TrendWatching | MakeShift

Edition #14 | Your weekly inspiration fix • 7 - 13 September 2023

INSIGHT

SINGLE SAVINGS: Brands lighten the load for single households

Changing societal norms are reshaping the idea of home and family. The historic increase in solo living around the globe has placed a 'single premium' on solo households who bear the brunt of everyday expenses. While governments need to adapt, brands can also step up. Kindroom lets renters swap skills for housing and Commune provides co-living for single-parent families. How about innovating new services to ease solo dwellers' financial burdens?

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INNOVATION

🇨🇦 Montreal is adding 30 sponge parks and 400 sponge sidewalks to cope with torrential rain

Montreal is accelerating its efforts to adapt to the climate crisis. Last week, mayor Valérie Plante announced the city will create around 30 sponge parks and 400 sponge sidewalks in 2024 and 2025… read more

INNOVATION

🇿🇦 Thebe Magugu's Family Heirloom Shirt memorializes anyone's loved one in African wax print

Fusing cultural heritage, product personalization and emotional resonance, South Africa-based fashion designer Thebe Magugu has introduced the Family Heirloom Shirt. Customers can upload a photo of a loved one and have their portrait… read more

INNOVATION

🇸🇪 IKEA introduces new anti-tip feature for dressers and shares it with competitors

A new safety mechanism by IKEA motivates customers to anchor their dressers to a wall to prevent them from tipping over and potentially injuring cabinet-climbing kids. Until a unit is… read more

INSIGHT

Augmented services take travel personalization to new heights

Booking.com, Google Flights, Saudia and other travel brands are using generative AI to offer hyper-personalized travel experiences. As trust in machine-connected travel grows, the human touch remains vital for delivering exceptional recommendations – 63% of travelers choose destinations due to personal ties (friends and family).

Can your brand pair AI with human insights to provide perks and curated itineraries? Take inspiration from how Tripadvisor is pulling from its user reviews to provide generative itinerary building. If you’re not (yet!) ready to run with generative AI, how will you meet the expectations the technology is already setting around customization? Think creatively!

Explore 50+ recent innovations powered by AI

TREND

LEGACY LIVESTREAMS: Legitimize sustainability claims by showing your real-time impact

In the past two years, consumer trust in corporate sustainability pledges has dropped by half. It makes sense: while there have been endless climate reports, accords and agreements over the past two decades, the effects are yet to be seen. To build back this trust, brands need to show the impact of their efforts in practice.

Real environmental impact is often slow and incremental. Rather than try to 'wow' consumers with buzzy activations, can you keep them up to date with the outcomes of your sustainability initiatives through content or livestreams (either in-store or online) that show the real-time change taking place? Take inspiration from Sumthing's NaturTech platform.

THOUGHT STARTER

Rising weight-loss drug sales drive healthier food choices

The CDC is sounding the alarm on obesity in 22 US states, while weight-loss drug sales are impacting food choices. How can you offer consumers accessible, real-time health education, in a fast-changing landscape?

INSIGHT

Sudden ban on secondhand clothing imports in Uganda raises questions

Bobby Kolade, a fashion designer and the founder of upcycling brand Buzigahill, has called out Uganda’s ban on secondhand clothing imports. The ban, which came into effect in August 2023, is an effort to revive the country’s local textile industry.

Kolade points out the need for a longer-term solution, citing findings that more than 4 million people are directly and indirectly involved in Uganda’s secondhand and textile supply chain. As Kolade observes, these individuals should be involved in timelines and decisions. Ghana’s Or Foundation has laid out steps in its #stopwastecolonialism campaign, calling on EU brands to take responsibility for their own waste through an extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework. Other solutions include supporting local industries such as farmers, fiber producers and makers.

Could you apply the EPR framework to your waste stream and support industries you may unwittingly be stifling?

INSIGHT

Google’s 7 year tech-longevity promise faces skepticism

Google has just promised seven years of software updates for the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, setting a new standard for tech longevity. While small innovative brands like Fairphone already offer 8 years of upgrades and a 5-year warranty, this move by a major player could potentially influence other phone manufacturers, including Samsung, to adopt similar practices.

But not everyone is convinced, with some skeptics highlighting Google's reputation for discontinuing products prematurely. As wary consumers start holding tech brands accountable for their empty promises (watch out Apple and Microsoft, too), full transparency will help to reaffirm trust. How about following Oatly's lead by taking full ownership of your PR scandals or tying executives’ bonuses to your goals?

INNOVATION

🇳🇱 ROEF redefines green roofs with solar integration and one-day installation

Green, living roofs have been around for ages. They benefit biodiversity, home insulation and water retention, but can be costly to install, especially on pitched roofs. A construction company… read more

INNOVATION

🇸🇪 In Stockholm, Houdini opens the world's first circular outdoor apparel store

Outdoor sportswear brand Houdini just opened a new store in Stockholm. In a pivot from linear to circular retail and consumption models, all items found at Houdini Circle can be purchased, rented or… read more

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Be sure to ping our editor, Galina Yordanov, if you're working on something we should feature on MakeShift.

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