Trends and Cartograms

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about the beginnings of research and my plans for moving forward, and another about the feedback received during the formative presentation, this lead me onto develop the trends I have been looking at and follow the objectives I set also. To make my trend research more visual I decided to display it in the format of a cartogram, which was discussed in some of the seminars. I found this method to be quite challenging, confusing and intimidating at first as I was not sure how to approach it. To combat this I did some further reading about the method within 'The Trend Forecaster's Handbook' by Martin Raymond which helped me to understand the process, and I quickly learned it was simply a task of organising my research into useful categories for a different and visual way of displaying the information.

Global Consciousness The trend I decided to go for is 'global consciousness' which is a macro trend which I have ultimately thought about and have come to the conclusion that it is to replace the existing health and wellness trend within my external analysis. This is because I believe it to be much more brand and consumer relevant, as the health and wellness trend didn't quite work or fit right with the product I am working with.

The global consciousness trend is all about the consumer becoming more ethical and considerate of their purchasing habits, with factors such as sustainable materials and working conditions influencing spending.

The three main drivers behind the trend are:

• The power of the internet - information is readily available, easily accessible and spreads fast, and so the consumer can make more informed purchasing decisions.

• A desire for well-being - The act of purchasing ethically results in a positive feeling of doing good, and so this drives their motivation (connected to health and wellness trend)

• A need for honesty/authenticity - It's not enough to say the product is sustainable, consumers expect to know where the product has come from.

These drivers have had impact on state of the global market as brands are now putting emphasis on showing the consumer they are honest and trying to become sustainable. For example, brands like Toms have been doing this for years but recently big brands such as McDonalds have released campaigns which try to show there is nothing hidden in their food with a more relaxed and 'local' sounding tone of voice. This shows that the trend has hit the mainstream and is more ingrained in society than ever before. The trend has also seen rise in the popularisation of alternatives to everyday products, such as 'KeepCup' over disposable coffee cups, bamboo toothbrushes over plastic ones and higher usages of safety razors over disposable and cartridge razors. This shows the impact the trend could have on the brand, as it is clearly affecting the market in which we are trying to enter, which is a positive thing in this case as the product uses materials which are built to last and so the trend means that the consumer might be more receptive to it and be willing to pay a higher premium than a throw away version. When marketing the brand, this trend will be something to consider and used within the selling points as it has the potential to increase its success as well as avoid the negative consequences of not being a sustainable brand, such as boycotting by consumers.

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I believe this method of presenting the trend to be a much more visual and engaging interpretation and so I will most likely move forward with this with the intention to use it within my work. However, I think it will be useful to develop it further with visuals that match the identity of my brand as well as perhaps making it more concise and summed up for a quick and easy understanding. Within my report, I will also do this for the individualisation trend.