Future Fundamentals

For an optimistic future, people are seeking a return to the fundamentals. The past few years have brought exponential change to our behaviors, mindsets and lives. Senses of security and control at work, home, and in personal pursuits have been put in question.

When asked how optimistic they are about the future, respondents across all archetypes agreed that they were more optimistic about their own future (53%) than that of their childrens (41%) or the world (27%), pointing to elements of hope mixed with profound doubt about long-term trajectories. This mirrors recent Gallup research that found that only 42% of US adults think that today's youth "will have a better living standard, homes and education" — an 18% drop in two years and matches the previous low in 2011. When asked how respondents they see their lives in the next 12 months, 55% of respondents report they are “taking it one day at a time,” 21% are trying to “get back to how things were” before the upheaval of the past few years, 15% eager to “turn a new leaf” heading into future, while 9% are looking to make up for lost time.

It is very telling that over half of consumers, in one way or another, are looking to get back to the basics — living day by day, thinking through priorities, needs and next steps. After more than a decade of digital proliferation and hyper consumerism that unbound our way of communication, life and work, punctuated by several years of worldwide solidarity of isolation, we now have an opportunity to emerge with fresh thinking and a renewed sense of purpose..