Trends of 2020 | Cecilie Mengel

I was lucky enough to get a couple of tickets to TrendWatching’s conference ‘Trends of 2020’ in New York City, which was hosted on October 1, 2019. TrendWatching is the #1 trend intelligence platform in the world.

The conference first covered what had shaped consumer expectations since 2018, the most influential consumer trends of 2019, and then moved into trends to watch in 2020.

One key takeaway from the conference is the importance of brands and companies looking outside their category and sector in order to thrive and evolve. This is also referred to as trend-driven innovation, which leads me to some of the opportunity-takeaways: cross-sector loyalty, reward sharing, reward engagement, and reward green living.

Starting with cross sector loyalty, NYC-based Hooch is a perfect example. The company is currently running a beta-test with 200,000 users, testing a new “coin” which consumers connect their credit card to. The idea is that users earn 10% of purchases back in TAP, the “coin”, which they can spend at other partner locations. I think this is really interesting example as it shows how the trend of brand coins is evolving in relation to cross-sector loyalty, which already has been seen in the form of e.g. credit cards that are provided by airlines. When customers e.g. get a “Norwegian credit card”, i.e. a Norwegian low-cost airline, they earn point from buying elsewhere to spend on plane tickets and other services that the airline offers. Customer are still somewhat sceptical about cross-sector loyalty programs, or coins for that matter, which also can be seen from the fact that only 5% of U.S. adults showed any level of interest in Facebook’s new coin-initiative Libra. I believe that Hooch’s idea of TAP is a way for the company to help customers unlock tangible value from their loyalty.

Another trend we will be seeing brands and companies use in 2020 is metamorphic design. Basically, what this means is that

consumers will embrace products and services that adapt and evolve to maximize value for the user. 

Examples of the up and coming era includes Boston-based Baze, a brand that offers a selection of daily vitamins which are chosen after the company has analyzed a self-sampled blood test from the customer. Based on the individual nutritional needs, a vitamin kit is tailored perfectly to the customer. After purchase, a subscription service is offered as re-measurement is suggested every quarter. Even though this type of metamorphic design might not apply to all brands, it is worth being aware of as I believe it might change customer expectations overall. In a few years, this type of offering will probably be a minimum requirement with endless optimization as the only solution.

Perfection is impermanent, 

as the thought-leader cleverly said.

Self-expression is another crucial take-away from the conference. While many brands already have made use of technology that enables face recognition in their products and services, there will be applied a lot of innovation into this human need, i.e. self-expression. Snapchat is an obvious example of the trend, or human need, as the social platform offers many different filters which give users the opportunity to change appearance and thereby change the way they express themselves. Face recognition and innovation is not only about Snapchat filters though, it will be used in many more serious ways in the future. An example is the Hong Kong Stroke Association’s safety scan app which was released earlier this year. The app is able to scan a user’s face whenever they unlock their cell phone by using an algorithm, and is meant to provide early detection of stroke. If there is even a tiny face droop detected, a message will pop up to make the user call for emergency help, or the pre-set emergency contact. This is an example of how technology, previously used for customer convenience and self-expression actually may be able to safe lives.

Face-recognition leads me to another extremely useful insight captured from the conference:

In 2020 and beyond, consumers will welcome control over how and when they are recognized and monitored. 

This is a contradicting information to the example mentioned above, but is something that makes sense as many consumers worries about their privacy in relation to facial recognition technology.