Changing behaviour, less advertising, greenwashing and 7 other 2021 trends
It’s time for my annual update with insights and trends for 2021. The insights include my experience of launching and growing TAPP Water as a sustainable consumer brand around the world as well as 15 years as a consultant.
The 2021 edition covers aCommerce, conversational commerce, advertising, green investments, greenwashing, remote work, post covid-19, influencer marketing and my personal mission to reduce human impact on the planet. You will find that these trends will impact all of us in the coming year.
Go, go, gooooo!!!
1. aCommerce
What does TikTok, Instagram and Youtube have in common? Algorithmic content that is personalized and keeps us nailed to the screen and engaged. One of the top trends in 2021 is algorithmic commerce driven by direct purchase buttons from social media content. We are already seeing it with Instagram. I would bet that almost everyone will buy something from their social media feed in 2021.
2. Conversational commerce
Related to this I’ve spoken about conversational commerce this since 2015. Forward-thinking online stores must embrace popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook Messenger, which have been chronically underused as ecommerce channels. E-mail is another commonly forgotten communication method with donotreply@e-mails causing huge frustration. Consumers are telling us they want to communicate through these channels. Let them.
3. Less advertising
Another key trend is that the majority of companies adding “dramatic shareholder value” have one thing in common — they spend almost no money on traditional advertising. “If you’re a CMO and you walk into your CEO’s office and start talking about how you need more money for advertising, you’re gone in 18 months. That shit is over,” says professor Scott Galloway. When I spoke to Tom Cullen, one of the co-founders of Sonos, in 2018 he told me one of the biggest mistakes was spending too much money on advertising early on.
4. Greenwashing and unsustainable consumerism continues
For the past couple of years trend watchers have been talking about how e.g. the majority of Gen Z are choosing sustainable products and brands. The reality looks different though as consumption of cheap and fast fashion, plastic, gadgets and other wasteful products and services continues to grow. Brands such as Nike, Nestle, H&M, Starbucks, etc are leveraging green consumer trends in marketing but in many cases the facts don’t add up or the emphasis is on a product that makes up less than 1% of the total revenue. The challenge is that the truth when it comes to sustainability is often complex. For example glass vs plastic and biodegradable plastics. See more examples of greenwashing in 2020.
Unfortunately we will see further growth in greenwashing and unsubstantiated green marketing in 2021. This is why government regulation is probably the only solution to more sustainable consumerism.
5. Social media influencers are here to stay
The wild west years of social media influencers are over and influencer marketing has become a professional business. At TAPP Water for example we’ve found relevant influencers to drive a considerable amount of sales even though attribution can still be hard. The most important attribute is credibility for the product and brand and not the amount of followers or engagement.
6. Back to the office
Having delivered over 1000 apps and mobile websites to customers between 2007 and 2017 one key lesson was that the companies that had in-house design and front-end development resources generally performed best. Teams working next to each other deliver better user experience, quality, speed and efficiency. External consultants and remote workers can challenge, augment and accelerate development but not replace. I believe that the companies that find ways to bring their teams back together in 2021 will have a great advantage.
7. Covid-19 is so pre-2021
Time to move on. While the pandemic has been a horrible experience for so many it has also helped accelerate the future in positive ways. Vaccine development, reduction of wasteful business travel, enabling of remote work, digitalization of government services, online collaboration and communication tools and more. In 2021 I just hope we put similar attention to our planet and solve diseases such as heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer, cancer, mental illnesses and other big problems.
8. Human centric design is the winning formula
In 2015 my former employer DMI (acquired Golden Gekko in 2013) was one of the first consultants to promote human centric design at the core of digital transformation. Sense & Respond by Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden provides a great summary of how successful organizations listen to customers and create new products.
This approach has been critical to our success at TAPP Water. In 2020 DMI continued to grow its presence as a leader in human centric design, aCommerce and data driven service design by acquiring DevGurus. If your business is looking to drive change in 2021 then feel free to reach out to learn more.
9. Green tech is becoming the hottest investment topic
Greta Thunberg and her fellow environmental activists have done their thing. Governments and big companies are outbidding each other in their efforts to look green. Many of the VCs are rebranding themselves as impact investors. The EU Green Deal is a trillion euro investment in climate change over the next 10 years. Expect climate tech funding to grow even faster in 2021 as citizens, consumers, employees, companies and investors all demand that more be done to respond to the climate emergency.
But it’s not all rosy. The first cleantech investment wave that began 20 years ago failed to deliver good returns for investors. Partly because there wasn’t enough good business ideas but primarily because solar energy took longer than promised to achieve sufficient efficiency. Let’s hope that governments and investors have learned and that expectations are more realistic this time around.
10. My mission to reduce human impact on the planet
In the fall of 2018 TAPP Water launched the first world’s first truly sustainable water filter. The mission is to provide simple, affordable and sustainable solutions for clean tasty tap water. Our vision is to eliminate the need for bottled water for 600 million households worldwide that buy bottled water today.
To change behavior is hard. But if this year has proven anything, it’s that we can adapt fast when required to do so. Social distancing, face mask, constant hand washing, remote work, buying everything online, taking care of kids at home, less travel and so many other things.
Why then is it so hard to give up the consumption of bottled water that is expensive, inconvenient, somewhat unhealthy and bad for the planet?
During the past year we’ve learned that advertising of water filters only works when the audience is open to change or influenced by someone they trust. 95% of bottled water consuming households are not ready yet. But we’ve discovered that the best path to changing behavior is the influence of family and friends. With 1 in 5 buildings in Barcelona now having one household with a TAPP Water filter we are seeing more and more people recommending TAPP and encouraging friends to change. Our referral program is becoming a major growth engine.
So far TAPP Water has
• replaced more than 35 million plastic water bottles with TAPP filtered water
• averted more than 1200 tons of plastic
• avoided more than 9 million kg of CO2
• reduced water waste by 110 million liters
Furthermore 90% of our website customers sign up for the annual subscription which implies long term sustainable revenue.
In 2021 we plan to raise money to replicate the success in Barcelona in other major metropolitan areas in Europe and build a retail presence. With funding we can rapidly work our way towards our goal of replacing 10 billion plastic bottles with our TAPP filters in the not too distant future.
Change is in the air!
Want to contribute or get in touch?
I’m laser focused on the mission of reducing human impact on the planet through TAPP Water in 2021 and will not make any other investments. But if you have suggestions, ideas or want to contribute to our mission then please reach out. You will find me mostly in the south of Spain or Barcelona as I will continue to encourage less travel.
And as always, send me feedback.
Thank you for reading to the end. I wish you all a great 2021.
Magnus
P.S. Let me know if you want to try out TAPP and I´ll send you a promo code.
