Trend Report March 2011 Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Movement
Connect The Dots
Consumer Group
Consumer Group
Live Young, Die Fast
No More
Movement
With Compliments, Signs
A
and AMFI collaboration
Trend Report March 2011 Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Movement
Connect The Dots
Consumer Group
Consumer Group
Live Young, Die Fast
No More
Movement
With Compliments, Signs
A
and AMFI collaboration
Trend Report March 2011 Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Movement
Connect The Dots
Consumer Group
Consumer Group
Live Young, Die Fast
No More
Movement
With Compliments, Signs
A
and AMFI collaboration
Trend Report March 2011 Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Movement
Connect The Dots
Consumer Group
Consumer Group
Live Young, Die Fast
No More
Movement
With Compliments, Signs
A
and AMFI collaboration
Trend Report March 2011 Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Movement
Connect The Dots
Consumer Group
Consumer Group
Live Young, Die Fast
No More
Movement - Victor Hugo
With Compliments, Signs
A
and AMFI collaboration
Trend Report March 2011
- Einstein
Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Movement
Connect The Dots
Consumer Group
Consumer Group
Live Young, Die Fast
No More
Movement
With Compliments, Signs
A
and AMFI collaboration
Introduction Movement
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Connect The Dots “Us human beings are evolved beyond our primate cousins because of our thumbs and our ability to make connections in our surroundings. Understanding things is becoming one of the basic needs besides food, shelter and clothes. We have evolved economically, socially and technology so far that everyone on earth is able to connect the dots themselves. Nothing must stand in our way, no governments and no corporations. This revealing of myths is becoming a popular subject for artists and even governments understand our need for knowledge.�
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The Story
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Connect The Dots
We want to make connections, understand everything, be all-knowing, create our own opinions. Nothing should stand in our way. No government and no corporations.
Mankind is famous for its ability to make connections. The relationship between events, people, emotions, basically everything in our universe. We continuous search our boundaries of what we do not know. We are in seek for new ways to make the unknown known, this is possible because current technology and economic information is available for everyone. The whole world can now do what they like to do: connecting the dots.
Or the phenomenon Wikileaks, even the secrets of our world leaders are no longer save. In art we saw that JR, a French photographer and street artist, showed pictures of Israelis and Palatines on the border between these countries to show everyone the non-existing difference and to reveal the myth of differences. So even sensitive political issues are no longer save. We want to have our own opinion about everything. Artist Chris Meindertsma created a book called PIG 05049. She used a bio-industry animal, a pig, and she showed us that this pig is used in products everywhere around us. This pig was used in surgical tools and even in furniture. This shows that we are interested in the facts of this animal and not only in the information given by others.
Things are no longer magical or mysterious. We have the right to know everything and understand everything. We have found several signs that people already act in order to this trend. For example, our prime minister Rutte gives colleges about his personal life. To understand where he is coming from and perhaps understand his choice of policies. A
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Because of the new media, people all around the world can create an own opinion, even if you live in a country where there is a dictatorship. They can see how things can be different and they can connect with each other and make a difference. There is more interest in things that stop gathering information. For example how the Internet censorship in China works. How governments and media such as Facebook can paralyse. There are even companies like Respect my privacy, established to avoid this.
Connect The Dots
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Small Recap Before corporations thought that complex products, like computers, were to hard to understand for people so they decided how these things should work. Nowadays people are willing and capable, because of internet and other information sources, to understand how these things work. Companies like Linux, understand this and therefore created a software program. With this program you can control the software yourself, if you are willing to. Muji is an example of a brand that is successful for being a brand without a brand. They only deliver what they say they do, pure products so you can give your own value to them. People are slowly discovering that almost everything in life is conceived and invented by others.
What was The information flow was limited. Our source of information was depending on what the governments and corporations decided to share with us. What is We only want ‘raw’ data and information which is not changed or twisted by anyone. We want to know everything and reveal the myths. What will be We will give value and create opinions ourselves and we won’t allow anything or anyone to hold this back from us.
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Connect The Dots
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Future Perspective “In the future we will expect more information about everything around us. We will look beyond the messages given us from brands and governments and make our own truth. We want to control more as well. We won’t allow anyone else to make decisions for us or controlling our computers, our food or our opinions towards politics. Brands and corporations will not try to trick us in believing something. Instead they have to give us trust through information so we can connect the dots ourselves. We will not allow it when something stands in our way and the values of privacy and law will shift. Like in the case of Wikileaks. But also the magic of the myths will be out in the open and therefore we will need something else to replace this feeling of excitement. For example the feeling of participating in creating something or give new meaning to products like a dress with “no” label from Muji. Or creating our own myths like the myth of a bio industrial animal which is processed in everything around us.”
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Introduction Movement
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With Compliments, “We give homeless people a nice Valentine’s day by organising a high tea with lots of sweets and a performance of Willeke Alberti, a girl blogs that she likes to give other people a good feeling every day and we greet older people. Why do we do that? Because we like to be friendly. For each other but also for ourselves because being kind gives you a good feeling about yourself. This trend is all about being friendly to each other and making other people smile.”
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The Story
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With Compliments, People are nicer for each other in little villages than in the city. This is because in the city, we don’t have enough space for ourselves. In a busy bus, you usually don’t stare in the eyes of the one who is pushed against you. To create some space, we close ourselves from the world around us. Because of this, the city sometimes feels cold and hard. This is the reason for people to open up again.
On the street and in art we see this trend in ladies who are knitting to cheer up their neighbourhood. They knit a colourful sweater and put it in the tree and the barrier of the train will not get a cold because of his colourful sweater. The knitters don’t mind if people take their creations since that is a positive reaction for them; the viewer likes the creations. This is what ‘knitgraffiti’ is about; making other people smile for a minute. We also found out that there are several groups in Amsterdam who put stickers on things like garbage cans and lampposts. The stickers are saying ‘do me a kindness’. A
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The government started a campaign that says: Nice people, how do we cope with them? They started a website where you can find tips and tricks about being kind to each other. This campaign shows the need we were having. Not everyone knows how to give compliments, for those ones, there is an app for the iPhones where they can give exact input for the compliment they like to give and the app will create it for them.
This being nice movement also reached the brands. Lays chips and Coca Cola created Twitter accounts that will send you a nice comment every day if you sign up. Heineken came up with an initiative to thank their customers by sending girls into the city to hug the Heineken drinkers. Non-commercial brands also like to receive good news. The GHZ hospital for example, has a ‘compliment page’ on their website so people can thank their doctor. This is a reaction upon the bad news you hear a lot about doctors. We also want to spread some positive words.
With Compliments,
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Small Recap What was We were trying to create some space around us by lock ourselves from others.
What is People are longing for some connection with each other, for warmth. Therefore we try to make each other smile for a moment and giving compliments.
What will be Brands can use this trend by developing new strategies to find out what their consumer really wants. It is about listening and becoming one of them.
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With Compliments,
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Future Perspective ‘’This trend is about listening and caring about people. Brands can apply this by developing their contact with the customers. They can by becoming one of them. Try not to find out what the customer wants by marketing them, but try to find out by becoming a customer yourself. Talk with them on the same level and also tell about yourself. Invite them over for a cup of tea if they like to see more of you, as you would do with friends. Only at this level you can find out what your consumer really wants. And if you know, you can give him that ‘present’ he or she is longing for. Another way of using this trend is to change your attitude against your competitors. Talk and learn from each other. See what they have to tell and talk with them about what to do to reach the target group and how you can help each other instead of working against each other. For example, discuss when to lounge new products, when the sale will be and what the sale will be for your company so the other company can create another one. In the end, 1+1=3.’’
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Introduction Consumer Group
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Live Young, Die Fast ‘‘ World War II ended 66 years ago, which means that also the Baby boom generation is reaching this age. Our society is growing grey rapidly and in the period of 2011-2015 there will even be half a million people more reaching the age of 65+, which is a doubling compared to the last period of five years, stated by the Central Bureau of Statistics. Next to this, we are becoming older due to an increasing technological and medical knowledge. Therefore the elderly are getting a more dominant role in society and will become more difficult to ignore as a target or taste group.’’
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The Story
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Live Young, Die Fast When people reached an age of around 70 it was common that they would complete the last part of their life in a home for the elderly. They would be living in a cheerless and desperate environment, playing cards, talking about the weather and waiting the whole week for Wednesday’s Bingo night. There is a period in our lives when we do not know what to do, what our use is and how we should or can behave. We have found several signs that the elderly are starting to act younger than people expect from them. For example a television program starring elderly people who are making a fool of younger people called Benidorm Bastards shows on a humorous way that the elderly are not all dull and boring. An item in Man Bijt Hond about elderly people who are playing with children at a play court to feel younger and fitter. A
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There is a theatre show called Grey Vibes with 60-plus men and women streetdancing and we have found an article about a music band with elderly people playing and singing music from The Black Eyed Peas to keep connected to modern society. A 62-year-old woman even got pregnant through IVF because she desperately wanted a baby, even at her age. Furthermore, there is a lot to do about euthanasia. We noticed several articles in De Volkskrant, Trouw and NRC
Life Young, Die Fast
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Small Recap What was When people reached an age of around 70 it was common that they would complete the last part of their life, living in a cheerless and desperate environment.
Next about a clinic specialised in euthanasia, a political discussion about the subject and a new alternative for euthanasia through the use of helium gas, which can end a live quickly and painless. Also a documentary which we have seen on HollandDoc, called Eeuwig Leven, illustrates the issue of decaying and brings up the fact that we will keep getting older and older.
What is The elderly are starting to act younger than people expect, and accept, from them.
What will be They want to lead the last 25 to 30 years of their lives the way they want to, instead of what is socially accepted, and want to choose when their lives end.
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Meet The Consumer
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The Greby Boomers Hello, my name is Mendel de Boer, I am 69 years old and live in Amsterdam. When I retired from my job at PWC a few years ago, I did not know what to do with all the time I suddenly had and felt kind of lost. Then I realised that I did not want to end up sitting “behind the geraniums� or in a home for the elderly, like people expect from you when you get old. I decided to make a bucket list with all the things I still wanted to do with my life, from singing in a band and buying a Nintendo Wii, to something extreme like bungee jumping. I do not mind the fact that people look strange at me because of my age, but sometimes I feel misunderstood. Of course I realise that the end of my life is coming closer and I am thinking about it more often. That is why I will have a meeting next week with my doctor because I want to talk about what would happen if I get problems with my health. I see lot of people my age decaying and I want to decide for myself when it is enough. But until that time has come, I will keep enjoying my life and its opportunities.
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Introduction Consumer Group
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No More ‘’We carry too much, it makes our lives difficult and drives us crazy. Therefore we are going to loose as much of the materialistic things we became attached in order to make our lives liveable again. Less distraction means more focus on family and friends, live more sustainable and become a ‘better’ person to regain a certain quality that we felt we lost.’’
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Trend description
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No More We have loads of stuff. From ‘our’ materialistic point of view on life we keep on wanting more and more. An average dutch family owns about 6000 kg of stuff. All this clutter makes life heavy and rather difficult. We have too many choices on the daily basis which tempts to drive us nuts. This overpressure in choice and the stress dragged along seems to be partly causing burnouts and midlife crises. This was beautifully portrayed in the documentary ‘All We Ever Wanted’, youngster who could be, do and buy whatever they wanted but became rather unhappy or frustrated over time. Cause stuff can never seem to fulfill ‘our’ hunger for satisfaction when it comes to happiness.
There now is this whole minimalistic movement popping up. People who got tired of all the weight on their shoulders all the stuff brought along and got rid of everything non-essential to regain control on their lives. So they are able to focus more on family, friends and community to enjoy life more consciously.
The whole movement behind this new kind of consumer has manifested itself on blogs (missminimalist.com/ evbogue.com), fora and tons of e-books across the internet. People discuss ways to loose as much stuff and clutter as possible and in which ways this gave them a better quality of life in return.
Thinking and reducing the amount you use automatically makes you a more sustainable person. The planet itself managed to maintain for millions of years without any waste, yet mankind seemed to be capable of destroying loads in barely 200 years time. The website spullendelen.nl started from the idea that it’s actually ridiculous for a street of 100 homes to have 100 lawn mowers when they could easily do with one. Marketers made us believe for years and years that everything we had was outdated, not fashionable and certainly in ‘need’ of improvement and the new. While other back-to-basic kind of trends often turn their back on technology, this one embraces all technological development. Instead of having an enormous amount of books, just have one tiny e-reader. A
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The same goes for photo albums, movies, magazines, etc, they can all get digitalized. Saving you loads of kilograms and making you a more flexible person. Besides loosing weight in possessions, technology can also help you to find friends with common interest and getting in touch with certain communities. For example there is Foursquare, a smartphone application that uses the city as a playground for meeting others. It has a direct link to Twitter Places so you can check what somebody is like before actually meeting them.
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Small Recap From a corporate point of view, higher quality and more durable products automatically means less sales on the long run. Yet when a company does brake boundaries with this old, money orientated model it will not just gain respect but will also be able to address to this new consumer group. Take Phillips for instance, they developed an new LED light bulb that will last 25 times longer compared to regular light bulbs. Furthermore you can see the growth of the general consciousness in the raising sales on quality products like tailored clothing and organic food. It’s all about understanding the fact that your decisions have consequences somewhere and for someone else.
What was We had too much stuff and choices which made our lives difficult, causing stress and making us passive. Marketers made us believe we were in constant need of the new. What is People start thinking about the ridiculousness of their behaviour as consumers. What will be Less consumption, more re-use, repair and shared ownership. There will be more attention for each other. Family, friend and community will become more important.
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Meet The Consumer
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The Minsumer
Hi, my name is Max. I am a 26 year old guy from Portland, Oregon. About a year ago a good friend told me about his minimalistic lifestyle, it immediately spoke to me. Why on earth would I be working endless hours in order to buy stuff I do not really need. So about three months ago I took the big scary jump and decided to quit my job. I am now mainly living from the savings I have built up earlier but started a freelance illustration company. The goal is to earn just enough to maintain myself. Starting up my own business was hard, but looking back it was totally worth doing. I found time to see and love my family, friends and girlfriend on the regular, work out, read, walk my dog, cook, sleep properly and draw lots of beautiful things. I could not be happier. The whole thing started of with giving away my TV to an elderly home since that was possibly the most passive of my daily activities. After that I started giving away pretty much everything I would not miss. It is totally ridiculous that ‘we’ as a society allow people in China to work under inhumane circumstances so we can buy cheap products. Now I borrow everything I need from friends or if something is essential I get it second hand. Minimising the amount of consumption made my life easier and more pleasant.
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Trend Report March 2011 Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Sign examples
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Connect The Dots
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Trend Report March 2011 Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Sign examples
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Live Young, Die Fast
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Trend Report March 2011 Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Sign examples
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With Compliments,
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Trend Report March 2011 Mitch Martens I Inge Beentjes I Janneke Dekker I Frank van der Sman
Sign examples
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No More
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