Last May, a couple of days work unexpectedly dropped out so instead I researched and wrote something on Christmas 2016 trends, thinking it might come in handy for my work with agency retail clients. Since Christmas 2016 planning is now a distant memory for agencies (last month I was working on shopper marketing for Father's Day 2017) I thought I'd share … Continue reading Christmas 2016 trendwatching
Trend fans, I can report that this Christmas its all about Penguins. As of this morning, my haul of Christmas cards had penguins outnumbering robins 3 to 1. Pablo the Penguin is apparently going to be the new Percy Pig at M&S: Santa even took his penguin friends with him to open the Harrods Christmas … Continue reading P-p-p-pick up a festive trend
In my last (at least for now) series of observations about the New Normal, we come to consumer values. Yes, I know there’s an online movement to eradicate the term ‘consumer’, but to be honest I’ve yet to hear a better alternative – ‘commonalities among people generally, who aren’t customers, but then again might be … Continue reading the New Normal #3 – shifting values
Like many other Planners I suspect, I’ve been pulling together a lot of insight pieces for work recently looking at the effect of the downturn economy on buying behaviour. Since it’s proper paid-for-by-my-employer stuff drawing on all the groups and depths the research team have been doing with mums recently, I can’t really share it … Continue reading understanding value
So, the economy is in free fall and we’re all doomed. Right? The quallies at work have been doing a lot of focus groups with Credit Crunched Mums recently. Apparently yes, Mums are being careful and trying to be more frugal – but a lot of them are doing so not because they are very … Continue reading we’re all doomed…right?
I came across a great phrase the other day - Time Vampires. Which seems to be commonly defined as distractions or events that take you away from your working day. So hello, Twitter. And hi there to facebook and just about every other social networking site and blogging platform. It’s very tempting when inspiration is … Continue reading Fangs for the distraction
archive image from Life magazine, hosted by google Sam Leith in today’s Guardian has written about her experiences working in an open plan office – in essence, an ethnographic study of territorial anxiety and opportunities to acquire cake and gossip. Sitting in our very open plan, very noisy office, trying to avoid the siren call … Continue reading Open plan vs. open to distractions
I’ve been reading lots of Social Media Predictions for 2009 (including Peter Kim’s excellent piece) and one of the trends that stood out for me was Cleansing. I suppose it’s the digital equivalent of Spring Cleaning and a good ‘new year, new me’, kind of activity. This week I’ve found myself cleaning out my RSS … Continue reading Spring Cleaning in Social Media
In November 07 I blogged that I thought the foodservice sector were really starting to wake up to the importance of provenance. In the grim economic reality of January 2009 I wonder whether retailers, manufacturers and everyone else in the food supply chain are going to be quite so bothered? Of course a lot of … Continue reading Provenance vs. Value
The latest Matterbox arrived this morning (pics of the first one are here). It’s a work-in-progress from the Royal Mail, sending interesting stuff from brands that you might want to hang on to and will eventually work like a stable of magazines mailing to different targeted audiences. This time round I’m loving – roaring fire … Continue reading the latest matterbox
