Trend Consulting

Our unique interdisciplinary approach to trend consulting turns consumer insights into effective, evidence-informed decisions for your business.

Our Approach

At Environics Research, our unique interdisciplinary approach to trend consulting combines primary market research, business intelligence, design-thinking, and subject matter/sector expertise. The result is trend consulting that turns consumer insights into effective, evidence-informed decisions for your business.

Central to our trend-consulting work is our proprietary Social Values research, which provides us with over 40 years of data – and related analytics and implementation experience – tracking consumer and societal trends in Canada and in the United States.

Leveraging this unique resource, we can analyze changes in consumer needs, motivations, and expectations and how these factors affect consumers’ decisions and behaviour. Ultimately, these insights help to inform your understanding of your brand, offerings, and sector overall – shaping better decision-making today and spurring innovations for the future.

Trend Consulting Engagements

We always begin our consultations by understanding your unique business objectives and goals. Whether you’re developing a new marketing strategy or contemplating a new product line, bringing us in early will help us offer the most relevant guidance and solutions, leading to better outcomes. A ‘Social Values Trend Workshop’ is an important early step in nearly all our engagements. At these kickoff workshops we level-set our engagements, defining which Social Values uncover changing consumer needs, mindsets and motivations – that will be relevant to further explore and uncover.

Overall, our trend-consulting engagements seek to explore questions such as:

What are the key consumer trends that are affecting or otherwise relevant to your sector? How is your sector similar to or different from markets in general?
Why are these consumer trends emerging? What might be driving them?
Are the trends in play across the entire population? Or are they stronger or weaker among particular groups (such as generations or values segments)? Is Canada similar to or different from other markets?
What are the implications of these consumer trends for your brand and industry?
How are your competitors or leaders in the sector navigating the changes we see?

By answering these questions, we deliver insights that are grounded in current realities while supporting future-focused thinking. Emphasizing recommendations that are compelling and actionable, we aim to empower our clients to move forward with creativity and confidence.