The Second Set of 2022 Trends You Will Not Find Anywhere Else
Here is more depth about the second five of the 2022 Trends.
After you read this post, read the one that immediately follows it to learn about the first set of the 2022 Trends.
#6 African Cultural Foods Will Be Next Hip Menu Trend
In Kenya, its “Karibu chakula.”
In Zimbabwe, its “Udle kuhle.”
In the U.S., its “Dig in.”
From Wall Street to Whole Foods, it’s something that is new, novel and different in a category that has journeyed from China to Mexico to Greece to Mumbai.
It started pre-Pandemic as Pan-African restaurants started popping up in fashionable U.S. Bohemian neighborhoods in San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, Brooklyn and Atlanta-Virginia Highlands.
But watch in 2022 as Pan-African moves to Main Street with restaurants, new sections in grocery stores, cooking classes and new shows on Food Network.
When I shopped at Trader Joe’s this past weekend, I was not surprised to see two new side dish brands… A Dozen Cousins being one and AYO Food Brands being the other. Both of the lines are anchored in African spices and contents like chickpea, rice and yams.
You have the option to use the products as side-dishes or main meals.
What drives Pan-African foods becoming hip?
They are simple, flavorful and family-rooted… something quested by Millennials and something that counters the complexity of high tech and politics right around the family’s kitchen table.
Shoot, the alternative Starbucks kitchen table has been replaced post-Pandemic by drive-through only storefronts.
Just as Black Lives Matter signs pop up in Suburban America, Black and African is moving past being PC into a form of personal engagement mainstream.
The ingredients are also very affordable. Something that will become a major need as inflation continues to climb in 2022.
#7 The Current Model of News Media Becoming Extinct
According to the Edelman annual 2021 Trust Barometer survey, less than 50% of Americans — and this is true across all political affiliations — trust the news networks and news websites as reporting unbiased news.
The study also found that Americans are tuning out, trashing the apps, removing the links in menu bars and cancelling subscriptions.
Trust in any source of news found on the web hit an all-time low in the survey at 27%.
CNN now draws less than 1 million total U.S. viewers during prime time. FOX News ratings are dropping.
A newly released Gallop Survey reveals that many Americans are shifting their attention to neighborhood news outlets which can be as organized as a suburban newspaper or as simple as a local neighborhood website.
As Millennials move out to the suburbs, expect to see more local news outlets pop-up and many will shift from digital to actual paper.
Also watch how a new venture re-start called Newsy builds both online and onscreen engagement with a mission specifically to “deliver context-driven, fact-based reporting”… one without editorial commentary or roundtable discussion.
#8 A New Wave of Age 55+ Housing Development
While the first wave of Baby Boomer “retirement housing” started to appear pre-Pandemic, most still promoted care-free living with golf courses, onsite restaurants, pools and gyms and gated access.
It did not take long for many of those investors and developers to realize that the model they created failed to have competitive differentiation, but even more so, failed to connect on any emotional level with the Baby Boomers.
The developers and marketers also had to learn that Baby Boomers do not think in terms of “retirement,” but instead as an opportunity to devote their lives around a sense of mission and purpose for worldwide betterment, peace, love and harmony.
Senior Living ran an article this past Summer that encourages Boomers to “live their sense of mission” in a community with a sense of “purpose.”
College towns facing declining enrollments as the Millennials graduate and the Generation Z applications continue to drop are converting dorms to housing for Boomers committed to lifelong learning.
New options are appearing themed around the environment… others around art… others around achieving a “healthy” balance of vegan diet, yoga, massage therapy and meditation and others centered around culinary bonds where members actually cook gourmet meals after growing the products in the organic, community garden.
Some new options are fashioned around cultural roots… or alliances like diversity and “rainbow villages.” There are even mobile retirement communities for Boomers who are passionate about living life in an RV.
Watch in 2022 as many more Boomers finally say they have had it working the jobs and believe that they survived the Pandemic to fulfill a calling… or simply to re-bond again with those who they were isolated from and the events that stopped taking place and are coming back post-Pandemic.
#9 Independence from The Bondage of Politics
It’s no major change that the Red thinks that Blue are Socialists and the Blue thinks the Red are part of the Klan.
Many Americans have long been tired of the historic division between the two camps.
But now there are those wearing Red that think Trump was the greatest of anyone serving in Washington and others that think that the Trump was not “born-again”-enough.
Then there is The Squad who is further Left and believe the government can do a better job of caring for family than parents. And the Eco-Green Democrats that cannot find common ground with Democrats from Coal States like West Virginia.
A fair share of frustrated Americans has journeyed globally to seek answers only to come back and realize that politicians are more alike no matter what color, what language and what platform they take.
And what goes on Nationally is something that they find taking place right in their backyard among those locally elected to office.
Enter a new political affiliation… Independence from Politics.
And this is not referring to voting as an Independent.
Watch in 2022 as mid-term elections gear up and how many candidates will struggle to find their set of followers and supports and individuals stop clicking on the websites and turn off the television sets.
Expectation of any deliverables from the politicians will reach a new level of low.
The Millennials are leading the trend as they take over casting ballots that are less about party loyalty and more anchored around removing politicians who present barriers to their own sense of crafting what’s needs to be done.
Even the Millennial politicians quickly lose sight that the Millennial voter block is the largest generational group ever to exist in the U.S.
No question that forced retirement is going to take place in 2022 as the Millennials say “time’s up.”
#10 The Alpha Generation Will Stifle Out Generation Z
The Millennials did it to Gen Z’s parents.
As I have shared many times in my presentations and blog posts, there are not many brands that Generation X can declare was created just for them.
Anthropoligie is a Generation X brand.
It was one of the few with house and home icons that gave the GenXers a sense of heritage and roots after growing up with divorced parents.
With all the forms of mobile technology and high tech advancements, Generation Z has grown up within the protective confines of their parents. They have been protected from the social media, classrooms as well as many forums of socialization.
Just as much as the GenXers were overshadowed by the Boomers, Generation Z has existed in the shadows of the Millennials.
With a share of the Alpha Generation entering Kindergarten and First Grade in 2022, the prelude to the Opening performance is about to begin.
The Pandemic has been a catalyst that has brought back customized one-room school houses and digital forms of instruction that Alphas and Millennials co-author together.
Watch as Millennials bring their Alpha kids on the team to re-invent a host of kid-experiences in the outlying Suburbs and Exurban small towns.
Watch how the parents are more accessible with post-Pandemic work-from-home offices.
Watch as Alpha kids craft their own advance educational programs that might be based around conventional colleges just as much by alternative forms of education.
And watch as marketers quickly by-pass crafting brand experiences around the emerging adult Generation Zs and focus instead around the Millennial Family Unit with the Alpha kids.
The Opening Acts will take the stage in 2022.
I will close with a personal sharing.
This morning, Deloitte Insights (the left-brain accounting firm) ran an ad in the Wall Street Journal promoting their 2022 Global Marketing Trends presentation.
The selling copy contained phrases like “Integration of digital,” “third-party cookies,” and “highest-growth counterparts.”
If you are a marketing, brand or sales team player… or someone in the ad agency or PR business… and you think that linear and high tech drive the evolution of the marketplace and future brand success… attend the Deloitte event.
But also bring along a resume with you because linear logic is NOT what will drive post-Pandemic brand success. And the brands who do will either cease existing or be bought up by the competition.
If you want to grow and drive brand success, re-read this Blog post along with the last two. Send the links to your co-workers, agencies and clients.
Creativity and innovation is the fuel of future success… not technology and linear mirages that many believe are the answer.
You can reach me at 404.245.9378 and I am happy to share more about what is driving the future marketplace.
