Womenomics: future brand trend uncovered

Secondo Design Week e il Future Laboratory "Womenomics" è uno dei brand emergenti assieme a: Soft branding, Concierge culture, Food futures, New mass affluents, The slash/slash generation.

The shift towards softer, more emotional and intuitive brands and products will be just one of the trends that designers need to be aware of next season, says trend research group The Future Laboratory. ‘Womenomics’ – or ‘soft branding’ – is just one of five trends that will be explored at Future Laboratory’s forthcoming bi-annual Trend Briefing Day in April.

Chris Sanderson, creative director at Future Laboratory and Viewpoint Magazine, says, ‘We don’t want to suggest that designers should be reinventing the wheel every six months. What we are concerned about showing are the ideas and issues that are relevant to design and designers.’

One suggestion is that designers should prepare to welcome ‘soft branding’ with an awareness of the rise of the feminocracy and indulgence decade. Tom Savigar, strategy and insight director at Future Laboratory, says that this does not mean that branding and packaging should be pink, but it is about making products more intuitive – like the ‘feminine’ Apple Mac, in contrast to the more masculine Dell design.
He adds, ‘The Apple iPod introduced an emotional element to its design which men love.’ The Nintendo Wii is another example of design being used in a female way.