Intentional Consumption and the Quest for Control

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key Findings

Opportunity for brands to support consumers navigating a precarious age of anxiety

We are living through an apparent permacrisis of macroeconomic, geopolitical and environmental uncertainty, which is prompting consumers to seek resilience by exercising control of their own consumption through a focus on outcome-orientated, evidence-backed mindful propositions.

Need state orientation is a step change in consumer mindsets

Consumers are focusing more deliberately on the desired outcome of their consumption, disrupting existing ingredient, category and occasion behaviour and preferences. In order to prosper, brands must respond with a holistic approach, aligning purpose, execution and position.

Brands must honour personalised evidence quests without pandering to fads

Prompted by a need for efficacy, scepticism about traditional corporate offerings and a willingness to place trust in more diverse and informal information sources, consumers are interrogating the science behind their consumption more vigorously than ever, but not always fairly or with accuracy.

Growth potential for brands which can facilitate balance between control and release

In the light of financial, health and social concerns, consumers are jettisoning indulgence and abandon in their recreation in favour of the more challenging goal of striking a balance between control and release. Huge opportunities exist for brands that can resolve this apparent tension.

Against a backdrop of creeping chaos, consumers lean into self-regulation

As consumers’ concern about the public health and environmental issues facing societies decouples from their confidence in their own ability to influence them, increasingly their focus is falling on brands that can help them manage the impact of their own consumption.