TRENDSPOTTING

By Helen Vollmer, President, Edelman Southwest

The beginning of the New Year, with soothsayers and data analysts predicting what’s about to rock our world, is a great time for savvy marketers whose lifeblood is to leverage perception and to create innovative scenarios where we can bond with others who have like interests. If you’re like me, you take pride in deciphering a trend early on, adapting it and elevating it to new levels. Here are a few 2014 tidbits that I’m watching in two of my favorite categories, food and travel:

Food:

• Carbs are back. Living in rice country (and in full disclosure, working for technology based RiceTec), nothing makes me happier to look at the grocery store shelves and see the exploding choices. Jasmine, basmati or arborio? Why not buy all three and add in a bag of brown to go with it? Technomic, a food industry consulting firm, swears starches, including noodles, are making a comeback.
• Grow your own. Locavore is going to the next level. The National Gardening Association says the number of households that grow at least some of their own food are up 24 percent since 2007. Will bees and chickens be the next urban pets? 
• Eating dangerously. According to Epicurious.com the exotic is becoming main stream. From rattlesnake to fried insects, tongue to feet, exotic foods are making their way onto restaurant menus. Menudo anyone?

Travel:

• Lighter, faster . . . Sir Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic Airways, was quoted by AP saying, “I have no doubt that during my lifetime we will be able to fly from London to Sydney in under two hours, with minimal environmental impact.” 
• DIY Flying. The next five years will be all about increasing automation and decreasing labor cost. The industry is already implementing mobile boarding passes, bag drops, even self-boarding.  Have you been asked to close your window and pick up after yourself before de-planeing?
• Conspicuous leisure. Travelmarket Report states the consumption of experiences rather than consumer goods now signals social status like never before. Unique experiences are, in short, social currency. 

If you’re looking to spot your own new trends in 2014, a few tips:

• Carpool. There’s nothing like chauffeuring a pack of 7 to 13 year olds around to let you know what’s happening in the real world. Rent some kids if you need to listen in on what the next big thing is going to be.
• Take field trips. Go ahead and buy a ticket to that spring home and garden show. Chances are you will be amazed that a certain kind of new flower species will be everywhere at your local nursery within a few months. 
• Watch movie trailers. If you get to the movies early, you’ll see my favorite part of the experience—the previews of what’s coming. Last year, we were treated to some great films about the African American experience, everything from Django Unchained to Lee Daniels’ The Butler to 12 Years a Slave.  If you pay attention, you’ll see a couple of new trends developing for 2014.

Happy trend spotting!