Trends Framework for Consumer Trends (16 Mega Trends)

It’s that time of year when I like to take the balcony view to figure out where the world is going, at least some of the key trends.

I’ve long been a fan that while you can’t predict the future, you can take the long view and play out multiple future scenarios so you are ready for (most) anything.

But I’m an even bigger fan of the idea that rather than predict the future—create the future.

To do that, it helps to have a solid handle on the trends shaping the world.

To help make sense of the trends, I like to use mind tools and frameworks that help me see things more clearly.

One of my favorite tools for trends is the Trend Framework by Trendwatching.com

Trendwatching.com uses a framework to sort and catalog trends. 

To understand the future of consumerism, they use a framework of 16 Mega-Trends:

1. Status Seekers.  The relentless, often subconscious, yet ever present force that underpins almost all consumer behavior.
2. Betterment.  The universal quest for self-improvement.
3. Human Brands.  Why personality and purpose will mean profit.
4. Better Business.  Why “good” business will be good for business.
5. Youniverse.  Make your consumers the center of their Youniverse.
6. Local Love.  Why “local” is in, and will remain, loved.
7. Ubitech.  The ever-greater pervasiveness of technology.
8. Infolust.  Why consumers voracious appetite for (even more) information will only grow.
9. Playsumers.  Who said business has to be boring?
10. Ephemeral.  Why consumers will embrace the here, the now, and the soon-to-be-gone.
11. Fuzzynomics.  The divisions between producers and consumers, brands, and customers will continue to blur.
12. Pricing Pandemonium.  Pricing more fluid and flexible than ever.
13. Helpful. Be part of the solution, not the problem.
14. Joyning.  The eternal desire for connection, and the many (new) ways it can be satisfied.
15. Post-Demographics.  The age of disrupted demographics.
16. Remapped.  The epic power shifts in the global economy.

I’ve used these 16 Mega-Trends from the Trend Framework as a filter (well, maybe more accurately as idiot-guards and bumper-rails) for guiding how I look at consumer behaviors shaping the market.

In fact, this was one of the most helpful frameworks I used when putting together my Trends for 2016: The Year of the Bold.

As I create my master list of Trends for 2017, I’m finding this simple list of 16 Mega-Trends to be useful once again, to better understand all of the micro-trends that emerge on top of this foundation.

The Trend Framework makes it easier to see the graph of trends and to quickly make sense of why things are shaping the way they are.

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