Consumers occasionally perceive time in fleeting moments—like a countdown during an intense workout or as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. However, in everyday life, individuals typically navigate their experiences without a conscious focus on life existing second by second. Technology and nature, on the other hand, are quite comfortable operating at millisecond speed, subtly occurring in the background of everyday lives.
In 2025 and beyond, we’ll witness that the human mind, nature and technology aim to find harmony, but the puzzle is not always a perfect fit. As global consumer trends evolve, both consumers and brands will live in a pendulum that constantly swings between a sense of control and a loss of control.
In order to understand the mindset of consumers in a period defined by constant flux, Mintel’s Global Consumer Trends team explored the concept that behind every macro trend is a series of layers that define the whole. Any pastry chef will tell you that layers are essential for a perfectly formed croissant, and Mintel’s Trends Analysts take the same approach to creating a perfectly mastered trend.
In our 2025 Global Consumer Trends, three trends represent the layers of interaction that consumers and brands exist within.
The Home: Under Construction
In an unpredictable housing market, true comfort and authenticity in our homes will come from celebrating imperfections and individuality rather than chasing an ideal that often eludes us.
The Community: Linked Lives
Community will exist in a collaborative space that defies physical limits, inspired by what brands and consumers can imagine together.
The Globe: Tradition in Transition
The way things have always been done is changing by force as much as choice. Brands will need to embrace this inevitability to sustain progress and relevance.
Our methodology for identifying future global consumer trends that matter
For those new to Mintel’s annual trend predictions—or as a reminder to those who may have forgotten—our living, growing prediction model adapts to the unforeseen. Centred around the seven Mintel Trend Drivers, the model supports the fluid acceleration or deceleration of a trend according to the reality of individual markets. It allows us to be more adaptive and reactive to change and to continue to focus on the future.
A combination of global market data and consumer behaviour analysis, the trends provide a high-level overview of the key motivations and challenges that lie ahead for consumers. By providing implications for the short, medium and long term, they highlight the most important issues that brands need to consider when engaging with consumers in an ever-changing world.
After you’ve read and digested the 2025 Global Consumer Trends, you’ll probably have lots of questions, mainly about what comes next. That’s the perfect time to get in touch with Mintel Consulting. We can help you digest the data and analyst expertise, then apply them to your growth goals. Like an extension of your Marketing, Insights and R&D team, we deliver tailored opportunities that propel market expansion and fuel consumer demand. Answer the question, ‘What now?’ and discover how Mintel Consulting can offer a customised view of your marketing and innovation strategy.
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