TrendSights: Widening Inequality

Summary
Globalization and economic development have created unevenly distributed wealth that is being consolidated at the top tiers of society. Such domestic income inequality is changing consumer spending patterns and consumption behaviors. For brands looking to adapt, this offers opportunities at the extremes of the consumer landscape -both among low income consumers and at the high-end luxury market.


Synopsis
- Pinpoint over 30 marketing and innovation "platforms" that can be employed to entice new product trial. See how they relate to "on-trend" examples.

- Access a number of unique Canadean datasets to understand how income inequality varies globally and the extent of the gaps between rich and poor.

- Use a blend of consumer and innovation insight to understand the impact of widening inequality levels on shoppers' attitudes and buying behaviors.

- The analysis encompasses a sub-trend overview and an examination of four of the themes most associated with the Widening Inequality sub-trend.

Reasons To Buy
- What are the key mega-trends, trends, and sub-trends that are shaping the consumer and innovation landscape? Where does Widening Inequality fit?

- What is the Widening Inequality sub-trend? How does it impact consumers? What will it mean for core product and marketing innovation in my sector?

- How has the decline of middle class consumers impacted levels of income inequality in developed markets? How should manufacturers look to respond?

- To what extent has income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, increased or decreased between 2007 and 2012 across countries globally.

- What is the nature of the relationship between inequality and economic instability?

Key Highlights
Between 2007 and 2012, income inequality increased in 22 out of 24 global countries surveyed by Canadean. Generally, developed nations still have lower inequality levels than their developing counterparts. Yet both mature and emerging economies are now witnessing widening income gaps.

Latin America is the only region in the world where income gaps have been declining over the past decade. However, Brazil and Mexico have among the highest levels of inequality globally. Rising incomes among "bottom of the pyramid" consumers (as a result of dramatic structural and fiscal reforms) have played a key role.

Data provided in easy-to-use tables in Excel