2013 Planning Horizons

A confluence of trends is forcing vice out of the shadows. The Shades of Grey books, with plotlines tied to kinky sex, are bestsellers. A male stripper movie, Magic Mike, is a big hit. Two states in the US legalized marijuana in the 2012 elections. New kinds of lifestyles and living arrangements, while far from becoming mainstream, are finding greater acceptance and observance. Rudeness, too, has been become routine. Little is off limits anymore.

Read more: Moral Decline and Moral Panic

It won’t be enough anymore for clothes just to be smart-looking; they will have to be plain smart as well. Increasingly, sensors are being woven into fabrics and linked to ambient networks of monitors, databases and apps that will provide active feedback and guidance, even intervention, about everything from exercise to diet to disease to your golf swing.  And germ-free fabrics are becoming commonplace, enveloping people in a sterile cocoon that fights off contagion and contamination.

Read more: Golf’s 2020 vision

As snacking continues to shift to healthier items like fruit and vegetables, expect such healthy snacks to show up in vending machines, together with the dip to go with them. Already, these items are showing up in convenient locations like airport kiosks and corner stores. Vending machines are next. At root, this trend is a manifestation of the long-term remaking of store shelves and retail logistics to carry a wholly new style of food, and the change in access to healthy eating that goes with it.

Read more: FutureProof – the Health issue 

The next horizon for nutrition and well-being is the deep blue yonder, a rich source of food, medicines and even fuel.  The burgeoning interest in wellness is sending people in search of healing and restoration. The sea, long associated culturally with powers of renewal, will offer a wealth of ways of to deliver this. For example, marine algae contain high levels of protein. Its healthy properties mean it has been a dietary staple in many parts of Asia for hundreds of years.

Read more: Reframing Wellbeing

Technology has replaced the car in the imaginations of young people.  Cutting-edge electronics are more likely to deliver the immersive experience of freedom, interaction and maturity that were once the domain of driving your first car. Financial pressures, concerns about carbon footprint and innovative options to lease on demand all mean that attitudes to cars are taking a big fork in the road.

Read more: The Future of Sustainable Transport in Europe

Boomers will not move into retirement as early or as seamlessly as their parents. They will need a job to bridge them over a transition period and to help stretch out their retirement savings. And they’ll want to work as well. The silver lining is the opportunity to do something enriching. As a life stage expectation, a bridge job won’t be just any part-time job but a goal to plan for. This will keep Boomers in the marketplace as consumers longer, and create new needs for brands to fulfill.

Read more: Generations

Stock markets worldwide will be under pressure from slowing population growth, resource scarcity, rising energy prices and declining returns from innovation. The next generation of consumers will have to look elsewhere to put its money to work. More attention will be paid to project-based and venture investment. With the scarcity of jobs, young people are being forced to find ways to make it on their own. This entrepreneurial orientation is well-suited for building a do-it-yourself future.

Read more: Quickening the Pace 

With many Millennials facing significant difficulties affording education, finding work opportunities and start-up money, watch for a revival of indentured servitude in new guises to finance a start in life. In exchange for some work, Millennials will get cash they need to make a go of it. This is the devil’s bargain many Millennials already make with the military.  Look for it to expand, as brands and institutions adopt new lifecycle strategies to accommodate this new situation.

Read more: Unmasking Millennials 

Many Millennials may never get to a mid-life crisis because they may never start out on the road there. They now face a crisis of self—a no-life crisis.  Obstacles beset them, odds are against them—poor employment prospects, demands for more (debt-loaded) education, lower wages and multiple jobs, career competition with aging Boomers. Their existential question will be, “how do I get going?” not the mid-life worry of “where am I going?”

Read more: Millennials in Crisis 

More skill with numbers is essential for an increasingly data-rich, apps-driven economy. High-school home economics will have to keep up with the shift to smart homes run by consoles and to smartphones synced to monitor and optimize every aspect of daily life. Brands must use a new vocabulary to sell to data-savvy consumers equipped with the tools to quickly rumble empty claims based only on gut-feel and emotion.

Read more: Technology 2020 Personal Worlds 

Look at what’s disappearing to see what people will start to care about the most. Three things over the near term:  (i) Frogs—due to the accelerating collapse of amphibian species.  (ii) Undivided attention—as more and more things demand notice, it will replace applause and formality as the ultimate display of appreciation and respect. (iii) Water—due to climate change and booming pressure on aquifers, water efficiency will be a new measure of brand value.

Read more: World in 2020 

As the climate warms, the cool places get cooler.  Witness the Danish crime drama The Killing, remade into a US cable TV series and sparking a craze for the heroine’s hand-knitted Scandinavian sweaters. Swedish writer Henning Mankell’s Wallander novels have been popular on British TV. The Danish political drama Borgen has been picked up by US network NBC. For the past three years, Noma in Copenhagen has been voted the world’s best restaurant. Melting ice caps and vanishing ski resorts will lend colder areas additional catch-it-while-you-can charm.

Read more: Future of the Eurozone 

As times get tougher, Robin Hood activism is picking up, such as the Spanish mayor who raided supermarkets to feed people, Occupy Wall Street buying debt to write it off, or the financial transactions tax under consideration by the EU to fund recovery projects. Bucking the system to help others will find favor, allegiance and emulation. But this isn’t just about the poor; the beleaguered middle-class needs this help too.

Read more: GLOBAL MONITOR Global Enraged

Markers of accomplishment are shifting, from what you have to how you feel. In the face of uncertainty, an emotional boost will mean the most. For many in low-growth developed markets, the only currency of success still within reach is feelings. In better-off emerging markets, a feeling of success will make the material break with tradition more reassuring as well as more meaningful. Status often turns on that which is in shortest supply, and, increasingly, that is feeling successful.

Read more: Happiness – is it your business?