trendscaping
 
Why Our 2013 Annual Trendscaping Report is Required Reading.
 
1. Trends matter.
Now more than ever, culture is fueling the engine of commerce. Consumer behavior, preferences, and expectations determine our culture. And it’s constantly changing. Keeping up with these cultural changes – or trends – gives you the power to advance your brand. To be in the right place, with the right message, at the right time. To leave the competition eating your dust.
 
2.  We’ve spent our time and money so you don’t have to.
We’ve done all the legwork, scoping out brands, products, and cultural phenomena that are inside and outside your category. Our annual report gives you a concise and stylish account of the latest consumer trends. What’s more, it tells you what they mean for your business. Doing your homework has never been so easy. Or affordable.
 
3.  With insight comes innovation.
It’s not enough to just spot a trend. Great ideas come from understanding what it means and where it’s headed. Think remote retail. Personalized window shopping. Or mini pastries. The more insights you have about your customers’ behavior, interests, and expectations, the easier it is to tailor your business or service to meet their needs.
 
4.  Turn a pitch into a home run.
Whether you’re a manager pitching a new idea to your boss, or a CEO trying to persuade the board, the job of selling never stops. We make it easier by providing additional research, facts, visual aids, and insider knowledge to strengthen your presentation. In other words, the extra muscle you need to knock your next pitch out of the park.
 
5.  It Pays to be Proactive.
The world is changing even as we speak. And that affects business. Exploring big-picture consumer themes and what they mean is crucial to staying one step ahead of your competition – and your customers. Because once you know where people are headed, you can be there to meet them.
 
Get out front and stay there.
Pre-order your 2013 Annual Trendscaping Report here.
 
QR codes plants
QR flowers
 
Plants with QR codes are popping up in garden centers for spring.
 
When we scanned the tag for the MiniFamous™ Compact Orange Calibrachoa (aka Mini Petunia), we were directed to BloomIQ — a generic online tool for gardening — instead of planting or care information for the specific plant we scanned. It was a little bit of a let down considering the potential to educate, sell, and cross-sell products.
 
Unfortunately, the most unsettling part of the marketing flop occurred when we returned to the office to write this post. The name of the plant above, "MiniFamous™ Compact Orange Calibrachoa", is not searchable within BloomIQ database. To find the correct plant info, the user must search "Petunia" or "MiniFamous".
 
Just because you can add a QR code to your promotional materials, does not mean you should.
Bouchon
 
FOOD
 
 
FASHION
 
CULTURE
 
Interesting, meaningful, and relevant stories amidst a labyrinth of information...
 
FOOD
{Photo: griottes.fr}
 
 
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FASHION
 
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CULTURE
  • Emerging trends: "gym-as-nightclub" {NYTimes}
  • Sad Statistics: 82% of Facebook brand pages updated less than five times per month. {Econsultancy}
  • Story of the Titanic is being live-tweeted in build up to its 100-year anniversary. {The Next Web}
 
Mr Selfridge

Selfridges
{Photo: Architecture.com - by Sydney W. Newbery, 1929}
 
Set in London in 1909, can a new series about the American founder of the Selfridge department store lure viewers with retailing hijinks?
 
ITV promises to “make shopping as thrilling as sex” following the success of Downton Abbey.
 
Based upon the book Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead, the ten-part series with the working title Mr Selfridge centers around Harry Gordon Selfridge, the “showman of shopping” who opened the Oxford Street store but was undone by addictions to gambling, mansions, and mistresses.
 
“I read Harry Selfridge’s biography a few years ago, and remember thinking ‘we’ll never be able to do this on TV as it would be far too expensive’,” recalls Kate Lewis, executive producer at ITV Studios. But the series got the go-ahead, joining a recent raft of period dramas exploring British social history, including the BBC’s "Call the Midwife" and "Upstairs Downstairs."
 
Mr Selfridge
Mr. Selfridge with his daughter, Rosalie {photo: News World Digest}
 
Focusing on the spicier side of Edwardian culture, the drama will switch between the private poker games of the wealthy and the daily struggles of working men and women. Part family saga and part workplace drama, Ms Lewis promises “a fresh spin” on the genre. She says the series will be “heavy on the glamour” and “a little bit sexier than Downton."
 
According to the ITV press release, ‘Mile a Minute Harry’ was on a mission to create a theater of retail that was open to everyone – regardless of their social class. At this time, London stores including Fenwicks and Liberty employed “walkers” whose job was to eject customers who were merely browsing.
 
Clearly ITV has a lot riding on the series, which is expected to go into production this year for airing in England in 2013. Until then, we will be reading Ms. Woodhead's novel to gain understanding how this eccentric American transformed the world of London retail into fantastically rich territory.
 
The nostalgia and escapism of the period drama genre has us hooked.
captive venues
 
Airports are looking beyond kitschy souvenirs and lack-luster decor. In the Marseille airport in France, we spotted this creative waiting area adjacent to our British Airways gate.
 
As far back as April 2008, we wrote about the untapped opportunities at captive venues and pointed to examples at Heathrow, Sea-Tac, and Hong Kong. Since that initial post, a variety of businesses have stepped up their game in an attempt to woo a temporarily beached demographic. Just in the last month, San Francisco International Airport unveiled a yoga room for travellers and the Los Angeles Times reported that airports are becoming classy shopping complexes.
 
It's not often that we toot our own horn, but we're firm believers that trend projections are only as good as the concepts they inform. To learn more about how we convert consumer insights into made-to-measure strategies for you and your business, inquire about our custom trend reporting.
 
Agyness Deyn in Here
On the success of innovative film collaborations by NOWNESS to portray the LVMH brands (and cohorts) with a differentiated light, we predict more brands will invest in brand-building video content to elevate the customer experience.
 
Case in point — The Luxury Collection original short film, “Here,” directed by Luca Guadagnino.
 
 
The film was produced by Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton and Waris Ahluwalia (the brand’s newest Global Explorer) and reunites Ahluwalia with Guadagnino, the director of their Golden Globe-nominated film, I Am Love, to offers a glimpse into the hidden treasures and iconic properties across the United States.
 
Starring Agyness Deyn, the short explores the beauty of three destinations set to music by Jason Schwartzman and Woody Jackson.
 
The brand's mantra, "Life Is A Collection of Experiences. Let Us Be Your Guide," led the creative direction for the team to explore the unexpected joys of a cross-country journey. With romantic undertones, the ethereal, dreamlike sequence feels part Alfred Hitchcock tribute as the character uncovers clues along the adventure.
 
We love the poignant storyline as a tactic for communicating escapism in a modern technologically charged culture.

{source: Betsy, WWD, The Luxury Collection}
Big news, better selection, best thinking.
 
CULTURE
{photo: springwise.com}
 
- A new twist on conscious consumption: A vending machine that allows users to donate and receive items without spending money.
- Pop-up art: A 24-hour museum, designed by Milan-based artist and satirist Francesco Vezzoli with Rem Koolhaas' think tank AMO, which will pop-up for one day (January 24th).
 
 
FASHION
- The world's top 100 most valuable luxury brands includes fashion favorites Hermes, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Ferragamo, Versace, Prada, Fendi, Giorgio Armani and Ermenegildo Zegna.
- US study finds holiday shoppers purchased more but browsed less in stores (part of Smart Commerce trend)
- The truth about eCommerce: 55% of consumers expect free shipping.
 
FOOD
- Mainstreaming canned foods at the Winter Fancy Food show: Healthy cocktail mixers & pickled veggies are top products. (We've been writing about this trend since 2009)
- High-value & Low-waste perception + Jamie Oliver = boost frozen food sales by £250M in UK.
- Fighting low-carbs and gluten-free with design: the rise of the designer bakery.
 
 
For more delicious news, ideas and tidbits, follow us on twitter or facebook.
 
Tangerine Tango
{image: Pantone.com}
 
Can a color shift shoppers moods?
 
Pantone Color Institute has named “Tangerine Tango,” a radiant red-orange, as the top color of 2012 to “provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward.” The shade is very similar to the brilliant orangey-red obsession that we featured back in 2009.
 
Orange signals not only vitality, but also urgency and strength—associations that should resonate in a year where many are hoping to finally start seeing changes. “There’s the element of encouragement with orange,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “It’s building on the ideas of courage and action, that we want to move on to better things.

The color news comes days after a WWD report that Pantone and Sephora are launching a Pantone-branded makeup range for 2012.
 
Coincidence? We don't think so. Tangerine Tango would make a great nail or lip color.
 
 
Valentino may have taken a last bow during his final couture show in February 2008, but the continues to push creative boundaries.
 
Based on the success of the 45th Anniversary exhibition in Rome, an award winning must-see film about his life, and Parisian temporary exhibit — Valentino Garavani and his partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, have announced plans for an one-of-a-kind fashion exhibit that does not require a passport to appreciate: the Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum.
 
The digital exhibit is a desktop application that will be available for download on December 5th and will showcase 50 years of archives through 5,000 images — including illustrations, photographs, runway pieces, and 95 fashion show videos. The exhibit will, according to WWD, use 3D technology to fully render the exhibit as an immersive digital experience.
 
 
“It is an idea that I had many years ago,” Mr. Giammetti told WWD, “after going through a great museum site and being able to navigate through these rooms full of paintings…I asked myself if it would be possible to recreate a vast computer-generated museum. We started designing and nothing really appealed to me. I wanted to have the light of Rome without looking old. I wanted to show not only the dresses but the history behind them, from the drawing to the women who wore them.”
 
I see it as part of my legacy,” Mr. Valentino continued. “I am happy that thousands of students, young designers and fashion people will be able to see and study my work in every aspect of it, and in a manner easy and accessible for the younger generations. But it is also important to remember things of the past, to review the fashion that has shaped our lives. I would call it ‘Future Memory.”  Among the memories included in the vast archives will be the 1961 haute couture dress Elizabeth Taylor wore to the Roman premiere of Spartacus; Jacqueline Kennedy‘s 1968 couture wedding dress for her marriage to Aristotle Onassis; and the 1992 haute couture gown Julia Roberts wore to accept her Oscar in 2001.
 
It's easy to see why Garavani and Giammetti chose to make the experience virtual given the breadth of memories created during Valentino's expansive career. If the exhibit existed in an actual museum, it would need a venue with more than 107,500 square feet.
 
We think the designer wears "retirement" well.
 
{source: WWD}