This is how you prepare your company for the consumer of tomorrow.
During the last decade we have changed as humans. We have become more aware and more conscious. The changes in our mindset will affect how we, as humans (and consumers), shop, eat, travel, work -yes, more or less how we live. So if you want to prepare your company for the future mindset of your consumer -read below.
10 signs of a raised consciousness
If we take a minute and think about how things has changed during the last decade, we will find out that a shift has happened within several areas of our life -and especially when it comes to our perception of consumption, gender, animals and leadership. Social build structures are being dissolved, and new ways of living see the daylight.

To be very accurate, I have identified 10 areas, where we can notice a change in human behaviour and/or the human mindset. This is ofcourse not a current state we can transfer to the whole planet, but we can see it in western society and contries inspired by western living.
Now let´s get to it!
- Plant-based nutrition is increasing
Some years ago it was all about the Atkins diet; Eat as much meat as possible and everything will be fine. Then some began the Paleo diet -eating like they did in stoneage, to make sure the food was “as clean and simple as possible”. But now things are changing rapidly when it comes to nutrition, and especially the plant-based food, which some refer to as vegan. With Netflix documentaries as “Game changers” and “Forks before knives” it become clear that not only do our body have huge benefits of the plant-based diet, it is also much better for the planet.

In 2014 US had 4 million vegans. In 2017 the number was 19.6 million. That is an increase on 600%.
2. The traditional gender perception is evolving (and dissolving)
If we went to Asia 20 years ago, we would see lady-boys, but when we went back home to US, UK or Europe, we wouldn´t see them. This has certanly changed. The feminine man is now a part of the picture, which has a lot to do with fashion. This year Victoria Secret hired transgender model Valentina Sampaio and just some years ago the first transgender models began to walk the big fashion shows. After this, fashion magazines as Vogue and Elle began to shoot stories with girls turning into boys, and boys turning into girls. The style became more dominated by a “unisex look” and this tendency has just grown bigger.



3. Climate awareness
In the beginning of 2010 I was told that a famous brand had difficulties selling their “sustainable line”, and in the second they removed the sustainable hangtags and mixed the sustainable collection with the rest of the collection -is was gone! So at that point, the consumer was not ready to buy the symbolic value of sustainalbe clothing (it was simply not cool enough). This has changed. In the summer 2018 Greta Thunberg entered the world (literally), and this has had a huge effect on the mind of the consumer -and especially the young consumer. In a recent study created by the danish media house Aller, they noticed that 87% of all teenagers was concerned by the environmental situation. The new generation is more aware of climate than we have ever been.

4. The Digital darkside
As we put more and more digital devices into our lives, we also becomes aware of “the digital darkside”. Which effect does digital devices have on kids? How does the increased use of digital devices affect our way of communicating and our way of living? These reflections has resulted in several books on the topic, and a raised awareness of the negative consequences of the digital way of living. If you do a quick Google search on the topic -more than 165.000.000 million results pop up!

5. Feminine leadership
US has never had a female president -and in 2016 it almost happened with Hillary Clinton. After the financial crisis in 2008 many was tired of the masculine leadership and the dominating focus on money, power and ego. Instead more and more people wanted something else. Something softer, more loving and more human -the female leadership was born. In the years to come, many books was published on the topic, such as “Ignite your female leadership”, “What would it take to make a woman president”, “We should all be feminists” and “Girl Boss”.


6. More “acceptable” bodytypes.
Every decade has its bodytype -the iconic shape everyone want to adopt. In the 50´s we had the Marylin Monroe “hourglass” figure and in the 90´s we had the “drug-addict” Kate Moss body. Today we have several opportunies, thanks to women like Beyonce, Meghan Trainor and danish singer Jada.


As a result we now have more fashion brands providing “curvy collections” and we see more and more body activists, who insist on showing the world other bodies than the typical stereotype body.
7. Less consumption
In the mid 90´s fast fashion was born, and many of us experienced a “dream come true”. Now it was suddenly possible to buy everything you wanted without being broke. But fast fashion grew… fast! And the consumer slowly got full. The wardrobe was filled to its limit, but we still had a feeling of “not having anything to wear”. That was when people began to stop and think about what was really going on. And most impotantly, which consequences the overspening had for the planet. Organizations as Copenhagen Fashion Summit was founded in 2009 and evolved into the international “Global Fashion Agenda”. An organization who´s aim is to: “…drive urgent change in the fashion system and to work within planetary boundaries and meet the Global Goals”. Other organizations auch as Concerned Fashion Researchers and Sustainable Research Fashion Agenda was recently founded -clear indicators on the need of a more consciouss consumption.

8. Spiritual awareness.
When your husband, boyfriend or lover is watching his series on HBO or Netflix, you turn to Gaia or Mindvalley. The place to go if you want spiritual enlightenment. And no, the spirirual platforms are not only for women. They are for everyone -also you. The interesting thing is the fact, that we now have these spiritual platforms (there is enough users to create them). The spiritual way of living is growing, and we see that in the amount of people who are doing yoga, kundalini yoga and going on long hikes to connect with themselves and nature. When everything goes fast, humans experience a need of slowing down. This need is only getting bigger -especially when you add the digital stimuli to the equation.

9. Respect for animals
Recently scientists found out that fish has emotions. That they do really feel pain when they get caught on the hook…. We are getting wiser every day and we slowly begin to find out how to treat animals and where they are really happy -in the nature where they belong. We no longer have elephants in circus and in the fashion industry several brands decide not to use fur.

10. Building sustainable houses
When we become more aware about how harmful our way of living can be -more of us begin to build sustainable homes and houses.



How do we prepare for the future -as a company?
Ok, so we understand that things are changing at the moment and that is has something to do with the mental awareness we call consciuosness. But what do we do about it? How do we act (and react)? As a company it is crucial that you constantly go with the flow -or you move infront of the flow. You have to know what is going on in your consumers mind -and most of all -how to stay relevant in your consumers life.
If you go through each topic above, you have to think; how can we integrate these tendencies in our company today? For instantly, the Danish shoe brand Roccamore recently did a commercial with a man wearing high heels. He simply loved heles, and wanted to share this passion with the rest of the world. 10 years ago it might have been a little bit weird to see a man wearing heels, but today it feels cool and empowering.
It is all about connecting with your customers. Showing them that you are a leading brand/company/business. And the only way to really show this, is to tap into the tendencies -and be a part of the future.
Written by: Manou Messmann, Strategic Brandadvisor & expert in consumer behaviour.