During late 2011 and early 2012, a number of brands and venues have introduced offers designed specifically for the Chinese tourist. We have, for example, seen luxury magazine Pomp producing a Mandarin section with the aim of encouraging Chinese travellers to visit London. Meanwhile, Amsterdam’s Schiphol and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airports have launched smartphone apps which provide Mandarin versions of signs and baggage information; passengers simply hold their handsets in front of the text to see an instant translation.

Elsewhere, a number of hotels have been showcasing new offers intended to maximise their appeal for Chinese visitors. Among them, Hilton with its “Huanying” scheme and Starwood through its “Personalised Travel” initiative – both of which include the provision of Mandarin-speaking staff, tailored menu options and the ability to request a range of Chinese home comforts via room service.

Such developments are, of course, hardly surprising when one looks at the very healthy projections for China’s GDP growth over the coming years. And it’s clear too that Chinese consumers are feeling much more optimistic than their counterparts in other parts of the world; when we asked in late 2011 about their feelings towards the national economy, nearly 50% in China said they thought it would improve in the next twelve months – a figure which compares to just 20% in the UK who said the same (Source: nVision Global Research, 2011). Similarly, the numbers who expected their personal financial situation to improve in the coming year were more than twice as high in China.

Almost inevitably, then, we can expect 2012 to herald a further wave of commercial offerings focused firmly on the East – and for this to be the decade when the impact of a growing global middle class is manifested in ever more sectors.

In our Ageless Society trend, we argue that evolving lifestyles and attitudes are challenging age-based assumptions and stimulating support for more age-inclusive marketing communications. Indeed, as many within the upper age brackets look forward to enjoying the autumns and winters of their lives in relative good health and financial comfort, any notion that reaching one’s 60s, 70s, 80s or beyond should involve an automatic rejection of concern about such areas as physical appearance, fitness and fashion is being challenged. And driving this forward have been a) rising longevity b) growing acceptance that we will need to work for longer into our lives and c) the majoritarian belief that people should make an effort to look their best at any age (a statement for which support peaks at 77% among those aged 75+).

Broadly speaking, we thus posit that age is becoming much less of a determining factor across such areas as technology, leisure, fashion and media consumption – and that marketing messages are shifting accordingly. In particular, the idea that fashion and beauty campaigns should speak only to young(-ish) groups falls under ever greater pressure. And it is in this context that we look with interest at H&M’s 2011 Christmas campaign. Long a brand willing to feature models drawn from a wide demographic spectrum – as we saw through its use of Daphne Self in the late 00s – the fashion retailer’s latest posters present a diverse range of protagonists, often juxtaposed within the same image. One of the posters thus presents Jerry Hall (mid 50s) alongside her daughter Georgia May Jagger. Another unites singer Bryan Ferry (early 60s) with his son Tara.

Of course, we recognise that there will always be occasions when certain age segments will respond to age-specific communications. But targeting older consumers with products designed explicitly for “old” people will certainly become less and less common. In turn, instances where younger and older individuals are invited to choose similar but age-appropriate styles and designs from the same brand will grow. Indeed, as age boundaries progressively weaken and more brands adopt age-neutral approaches to marcomms – particularly when it offers the opportunity to broaden customer bases – the Ageless Society mindset will get only stronger.

As part of our global expansion, we now have a network of trendspotters around the world who provide us with local insight as well as alerting us to the latest developments and trends in any particular region.  Naturally, they are a source of a great number of our trend manifestations that, thanks to the continued heroics of our editorial team, have now passed the 350 mark and continue to grow by about 5 per day.

Given this, I thought I’d publicise a particular observation fr0m one of our trendspotters in India:  there is a significant segment of consumers living in major urban centres that are becoming interested in the idea of (eventually) living in one of a number of planned townships that are being built away from major urban hubs.  For me, this is an interesting corollary to the continued surge in urban immigration that is playing such a part in defining the demographic landscape in emerging markets.  It is also an interesting mirror image of the evolution of our own suburbs in the middle of the last century.

One such township (still in the construction stage) is called Lavasa (a one hour drive from Pune, three hours from Mumbai), a lakeside development that claims to be based on the principles of “New Urbanism”  -  an eco-friendly approach to development that limits transport congestion in urban areas and reduces the impact on the surrounding natural environment. A more established and more up-market example (closer to Mumbai) is Aamby Valley City.

nVision Trendspotter: “Whilst most 28 year-olds wouldn’t have the financial means to invest in property at the moment, it seems like this group might be interested in moving out of the city and to a place like this in the future (when they have their own families for example)”.

If you’d like to know more about any of our manifestations or our trendspotter network (or anything else for that matter) then please feel free to let us know.  Or if you are an nVision subscriber, your account manager will be able to answer any questions you might have.