Update on Our Top 10 Global Consumer Trends for 2017: Identity in Flux

2017 consumers have more complex personas

A consumer in 2017 can play with and have multiple identities. They can be a blogger, a mother, a scientist, a migrant worker and a clubber. New York Times journalist Wesley Morris concurs: Our rigidly enforced gender and racial lines are finally breaking down… There’s a sense of fluidity and permissiveness.

Identity politics

Popular culture remains sensitive to perceived controversies in identity politics. Vogue Magazine apologised in July 2017 for its ‘gender-fluidity’ cover story entitled “Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik are part of anew generation embracing gender fluidity” in which the high profile couple playfully talked about borrowing each other’s clothes. This apology was promoted by social media objections from readers criticizing the magazine’s decision not to feature actual people who identify as gender-fluid.

Cultural appropriation

The issue of ‘cultural appropriation’ continues to simmer in 2017, with high profile individuals demonstrating a more elastic understanding of ethnicity and ‘choosing’ their identities, but some‘accused’ of unrightfully borrowing aspects of culture from others.

A post-gender sensibility

The world in 2017 continues to express aspects of a ‘post gender’ culture or sensibility which rejects rigid gender identity in diverse spheres that impact consumption directly, from workplace culture to holiday trends to parenting norms.