’s ‘workout’ billboards attest to this trend.

Our New Colors: Brown & Gray. It’s official. The United States primarily consists of two rather distinct groups: younger Americans who reflect the ethnic diversity of that cohort group and older or graying Americans who are primarily white. Similar variations apply in other countries as well.

Play reaches the BIG Time. The power and pursuit of play has been circling the edges of becoming more important in society but now that play is being recognized by physicians as essential for child development and required for adults as a means to a healthy lifestyle, play has now risen to new, more encompassing heights.

“distrans”: Organizational LifeLine. “distrans”is a trendSCAN created term blending two concepts: distort and transform. It is the lifeline for today’s organizations, freelancers, and even individuals. The upshot of the concept behind this term is that we are beyond time for change. Future success requires that your industry is altered in such a way that it radically transforms the way we do business and the degree to which this transformation disrupts ‘business as usual’, the more successful the change. Think Kenya’s M-PESA as the latest offering that reflects the ‘uberizing’ of services.

Ellen is away experiencing healthy pleasure as an antidote to density intensity. Dr. O’Sullivan can be reached at 941-544-1457 or Ellenosull@gmail.com as 2015 comes to a close.`

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