Whether it's adults fed up with the dumbed-down teen/tween culture dominating everyday life, or just a serious case of boomer decadence: MATURIALISM is HOT. A vital combination of 'mature' consumers pursuing a seemingly restrained 'best of the best' materialism is driving the trend in ditching mundane goods and services for more professional, premium or sassier versions. From heavy duty power tools to state-of-the-art cameras to grown-up ice-cream flavors.

Yes, there is an overlap with our MASSCLUSIVITY trend, as some of these goods do have high snob appeal, but MATURIALISM, unlike MASSCLUSIVITY, doesn't necessarily bring its owners a degree of privilege. The delights associated with MATURIALISM are enjoyed on a more intimate level: the pleasure of consuming (and sometimes subtly showing off) premium goods and services, with the 'professional-grade' or 'mature' label justifying the purchase of items that might otherwise have been considered 'flashy'.

Want some hands-on examples?

Home Depot's line of Ridgid Power tools, previously only sold to professionals, are now actively being billed to consumers as 'powerful, durable and professional'. The tools are priced at up to USD 600.


From our GENERATION C trend: Canon is touting its new digital cameras with the tagline "Professional Digital Photography, no longer just for the professionals".



Braun's Oral B Professional Care 7000 series power toothbrushes ("Brush like a Dentist!"), starting at USD 79 (source: USA Today).

Siemens new professional EUR 1199 (USD 1499 ) shirt-ironing appliance, dubbed the 'Dressman'. An appliance that elevates domestic ironing to industrial levels. Tagline: "Its results even amaze professional launderers". Siemens hopes to sell hundreds of thousands of them in Europe over the next few months.



How about something a bit more indulgent? Consider:

'What Happens Here, Stays Here', the new nationwide promotional campaign for Las Vegas, returning this adult playground to its mature roots, which certainly hasn't fallen upon deaf ears down at Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas' new 18-years-and-up 'Zumanity' show. No tweens in sight there!

Haagen Dazs recently introduced its Desserts Extraordinaire, which include, amongst others, adult flavors like Bananas Foster (banana ice cream with brown sugar and rum swirls) and Tres Leches Three Milks Cake (made with cream, condensed milk, and skim milk mixed with rum-flavored sponge cake).



The MATURIALISM list goes on and on, from North Face's professional camping gear and apparel, to Viking Range's professional kitchen appliances ("the ultimate blend of professional performance and residential convenience").

Sure, the popularity of professional-grade goods and grown-up indulgencies has been on the rise for a while, but TRENDWATCHING.COM believes companies should prepare for an ever bigger surge over the coming years:

A. 'Experienced' consumers (read: wealthy boomers) in North America, the European Union and Australasia are nearing retirement, leaving them with plenty of time, space and money to spend on the finer, mature things in life. From gourmet cooking to high-end DIY!

B. With the majority of most mundane products soon to come from China and other hyper-efficient, low-cost, economies-of-scale-obsessed 'workplaces of the world', manufacturers firmly rooted in developed economies will have little choice but to upgrade their output to premium, higher margin goods if they want to survive the looming Sea of Low-Cost Sameness.

C. On top of B: ongoing technological advances make that professional goods, especially in the ITC sector, will become increasingly more affordable, thereby more ubiquitous, thus raising the bar even further for manufacturers of not-so-special goods. See also GENERATION C.

Needless to say, we'll be updating this trend for you over the next few months, including more facts and figures. Time to initiate a good old fashioned brainstorm session on how to elevate your goods and services to MATURIALISM status? >> Email this trend to a friend.

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APRIL 2004 | Mature consumers have mature tastes. They also have the time and money to get their hands on the best of the best. Some cool spottings further validating and illustrating this emerging yet massive trend:

• High quality mattresses are 'hot' in the US, as cash-rich baby boomers flock to specialty stores to get the top in comfort for their ageing bodies. Citing the ultimate excuse for luxury consumption (health concerns, sleep depravation!), about 17% of US mattress buyers now spend USD 1,000 to 2,000 on mattress and box-spring sets (source: International Sleep Products Association).
Popular brands include Hypnos from the UK, which has been supplying beds for the British royal family for four decades, and Swedish Hastens Beds. US-based luxury mattress manufacturers like Shifman Mattress and Stearns & Foster are experiencing high growth too: their top of the line mattresses sell for more than USD 6,000.
With boomers around the world still in their peak spending years, TRENDWATCHING.COM believes the MATURIALISM trend will mean sweet dreams for the bedding industry for a long time to come. (Source: Springspotters, NYT.)

• Trend watchers like ourselves love to point out the vast amounts of leisure time that boomers will soon have on their hands. But how to translate that into profitable new services and products? Well, for one, expect amateur hobbies and interests to turn decidely mature and 'pro'.

Point in case: the success of home weather stations in the US. Although The Weather Channel, weather-obsessed websites and personal update services already beam consumers the latest weather conditions minute by minute, wireless stations with indoor consoles (displaying digital readouts of outdoor conditions) are HOT. Professional stations, once only available to atmospheric scientists, are now for sale at stores like Best Buy, Target and the Sharper Image, for anywhere between USD 150 and 2,500.



The Weather Channel and AccuWeather websites have joined the fray, selling detectors and weather predicting clocks. Communities are forming, too: sites like WeatherMatrix.com and Weatherforyou.com connect thousands of newbie-weather-maturialists (source: USAToday). Basically a trend within a trend: selling professional goods to boomers who proceed to gather and 'bond' online. How's that for new business inspiration?


• Remember Haagen Dazs' MATURIALISM-inspired Desserts Extraordinaire (which included, amongst others, adult flavors like Bananas Foster and Tres Leches)? Two companies Down Under have taken the mature-flavors concept one step further: beloved Tim Tam biscuit manufacturer Arnott's recently introduced Kahlua-flavoured Mint Slices and Tia Maria-tinged cookies (in itself another great example of one of our other trends, BRANDED BRANDS!).



Not to be outdone, Streets (Unilever's ice cream brand in Australia) then launched a new vodka-flavored ice cream (the Illicit Vodka Cranberry Magnum), which is, for now, only available in the state of Victoria (Australia).

Puritans were quick to point out the massive dangers these 'mature' treats pose to innocent Australian tikes, even though the vodka ice cream contains NO alcohol, just vodka flavoring, and in the case of the cookies, one would have to consume one's body weight in biscuits every hour to reach a blood-alcohol content of .05 (the Australian drink-driving limit). From Cirque du Soleil's tantalizing Zumanity shows to tasty liquor-laced biscuits and ice-creams: MATURIALISM will hopefully defy the nanny-state for a while to come! >> Email this trend to a friend.

OPPORTUNITIES
If you're in B2C, the boomer generation is no doubt high on your target list. The above spottings should give you plenty of inspiration on how to add mature versions to your existing offerings. And if you happen to be selling to professional users, then this seems like the right moment to sell those pro-goods to mature, 'amateur' consumers as well! We'll bring you more examples of this trend in following issues of newsletter.

RELATED TRENDS AND IDEAS
Heavenly Bed
MASSCLUSIVITY
FLORIDASATION