Consumer trends: What will happen with consumers in 2017

1. TRENDS
JUAN ISAZA - THE INSIGHT POINT | www.juanisaza.com | @juanisaza

2. CLASS OF
2017
What a year we just completed! There was no lack of shocks, heated debates,
frustration, and uncertainty. The “extreme polarity” that we had been predicting was
increasing in voltage, culminating in a year in which almost all of the societies had
divided into two large bands.
We predicted the influence that minorities (gender and race, as well as sexual
identity) would have. And those elements were clearly at the center of all of the
debates, helping to neutralize the part of society determined to maintain traditional
majorities.
Just as we predicted, society opened its mind, and legislation was passed with
regard to new means of employment and other forms of family. New debates related
to the survival of the planet and of society united us but also divided us with regard
to some segments of society.
Once again, like every year, we have to emphasize that January does not mean that
we start new subjects or that new trends come along. Many observations from the
previous report continue in force. In fact, some are at full boil. It is for that reason
that the eight trends for this year, in some cases, are the logical evolution of the
previous ones, while in others, new subjects begin to concern us and will certainly
occupy our attention over the next few years.
Welcome 2017, a year in which, as will be seen in many subjects, optimism will be
put to the test as never before. Let us hope that confrontations, far from involving us
in more wars, will teach us to live together better as a society. Let us hope. Let us
hope. Let us hope.

3. 1. PURE POWER
2. IT IS NOT TRUE
3. BUILDING THE WALL
4. MULTI-BOTS
5. SUBSCRIBE
6. MULTILAYER REALITY
7. EASILY DIFFICULT
8. ETERNAL TEENAGER
THE 8 FROM 2017

4. PURE POWER
After a year of high voltage in which we knew that the world would go through “extreme polarity,” now comes a stage in
which we will see little conciliation and a lot of imposition. 2017 will be a year for aggressiveness and confrontations.
The world is divided between those who will protest and those that will take reprisals against those protests. It has been
some time since the saying “power is to be able to” was seen so strongly.
In 2017, authoritarianism will become the person of the year. “All-powerful” leaders appear in different geographical areas, who, although democratically elected,
will seek to govern by pressuring institutions to do their will. Now that the centennial of the Russian Revolution will be observed, it would seem that the idea of a
leader that will rise against the institutions or political traditions and impose his or her ideas is the inspiration of many contemporary people in government.
But authoritarianism will not be an exclusively political subject. Whoever has the power will exercise it. In the private sector, managers will cease to be politically
correct and will decide in favor of or against those they consider a danger to their interests. An example that very well illustrates this type of business leader who
acts as a political leader is Elon Musk and his decision to publicly announce the cancellation of an order for a Tesla Model X for an investor that had criticized him
for one of his public appearances.
Another subject that will be very common will be populism, from the left as well as from the right, particularly in Europe. Time magazine calls those leaders the
“Europops,” among whom there are some women who will inspire many political and social leaders to take a position of authority and reveal strong, combative,
and challenging feminine figures. Some predict that the presidential election in France will be a replica of what the United States went through in 2016.
Finally, in this power struggle, we must mention the role that the hackers and their decision to govern in their own way will have. Time magazine named hackers
as one of the persons of the year last December due to their capacity to penetrate the Department of Justice and the National Security Agency of the United
States, stealing medical information, photos, and passwords of private citizens and celebrities. We will see more cases of “democratic government,” such as in
the case of Africa Anonymous last June, when it blocked the website of the South African Broadcasting Corporation after users asked it to take reprisals against
the company due to racism and censorship.
FOR THE BRANDS…
Once again, the brands will find themselves obligated to participate in many cases. In a world in which many political or
social causes will be openly debated, the brands will have to declare their position and not only with speeches but with
action. Quotas on the diversity of employees and vendors in companies will continue to be challenged, and the brands
will have to declare what they think. Connections between companies and political leaders or their opponents will be
scrutinized. The brands will have to be ready to say what they think and to lose an important group of users when they
do not tell the truth or prefer to remain silent.
REFERENCES:
http://tinyurl.com/revolution100
http://tinyurl.com/elonmusktesla
http://tinyurl.com/franceelections
http://tinyurl.com/timemaghack
http://tinyurl.com/africaanonimous

5. The word for the year 2016, according to the Oxford dictionary, was “post-truth” while it was “surreal” for
Merriam-Webster. Even objectivity will be subjective in a world in which nothing will be completely true or
completely real. While many leaders will show that truth is made of rubber, people will use ambiguity as their
principal language.
IT IS NOT TRUE
The controversy that has arisen about false news in Facebook and its impact on the presidential election has already produced a reaction from the world’s largest
social network, which has announced that it will control false content and prevent it from being distributed. But even so, it will be very difficult to prevent news that
is slightly false or presented from a subjective perspective from taking space in social media. It is for that reason that we will see people giving more value to
news when it comes from sources with a tradition of credibility and seriousness.
In this controversy about truth and lies, some have cited Bauman and his term “moral blindness” to describe a world that encourages insensitivity to moral
questions. A world where everything is relative, such as global warming, which some continued to affirm does not exist. There are no leaders (or personalities,
business leaders, or partners) that are proven. All of them have accusations against them, and each and every one of them has a shadow of doubt covering them.
A natural reaction will be to seek space for the truth and so that everyone can give their own version. Listening to everyone equally and allowing everyone to
express his or her opinion seems to be the procedure in many areas. The case of Blind, an application that allows employees of companies to anonymously
express their concerns, discuss internal problems, and even vote for any kind of initiative, is worth highlighting. All similar systems that arise in different spheres
dedicated to making signals or complaints will be a relief but also the great risk of versions that are not necessarily true or are half-truths. What is true and what is
false will often be two concepts that are impossible to differentiate.
The post-truth era will cause us to be less literal. For politicians and government leaders, speaking in a more ambiguous way, and people using emojis that
express emotions and sentiments, perhaps with greater precision for the person sending them, but with multiple possibilities for interpreting them. Citizens are
moving away from words as a form of expression. Mintel talks of the “Without Words” trend and affirms that 66% of Americans regularly use emojis in their
communication. Perhaps this is a natural reaction to a world in which imprecision has a lot of advantages.
FOR THE BRANDS
The brands have the opportunity of being validators. The great opportunity is to use tradition and credibility capital in
a world where everything will be doubted. Corporations, even the largest ones or those that have been in the
consumer’s eye for a long time, will have the opportunity of helping people to discern between what is true and what
is false. Supporting the communication media, traditional as well as new generators of content, to find the truths and
test what they say and claim with action will be a great opportunity for sponsorship and sponsored content.
REFERENCES:
http://tinyurl.com/posttruthsurreal
http://tinyurl.com/falsenewsfb
http://tinyurl.com/mblindnessbauman
http://tinyurl.com/blindapplication
http://tinyurl.com/professionalcopycats
http://tinyurl.com/withoutwordsmintel

6. Trump’s emblematic and disputed proposal during his campaign becomes a symbolic inspiration that tells us about
what each citizen will try to do in his or her own life. To fence in, enclose, and assure a person’s own welfare will cause
people to form ghettoes that seek to protect our emotional, personal, and financial space.
BUILDING THE
WALL
The ability to relax or simply disconnect oneself from the world becomes a form of wealth and power, often the denial of an outside reality that we do not want to live.
Closed groups of people with similar interests or characteristics will appear in every part of the planet. GENDR, a paid application in which people with different sexual
identities can have a private space with help, support, and community. Or Noirbnb, the temporary rental platform for apartments and houses, similar to Airbnb but only
for black people as a way of guaranteeing access to properties that are totally free from discrimination.
We will see very common cases, such as food courts with an exclusively vegetarian menu in Sao Paulo, Brazil or The Hope Factory, a program for entrepreneurs that
only disabled people can belong to. Societies and clubs for persons with similar conditions will be helping each other to create their own wall to guarantee their security
and tranquility.
For a long time now, much of the time that we spend online is on platforms with direct messages, more than on public platforms. The best example is WhatsApp,
where people are more and more willing to interact with the brands, spaces that tended to be only for public platforms, such as Twitter. This year, we will see new
applications and programs for following personalized exercise routines that will allow us to have our own routine, enclosed within our own wall, even when we are in a
gym with hundreds of people around us. The Divided States of America, a term coined by Time magazine, speaks of isolation, separation, and rupture, values that will
be inevitably present in the lives of people in 2017.
The obsession to isolate and protect oneself can be taken to an extreme when wanting to even arm oneself as a tool to feel more protected. In the United States,
where the use of firearms by civilians has been debated for many years, we will see expressions as extreme as personal protection meetings in the style of
“Tupperware” for the recommendation and purchase of firearms among friends and family members.
FOR THE BRANDS:
The brands will have the possibility of uniting, connecting, and breaking down the walls between people. With brand
inclusive messages speaking of closeness and reconciliation, the favor of many that will feel strange in a world of
walls can be won. But also with specific solutions for some groups, which may be the origin of opportunities for
products, mobile applications, and commercial spaces for those who definitely must or want to be isolated, making
their own wall.
REFERENCES:
http://tinyurl.com/gendrapplication
http://tinyurl.com/noirbnbwebsite
http://tinyurl.com/veganparksp
http://tinyurl.com/hopefactory
http://tinyurl.com/socialmessagingapps
http://tinyurl.com/personalprotectionparties

7. Robots in all forms, shapes, and sizes are becoming a part of our lives with every device and every interaction.
The growing “cognification” of things will make artificial intelligence, fed by data, more present in our lives. We
will feel invaded, but we will understand it to be a necessary evil. Controversial but essential.
MULTI-BOTS
One bit of news that will cause the most talk will be the opening of the first AmazonGo store in Seattle. It will be a supermarket in which there will be no cash registers,
and customers will simply take the products and, upon leaving the store, their purchases will be automatically charged to their account. We will begin to live in a “Grab
and Go” world, where we can move around freely while technology accompanies us and anticipates our next move. A good example of this is Digit, considered one of
the year’s best applications and very useful for those that have difficulty when it comes to saving money. This application learns a person’s expense and consumption
habits automatically to debit money intended for savings at the most convenient moment.
Perhaps we have already been in a customer service chat of some website in which the person on the other end was a robot and not a human being. And possibly we
have not realized it. This is a perfect example of how robots will be assuming the roles of service personnel more and more.
In a completely natural manner, they will gain a space in our interactions with the brands. As may be expected, this will occur in the middle of constant debate about
the social and labor implications. Likewise, the reliability and security of those systems will be debated in the measure that tests with self-driving cars begin to, either
partially or totally, replace drivers.
The rise of information and data in the hands of the best and more complex devices that will send information and help us to control and measure every area of our
lives will continue. More connected devices will demonstrate “cognification,” a term used by Kevin Kelly to tell us that we will see more and more objects that will
“think,” thanks to the use of artificial intelligence, which will be cheaper and cheaper and totally available in the cloud.
We will see a world fascinated with testing the limits of artificial intelligence to find out how far it can go. It bears highlighting cases, such as Ross, the world’s first
“judge” created with artificial intelligence used to resolve bankruptcy cases. We will talk about the next great artist, which will be a robot, the first movie trailer created
by a machine, or Daddy’s Car, the first song in the world created by artificial intelligence.
FOR THE BRANDS
The facility for accessing forms of artificial intelligence that help to offer better service to customers, particularly by
means of audio responses, are giving rise to the concept of user “audiophonic” experience, as occurs with user
experience that, until now, was very tied to the concept of screens. The brands that begin to be concerned with
assuring good auditory interaction will develop an advantage that will be much appreciated by those users that want
to relate to the brand through the oldest form of human interaction: conversation.
REFERENCES:
http://tinyurl.com/amazongomarket
http://tinyurl.com/digitapplication
http://tinyurl.com/rossrobotlawyer
http://tinyurl.com/nextandywarhol
http://tinyurl.com/daddyscarai
http://tinyurl.com/uxforsound

8. This year, we will see new ideas that will show us the evolution of companies with products that discover the potential
that involves learning to sell services. Hand in hand with a shared economy and a consumer not interested in being an
owner, we will discover that there is the possibility of subscribing everything that we need in our daily lives.
SUBSCRIBE
Until a short time ago, we understood that a subscription to television gave us access to a certain number channels, according to the price of the package, as well as
the possibility of purchasing content exclusively on demand. But one day Netflix arrived and changed the concept of subscription to audiovisual content forever. From
Amazon, we learned that we could subscribe cosmetic and personal hygiene products that we regularly use. We have seen similar businesses arise with wines, pet
foods, “audiobooks,” and cooking ingredients.
Kevin Kelly, in his book “The Inevitable,” talks about all of the companies that have arisen in the last few years that are involved with the sale of services or access to
the services without possessing assets as such. He assures us that there will be new enterprises that will seek to offer, for example, food as a service (FaS), with
frameworks in which there is a subscription instead of a purchase, in which the user regularly receives the necessary number of calories or proteins, and which he or
she subscribes to.
Soylent, the company that proposed replacing one meal a day and offers to send its clients a supply of the necessary bottles each month, could return in more force in
2017, after the reformulation that it made in some of its products. A good example of this is Drip, an application from London that allows a person to prepay all coffees
for a month, which can be redeemed in a wide number of local affiliated stores, by paying a flat rate.
It is not surprising that we are beginning to see services that offer a flat rate for all of our needs. Such as Uber, which made a test in some cities of the United States
with its Uber Plus program: a fixed payment each month with the promise of receiving a package of 20 or 40 trips for a special price. How long will it take before we
can use things though a subscription instead of buying them? Surely not long, in this society where everyone would like to own less and access things only when
needed.
FOR THE BRANDS…
In the past few years, many brands have become obsessed with working in a user experience without friction, almost
always looking exclusively at the interaction of the user with technological platforms. It is time to also look at
business models for the brands that could help to consolidate that world without friction. There is a new
“omnichannel” environment in which customers move in a linear way and continue with the brand, as what happens
with a subscription, and not by isolated and non-continuous transactions.
REFERENCES:
http://tinyurl.com/kellyinevitable
http://tinyurl.com/soylentsubscribe
http://tinyurl.com/dripcoffeeapp
http://tinyurl.com/ubersuscribeservice

9. Augmented reality, as well as virtual reality, seems to have reached maturity in 2016 in having mobilized a large part
of the planet. Adding layers to the reality that we live seems to be the best analogy of what will happen in the lives
of people. Instead of a single identity and a single person, we will seek to add new dimensions to our personal and
professional lives.
MULTILAYER
REALITY
For many analysts, the most valuable thing about the rise of Pokémon Go was having proven that Augmented reality could be converted into a mass
phenomenon and could be in our cell phones and in our daily lives. Put glasses on our world to provide information, guidance, companionship, or, simply,
fun will be more and more present with new applications and services.
Content that, up until now, we received passively will begin to have “layers” of interaction that allow us to have new experiences. Like The Void, a virtual
reality theme park that recently opened in New York and allows participants to experience a film, such as “Ghostbusters,” with the participants being the
ones that save the city from the villain. Virtual reality will help us to be better human beings, such as the experiment “Be Fearless,” launched by Samsung,
in which people overcome their phobias. And also to be better and more efficient employees with the help of holograms that will guide workers in their
tasks or will train them so that they learn while they are carrying out any activity.
But the layers will not only be in virtual reality. In physical spaces, experiences will have new meanings. Airbnb launched Trips in 12 cities throughout the
world, a new product in which locals can offer tours having to do with different subjects or experiences. What is the most interesting is that they are
presented on the Airbnb website with the look of a film promotional poster. Adventures that the tourists can “star in.” More layers, and this time more
controversial, will arise when the surge of the Korean “Mukbangers” in the world – YouTube videos in which people are seen eating endless amounts of
food in front of the camera or frantically buying hundreds of products – expands. It is this way of living other realities that adds layers of entertainment or
freedom to our daily life.
FOR THE BRANDS…
The great opportunity consists in revising the experiences that consumers live and understanding how real and
virtual spaces add value with regard to the brand. Following several cases of brands that have created retail spaces
with functions other than selling products, Minute Maid created a temporary place where people could write letters to
their loved ones for Christmas. Or the case of Ikea, which, in the United Kingdom, has begun to include a new use for
its stores as spaces where customers can cook their own meals. With the support of famous chefs that are
connected virtually, customers can create an incredible dinner that their friends are able to enjoy, in that way giving
the stores a totally new use and one not connected (at least directly) with the sales function.
REFERENCES:
http://tinyurl.com/thevoidpark
http://tinyurl.com/fearlessvirual
http://tinyurl.com/hologramworkplace
http://tinyurl.com/tripsbyairbnb
http://tinyurl.com/mukbangvideos
http://tinyurl.com/ikeadiningclub

10. Throughout this year, we will continue to see many examples of products, applications, and services that make our lives
easier. But also, some things that are easy and nearby will be made unachievable. It seems contradictory, but people will very
well know how to receive those initiatives that add a little mystery and difficulty to what is accessible and a part of daily life.
EASILY
DIFFICULT
In a society in which everything is possible and nothing appears impossible to know or achieve, the taste for what is exclusive or unique returns. Sparks &
Honey talks of “premium friction” and explains that, due to the speed of everything that happens nowadays, having to wait for something generates interest in
people.
At times, scarcity is artificially created to generate value and interest in people. It is possible that this year we will see new examples of places whose marketing
is based on the idea of things that are secret or hidden. Many will remember the years of the “speakeasy” bars during Prohibition in the United States. This term
inspires an interactive theatre production that is very popular in San Francisco. Those places where the use of cell phones is prohibited or connection options
are limited will continue to be more attractive among many people that want to experience difficulty in a world in which disconnecting oneself has become a
luxury.
But at the same time, we will continue seeing how things that, for many years were taboo, become a daily and accepted activity. Subjects, such as pornography,
will take on new perspectives. The popular book by David J. Ley shows that there is an ethic in pornography, and in his book, he invites people to use it usefully
and responsibly. Pornhub, the free pornography portal, came to the New York Fashion Week, sponsoring the Hood by Air parade by designer Shayne Oliver.
What seemed to be hidden and secret completely opens up to the light.
Things that are difficult and that take time and effort, such as education, are placed within the daily reach of the citizen. LSN Global says that education is the
next frontier for the brands. In alliances with universities and by means of new forms of education, the people will demystify what it means to have a university
degree. With ways of studying that are adapted to their time and space, they will continue achieving the academic recognition that previously was only for a few.
In the same regard, the application Curious bears highlighting, which invites a person to discover key information in a simple way, spending only a few minutes
each day in front of a cell phone screen.
FOR THE BRANDS…
The great opportunity will be in discovering those situations in which asking for an effort from consumers has a
reward and adds value with regard to the brand. It bears mentioning the case of Pacto Porrón, a campaign created by
the brewery Quilmes in Argentina to invite consumers to return bottles. In exchange, the brand promised not to raise
prices. If, in fact, there are evident motivators for caring for the planet and everything else, what is attractive is the
“alliance” between the customer and the company for a task that requires effort and commitment.
REFERENCES:
http://tinyurl.com/premiumfriction
http://tinyurl.com/speakeasysf
http://tinyurl.com/ethicalley
http://tinyurl.com/brandeducators
http://tinyurl.com/curiouswebsite
http://tinyurl.com/pactoporron

11. As we have seen in the last few years, demographic factors are less and less determinant in how life is lived, the brands
that are purchased, or the decisions that are made. Life is being assembled according to the interest of each moment.
That is the reason why adolescence, the most malleable period of life, represents how we want to live today. Nothing is
written in stone. We are all a life under construction.
ETERNAL
TEENAGER
J. Walker Smith says that we live in a society obsessed by the fear of “not changing.” That is to say, for the first time in history, what frightens the citizen is not change
but the fact that things remain the same. We are like inpatient teenagers who want the world to be different every day, that the news surprises us with something totally
unexpected, or that the brands cease to be so predictable.
We see that adolescent attitude in sex. Sparks & Honey speak of “polyamory” and predicts that monogamous couples will be more and more confronted by different
spectrums of sexuality and gender. Many of them have to do with applications, such as Tinder, which adds one million new users each week and is already operating in
196 countries. Those identities under construction will also be helped by Bro, a recently relaunched application, which allows men to connect to one another for
friendship or whatever happens.
In different corners of the planet, terms have been created for individuals that do not want to leave the comfort of their parents’ homes. In Australia, they are called
“kidults,” a group that has a social influence because it affects relationships between generations and transforms many of the paradigms about what it means to be a
productive adult. It is not at all surprising that being a “YouTuber” or “Instagramer” has become the most desirable profession for many people.
And in all of this discussion about what it means to be independent and obtain income, we will hear the term “mincome” or Universal Basic Income which many, such as
Singularity University, have been talking about for a long time. What would happen if everyone received a minimum income that would allow them to live? With the
discussion about employees that would find themselves replaced by machines, this question will be permanently on the public agenda. And very close to that, the
discussion on the meaning of happiness. Many societies will stop asking themselves only about economic growth and will ask about the happiness of their people. It is
interesting to note that the United Arab Emirates have recently created a Ministry of Happiness and has converted the happiness ranking that the UN publishes as a
relevant measurement for the government. The adolescent thought of living deeply happy with minimum effort could very soon be the basis of public policies.
FOR THE BRANDS…
According to J. Walker Smith, in this society where the fear of “not changing” is rewarded, the only option that the
brands have is to “go off script.” That is to say, leave the prefabricated structures and move around in an
unpredictable manner. People obsessed by change expect brands capable of surprising them with each movement.
This will require us to understand brand building and the value of consistency in a totally different way.
REFERENCES:
http://tinyurl.com/fearnochange
http://tinyurl.com/broapplication
http://tinyurl.com/kidultsaustralia
http://tinyurl.com/mincomesingularity
http://tinyurl.com/uaehappiness

12. SOURCES
The compilation of trends included here is the result of capture, filtering and evaluation
of many direct and indirect sources. Among them worth mentioning:
www.buzzfeed.com
www.coolhuntermx.com
www.digitaltrends.com
www.economist.com
www.emarketer.com
www.forbes.com
www.forrester.com
www.fortune.com
www.huffingtonpost.com
www.iconoculture.com
www.leonardo1452.com
www.luckie.com
www.npr.org
www.psfk.com
www.sparksandhoney.com
www.springwise.com
www.techspot.com
www.thecoolhunter.net
www.thefuturescompany.com
www.time.com
www.trendcentral.com
www.trendhunter.com
www.trendland.com
www.trendoriginal.com
www.trendwatching.com
www.wired.com

13. Vice-President of Strategic Planning at DDB
Latina, the DDB Worldwide division that
includes Latin America, Spain and the US
Hispanic market.
He lives and works in Miami.
He writes regularly for his blog
www.juanisaza.com
Reports from previous years are available on
www.slideshare.net/juanisaza
This document can be totally or partially
reproduced provided that its source and
authorship are adequately cited.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
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Twitter: @juanisaza
JUAN ISAZA