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.
