2020 Ford Trend Report Discusses Gender Fluidity, Climate Change
Photo: Ford Motor Company
Ford released its 2020 Looking Further with Ford Trend Report this month, outlining seven trends the automaker sees as being vital in the year ahead. The eighth-annual Ford Trend Report hits on key issues like loneliness, climate change, and understanding gender identity.
“The rate of change globally has been on the rise — and without the trust in the institutions, brands and peers to rely on, a majority of people are feeling extremely overwhelmed,” notes Sheryl Connelly, Ford’s Global Consumer Trends and Futuring Manager. “Consumers want to believe that companies are doing the right thing, but companies also need to give them a clear reason to do so. At Ford, we remain deeply focused on improving the lives of consumers and their communities, so we can continue to have a trusted relationship that moves us forward together.”
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Of the trends discussed in the report, the most interesting choice of focus may well be gender fluidity. Ford discusses the importance of gender identity under the trend of Identity Matters, where it reveals that 67 percent of adults globally understand the concept of gender fluidity. Of those surveyed, a relatively high percentage of Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X — 70 percent, 65 percent, and 58 percent, respectively — believe that gender fluidity creates empathy within our culture, while just 48 percent of boomers agree. From these findings, Ford takes away the idea that conventional marketing by segmentation will be less relevant than marketing toward the individual and building relationships based on trust.
The concept of identity aligns with another trend, Call to Stand, which discusses the idea of values-based marketing. According to the report, 42 percent of Americans have boycotted a brand for not having values that align with their own, and 40 percent of adults globally say they have tried to convince their friends and family against shopping with brands they don’t agree with. On the flipside, 74 percent of adults globally say that more brands are trying to do the right thing, and 77 percent say that consumers are driving brands to be more ethical.
The full 2020 Looking Further with Ford Trend Report is available online at Ford.com.
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Kyle S. Johnson lives in Cincinnati, a city known by many as “the Cincinnati of Southwest Ohio.” He enjoys professional wrestling, Halloween, and also other things. He has been writing for a while, and he plans to continue to write well into the future. See more articles by Kyle.