FROM BLURRING LINES TO2019

Conscious Collisions

In the last few years, we’ve witnessed blurring lines that span consumer lifestyles, channel dynamics, and category trends, setting the stage for innovation. Digital and physical worlds continue to blend through technology such as AR and VR, traditional category definitions are defunct, and demographics are evolving across racial and gender lines. While disruptive brands have been leaning into this blur, in 2019 we’ll see a new movement emerging from the fog: conscious collisions. We define this as a very deliberate, active, and purposeful bringing together of two or more values, categories, segments or channels. We’re excited to help companies piece things together in new ways, to seize the collision, to capitalize on the collateral, and to unlock new value. We believe winning innovations designed for the future will transform competing forces into conscious collisions.

From Omnichannel to Choiceful Channel

From Millennial Obsession to the Post-Generation

From Naughty or Nice to Virtue and Vice

From Transparency to Process-Mania

From Technology as Foe to Human Enabler

From Sensory Overload to Multi-Sensory Wellbeing

From Freelance vs. Full-Time to the Revolutionary Worker

From Profit Before Purpose to Finding Profit in Purpose

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

The collision of channels: allowing companies the ability to be everywhere without actually being everywhere.

In the past few years, the retail pendulum has swung sharply towards mobile/ e-commerce and then back towards physical experiences to triage store assets. The dust has settled, and brick and mortar has survived. Now, in a post-retail apocalypse world, digitally native brands and eCommerce are no longer the enemy of physical retail, but new and exciting partners. Channels used to be constraints that defined the type of consumer benefit retailers could deliver, but now brands are jumping lanes, and meaningful collisions between online brands and offline spaces are breathing new life into both.

Space- and time-sharing of physical assets are fostering new synergies between brands and products. Guesst is a new “pop-share” service that pairs digital brands with retail partners, allowing DTC brands to access the benefits of physical retail with lower risk and retailers to drive greater traffic with cooler, niche brands. Bulletin rents store space on a month-to-month basis, lowering the cost of entry for female-led brands that were previously only sold online. Meanwhile, established names like Amazon are becoming more deliberate with their brick-and-mortar concepts: AmazonGo’s cashless, cashier-less experience is designed to double down on efficiency and convenience, while its 4-Star Stores—which highlight best sellers and the latest trending products—are intended for more interaction and lingering.

FROM OMNICHANNEL TO

Imagine if small stores of the future were like new age mini department stores - not just one company or brand, but rather a collection of many?

How might we apply the codes of mobile to reinvent physical retail, or vice versa?

What if loyalty programs were built to spotlight the most meaningful channels for the company?

01

ChoicefulChannel

FROM MILLENNIAL OBSESSION TO02

The collision of generations: a new breed of consumers that spans age and mindset.

The anti-ageism movement has swelled in recent years, shaking loose the grip Millennials had on disruption. While Millennials age out of the spotlight and companies are turning towards Generation Z for the ideas of tomorrow, we’re most excited about solutions that transcend generational lines and harness the collision of multiple generations, creating new post-generational segments and ways of life. As lifespans lengthen, we’re approaching a crowded world with seven generations in the workforce and deeper cross-pollination of ideas and values. With coexistence comes opportunities to enable cohabiting, collaborating, and community across generational lines.

Cross-generational travel is on the rise, with new experiences designed to foster these connections. Multigenerational living is meeting modular housing in the rise of adaptable homes and IoT that can accommodate 3+ generations under one roof, while new home sharing services like Silvernest are connecting Boomers with room-shares. Online networks are supporting the rise of grandparent childcare, and services like the Goldman Sachs Returnship Program and the Modern Elder Academy are among resources that support the increasingly age-diverse workforces. We’re seeing the transfer of codes across generations with the resurgence of vinyl, simple phones like the Light Phone, and analog living, signaling the emergence of new consumer cross-sections bound by mindset more than age.

2019 COLLISIONS | F212

How might we serve a world where seven generations coexist side by side?

Rather than leaning into the latest trends for our consumer target, how might we swap in best practices from the past? From other generations?

How should we segment our customers if demographics are increasingly irrelevant to understanding behavior?

The Post-Generation

The collision of virtue and vice: wellness that’s centered more on what it includes rather than what it excludes.

For some time we have been watching wellness bleed into new dimensions, from financial preparedness to employer-sponsored fertility planning. The word has become so ubiquitous that it’s begun to completely lose meaning. However, we are observing an interesting reframe of the theme: the introduction of categories and products that were previously diametrically opposed to the notion of wellbeing, such as alcohol and cannabis. This collision positions wellness as a concept further from the definition of holistic health, and closer to the emergent definition of holistic happiness.

Beverage brands rooted in the juice cleanse craze like Blueprint have broadened their offerings and adjusted their marketing to appeal to a wider range of occasions, serving up new items like kombucha and cocktail mixers. The growing popularity of alcohol-free bars like The Drug Store and morning raves like Daybreaker allow consumers to retain the connection and exhilaration of traditional social outings, while the rise of CBD in beverages like Vybes and the growing acceptance of recreational cannabis signal new methods of self-care. This trend opens up opportunities beyond mere pairings like Yoga & Wine; companies across all industries have the opportunity to fulfill any one component of the consumers’ holistic wellness routine, whether alone or as a complement to an opposing product.

FROM NAUGHTY VS. NICE TO

Virtue &

How might brands transform guilty pleasures into virtuous ones, or even monetize their dark side?

How might this new inclusive definition of wellness open us up to new audiences?

How can brands under threat from the shift towards wellness reframe the challenge as an opportunity?

03

Vice

FROM TRANSPARENCY TO04

The collision of process, creation and point of consumption: when process becomes the hero.

In a time of heightened consumer consciousness, transparency around sourcing, supply chains and business practices are now table stakes. Consumer demand for education around process is evolving into active participation in the production process. Crowdsourced branding and product development has been on the rise, but in the burgeoning experience economy, brands are realizing that the creation process itself presents an opportunity to engage consumers later in the product life cycle.

Shoe customization at the new Nike flagship store in NYC hosts onsite tailors and showcases the full sneaker development process in an ‘open kitchen’ format, from dip-dyeing to lasering. Premium fragrance brands like Le Labo and Ex Nihilo are mixing, bottling, and labeling scents individually with customers on-site. Brands like Diageo are taking these participatory principles online with new channels that connect consumers with the product development process. This has been a long-time practice of brands in the start-up space, but now even corporate giants are engaging consumers publicly in early-stage concepting. Case in point: Target’s exclusive Studio Connect app offers the most valued customers access not to the product itself, but to the opportunity to influence the product in the making through testing and feedback.

2019 COLLISIONS | F212

How might we allow consumers to be part of the end-to-end creation of products rather than just the finishing touches?

What if personalization wasn’t in the product but in its production experience?

Imagine if we could scale businesses where every unit is different, and where the consumer determines those differences in real-time?

Process-mania

The collision of Man vs. Machine: technology enhancing our human experience.

Public trust in the tech industry reached a boiling point in 2018 as the social repercussions of the industry’s unregulated growth came to light, coinciding with the looming threat of automation and AI. With growing consumer awareness about the side-effects of excessive technology use, digital consumption has been going through a cleanse. As technology moves into the background and becomes less intrusive but more pervasive, it’s less about digital detoxes and tech diets, and more about technology as a meaningful partner: technology that enhances our human experience.

Tech companies are making new efforts to establish trust-based relationships with their users, with projects like the Doteveryone Responsible Technology Toolkit, codifying new ethical frameworks for developing and deploying technology. Mindfulness tech is booming, helping consumers recharge with phone apps like Headspace and new VR experiments from production company mssngpeces. While Apple and Google are releasing new features to help users control their usage, Amazon’s Alexa has rolled out controls that reward kids for good manners, and across the category, tech platforms are overhauling privacy policies to better protect users. Above all, brands have an opportunity to explore engagement metrics that shift away from clicks, likes and time spent in favor of KPIs that benefit humanity, while benefitting the business.

FROM TECHNOLOGY AS FOE TO

HumanEnabler

How might we reimagine our business models to rely on new forms of consumer engagement?

How can we use technology to facilitate better relationships between humans in the moments where the human-touch matters most?

Imagine if the most impactful brands were somehow the least present?

05

FROM SENSORY OVERLOAD TO06

Collision of the senses: pursuing health through sensory experiences.

Advancements in technology have largely relied on single senses. Screen use in particular has dominated our sight lines, wreaking havoc on eyesight, physically straining our necks and shoulders, and creating a filter between us and the world around us. As voice activation is starting to draw consumers away from screens, innovations are catering to the broader ecosystem of senses. The collision between health therapies and multi-sensorial experience is a particularly exciting example of how multi-sense-rousing can help consumers soothe the effects of an overstimulated world. Brands are telling new stories through the senses and replacing screens with immersive worlds to enhance wellbeing and foster richer connections.

Sound baths and sensory deprivation tanks are joining the ranks of yoga studios as restorative destinations, while event experiences like NYC’s Oddly Satisfying Spa use multisensory stimulation to create relaxing respite from our digital world. Meanwhile, new products are harnessing the benefits of sensory stimulation for personal use. Wearable necklace, Essence, uses biometric sensors to release specific scents based on the user’s mood, and Healing Spaces is a platform that helps caregivers create vivid, sensory scenes for older adults living with dementia or Alzheimer’s. Sensik’s Sensory Reality Pods are cabins that “sensify” VR experiences by synchronizing audio-visual experiences with scent, temperature, taste and light frequencies, helping users relax and recharge in hotels, workplaces, retail and home environments.

2019 COLLISIONS | F212

How can brands discover the value of being quiet in a world that is so loud?

How can we unlock the full range of senses to evoke visceral experiences for consumers?

If sensory stimulation is the new acceptable face of pleasure, how can brands update their propositions to move with the times?

Multi-Sensory Wellbeing

The collision of work forces: a transcendent work philosophy and ecosystem.

Across Europe and the US, freelancers are the fastest growing group in the labor market - now accounting for a third of the total US working population. The rise of the gig economy is not new, but the entrepreneurial and independent ethos that accompany gig work is bleeding into traditional offices, demanding new flexible, fluid models that allow all workers the pursuit of self-actualization. While the gap between full-time and freelance is closing, the infrastructure of our workplaces is still catching up — opening a whole ecosystem of opportunities in service of this new paradigm.

Startups like Stride Health, Trupo and Zego are cropping up to meet this new demand, helping gig workers obtain access to healthcare, benefits and retirement provisions. Product innovations like Mountie Clips that support remote, mobile offices are proliferating, while the rise of restaurant/co-working collectives like NYC’s Spacious and London’s Hubble turn restaurant spaces into makeshift offices for a fee. Meanwhile, forward-thinking employers must accommodate the growing backlash against open office design with more adaptable, multipurpose spaces like privacy pods, and incentives for remote work. Take Dutch design firm Heldergroen, which lifts employees’ desks to the ceiling at 6:00pm everyday to discourage late nights at the office. Meanwhile, companies like Evernote are flipping perks into incentives and offering bonuses for taking five consecutive days off each year.

FROM FULLTIME VS. FREELANCE TO

Revolutionary Worker

The

How might employers reimagine the relationship with their employees as more a fluid exchange?

What new operating and business models does a world with a higher density of flexible labor enable?

How should corporations update their models for innovation in a world with a greater base of entrepreneurs?

07

FROM PROFIT BEFORE PURPOSE TO08

The collision of purpose and commerce: shifting action from governments to brands.

In politically divisive times, consumer trust in government is hitting new lows, and brands are filling the void as the new voices of change. When consumers turn to brands to buy into belief systems, donating to causes or issuing generic PR statements isn’t enough. Purpose is not just a communication tool of marketing departments, but a driver of business inside and out. In 2019, being authentic means that an organization’s values are not add-ons to the core offering, but must actively shape the business model itself.

Integrating purpose into your company DNA does not necessarily require the controversy of Nike’s Kaepnernick campaign; companies across categories have been finding creative and often subtle ways to take a stand. Uber and Lyft offered discounted rides on Election Day with additional features to locate nearby polling stations. Similarly, Airbnb opened temporary housing for Californians displaced by wildfires and REI closed on the last four Black Fridays to drive home its #OptOutside message on consumerism’s busiest day. Highly successful brands like Patagonia, Allbirds and Althleta have all joined the growing ranks of B-Corps. Brands with staying power are harnessing purpose to shift social responsibility from a cost item into a profit driver.

2019 COLLISIONS | F212

How should we revamp our KPIs to incentivize impact?

How might companies restructure from CSR silos to purpose-led organizations?

How can businesses collaborate more meaningfully with competitors, suppliers and customers, to create the change they want to embody?

Finding Profit in Purpose

Knowing where the world is headed is one thing, but creating solutions for that world is another. That’s where we come in. Fahrenheit 212 is an innovation consultancy delivering sustainable, profitable growth for the world’s most ambitious companies.

We’d love to continue the conversation

about conscious collisions.

businessEU@fahrenheit-212.com+44 (0) 20 3567 0820

businessUS@fahrenheit-212.com+1 (646) 654 1212