“Uncertainty and change is the new normal.”
With those words, Roberto Ramos, senior vice president of strategy at Doneger Group, began a presentation that encompassed the wide array of variables molding today’s society and distilled down the four discrete consumer groups that will emerge to affect creativity and commerce over the next year.
Dubbed “The State of the World & The Consumer in 2018,” the talk laid the groundwork for a look into the future with a review of the contraction, consolidation and downsizing that made up the recent past.
That, Ramos said, was the shakeout.
But we’re entering a new era, one of realignment. “There’s a reset that’s taking place. We’re questioning the status quo. We’re questioning old platforms that don’t quite do it for us anymore. It’s driven by game changers but also game changing moments,” he said. ”We’re recalibrating our place in the world by looking at our identity, looking at our values and looking at our sense of purpose in the world, and we’re looking at it in terms of priorities and focusing on the core.”
This introspection has lead consumers in four distinct directions: Disruption, Playscape, Augmented Me and Frontierless. Click through the slideshow to meet these new groups.