Transumers

From the Tendwatching blog

"Back in 2003, when we first spoke of TRANSUMERS and TRANSUMERISM (crediting global design and business consultancy Fitch for coining the term), the focus for this trend was solely on consumers in transition, i.e. travelers, and the many novel and innovative shopping opportunities at airports, train stations and hotels catering to this crowd. And while that part of TRANSUMERISM is still evolving (see some of the new examples from various airports further down in this briefing), it’s time to expand the TRANSUMERS trend/theme to non-travel, as consumers are slowly but certainly mirroring travel behavior in daily life.

After all, in our Experience Economy, the temporary, the transient, is increasingly being valued if not worshipped on a daily basis.

We discussed the relationship between experience and status in our UBER PREMIUM briefing; for now consider the following data on luxury consumption (luxury is an ever-reliable indicator of what next generations will consider basic necessities, thus often revealing the Next Big Thing): “Luxury consumers are spending more, in many cases lots more, on life-changing experiences, while their need for luxury goods is waning. Spending on luxury experiences in the US, including travel, dining, entertainment, spas and beauty services and home services, nearly doubled, from an average of USD 11,632 in 2004 to USD 22,746 in 2005: a 95.5 percent increase" (source: Pam Danzinger, Unity Marketing)."

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