Very demure, very cutesy, very respectful, very mindful
I LOVE social media and am as addicted as the next Gen Zer sitting in their bedroom endlessly scrolling through #whatieatinaday, #getreadywithme and endless videos of cute animals. I draw the line at #prisontok and #turkeyteeth, but have recently been influenced to buy some art materials, lash serum, eyebrow dye and magnesium to help me sleep. This endless scrolling has however affected my attention span (currently at about 3 minutes) and I have only read three books in the last year. I justify my lack of actual culture in favour of instant dopamine hits, by telling myself “it’s for work”. Which of course it is, but we all know the truth, just like everyone else I am hooked – and not in a good way.
Our Assistant Trend Editor Olivia recently went on holiday and turned her phone off for a whole week. Yes fully off, using the off button (how do you even do that?!) and the sharp intake of breath around the office when she told us, was followed by wonder, admiration and people mumbling shamefully “I’m not sure I could do that”
We constantly track social media for work so it wasn’t surprising that Olivia’s preferred way to relax was to turn it off completely. A bit like avoiding clothes shops on holiday, back in the day (although I still can’t help myself with homeware).
Social media can be fun, educational, creative and often very useful for brands who want to tap into emerging trends, and our job is to alert our subscribers to the new ideas that will inspire consumers and ultimately new product directions for the future. Often niche in their origin, we try to track the trends that will grow over time and have some longevity. As I said previously in USP Loves Issue 28, Timing is everything.
Jools Lebron & Charli XCX
Working out what is a fad or a # versus a longer term cultural movement or product trend can be difficult, particularly in the current climate of desperation to understand Gen Z. This has been highlighted over the last few weeks as we have reached peak social media hysteria with Brat Vs Demure.
I’m not going to go into what they both mean, because unless you have been locked in a cellar with no phone or human interaction, you can’t fail to have seen the Brat, chaotic, messy, lime green, and demure girlie, mindful, cutesy etc etc, memes and videos that have swamped everything, everywhere. Even Kamala Harris got on board with Brat.
Our macro trends are created to illustrate big picture, cultural shifts. Researched over time, we pull together references from art, interiors, events, design, fashion and social media to build narratives that will influence the future. In our A/W 23/24 Macro trend Disorder we highlighted how consumers were moving away from the cult of perfection and commercialised wellness to a more realistic, messy approach to life.
We focused on how consumers are embracing chaos, celebrating mess and aspiring to living their most hedonistic, authentic lives.
So far so Brat.
We even included Brat Lime Green in our mood board. Honestly, anyone would think we could see into the future!
We highlighted the importance of tracking ‘vibe shifts’ and how the latest vibe shift was generating a move away from ‘hot girl summer’ to the return of early 2000s ‘indie sleaze’.
We also looked at the idea of redefining femininity and the importance of the up and coming Barbie movie. Which may have been an indicator for the rise of ‘Demurification’, the Year of the Girl and the coquettecore trend in fashion.
Our Key Take Aways pretty much summed up Brat Summer, but this isn’t about confirmation of past trends, although it’s always nice to see how our ideas come through IRL. It’s about emphasising how important it is to track lifestyle trends over time in order to identify how consumers will evolve and change. By observing the cultural signals that are driving the ‘vibe shift’ we can give context to our ideas in order to be sure they are longer term movements, rather than one off fads.
USP Coquettecore on TikTok
Brat Summer and TikToker Jools Lebron‘s “demure” are fun ideas that have excited marketeers who are desperately looking for ways to tap the minds of Gen Z. There has been much pontificating about what they mean and how brands and retailers can embrace them. But what many are failing to realise they are just a small part of much bigger cultural shifts, and including trending words and phrases into marketing doesn’t make brands seem culturally relevant, it simply makes them seem like they’re not in on the joke? And that’s what Brat and Demure are, humorous # that will be next weeks chip paper – if chip paper was still a thing.
Louise Yems, strategy director for marketing agency The Digital Fairy says. “In the land of internet humour, there is a fine line between cultural relevance and cringe. Brands should instead analyse the context of — and meaning behind — trending words and phrases to inform their long-term strategy.”
So can every one just calm down and move onto the next thing, enjoy it, have fun (how many offices have been doing everything in a very demure way all week?) and decide if there is wider cultural context before they jump on the TikTok bandwagon.
Currys have got it just right, with their latest TikTok advert. They are very obviously in on the joke.
@currys
