Experts whose ideas influence what consumers see on store shelves months and even years later will take center stage at the 2014 International Home + Housewares Show as part of the educational sessions that inform attendees where the leading edge lies.
Presenting these sessions, which are held in the Grand Ballroom/S100 of the South Building and are free to all Show attendees, will be Michelle Schumaker, Home Goods Branding Lead at Google, Inc.; leading color forecaster Leatrice (Lee) Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and an attendee favorite for her unique and uncanny predictions on the future of color and how it influences consumer’s purchases; and Tom Mirabile, senior vice president, global trend and design at Lifetime Brands, Inc., who offers his vision for the top consumer trends of 2014.
Rethinking the Shopper’s Path to Purchase
Technology has dramatically changed housewares consumers’ shopping behavior and has expanded suppliers’ and retailers’ opportunity to reach them before the shelf. And, as consumers look to their home brands to reflect their own personal “brand,” it’s now more important than ever to inform, to entertain, to provide utility: to develop a relationship. In “Rethinking the Shopper’s Path to Purchase” at noon Sunday, March 16, Michelle Shumaker will present Google search data and the results of a new custom consumer housewares research study that will help attendees better understand the new technology-driven path to purchase, and build targeted marketing strategies to own the new “digital shelf.”
Inside a Tornado of Marketplace Change, You Adapt
Every year, Tom Mirabile gathers his cumulative wisdom and the sum of his experience as a consumer trends visionary to help his audience of buyers and vendors stay one step ahead of what’s coming down the pike. This year’s presentation, “Top Trends for 2014—The New Normal: How to Survive and Thrive in Our Erratic Marketplace,” will track changes in the consumer mindset and how that impacts housewares manufacturers and retailers alike. Mirabile’s presentation begins at 7:30 a.m. Monday, March 17.
“Whether you’re a retailer, manufacturer or wholesaler, a single word encapsulates today’s most crucial business imperative: adapt,” he says. “Today’s consumer lives and shops in multi-dimensional ways we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago. More importantly, consumers crave – nodemand – innovation. Sometimes these advances are tangible, delivering improved performance and expanded function. Other times, innovations provide less visible benefits such as intuitive function, or savings of time or space.”
Mirabile’s presentation will cover:
- Attracting the new homeowner and engaging existing homeowners.
- The disappearing middle class and the opportunities it creates.
- How Boomer attitudes are changing and what this means to purchasing decisions.
- The new relationship between parents and kids.
- The importance of making an emotional connection with consumers.
- Technology’s influence on the future of housewares.
- The best new places to find retail and product inspiration.
- Informality in dining and entertaining and its lasting effect on product direction.
- Which new influences are affecting consumer desires.
Changing Themes in Color, Design Trend
At noon Monday, Lee Eiseman will talk about coming color trends in “New Harmonies: Changing Themes in Color/Design Trends.” For most consumers today, color and style in home interiors are an important part of their living experience, but the old, rigid rules of color are giving way to more creative guideposts and options that still retain a sense of a broader theme. Lifestyle patterns and tastes change faster than Superman these days, and the resulting forecasts are farther-reaching and more complicated than ever before.
“There is much more creativity going on and consumers in general are looking for things that are a little different than what they’ve had before,” Eiseman says.
For example, one of the nine color palettes that will guide consumers in 2015, called “Zensations,” draws on the soft, quiet and meditative underpinnings of zen, described by the Urban Dictionary as “a total state of focus that incorporates a togetherness of body and mind. Zen involves dropping illusion and seeing things without distortion created by your own thoughts.”
“What we’re looking at now is how you take idea of enlightenment and thoughtfulness that comes into the zen way of thinking and add a little more excitement to it, make it more of a visceral reaction so that when people look at it they say ‘yeah, I do want that thoughtful kind of feeling but here’s another direction I can go in’,” Eiseman says.
Eiseman is the author of nine books on color and also is the director of the Eiseman Center for Color Information and Training.
Eiseman, Mirabile Join Forces for Facts vs. Fictions in Lifestyle and Color
To close out the educational sessions on Tuesday, March 18, Eiseman and Mirabile will come together to shed new light on the changing realities of today’s consumer and the essential role of color in both serving and connecting with them in their joint presentation, “Engaging the Consumer: Facts vs. Fictions in Lifestyle and Color.” New realities at work and home have altered not only consumers’ lifestyles, but their opinions as well. Some of the previously believed concepts about color, style and even consumer behaviors have been transformed and re-evaluated, still it is important to know what is factual information about color and what is fiction. IHA’s color and trend experts will explain how retailers and suppliers can take advantage of this information.
More information about all Show seminars and events is available in Housewares Connect 365 on IHA’s website here.
