Marketing Trends for 2018

Marketing Trends for 2018

Closing in on the end of the year, Chrysalis looks ahead for what are predicted to be marketing trends coming in the next year.

  1. Walter Thompson Intelligence is a company-driven practice to provide brand and business research, data, and analysis. Its trend reports include Gender Bias in Advertising, the New Natural, and Food + Drink (https://www.jwtintelligence.com/trend-reports/), each providing valuable information to clients from all aspects of the marketing world.

Here are just a few of the interesting trends for 2018:

THE FEMALE GAZE: In the current feminist moment, people are paying more attention to women working behind the scenes in film, media and photography and how women's influence ultimately affects these industries.

INTERSECTIONALITY: Lawyer and feminist Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term "intersectionality" in the late 1980s to capture the premise that "when it comes to identity, the overlap of race, gender, sexuality, and class can contribute to a specific type of experience in the world" and create unique overlaps in discrimination or bias.

FEMTECH REVOLUTION: Trailblazing female entrepreneurs are leading a new wave of fem-centric health tech, creating smart products designed around women's physical needs.

BIG TECH BACKLASH: Following the 2017 election, when Facebook and Twitter were used to influence voters, many people are calling for more government regulation of Silicon Valley giants. Is the stage set for a showdown in 2018?

BRANDLESSNESS: A wave of disruptive new companies is offering premium beauty, personal care, and groceries at a fraction of the cost of branded equivalents. These direct-to-consumer white label goods offer quality of the kind found in Whole Foods or Sephora, with none of the bells and whistles (and add-on costs) associated with household labels.

GIRLFRIEND-TO-GIRLFRIEND BANDING: "Be the CEO your parents always wanted you to marry. Losing weight is not your life's purpose. Life's short. Message him first."

CIVIC MARKETING: In the past, brands chose which versions of masculinity or femininity they wished to use Photoshopping and editing them to become "flawless." Now governments are stepping in to force change, as more research comes out about the damaging effects these unrealistic portrayals can have on the collective psyche.

CLEAN FATIGUE: Could the fad for all things "clean" be ending? There certainly seems to be fatigue in some quarters over the obsession with food and beauty with puritanical appeal.

GOURMET BABIES: The latest must-have for high-end tots is food that reflects their millennial parents healthy, adventurous values.

WELLNESS INTERIORS: The latest interior design philosophy is not about how that sofa makes your apartment look, but how it makes you feel.

NEW POLITICAL GENERATION: Having defined politics for decades, baby boomers are making way for the next generation of political leaders: "Xennials" the generation that bridges younger generation X and "older millennials" are changing the traditional path to political activism.

ADULT PLAY: The experience economy is helping to ease the burden of adult life with a range of novel, playful and immersive experiences designed for "big kids." Much of this information is simply informational, but can help us predict what types of messaging and branding work well, and how public expectations may inform them. If nothing more, they are fascinating!