"Creating it myself," a driving trend in 2013

Anthem Worldwide, part of the brand development practice of Sch

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The study conducted by Ipsos from December 17-25, 2012, included an international sample of 1,500 people (500 from the U.S., U.K., and China, respectively) from Ipsos' online panel.

Across all three countries, in aggregate, more than half of respondents (56 percent) believe that Creating it Myself will be a more prominent trend in 2013. However, U.S., respondents weighted the results towards "Buying ready made," with 59 percent believing this would be more prominent. Anthem laddered this to a broader theme of "Do More for Me."

"Let's face it, most of us in the U.S. operate at maximum capacity, and adding one more thing to the ‘to do' list can tip the scale," said Kathy Oneto, vice president, brand strategy, of Anthem's San Francisco office. "So it's not surprising to find that U.S. consumers appreciate products and services that do more for them, taking tasks, steps, or organizational needs off their plates and providing helpful, simplifying solutions."

On the flip side, 66 percent of U.K. respondents and 61 percent of China respondents believed Creating it Myself would be more prominent.

Oneto noted: "In the U.K., two trends give credence to the Create Myself trend-the rise of cooking-by-scratch (called "Scratch Cookery"), driven by economic conditions, and the increase in self-created content, such as music, videos, and imagery, driven by new technologies that make self-creation easier. In China this is likely influenced by the rise of the entrepreneurial spirit, with increasing opportunities to start one's own business."

Oneto concluded: "The Create Myself trend is influenced by the building movement towards what some are calling the ‘maker economy.' With lowered barriers to production and distribution, new tools for making goods on one's own, and new platforms upon which businesses can be built, creators are becoming business builders, not just hobbyists. Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of WIRED magazine, and author of Makers: The New Industrial Revolution is championing the movement towards manufacturing democratization. It's essentially the next generation of DIY. Some may make things solely for their own use, while others will build businesses that in decades past were never possible."

For more in-depth data, click to read more and access "Anthem Sightings, Vol.4, 2012: The Forecast Issue." http://www.schawk.com/knowledge-center/white-papers

Click to watch Kathy Oneto, vice president, brand strategy at Anthem Worldwide in this recent BrandSquare Live Webinar "Inflection Point: Where Will 2013 Take Us?" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JNWry9cnfM