Since 2000, every December the Pantone Color Institute chooses a colour that, according to studies, will be the keynote for the next 12 months. Many people claim that the institute, with its current status, creates the trends instead of forecasting them. However, the only important aspect is that the trends in different sectors of trade and life in the 21st century are changing ever more rapidly, leaving consumers trying to keep up. Of course, those companies that move with the times and quickly adjust their products to trendy colours, patterns, textures, scents, and most importantly, consumer behaviours, expectations and experiences, benefit from doing so.

Early in December, the Pantone Institute chose “Living Coral” as the colour for 2019. It is a pastel shade of salmon pink. However, according to Pantone, the colour is enriched with a mix of gold shades. Considering the institute’s accuracy in indicating the trends in marketing, manufacturing and sales, we can assume that shops will soon be swamped with products in the colour, as they were with the pastel shades of blue and purple in the past.

Modified Minimalism

Minimalism has remained popular for many years, and recently it has seen a change in form to mix shades of white and grey with an austere style featuring strong accents. A combination of white and distinctive colour elements is likely to be strongly apparent in the packaging industry, where minimalism in a graphic form, with a white background, will be complemented with catchy colourful details.

What Else besides Colour?

According to fashion sources, including the most famous fashion brand creators, 2019 will be the year of ovals. The first signs of this trend were already visible in the market by the end of this year. They were particularly visible in the furniture industry, where futuristic forms were preserved, with ovals replacing sharp edges and slants.

Functional Use of Stone

Stone finishes for perfume packaging, or a style which combines the austerity of stone with the robustness of green plants, are already a thing this year. The use of stone elements as everyday objects, such as tables, is expected to gain popularity in the upcoming months. In the packaging industry we will still see patterns imitating stone, or caps and bottle decorations that resemble solid rock.

A Conscious and Mindful Consumer

Growing consumer awareness greatly affects the retail trade. Consumers know the marketing tricks used by famous brands, carefully analyse the ingredients and choose healthy products. Not only do they care about their health, they also pay attention to environmental protection, including that of animals. This is why all products tested on animals are becoming less popular. A perfect combination of health, environmental and animal awareness is shown in recent educational campaigns on the harmful effects of palm oil, which is used in many food products, and the damaging effect of oil palm plantations on rainforests and their inhabitants.

Even if consumers manage to avoid the harmfulness of the products they buy, they cannot avoid “selling” their privacy. Companies are becoming greatly interested in gathering their clients’ data and shopping preferences, or information on consumer behaviour. Permitting personal data processing, enabling location in devices, and accepting terms and conditions are becoming an annoyance for consumers. However, the profits from processing the product recipients’ detailed information are so high that companies will start regularly offering discounts on all loyalty programmes related to the processing of at least part of their personal data.

The Senior Market

Next year, the percentage of people in Poland who are at least 65 years old will reach 20%, and will continue to increase while the number aged 15-64 decrease. By 2025 the size of the latter group will decrease by 2 mln. This process is common in developed countries, which means that in the future more and more products will be dedicated to seniors. Companies across different sectors will need to satisfy their preferences.

However, this does not mean that we will soon start using landline telephones again, furnish our living rooms with wall units or that the Turkish sweaters will become a huge hit for the clothing industry. It is important to remember that the people joining the group of seniors are increasingly often those who have already lived several years in the digital era. Computers and online shopping are not new to them, and they have already managed to build their consumer awareness to some extent.

Online = Mobile

The trend for moving shopping from stationary devices, even laptops, to smartphones and tablets has been strong over the past few years. In 2017, the majority of web traffic originated from mobile devices. Currently, this trend is visible in the total number of online purchases. It is hard to fight such a strong trend. Making a website suitable for mobile devices, the simplification of payments or the introduction of an online shop are ideal moves for any company that operates online.

These trends are only part of those shaping the market for 2019. Fashions change so rapidly that some industries see new trends every few months, related to the seasons. Of course, not all industries follow trends that last a couple months, but being ready for trends like minimalism, the use of stone, Pantone colours, products for seniors or mobile customer service are tendencies that must be taken into consideration in sales or marketing strategies.