Hoe ziet jouw merk de ‘real man’?

De marketeer weer terug in het strategische zadel brengen. Daarvoor is verdieping in de belangrijkste sociaal-culturele trends nodig. Aflevering 3 in een serie van 6 trend-duidende beschouwingen: hoe laten we ons merk aansluiten op de man van tegenwoordig?

 Het debat rondom gender en identiteit is springlevend. De man is namelijk in crisis en zijn masculinity is toxic, aldus de media. Merken die zich richten op mannen mengen zich, al dan niet bewust, in dit debat. Een bekend voorbeeld uit 2017 is de ‘laat jij jouw jongen genoeg jongen zijn’ campagne van SIRE, die voor veel discussie zorgde. Van SIRE is bekend dat ze zich bij hun campagnes onder andere baseren op wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Hoe onderbouwd of genuanceerd ook, blijkbaar zorgt het promoten van een mening over mannelijkheid voor ophef. Maar ook een dikke vette knipoog roept (al dan niet gewenst) veel reacties op. Zo hield de lancering van Kordaat, het biermerk van Lidl, de gemoederen in 2018 flink bezig. Het team van Lidl was slim genoeg om ook de vrouwen versie van de commercial al klaar te hebben staan, als reactie op de te verwachten kritiek. Het is goed om je argumenten zoals bij SIRE of je volgende commercial zoals bij LIDL al paraat te hebben, zodat jouw merk zich in 2020 kan mengen in het debat. Daarbij is het essentieel om als marketeer ook te begrijpen waarom gender zoveel discussie oproept. 

Deze en volgende editie verdiepen we ons in gender trends, en in het specifiek, recente veranderingen in de rol die gender speelt in het leven van klanten. Deze ontwikkeling houden we bij TrendsActive al meer dan een decennium bij. In dit artikel delen we recente bevindingen over mannen en mannelijkheid uit sociaal onderzoek en hoe je als merk kunt aansluiten op veranderende waarden. In de volgende editie gaan we het over de veranderende positie van de vrouw hebben. 

Traditionele Mannelijkheid
De reputatie van mannen heeft de afgelopen jaren een transitie ondergaan. Westerse landen in het specifiek hebben hun rug gekeerd naar de traditionele verwachtingen die een man ooit omvatten. In primitievere tijden werd mannelijkheid ruwweg gekarakteriseerd door drie eigenschappen; protect, provide en procreate. Gedurende het merendeel van de geschiedenis van de man is het essentieel geweest dat hij bescherming bood of het gezin voorzag van de nodige middelen. Deze constructie gaf mannen een doel en vrouwen een afhankelijkheid. Wanneer je doorspoelt naar de moderne samenleving moet je constateren dat deze rollen niet meer vereist zijn voor de man. Mannen hoeven vrouwen niet meer te beschermen en vrouwen zijn tegenwoordig prima in staat om zichzelf te onderhouden. Simpel gezegd, vrouwen hebben mannen niet meer nodig, in ieder geval niet op dezelfde manier als ze dat ooit wel hadden.

Toxic Masculinity
Wie is de man anno nu, wanneer hij niet langer wordt geacht om sabeltandtijgers weg te knuppelen of zijn leven te riskeren voor een maaltijd op tafel? Voordat we daar antwoord op kunnen geven moeten we begrijpen wat de man trending heeft gemaakt. In een recent artikel in de NRC gaven een paar middelbare scholieren aan: “Mannen worden een beetje afgebeeld als kwaadaardige personen die vrouwen onderdrukken, mishandelen en verkrachten.” Mannen en mannelijkheid hebben recent niet de beste, maar wel veel publiciteit genoten. De seksuele roofdieren uitgelicht in de #MeToo schandalen, de denigrerende mansplainer of de patriarchale mannen die de loonkloof en het onderdrukkende systeem in stand houden ten koste van vrouwen, het zijn veelbesproken thema’s. Waar dit vroeger nou eenmaal zo was onder het motto ‘boys will be boys’, kan de man er tegenwoordig flink van langs krijgen in het publieke debat. Er is zelfs een containerbegrip gekomen voor de verzameling aan schadelijk mannelijk gedrag en houdingen van mannen; toxic masculinity. Waar deze woordcombinatie voor sommigen voelt als een extreme belediging zien we ook mensen die het als een oproep zien om de mannelijke identiteit (opnieuw) te ontdekken.

Veel mannen herkennen zich namelijk helemaal niet in deze negatieve weergave van de man, zien zichzelf niet als onderdrukker, sexist of vrouwenhater — maar als vader, echtgenoot, en de uitverkorene wanneer er ergens een spin moet worden verwijderd. Mannen geven aan dat deze kritiek op de traditionele mannelijke trekjes soms moeilijk te onderscheiden is van een gebiedende vinger naar mannen in het algemeen. Op sociaal-cultureel en politiek niveau zien we ook belangrijke veranderingen die de verschuiving in mannelijke identiteit versnellen. Zo gaf een peiling uit Engeland aan dat nog maar 32% van de 18-24 jarigen het nafluiten van vrouwen als ‘enkel een onschuldig complimentje’ beschouwen, tegenover 76% van de 65 plussers. Een ander onderzoek laat zien dat 79% van de mannen vindt dat ze evenveel verantwoordelijk moeten nemen in de opvoeding van kinderen als vrouwen. En papa heeft tegenwoordig niet twee maar vijf dagen bevallingsverlof.

Druk
De wetenschap suggereert dan mannen het volgen van gender normen sterker ervaren dan vrouwen. Een Amerikaans onderzoek uit 2017 (N = 396) heeft dit getest door in een café boven de twee uitgangsdeuren bordjes te hangen; eentje met een vrouwenpoppetje en eentje met een mannenpoppetje. Het idee was om te kijken of mannen en vrouwen door de deur zouden lopen die correspondeert met hun sekse, en of zich hier een verschil in zou voordoen. Onder vrouwen speelde zich haast geen verschil af; in de twee onderzoeken liepen vrouwen respectievelijk 47% en 49% van de keren door de vrouwendeur. Mannen daarentegen bleken veel gevoeliger voor de bordjes; ruwweg 80% mannen koos de deur met het mannenbordje (79% en 82%). Deze resultaten wijzen uit dat mannen meer neiging hebben om zich te schikken naar de normen van hun sekse, of in andere woorden; zich meer schamen om als vrouwelijk te worden gezien. Natuurlijk schetst dit onderzoek een onschuldig voorbeeld met deuren, maar het verklaart wel de ervaren druk en de hevige reacties van mannen wiens identiteit ter discussie wordt gesteld. 

Deze druk uit zich in de praktijk op verschillende manieren. Met name jonge mannen hebben het gevoel zich te moeten conformeren aan een moderne variant van mannelijkheid. Wat een enquete uit Engeland bijvoorbeeld schetst is dat meer dan tweederde van de 18-24 jarigen druk ervaart om hyper-masculine gedrag te vertonen (overdreven stereotype mannelijke gedrag met een nadruk op fysieke kracht, agressie en seksualiteit) en 53% heeft het gevoel dat ze niet om emotionele hulp zouden moeten vragen, zelfs als ze dit nodig hebben. De nadelige gevolgen hiervan schetsen zich in een onderzoek van Promundo en Unilever, uit 2017. Zo scoren mannen die overwegend traditionele mannelijke overtuigingen hebben hoger in meerdere negatieve statistieken: symptomen van depressie, gedachten over zelfmoord, pesten (als dader en slachtoffer) en seksuele aanranding.

Masculinity Crisis! Of opportunity? 
Terwijl traditionele eigenschappen van mannelijkheid langzaam vervagen en nieuwe eigenschappen zich lijken te ontwikkelen, bevinden mannen zich momenteel vooral tussen twee vuren. De man is in crisis. Enerzijds voelen mannen zich genoodzaakt om stoer te zijn en emotioneel vertoon tot een minimum te beperken, maar anderzijds merken mannen dat typische masculine eigenschappen in de maatschappij streng worden afgekeurd en de man als onderdrukker wordt neergezet in de media. Natuurlijk biedt eerlijkheid ons te zeggen dat de aanstichters van #MeToo overweldigend van mannelijke aard zijn en er nog genoeg seksisme bestaat in de maatschappij. Je zult weinig groepjes vrouwelijke bouwvakkers vinden die nietsvermoedende mannen nafluiten op straat. Maar nee, niet alle mannen zijn toxic. Of in crisis. Toch is de ervaren druk op mannen enigszins van een paradoxale aard; mannen mogen geen vrouwen meer nafluiten maar ook niet huilen aan het eind van Titanic. Elke crisis biedt kansen en bedreigingen voor marketing, zo ook de masculinity crisis.

Merken nemen positie
Merken als Gilette en Axe nemen al duidelijk een nieuwe positie in ten opzichte van de veranderende man. In de 2019 ‘the best men can be’ campagne van Axe wordt pesterij, seksisme en seksueel wangedrag van mannen aangekaart en worden mannen verzocht om elkaar hierop aan te spreken. Merken als Axe die ooit gekarakteriseerd werden door reclames met schaarsgeklede vrouwen en dan vooral hoe je deze als man kon veroveren (spoiler: deodorant opspuiten), hebben een 180 graden draai gemaakt met hun boodschap in reclames. Nieuwere campagnes dragen de boodschap ‘find your magic’, om diversiteit te omarmen en de ‘is it ok for guys…’ campagne die taboes voor mannen tracht te doorbreken rond onderwerpen als zelfvertrouwen, seksualiteit en mentale gezondheid. Deze breuk met de traditionele ‘macho advertising’ is gekozen volgens Axe om het verouderde beeld van mannelijkheid af te schudden. Ook pampers spreekt zich uit door 3.000 baby verschoontafels op mannentoiletten te installeren, want waarom staan die dingen altijd alleen in het vrouwentoilet? Buiten P&G en Unilever om zien we tal van merken positie kiezen en een nieuwerwetse(re) man neerzetten. Kijk alleen al naar hoe banken en verzekeraars mannen wegzetten, niet meer als kostwinner, maar als zorgzame (huis)vader, of supermarkten waar papa boodschappen doet of thuis aan het koken is. 

Reclames hebben al heel lang invloed op de manier hoe mannelijkheid en vrouwelijkheid in de maatschappij gezien worden, bedoeld of onbedoeld. Denk aan de ‘macho’ of de meer recente ‘onbenullige vader’ karikaturen, waar incompetente, knullige mannen komisch worden afgezet tegenover de capabele moeder die alles in en rond het huis draaiende houdt als een gedreven officemanager. Aan de andere kant van dezelfde munt bestaat de moegestreden huismoeder die maar niet de juiste manier kan vinden om haar servies of waslading perfect schoon te krijgen, totdat generiek merk X te hulp schiet (optioneel met een animatie waarin de ‘slechte’ moleculen verslagen worden door de reinigende kracht van blauwe CGI vloeistof). De moeder kan haar geluk niet op, de zon schijnt en zelfs de kinderen lachen weer. Juist nu de mannen discussie oplaait wordt het belangrijker om te bepalen hoe jouw merk naar mannen kijkt. Wie is jouw ‘real man’?

Wie is jouw ‘real man’?
Voor sommige merken lijkt de hele gender discussie misschien een te gevoelig onderwerp om mee aan de slag te gaan, wellicht niet geheel onterecht. Tegenwoordig is er immers veel discussie rondom de rollen en stereotypen die in reclames weergegeven worden. Maar als we de klant belangrijk vinden en deze op de beste manier willen benaderen, wordt het dan niet hoog tijd om een mening te vormen over mannelijkheid? Er ligt een kans voor merken om een betekenisvol statement te maken omtrent de rollen die wij als maatschappij willen verbinden aan beide seksen. Bovendien heeft de jeugd van tegenwoordig, in het specifiek generatie Z, nu meer dan ooit behoefte aan merken die hun waarden uitdragen en een standpunt innemen in belangrijke maatschappelijke discussies, ook op het gebied van gender. Als merk kun je hier op inspelen en van profiteren door een beter inzicht in de dynamiek tussen mannen en mannelijkheid te verkrijgen. Dit artikel gaf merken inzichten om het thema strategisch te benaderen en na te denken hoe zij de sociale blauwdruk van de moderne man voor zich zien. Wil je aan de slag dan zijn dit de drie vragen die gaan helpen om je strategie te bepalen:

Breek je met traditionele stereotypes en promoot je jouw nieuwe versie van de ‘real man’?
Verlangt jouw doelgroep dat je vasthoudt aan de oer-man en kun je juist waarden promoten die traditioneel aan mannen werden toegeschreven?
Wacht je rustig af tot de crisis voorbij is?
In het ergste geval geval vermijd je als bedrijf een controversiële blunder, in het beste geval spreek je een demografie aan op een manier zoals maar weinig merken doen. Durf jij het aan?

Geschreven door Douwe Knijff en Aljan De Boer

At TrendsActive we are blessed with having multiple clients with whom we have a long relationship. Proximus (a large Belgium telco operator) is one of them. For more than a decade, we are their trend consultancy partner. Over the years people come and go. According to Harvard, the average CMO stays in its job for 4.1 years. Fortunately, some people stay much longer at a company which fosters a strong client-agency-relationship.

One of these people within Proximus is Peter van Hende. A super talented hybrid guy that does not only understands research and trends, but also is a strong creative and a communication and branding strategist (yes, that’s possible for some people). One month ago we had a meeting in Brussels with Peter, the new Chief Brand Strategy about their repositioning and updated brand book.

This is what happened. Peter picked us up from the lobby and we went to his desk. Without mentioning anything, he grabbed a priest robe out of a box and put it on. He said “let’s go to the meeting room” and in full costume we walked through the shiny skyscraper towards the meeting room. Everyone on the floors and in the elevator was staring at us like…WTF? When we arrived in the meeting room, he said. “As Chief of Brand I feel responsible for the evangelisation of our new positioning and brand strategy” and he started his presentation full of religious symbols while treating the new brand book as a bible. 

Working in the field of branding for many years this was something extraordinary, differentiating and extremely effective. Storytelling is key when delivering a message, not just externally, but also internally. At TrendsActive we believe a brand grows from within. So for us it’s clear; we need more Peter’s in the world of branding. To have people who are able to find the essence of the content they work with and are able to express it in their own passionate and authentic manner, is a blessing from the sky. Thanks Peter for being your authentic self! Your brand should be so lucky to have you as an evangelist!

The world is in chaos right now. People, governments and organizations are in downright survival mode. Everybody is looking at today and tomorrow. A future beyond that seems too uncertain to explore. Governments act on a short, day-to-day basis, trying to handle the public health crisis and mitigate any catastrophic financial crisis by creating massive support packages for businesses. Meanwhile, we see the general public doing they’re best to defeat ‘the Corona beast’ by adapting to the measures that have been put in place. Not everyone participates in this fight. In short, there is a disruptive force at work and everyone is responding in its own way. 

Amongst this storm of news, sickness, fear and death we also see the gurus and advisors standing up. Experts who know exactly how to respond: never waste a good crisis”. Claiming that you can come out of this stronger. You only have to follow-up on their tackling-corona-in-10-easy-steps advice or invest heavily in marketing and sales right now. Beacons of certainty in uncertain times…

The TrendsActive approach
We’d like to offer a smart and critical take on the crisis and provide you with thoughtful solutions and strategies on how to respond. But first, we need to understand the problem.  Is it Corona? Or is it globalization? Or is it the system we created together? Can we solve that? Or do we need to learn how to live with it? What is going on here? Only when we understand the context in which change occurs, we can find the right guidance. And that is exactly what we do at TrendsActive.

Providing guidance from a human perspective 
At TrendsActive we believe every problem should be solved from the perspective of the human context. We’ve been researching and analyzing sociocultural trends for over a decade. These trends are in the human sciences like sociology, psychology, anthropology, etc. and describe the changing needs and behaviors of people. Over the last 15 years we have turned these trends into actionable strategies to ensure future relevance for our clients. Everything is brought together in our TrendsActive Trendmodel. And now, we will use this model to provide our clients with true – human centric – guidance for the development of strategical and hands-on solutions. 

The way we work is structured and methodological. We always start with a TrendAudit to identify the most important sociocultural trends. And that’s exactly what we are doing right now. Using the TrendAudit to get a the right insights; deep understanding – from a human perspective – of the events that are taking place right now. Because actually it’s not about Corona, it’s about a disruptive event. An event that’s influencing people in many ways, creating uncertainty, worries and social isolation. 

The insights from our model provides answers. How will how people react in times like this? What human needs of different generations will likely be amplified? And what current behavorial and societal trends will manifest itself more clearly during times like these. We believe that answering these questions will give the right guidance. Because in the end the effect of disruptive events on people decide in which direction we all go, how people consume, how people change their mindsets etc.

Therefore we haven’t written any “How to survive Corona” articles yet. It’s impossible without a true understanding of the problem. Giving solutions today is showing a lack of understanding of the whole situation. Organizations or people who claim they know what you should do, don’t show leadership. They merely reflect the same sort of panic reaction as the people who are buying piles of toilet paper right now. 

For the next weeks we as TrendsActive will provide you with different human perspectives that will shed a light on what is to be expected. Let these perspectives guide your thinking, apply it to your future and (re)create succes with your products, strategies, positioning etc.

On behalf of the whole TrendsActive team, Michiel Zonnevijlle and Kees Elands

We hosten de online talkshow Dutch Marketing Awards
Donderdag 26 maart, van 16.30u tot 17.30u vanuit Capital C. Kijk je mee?

Vanuit Capital C brengen NIMA, PIM en Adformatie een online live talkshow waarin de Dutch Marketing Awards bekend worden gemaakt. Daarnaast geven Host Aljan de Boer (Head of Inspiration Trendsactive en bestuurslid PIM), Marc van Eck (voorzitter College Register Marketeers) en Susanne van Nierop (hoofdredacteur Adformatie) verdieping en achtergrondverhalen rondom de genomineerden en winnaars. Door de uitbraak van het Coronavirus kon de geplande uitreiking niet doorgaan. De DMA vindt nu plaats in een virtuele studio . Beleef de online marketing talkshow live mee, je bent van harte welkom!

Meld je snel aan https://dutchmarketingawards.nl/livestream/ en laat weten dat je erbij bent https://www.linkedin.com/events/dutchmarketingawards/

After the dust has settled a bit and everybody is getting used to working from home, we gradually pick up the work again. These times still feel uncertain and unreal. Even though the worst is probably yet to come, we can get through this together. People have an inherent need for social connection and in times like this we could use each others support even more (albeit from at least 1.5 meters distance). Check in on other people once every while and stay safe. Greetings from everyone at TrendsActive. More updates will follow.

– DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD –

Our newest trend report ‘The Search for Meaning’ can be downloaded right now. Download this trend report here.

TrendsActive is a trend consultancy based in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
We activate high-end trend insights to enable brands to stay relevant and ready for the future. We work with so-called sociocultural trends. These trends describe the changing behaviour of people. Our trends are rooted in human sciences like sociology, psychology and anthropology. They are a completely different type of trends than the most commonly used product and market trends. These describe WHAT is changing today. Sociocultural trends explain WHY needs and wants of people are changing.

The internship
We continuously update our trend research in order to be able to advice our clients in the best possible way. Therefore we are looking for an intern who helps us to find, process and interpret new research from the human sciences. Besides, we would like you, the intern, to help us find inspiration from the field of marketing and communication. You will end up in a team of experts from different disciplines. For most of the time you’ll be working together with our trend researcher and trend consultant. They’ll introduce you to our way of working and will guide you during the internship.

Who are we looking for?
• You’re a student of an academic social study (e.g., psychology, sociology), or you’re a student at an applied university in the field of marketing, communication or human science. 
• You’re highly interested in innovation, brands and human behaviour. 
• You’re flexible – you are able to work with different colleagues and have no problems with switching between tasks.
• You’re a structured worker and a good communicator. You are able to collect and organise information and inspire and inform your new colleagues by sharing your findings. 
• A student who is available for three or four days a week, for a period of five months.
• Who masters both the Dutch and English language. Mastery of the German language is a plus.

What we offer you
At TrendsActive we offer an intern the following:
• Working in a team of ambitious colleagues who are willing to share their knowledge and experience. 
• A beautiful office at the centre of Utrecht.
• A competitive compensation for your work. 

Interested? Send your motivation letter and resume to hilde@trendsactive.com,
before December 1st. If you have any questions, please e-mail Hilde Roothart.

TrendsActive is een trendadviesbureau gevestigd in Utrecht.
We passen high-end trendinzichten toe om merken in staat te stellen relevant en voorbereid voor de toekomst te blijven. We werken met zogenaamde sociaal-culturele trends. Deze trends beschrijven het veranderende gedrag van mensen. Onze trends zijn geworteld in sociale wetenschappen zoals sociologie, psychologie en antropologie. Dat zijn een heel ander soort trends dan de meestal gebruikte product- en markttrends. Deze beschrijven wat er vandaag verandert. Sociaal-culturele trends verklaren waarom de behoeften en wensen van mensen veranderen.

De stage
We werken ons trendonderzoek voortdurend bij om onze klanten op de best mogelijke manier te kunnen adviseren. Daarom zijn we op zoek naar een stagiair die ons helpt nieuw onderzoek uit de sociale wetenschappen te vinden, verwerken en interpreteren. Daarnaast willen we graag dat jij, de stagiair, ons helpt om inspiratie op het gebied van marketing en communicatie te vinden. Je komt terecht in een team van experts uit verschillende disciplines. Meestal werk je samen met onze trendonderzoeker en trendadviseur. Zij laten je kennismaken met onze manier van werken en begeleiden je tijdens de stage.

Naar wie zijn wij op zoek?
• Je bent een student van een academische sociale studie (bijvoorbeeld psychologie, sociologie), of je bent een student aan een toegepaste universiteit op het gebied van marketing, communicatie of menselijke wetenschappen.
• Je bent zeer geïnteresseerd in innovatie, merken en menselijk gedrag.
• Je bent flexibel – je kunt met verschillende collega’s werken en hebt geen problemen met het schakelen tussen taken.• Je bent een gestructureerde werknemer en een goede communicator. Je kunt informatie verzamelen en organiseren en je nieuwe collega’s inspireren en informeren door je bevindingen te delen.
• Een student die drie of vier dagen per week beschikbaar is voor een periode van vijf maanden.
• Zowel de Nederlandse als de Engelse taal beheerst. Beheersing van de Duitse taal is een pre.

Wat bieden wij je
Bij TrendsActive bieden we een stagiair het volgende:
• Werken in een team van ambitieuze collega’s die bereid zijn hun kennis en ervaring te delen.
• Een prachtig kantoor in het centrum van Utrecht.
• Een marktconforme vergoeding voor je werk.

Geïnteresseerd? Stuur je motivatiebrief en cv naar hilde@trendsactive.com, vóór 1 december. Als u vragen heeft, kunt u een e-mail sturen naar Hilde Roothart.

How to bring the marketer back into the strategic saddle? This requires deepening of the most important socio-cultural trends. The first episode in a series of six trend-defining essays by TrendsActive appeared in marketing magazine Adformatie: three dominant trend types and their relevance for marketers.

Understanding the context
What is the most important trend that we must follow? Over the past ten years, we have asked this question to thousands of marketers during conferences, workshops and on heath days. About 90% of the answers contain a technology or a certain product or market trend. For example AI, robotisation, IoT, craft beer, electric bicycles, subscription-based e-commerce, the sharing economy and so on. If you keep asking why these trends occur now, it will remain silent. This means that there is no understanding of the context in which changes take place.

Changing environment
If you ask the question to a CEO, you will get a completely different answer. Rather, a CEO gives a perspective on the changing environment, a little less tangible, a little more holistic. It shows that the board is looking for other answers and other trends to be able to take the right decisions. And that is precisely the reason why marketers can not be heard in the boardroom, let alone that they may and can take a leading role in directing the future of the organisation. The influence of the marketing function is unfortunately getting smaller (Frambach, 2018). And that of the CFO and CIO seems to be getting bigger. With a series of substantive contributions about trends, we hope to bring marketers back into the strategic saddle and increase their influence.

What are the opportunities?
Today’s winners are organisations that know how to adapt to changes in time. Call it Darwinism, label it as transformation or articulate it as disruptive innovation, what every company needs is an idea of ​​how to deal with the future. But how to know where opportunities lie? That is where trends come in. Trends provide insight into the future. But what are the right trends to follow? Which trends provide a certain degree of predictability? Where can you find the right insights for your future path? In this article we highlight the three most common trends and describe the pros and cons.

Read further? Download the pdf (Dutch only). Read Adformatie on paper or online in the coming months for the next essays in the series. Do you have questions regarding this article? Then contact Kees at TrendsActive.

The essence of marketing was and always will be to identify, understand and serve human needs.  In todays world we call that customer-centricity, because many organizations have seem to have lost touch with their customers. Hence, their challenge is to put customers centric again. But in doing so, marketers now have something that is completely different compared to let’s say the 60’s and 70’s: the means to understand the customer. We’d like to share some thoughts on the prosperous marriage of using Big Data and Thick Data to mine for the right consumer insights.

But first, what is thick data? We describe thick data as qualitative insights derived from the social sciences like anthropology, sociology, history, and psychology. These insights provide a thick description of not just human behavior, or manifestations of peoples would-be intentions, but its context as well. This contextualization or interpretation of insights provides meaning and as such a better understanding of human behavior. This is essential information for any professional who wants to grow brands or engage in meaningful marketing.

And yes, although we agree that any organization needs both Big and Thick data, we would argue that Big Data is useless without Thick Data. Why? First of all because we have experienced it first hand. We helped a company with 4 million customers and 100 (data) analists to become customer-centric and make the most of their Big Data by connecting it to Thick Data. Second, if you look beyond all the blabla around Big Data you’ll understand that having Big Data does not mean your next marketing strategy will automatically show itself on your screen. Join us in our thinking by reading this article.

Big Data – size matters but it’s not everything.
In today’s world, many companies are rushing to consumer research that is reliant on Big Data and analytics.  We can understand their enthusiasm, as indeed, Big Data does enable brands and companies to build knowledge of their customers. However, we would argue that considering only Big Data as the exclusive tool to mine for consumer insights may be a shortsighted approach.

Harvesting data is easy, using it to identify patterns of human behaviour and predicting outcomes is more difficult. Often times data models can only provide a limited picture of the consumers and the markets. People are just very complex beings, and sometimes they are acting on motives they are even unaware of themselves.  That said, while Big Data could offer opportunities and provide astonishingly detailed pictures of people’s behaviours and what they are doing, understanding the why is the more difficult.  Big Data can predict a customer’s next mouse click or purchase, but what it won’t be able to tell is why they made the click or purchase.  Without this insight, brands cannot truly be customer centric.

Thick Data from human sciences give context.
So Big Data can provide a lot of tactical actionability, but for true customer-centric thinking on a strategic level we need not just data and algorithms because even if you have a lot of data, does not mean you have a customer centric strategy. We would argue that to reach its full potential for any company to become customer-centric they need something big data explicitly does not have – context.  And this is exactly where social sciences and humanities come in, and where qualitative and Thick Data could complement the use of Big Data in providing context to understanding consumer behaviour. While there is a notion that the job of the data scientist as the sexiest profession, it would nonetheless appear that the social scientists is one of the most important roles companies could employ in leveraging their data sets

Let’s get married!
To be customer-centric, brands should be developing innovations and big ideas that are true to the brand and founded on insights that resonate and inspire with real human beings.  In search for true consumer-centricity, companies would benefit from both Big and Thick data.  Rather than a choice between prioritising Big data and Thick data, the key to success is to acknowledge that both are important. For brands that want to be data-driven and human centered at the same time, marrying big data and thick data is the way to go.

Trend audit to reveal thick data opportunities.
Most brands sit on a pile of unused research and unlocked opportunities. They have data, facts and figures that lack actionability. To reveal their opportunities (and identify the threats) we provide trend audits. During an audit our researchers and consultants use our trendmodel to decide which sociocultural trends are relevant – today and tomorrow for a brand’s challenges. We analyze the brand and other data and information provided such as commercial goals, brand strategies, consumer segmentation, etc and connect it to our trends. Revealing insights in human behavior that are either a great opportunity or a threat for you brand, today and in the near future.

Our clients use the results of the audits as a frame for brand related innovation. Followed up with future impact studies or ideation workshops, the audit is a powerful service to prepare your brand for the future and capitalize on your brand’s existing knowledge and big data investments.
Want to know more about our trend audits? Feel free to contact Michiel.

A Gen Z strategy for the future.
Whether you have a Gen Z strategy today or tomorrow, you’re going to need one in the future. That’s why we were sharing our Generation Z insights to the suppliers of AS Watson, known from its Kruidvat, Trekpleister, Ici Paris XL brands. Last week, around 500 people from leading FMCG brands were attending the session. The influence of Generation Z on the retail landscape has been researched quite a bit. And although many research papers cover interesting insights, what is lacking is the context. Sure, Generation Z are mobile natives. Yes they have a different outlook on health and beauty. But what drives them in their decision making? And how is that different compared to Millennials? To understand what drives peoples behavior you’ll need context. Providing insights from pedagogy (stealth fighter parenting), sociology (formative years) and anthropology (adonis complex of fitboys) allows us to go beyond ‘knowing’ that something is shifting. Truly ‘understanding’ the context helps brands to better decide their next move.

Want to know more about Generation-Z? Keep an eye on our socials to discover new insights. Next week we will be presenting our trend insights in Cannes to +50 CEO’s from the international insurance industry. The week beyond we will inspire in +300 of the biggest global retailers with insights in kids and teens. Stay connected!

A couple of months ago Instagram began a test in Canada that hides the total number of likes on photos and videos. So likes won’t be visible on the main feed and profiles, only the owner of the account will be able to see the likes. Last week the company announced that the test will be expanded to more countries.

The reason for this move, according to Instagram, is because “We want followers to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get”.
And there’s a good reason for that. Research shows that Instagram is the worst social media network for mental health and wellbeing. The platform was associated with high levels of anxiety, depression, bullying and FOMO, according to the #StatusOfMind survey (the survey from the UK contains input from 1.497 people, ages 14 to 24).

Taking responsibility
Although the test is still a small step and some say it is not a cure-all solution, it is showing that Instagram looked itself in the eyes and took some responsibility for the system they themselves have created.
This reminds us of another case we recently saw; the Fly Responsibly campaign from dutch airline KLM. The company is using the campaign to ask travellers whether it is really necessary to take a flight, or if you could go by train for example. A bold move, since flying is KLM’s core business.

Both the Instagram and KLM example show that these companies acknowledge their role in societal issues and make a move to reduce the negative consequences of their core activities. That links well with insight we know from the Edelman Trust Barometer report 2019 (a study we use for our Lack of trust trend), that shows that consumers believe that companies can improve society. So now is definitely the time to take action as a brand since consumers expect you to do so.

A purpose close to your brand
We used these two examples to illustrate that your purposeful actions should be close to your brand. So if your core business is flying, you should first of all try to improve something within that industry – before you turn to another great cause that is less related to your organization and your core business. Start with improving yourself, in order to stay relevant and contribute to the society.

Purpose; a buzzword that hasn’t lost its value, but a term that also comes with a lot of questions and challenges on how you as a brand should be purposeful. Since we studied this topic for many years, we invite you to share your challenges with us and look for a tailor made solution.

Challenges
How do we infuse an innovation mindset and inspire teams to come up with innovative ideas? These are challenges that we often encounter in working with global brands. In this blog post we’d like to highlight our recent work for Discovery Benelux, as part of their mission to create an innovation culture.

Building on the succes of the 2018 and 2017 editions of the Discovery Innovation Month, we did things slightly different this year and co-created a three day pressure cooker together with Discovery’s innovation team. A selected group of innovation-minded employees of Discovery were invited to the program.
This year’s challenge was to capitalize on Tokyo 2020, as Discovery’s Eurosport holds the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games next year. Our trend ‘Quest for Happiness’ provided the teams with the right insights and the right context to innovate from a consumer perspective.

So, what does a three day pressure cooker consists of? Let’s give you an overview:

• Day 1: Inspiration. We presented our ‘Quest for Happiness’ trend (because of the great link between sports and happiness). Besides we invited two guest speakers: a sport marketer and an ex-olympiër/ brand builder from Nike. All three forms of inspiration were used for a short brainstorm session after each presentation.
• Day 2: Ideation. After all the input of the first day we continued brainstorming and made a preliminary selection of ideas. To provide the teams with some extra inspiration that could be used for their ideas we facilitated a trend safari – an active hunt out on the streets for manifestations of the trend Quest for Happiness. We ended the day with a final selection of max. two ideas.
• Day 3: Creation and presentation. We kicked off the last day by listening to the one minute pitches of both teams. We provided them with feedback after which they could finalize their idea and turn them into a kick ass presentation – which was presented to the jury at the end of the day.

Every innovation challenge is unique. And as such, every innovation challenge calls for a different approach. This year’s pressure cooker matched the organization’s ambitions and as a consequence, resulted in very positive feedback from both the management and the participants.

We’d love to hear about your ambitions to explore how we could become your partner in innovation. Send an e-mail to Pauline to start the conversation.

We’re adding the human context at Cannes Lions Festival 2019! RTL BrandDeli asked us to inspire their clients with our generation trends during the festival.

RTL BrandDeli – being a leading media company in the Netherlands – believes that understanding the customer of today and tomorrow is key for a brand to stay relevant. They collaborated with us for several years and we’re proud to partner up with them at the Cannes Lions Festival.

We enable brands to stay relevant based on scientific research into the behaviour of people for almost two decades. By actually understanding what’s driving the consumer and why they behave the way they do, we are able to design relevant strategies and solutions. Big part of our research is derived from (scientific) generation studies. They are globally applicable and provide a great frame for activation, communication, employee engagement, marketing and branding.

About the presentation
We will present this Thursday (June 20) at the CMO program of the Embassy of Dutch Creativity. We will inspire the audience with insights in Babyboomers, X’ers, Millennials and Generation Z and share key strategies on how to benefit from the differences and similarities between these four generations.

Technology is not a differentiator for young generations.
This week we were in Stockholm Sweden to present on an insurance and banking conference. So what did we present about? Building on our experience in working with financial institutions, we shared our concern: technology will not help you stand out of the competition, especially not on the long term. Why? Technology is not a differentiating factor anymore, it becomes pure hygiene. We believe financial institutions should focus less on becoming mobile-first more on human needs.

(more…)

Last week we were invited to Oslo! We gathered just outside the city to present at the Smart Retail Event (organized by Management Events).

We presented parts of our Millennials and Generation Z trend for almost 100 marketers and brand managers from different retailers. To be more specific… we provided insights on how to be meaningful and relevant for these two generations. In answering this question, we also highlighted the differences between them. For example by looking at a useful insight from pedagogy; being raised by parents from different generations results in different behaviors between Generation Z and Millennials.

We had a lovely time in Norway! Stay tuned to see where we will be on stage next time…

We’re taking a small break from the projects we’re working on right now, to take a look back at last year for the third time. A project we must definitely not forget is the Eurapco report (capturing many of our generational insights), which we wrote and designed during the hot summer of 2018.

Eurapco is an alliance of large independent European mutual insurance companies. They’ve joined forces in finding solutions for the new challenges in the ever changing world. And that’s exactly where we came in with our human insights. As a follow up on our Millennials insights report, we created “Togetherness”; an extensive study describing the four generations and advising on how to benefit from working with and for these four distinct generations. We were honoured to be invited to a beautiful castle in Paris, where we presented our final report and gave advice to all the boards of the Eurapco members.

As a follow-up, we had a workshop last week with the communication directors of the insurance companies that are part of Eurapco. We worked with the insights of the report to inspire, validate and find new solutions for their current and future communication challenges!

Curious to the changing needs and behavior of the four generations, that form both your workforce and customer base? Give us a call.

It’s time for throwback 2018 part 2! During the first part of 2018 we worked on this project, which was deployed last quarter of that year. A project we are proud to share: ‘The Nationale Nederlanden Zorg’ proposition.

Nationale Nederlanden is an international, financial service company looking to extend its portfolio with a health insurance offering. The acquisition of DeltaLloyd allowed them to enter this market in 2018 with a jump start. We were asked to redesign the existing health offering into a future-proof, NN-brand fitting proposition for the relaunch in Q4 last year.

We used our trendmodel to come up with the strategic frame for both the proposition and the campaign. By working with our model, we were able to focus on consumer insights that were relevant for both the brand and of course the customer. We are proud to see that together with the ‘Nationale Nederlanden Zorg’ team and creative agencies Vice and JWT, the proposition led to a relevant and powerful campaign.

Would you like to know more about developing a proposition based on a human context? Don’t hesitate to contact us.

The year 2019 is up and running! We just finished the first month of the year, with already a number of inspiring workshops and project meetings. To ensure that we will not forget 2018’s highlights, we would like to take some time to look back at last year and cherish some of the projects we worked on.

Let’s start with Jumbodiset, they develop, manufacture and sell games, puzzles and toys. We were very excited about this project since the whole team grew up with playing games from Jumbodiset.
In December we hosted Jumbodiset’s annual strategic innovation day, enabling them to stay ahead of the game – literally. With our unique approach we were able to help Jumbodiset innovate on brand, products and services during a full day of insights, inspiration and ideation. This resulted in a whole new set of ideas, which could possibly has initiated this years new board game…

Would you like to know more about this case or about translating human insights into innovations? Just give us a call or send an e-mail.

Innovation often happens in innovation labs, or takes place during an inspiring afternoon session. But what if you want to make a whole organisation more innovative? You might want to organise an Innovation Month. We just finished our Innovation month at Discovery Networks and this edition was even better than last year.

Our innovation month offers a month full of inspiration, ideation, creation, and obviously also some frustration. All with the goal to boost their entire organisation, from receptionist to management, and fuel the new thinking. Seven teams teamed up and went into battle for the most innovative, scalable en financially feasible idea.

Together with Discovery we selected one of our favourite and commercially interesting trends: Babyboomers! Did you know that this generation watches 15 hours of television a week? Compared to only 8 hours for Millennials. And that only one employee working at Discovery falls within this generation? Anyway, we figured it would be a great opportunity to work with this consumer group and to generate new ideas, services, communication, apps or content.

We kicked off with a two hour deep dive in the drivers, needs and behaviour of the babyboom generation, inspiring Discovery with cases and examples within and far beyond their industry. Up next were weeks full of guest speakers to stimulate the innovation.These where hand picked by our own trend scouts to make sure they would fit the ambitions of Discovery. Our first guest speaker was World Wildlife Fund. They talked on how important Babyboomers are for their fundings and what services they offer to keep them as loyal customers. The week after that we invited Mare, a research agency from the Netherlands to present their insights on the so-called ‘Quintastics’: people in their fifties. Srprs.me left everyone highly inspired, and the presentation made people laugh. And cry (tears of joy). It clearly moved people in many ways. GRRR agency closed off the sessions with inspiring cases and tips on design thinking.

During the whole month it was up to the teams to create their new concepts and prepare their final pitches for the jury. Last week was D-Day. And we must say: we are very proud of the outcome. And so is our client. Three out of seven concepts will be taken to the next stage. But most importantly, throughout the entire Innovation Month we have truly been igniting and fostering an innovation culture at Discovery Networks that will last.

Earlier this week we were invited to talk at the yearly FoodFest in Tallinn. And since we never say no to food, we immediately headed over to the country of the herring and elk dishes.

The FoodFest is open to all food related industries; from hotels and catering services up to retailers, importers and logistics. This food weekend is all about local and foreign food inspiration, while celebrating this year the nation’s 100th birthday.

The food industry is confronted with an entirely new consumer group: Generation Z. And if you think this generation is Millennial 2.0. Think twice! This generation is not massively on Facebook, is not just tolerant but truly inclusive towards other cultures, sexuality and ethnicities, and, will not be easily bullshitted by naive MarCom.

In order to fully understand this upcoming new consumer group, the FoodFest requested a talk on Generation Z for 60 minutes. However, every speaker knows, how entertaining your story might be, after 30 minutes people are longing for a break and starting to think of their email boxes filling up. So we anticipated to this expected dip and brought along an appropriate special effect to let the audience taste. Namely, Sechuan buttons. These edible flowers are a product from Koppert Cress, a Dutch company that pushes innovative micro-vegetables with astonishing effects on your senses. The experience of these flowers starts with an overal fresh toothpaste-like taste, followed by an electric and tickling feeling on the tongue, and eventually leaves you with an anaesthetic feeling.

The flowers did the trick; the audience was definitely back at it! However, the experience was mainly appreciated by the adventurous types. And this made me wonder: would this type of non conventional flavours be more something for the globalised young Generation Z?

This month we kicked off our collaboration with a major pension fund.

One of the main topics hitting the pension funds these days is lack of trust. Pensionfunds have been a fortress of trust for decades. It was a pretty done deal: you work, your employer pays the funds, the funds invest and pay you a fair amount when you retire. But the world changed, and even a pension is not a certainty anymore. They’ve lost a lot of trust, defending themselves against accusations being ‘money-grabbing’ institutes. Pension funds tend to react by explaining their efficiency, emphasizing the interest rates they make, and other compelling arguments to show their competence. But is showing off your competence the best way to rebuild trust?

Our trendmodel© shows it’s not. Sure it’s a very important factor, but especially in financial industries it’s the least you have to do. It’s what we call the ‘hygiene factor’. But that’s not enough. The key element to regain trust is to build benevolence; the desire to do good to others. One of the drivers to build benevolence is a true purpose that resonates with your brand. If you are able to show you actually care for the world and act on it, you have a great chance on improving your trustworthiness.

But what ‘purpose’ are we talking about? Well, at least a purpose that is not for profit, but for a greater good that benefits society. Showing that you care for people, for a better world, and for your environment. That does not mean we all have to be sustainable or start planting trees in the Amazon. It could easily be ‘just’ supporting a local cause. As long as you stay true to yourself and your brand.

That’s the task for the pension funds the upcoming period. Activating their purpose will help them to develop an actionable strategy. Enabling them to become of true value to their customers.

Are you curious which other drivers we use in our model to gain benevolence, and hence build trust? Just give us a call.

Last week we were invited by Sutterlüty, the Austrian world champion for regional foodstuffs and groceries. As a Vorarlberg regional supermarket, a “Laendlemarkt”, Sutterlüty is traditionally closely linked with the region. Founded in 1952, today they are operating 23 branches, 17 restaurants, an own bakery, a butcher and an own meat processing operation. What we found most inspiring is how they collaborate with more than 3.000 farmers from the region, how they engage and educate their customers in buying and consuming local products and as such contribute to the sustainability efforts of the company to reduce environmental impact. Yes, a very long sentence to describe just a glimpse of why this company inspired us. This is next level conscious entrepreneurship.

Or stakeholder management to use an old but relevant management term. The result? Sutterlüty offers the world’s largest range of regional products, benefiting the local environment, their customers, their suppliers and theirselves. We used our trendmodel to help their leadership teams to decide on their future strategies. It got them thinking. But it got us thinking too: what’s keeping the other retailers to be organized like this?