Trends and Innovation

Trendwatching.com, one of the world’s leading trend firms, has just published their 10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2010 briefing. I skimmed it and I think you can find some inspiration for innovation in this list. The overview:

1. Business As Unsusual
Forget the recession: the societal changes that will dominate 2010 were set in motion way before we temporarily stared into the abyss…

2. Urbany
Urban culture is the culture. Extreme urbanization, in 2010, 2011, 2012 and far beyond will lead to more sophisticated and demanding consumers around the world…

3. Real-time Reviews
Whatever it is you’re selling or launching this year, it will be reviewed ‘en masse’, live, 24/7…

4. (F)luxury
Closely tied to what constitutes status (which is becoming more fragmented), luxury will be whatever consumers want it to be over the next 12 months…

5. Mass Mingling
Online lifestyles are fueling and encouraging ‘real world’ meet-ups like there’s no tomorrow, shattering all cliches and predictions about a desk-bound, virtual, isolated future…

6. Eco-Easy
To really reach some meaningful sustainability goals this year, corporations and governments will have to forcefully make it ‘easy’ for consumers to be more green, by restricting the alternatives…

7. Tracking & Alerting
Tracking and alerting are the new search, and 2010 will see countless new INFOLUST services that will help consumers expand their web of control…

8. Embedded Generosity
This year, generosity as a trend will adapt to the zeitgeist, leading to more pragmatic and collaborative donation services for consumers…

9. Profile Myning
With hundreds of millions of consumers now nurturing some sort of online profile, 2010 is a good year to introduce some services to help them make the most of it (financially), from intention-based models to digital afterlife services…

10. Maturalism
2010 will be even more opinionated, risqué, outspoken, if not ‘raw’ than 2009; you can thank the anything-goes online world for that. Will your brand be as daring?…

Check out the full report and get some inspiration for innovation: 10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2010