We talk a lot about the major megatrends of our time: climate change, aging society, artificial intelligence, hyper connectivity, individualization, digitalization, smart homes, and smart cities. These are societal, scientific, and technological megatrends. But where are the "Human Megatrends," the major development trends of humans - which, to some surprise, still exist? These Human Megatrends are vital for companies if they want to correctly assess the needs and demands of their future customers. In the future, it won't be the high-quality products and services that matter, but whether they address one or more of these "demand megatrends." THE EXAMPLE OF THE HAIRDRESSER A hairdresser traditionally caters to the desire for beauty and harmony but could also meet the demand for convenience through online appointment options - or contribute to the customer's self-affirmation by providing appropriate advice on which hairstyle suits their personality profile. This leads to expanded or new business models. If the hairdresser also points out that all their hair gels are free of pollutants and CO2-compliant, they establish another competitive advantage in the market. Why not try the test yourself with your product, your services - whether in B2B or B2C business. The following 12 megatrend attributes are currently relevant:
1. Convenience
...includes the desire for simplification, ease of use, uncomplicated work processes, comfort, and relief through technology.
2. Community/ Belonging
...includes the desire for togetherness, identity, group membership, social integration, and exchange with like-minded people.
3. Health
...includes the desire for physical, mental, and emotional well-being, the absence of suffering, and feelings of joy, happiness, and contentment.
4. Security
...includes the desire for material security, protection from dangers and an uncertain future, as well as security of property, oneself, and the closer social community (relatives, children).
5. Cost/ Efficiency
...includes the desire for savings, perception of discounts, favorable offers, and personal decisions that optimize processes in the private sector.
6. Self-confirmation
...includes the desire for affirmation, support, recognition, and attention (attention economy) from others.
7. Longing
...includes the desire for goals, positive futures, ideal images, personal expectations for the future, and visionary entropies that seem achievable but are not yet realized.
8. Responsibility
...includes the desire to embed one's behavior in larger contexts beyond the individual.
9. Enjoyment
...includes the desire for hedonism, emotional connection with external things like food, landscapes, friends; relinquishing rational justifications and mental limitations.
10. Status
...includes the desire to belong to innovative lifestyles, diversified identities in different milieus, prominence, and precise determination of one's own person in the social environment.
11. Beauty/ Harmony
...includes the desire for external aesthetics, precision of objects, spaces, colors, and scents, and parallel perfection of all perceptual levels.
12. Inner Balance/ Stability
...includes the desire for a tension-free life, symbiosis of brain, subconscious, and unconscious, perfect cooperation of brain, mind, and soul. The feeling of complete inner balance. Take these 12 Human Megatrends as a radar for your market positioning and discover new and expanded business fields and opportunities to find new target groups for your services and products.
