Insight: Functionality: Backbone of the New Global Brand Standard

Monday, August 5, 2013

The BBC recently relayed two momentous projections from the United Nations about world population trends:

“India looks set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country from 2028 . . . “
“Nigeria’s population is expected to exceed that of the US by the middle of the century, and could start to rival China’s by 2100.”

These dates may seem like a long way off. However, the trends on which they are based are well in motion already today.

Consider your brand’s directional thrust in this dramatic context:

When you think mass market opportunity, does the mass market you’re envisioning belong to today or tomorrow?
The traditional mass markets – such as the United States – may become specialty markets in the future.
The changing profile in the marketplace coincides with an ever accelerating pace of technological change.
With lifestyle changes happening so quickly for so many across the globe, functionality is bound to have increasing prominence in the branding agenda.
Much attention will be paid to updating central consumer values in a world that’s about to grow from 7.2 billion people to 9.6 billion in less than the next forty years. The changes may be profound in fundamental human needs and expectations in domains as basic as personal hygiene, mobility and diet.
Setting the table for this new marketplace will require both agility and a careful regard for how our notion of basics is changing. There’s no time like the present to start thinking about the implications.