CONVIVIALITY CULTURE

A lecture from Chris Sanderson at the Future Laboratory last year highlighted some key trends, one of which we have taken n board as a main trend that could be used for New Balance to hep with this brief and campaign.
I looked into this further to see if I could flag up anything that would help with our New Balance campaign...

‘As mindful consumption starts to unfold, and technology broadens expectations, far more personalised consumer desires emerge. With such an abundance of choice, consumers will continue to be drawn towards options that demonstrate a true sense of understanding such needs, while also still searching for value.’ (Cultural Shifts A-Z 2011, WGSN)

Drawing from the quote above it was felt that a focus on a trend called Conviviality Culture should be focused on. This trend is about personalisation and could really fit in with out New Balance campaign. Below are some JPEGs from the lecture from Chris Sanderson...

‘LIVE AGE’: The most exciting thing today is being offline and engaging with people and brands in the real world.

In ‘Brand Sense’, Martin Lindstrom says that we’re experiencing emptiness – we lack the physical contact which we are hard-wired to desire.

Consumers are moving ‘beyond consumption’ – they are looking for happiness elsewhere.

VR Urban and their SMS Slingshot which can be used to ‘catapult’ texts onto the walls to reclaim the streets/their culture.

CONNOISSEUR TASTES: Consumers are increasingly interested in becoming experts in once-forgotten rituals, behaviours and products. We want to use our choices and expertise to show who we are and to tell someone about our personality. For example, there are 33,000 combinations of drink at Starbucks (e.g. different shots) – what we have says something about us.

‘We want to mark ourselves out. If we become an expert in something it becomes a facet of our personality and our brand identity.’ (Mark Tungate, trends expert & consultant)

We could use these quotes and trends for our campaign. Perhaps personlisation and making the New Balance trainers something unique to the consumer is a good way to take things?