Consumer trends for the New Year

No surprise here, the economy will affecting shopping.

Health and wellness concerns were the overriding theme for 2008. With concerns about the global economy, insecure consumers may push back healthier behavior to grapple with the economy's impact on their family life.

Chicago-based Mintel (www.mintel.com) says there are five ways consumers will adapt and businesses can thrive.

1. Consumers are in control: They are confident and demanding about how they live their lives and spend their money. They will seek out products and services that give them exactly what they want and when they want it, especially as their budgets tighten. Give your customers precisely what they want, let them customize to their hearts content.
   
2. Simplify and purify: Consumers will continue to seek convenience and simplicity, demanding honesty and transparency from the companies they buy from.
   
   Cooking at home and gardening will become increasingly popular and help people stretch their budgets further.
   
   For manufacturers, focus on cleaner ingredient labels, positioning fresh, clean and pure as essential values. Brands should communicate what they stand for and how they make life easier. This will earn consumers' trust and loyalty. Create better products for at home dining, relaxation and entertainment, people will be cocooning more.
   
3. Rebuild trust: Crumbling economic markets, food scares and toy safety problems have fueled an era of consumer doubt and insecurity. Consumers will seek out open relationships wherever they can.They want to know all about the products they buy, from where they were sourced to how they were manufactured. They will cling to the long-standing, nostalgic brands they know and love, looking for products with a real sense of familiarity.
   
   Manufacturers need to back up words with actions, conduct business in a more open, honest way. Reassure consumers they are acting in the consumers' best interest. Long-standing brands could move into new markets to exploit their position of trust.
   
4. Trading down (but a little trading up too): As purse strings will continue to tighten. And your consumers may trade down to cheaper store brands and eat out less. But everyone will crave a little treat now and again.
   
   Middle markets will be squeezed and will have to prove its worth. Position products as more affordable way of experiencing a more expensive brand, form of entertainment or eating out at a restaurant.
   
5. Playfulness, lightening the mood: In tough times, people not only crave life's little luxuries, they also need to enjoy themselves. Mintel expects to see a widening range of products that soothe, energize or simply lift the spirits.