When looking for Marketing inspiration and ideas, as a marketing consultant, I find it’s always good to cast your net as wide as you can. I recently received an email from Trend Watching featuring the African, Latin American and Asian trends for 2016 and some of them really caught my eye. I thought I would share a few of my favourites here.
Asia:
Shock Technique – social problems like littering and smoking are common around the globe and a number of Asian brands have listened to consumers’ concerns and come up with some innovative ways of getting a social message across while also promoting themselves.
Here are a few examples:
- Yaocho: this bar chain located people who had drunk too much and fallen asleep and filmed then, making them into ‘living’ alcohol awareness billboards. The signs read #nomisugi, meaning ‘too drunk’.
- Thai Health Promotion Board: this shocking (and somewhat revolting) non-smoking campaign used tar extracted from smokers’ lungs to create posters. It was a huge success, with participation in smoking cessation programs increasing by 500%.
Heritage Chic – this Asian trend is all about preserving tradition and local culture. Many brands in Asia are combining the conveniences of modern society with concerns that globalisation is eroding traditional values and cultural heritage. They show how modern technologies like virtual reality can actually support a sense of tradition rather than wiping it out.
Here are some examples:
- Eveready: their book of Play brings stories to life by illuminating them on a wall. This book introduces the Malaysian tradition of using light and shadows to tell stories, whilst also bringing families together.
- Public Dance Classes: this free app has exceeded 50,000 downloads and enables anyone to learn the most popular traditional dances, which are performed by groups of older ladies in public places.
- Audi: they celebrated Singapore’s 50th anniversary with ‘A Drive Back In Time’. Passengers wore GPS-activated virtual reality headsets, which transported them back to 1965 whilst they were being chauffeured around various iconic historic sites.
Latin America:
Valuable Exchanges – like the rest of the world, Latin Americans are big on social media, where they can interact with any person or brand at any time. A number of brands have decided to take this interaction to a whole new level with valuable exchanges that are useful, fun and help make the world a better place.
Here are a few examples:
- Scotch Super Glue 3M: to justify the price of their product and increase sales in Guatemala, the brand opened a discount store where they sold broken china items. Each item was sold at the cost of one superglue pack, which was included free with purchase.
- Sao Paulo’s supermarkets: the store offered a discount to customers who brought in their own shopping bags.
Africa:
Femcentricity – while Africa is often portrayed as behind much of the western world when it comes to Female equality, a number of brands have been working to change this with female-centred marketing campaigns.
In 2016 African female empowerment is on the rise with training and skills initiatives implemented, as well as a rush of femcentric products, services and experiences.
Here are some examples:
- Ethiopian Airlines: this airline celebrated women with an all female flight, including all female ground staff. The move was intended to encourage more women to consider careers in aviation.
- PinkTaxi: in Egypt a female only taxi service has been launched. It caters exclusively for female passengers and is run solely by female drivers.
Looking at worldwide marketing trends can be informative and inspiring and it can give us ideas that we can adapt to use in our own marketing campaigns. Next time you are short of marketing ideas, why not see if there is a way you can use femcentricity, valuable exchanges or shock therapy in some way.
The post 4 Worldwide Consumer Trends That We Can Learn From. appeared first on Next Marketing Agency.
