Download the summary of our latest report

The automotive industry has a clear, shared vision of a dramatically transformed future with electronic vehicles, autonomous vehicles, connected cars, shared ownership, and subscriptions. But are consumers ready to transition just yet? The pandemic has changed how much people travel, and this leaves us with the big question: how will the economic damage caused by COVID impact the car industry?

To further understand where consumers stand and what economic recovery looks like for the automotive industry —one of the hardest hit by the pandemic —we looked at five significant trends. We explored what’s at stake for each of these five trends, evaluated the rate of progress, and put the spotlight on innovative brands and solutions leading the way.

  1. Post-COVID caution: A battered industry navigates massive uncertainty.
  2. Plugged In: The electronic vehicle revolution is happening but still powered by subsidies.
  3. In Control: Artificial Intelligence is enhancing, not replacing, human driving abilities.
  4. Connected Vehicles
  5. Older Drivers, Younger Drivers

Ｄownload the full report and read the summary of the top 5 trends shaping the future of the automotive industry, with a spotlight on the brands that are capitalizing on these trends with their cutting-edge innovative solutions.

#1 Post-COVID caution: A battered industry navigates massive uncertainty.

According to analysts, Jato Dynamics, global new car sales fell by over 12% in 2020, that’s around twice the drop recorded in IEA figures for the worst year of the last financial crisis (2007-2008).

While this drop was only 2% in China, the automotive industry felt a heavy blow globally. France, Germany, the UK, and Brazil saw declines of over 20%.

Consumer behavior changed dramatically, and while new car sales declined due to the pandemic, the automobile aftermarket flourished as people tried to preserve their existing vehicles. Consumers started putting off purchases of luxury cars, hybrids, and EVs.

The early COVID-19 spread brought with it a new innovative trend —virtual showrooms, whereby consumers could move all or at least some part of their car buying experience online. In many parts of the world, COVID restrictions will become a part of life indefinitely, and therefore, this trend is here to stay.

Learn more about how the pandemic has reshaped the automotive industry here by downloading our free report.

#2 Plugged In: The electronic vehicle revolution is happening but still powered by subsidies.

As with much of the electronic vehicle (EV) revolution, subsidies and regulation may be needed for mass EV adoption.

In Norway, subsidies and tax breaks make the cost of an EV virtually identical to that of a non-electric car. 74% of the new cars sold in Norway are EVs, whereas it’s just 2% in the US. In the USA and China, EV sales plateaued when subsidies were reduced or phased out.

In 2021, US President Joe Biden took a step toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions signing an executive order aimed at making half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric, a move made with backing from the biggest US automakers.

Amazon is started testing electric delivery vans in 2021. The vehicles were developed in partnership with start-up Rivian, which raised $8 billion from investors, including Amazon through its $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund. The fund includes an agreement to purchase 100,000 electric vehicles from the start-up as part of its ambitious push to make Amazon’s fleet run entirely on renewable energy. Each van has a range of 150 miles per charge.

Before consumers join the EV revolution, they want to know there is a plan for infrastructure for charging stations.

A Deloitte study showed that consumers were putting off plans to buy EVs due to price and driving range. With ranges for EVs now often well over 400km, that is taken care of, but there needs to be a visible EV infrastructure in terms of charging stations. Therefore, at the moment, innovators need to tackle the two most critical factors —price and infrastructure.

Wireless charging stations are an essential solution. Although the technology exists, firms don’t want to build the infrastructure without enough cars; and manufacturers don’t want to create more expensive wireless options without that infrastructure.

Learn more about how Electronic Vehicles or EVs are perceived and the challenges ahead here by downloading our free report.

#3 In Control: Artificial Intelligence is enhancing, not replacing, human driving abilities.

Even though Tesla has made huge strides with its self-driving cars, the adoption is still slow due to consumer trust issues.

Moreover, driverless cars pose problems —of AI, of laws and ethics, and public perception. 

In this scenario, autonomous vehicles with Driver Assistance Systems are becoming the norm in many markets. 

The ultra-high-end Cadillac Escalade Platinum, launched in Summer 2021, is the first vehicle to boast GM’s Super Cruise technology. The vehicle handles your highway driving for you on major mapped roads. However, your car monitors you and will warn you if you stop paying attention to the road for more than five seconds before switching back to manual.

AI is set to become more prevalent in vehicles, learn more about the challenges for these enhancements here.

#4 Connected Vehicles

So far, automotive and infrastructure innovation has happened chiefly at the individual car level. However, traffic jams and rush hours occur at a network level when all those individual cars interact.

We see a change in this direction as businesses and transportation planners recognize the idea of the “mobility ecosystem” —where software platforms can connect, manage and mitigate network-level inefficiencies between transport services and their users.

Navigation apps showing real-time traffic data are already being used widely. We also see more adoption of smart speed limits and smart traffic light systems.

The next generation of connected vehicles goes deeper and broader with tools that allow bikes or mobility scooters to connect to the same systems cars use. Connected vehicles also make fleet management —of buses or utility vehicles, more efficient.

What are the implications for individual drivers? For the mobility ecosystem to work, each car requires a digital identity. They do, however, present the issue of privacy.

Your car’s digital identity can also be linked to your own distinct identity as a driver, which makes the car more secure with keyless entry using facial or voice recognition and biometric sensors.

Our innovation spotlight is on Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturing giant which makes the iPhone. Foxconn is developing an EV platform that any brand can use to bring vehicles to market —in the same way as the Android phone platform. Foxconn bets that the real differentiator in the future EV market won’t be looks or performance; it’ll be the array of connected features and AI capabilities they possess.

A connected mobility ecosystem is one of the trends emerging in the transportation and automotive industry. Download our report to discover more about this emerging trend.

#5 Older Drivers, Younger Drivers

The automotive trends influenced by the aging population and the changing expectations of Gen Z are creating significant changes. For older people, AI can help extend their driving lifetime. For the young, the big question is whether ownership will decline in favor of sharing and subscription mobility.

Late Millennial and Gen Z consumers are a post-ownership generation —they prefer renting to buying houses or vehicles. Car manufacturers have been trying to introduce the idea of Mobility-as-a-Service solutions, which replaces car ownership with car-sharing or subscription-based offers at a lower cost.

However, while Mobility-as-a-Service has had some successes in the bikes and e-Scooter sectors, especially in busy cities, it’s been tougher ask for cars.

Overall, we see a shift away from the brand to features and capabilities.

If you need more detailed information to help make decisions for your organization or brand, download the full report here.

To learn more, download the full report: Automotive Trends For 2022

To learn more about how these trends, download the full report. Alternatively if you’d like to speak to us to understand more about how these trends are playing out in your market, get in touch.

Our lifestyle is still undergoing significant transformation in response to Covid. The overseas trend is getting blurred even more. Our Introduction to Overseas Trend’s seminars series is for getting rid of such a problem when considering overseas marketing research.

This time, our local team members from across our Southeast Asia offices introduced the lifestyle changes during the pandemic as well as provided anecdotes and case studies of the products and services that are rapidly growing in the region. Let’s catch up by watching the recordings below.

Watch the session in English

Watch the session in Japanese

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

Trusted by

We are delighted to share our recent successes at the Agency of the Year Awards in Singapore, winning 2 golds and 1 bronze. We took home Market Research Company of the Year Singapore as well as Consultant of the Year, marking the first time a market research company has ever won two awards in one year. Managing Director of Kadence Singapore, Phil Steggals, was also recognised with a bronze in the category of Agency Leader of the Year.

Commenting on the award successes, Phil said:

“Whilst the last year has presented more of challenge than many of us have faced previously, it also provided us with opportunities. We were able to maintain strong business performance through our existing partnerships with clients and were able to showcase the impact that research can have with new clients. I am extremely proud of all the team at Kadence for their energy, team spirit and resourcefulness in continuing to provide genuine openness and innovation to our clients.”

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

About the Agency of the Year awards

The Agency of the Year awards are organised by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE and seek to recognise Singapore’s top performing agencies. Finalists are assessed by a panel of esteemed client-side marketers to determine the standout agencies.

Our award wins:

Market Research Agency of the Year Singapore – GOLD

We are absolutely thrilled to have been named Singapore’s Market Research Agency of the Year for 2021! This is the second time that Kadence has won this award. We were also recognised as Market Research Agency of the Year (Singapore) in 2019. The judges commented on the concerted effort that Kadence took to help promote the impact that research can have, its flexibility to transition strategic projects from a real world to a digital setting and its focus on educating clients, helping them to minimise the challenge of operating with reduced research budgets.

Consultant of the Year – GOLD

This is the second year in a row that Kadence has been recognised as Consultant of the Year, also taking home the gong in 2020. The judges recognised the pivot made to help clients minimise the changes brought about by the pandemic and the company’s commitment to being a thinking partner focused on innovation and resourcefulness.

Agency Leader of the Year – BRONZE

Managing Director of Kadence Singapore, Phil Steggals also picked up a bronze for Agency Leader of the Year, recognising his success in navigating the agency through the challenges of Covid-19. Phil was able to embody a community spirit amongst the team ensuring that help was available when needed during the uncertain times. He also oversaw a major pivot to digital methods and a consultative approach to understanding clients ever changing requirements.

We’ve bolstered our India team, appointing Vipin Arora as an Executive Director.

Vipin will head up the Insight Practice in India. He’ll also lead the firm’s business development efforts, helping to build and nurture valued client relationships in the country.

Vipin has over 25 years’ industry experience. He brings expertise from senior positions at large research agencies including Kantar and Nielsen, as well as from disruptive digital start-ups leading the charge in online and mobile research.

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

“We’re delighted to welcome Vipin to the team” said Aman Makkar, Managing Director of Kadence International’s India office. “We’re committed to investing in the right people to strengthen our offering and Vipin brings a unique blend of experiences that will help us achieve this. His broad ranging research expertise will benefit our team as we seek to grow our Insight Practice, whilst his experience in online research will be invaluable in helping us further build our capabilities in this area to meet clients’ evolving needs.”

We are absolutely thrilled to be finalists at this year’s AURA Awards for Innovation of the Year in conjunction with Asahi Europe & International. The award nomination recognizes our work using augmented reality to drive innovation in pack and concept testing.

This new approach harnesses augmented reality models, built in-house by our design team, that respondents can interact with at home. The result? Rich, detailed feedback to fuel the innovation and design process without the need for a physical prototype or bringing respondents together centrally.

We conducted a pilot of the technology alongside Asahi Europe & International, which validated a number of benefits over established pack and concept testing methods, including respondents being able to better visualize what the concepts would look like in real life, and spontaneously commenting on critical details of the pack design. Read the full case study to find out more about the pilot.

The AURAs are one of the most respected awards in the market research industry, and are judged by members of AURA, an organization of client side research and insight professionals. Innovation of the Year is a brand new category for 2021 that seeks to recognize solutions that are helping to “deliver better insights or deliver insights better.”

The winners will be announced at the AURA Awards Dinner in London on 19th July.

AURA Innovation of the Year award

We are thrilled to announce that we’re finalists in 3 categories at Singapore’s Agency of the Year Awards. We’re shortlisted for:

  • Market Research Agency of the Year
  • Consultant of the Year
  • Agency Leader of the Year

The Agency of the Year Awards are organized by Marketing Magazine and seek to recognize the country’s best agencies. The awards are judged by an esteemed panel of senior client-side marketers. You can see a list of all finalists on the Marketing website.

In 2019, we were named Market Research Agency of the Year and in 2020, we took home the trophy for Consultant of the Year. Hear the Managing Director of our Singapore office, Phil Steggals, speak to Marketing Magazine about the award win and what Kadence is doing differently.

Find out more about our Singapore office or get in touch, if you’d like to discuss a potential project.

The global health and wellness industry is booming. Already a top priority for many consumers pre-Covid, health and wellness has come into even sharper focus as a result of the pandemic. Research from McKinsey estimates that the global wellness market is worth $1.5 trillion and is growing fast – at a rate of 5-10% per year. But what are the big health and wellness trends for 2021 that brands need to watch?

Four key health and wellness trends for 2021

This blog post summarizes 4 key trends from our latest report: Health and wellness trends for 2021. These are:

  1. My health on my terms. Advances in tracking and testing are facilitating personalized health and nutrition recommendations on demand
  2. Mental fitness. Consumers will take a more proactive and preventative approach to mental health
  3. The science of sleep. The global sleep economy shows no signs of slowing down, but innovation in the category will be driven by a new focus on circadian health.
  4. Function at the fore. No longer limited to just physical health, brands are focusing on products to better the body and the mind.

Read the summary below or download the full report to learn more about these trends and how brands can respond. It contains inspiring cases studies of companies across the world who are innovating to capitalize on these trends.

1. My health on my terms

One of the most significant developments in health and wellness has been the rapid advances in tracking and testing, which are facilitating personalized health and wellness recommendations on demand.  

Wearables are becoming ever more sophisticated. The models on the market now allow consumers to track more granular metrics than ever before, with Mind Body Green hailing this a new era of “micro-tracking”. Not only are wearables collecting a wider range of data, they’re using this to better empower their users. Oura, for instance, the world’s first wearable ring, provides a “readiness score” to help users understand when they are at their best – both mentally and physically – as well as when they should focus on recovery.

Similar developments are happening in the world of testing, with companies springing up that allow users to complete a series of tests at home, and then personalize their recommendations based on this. We profile the best of these in the full report but the really interesting thing about these examples is that, for the first time, they have real potential to enter the mainstream. In the past, in-home testing has been a barrier to personalized health and nutrition, but now, greater familiarity with the concept as a result of the pandemic could open the door to new services which combine tracking with testing to create hyper personalized recommendations at speed.

There’s certainly interest in these kinds of services, with 88% of consumers in the US, UK and Germany prioritizing personalization in health and wellness as much as, or more than, they did in the past two to three years, according to the McKinsey study.

2. Mental fitness

Over the last decade, mental health has become an increasingly important part of the conversation when it comes to health and wellness. This has come into even sharper focus as a result of the pandemic. The impact of the virus and the resulting lockdowns have seen anxiety and depression skyrocket and, in line with this, mental health has become a key focus. In China, for instance, 87% of consumers are focused on taking care of their mental health, according to research by PWC conducted after the onset of the pandemic.

This isn’t a short- term trend. Research we conducted to determine which of the behaviors adopted during the pandemic will persist in the long-term found that undertaking activities to support mental health is one of the areas with greatest sticking power. Businesses are increasingly prioritizing mental health too. Recent research we conducted in partnership with Bloomberg found that 66% of companies are engaging an external vendor to provide healthcare / wellbeing training for their employees and half are looking to support employees with mental health and stress management.

In line with this growing recognition of the importance of mental health, we see the concept of mental fitness coming to the fore. What do we mean by this? This a move towards taking a more proactive and preventative approach to mental health, where consumers manage their mental health in the same way that they manage their physical health. The US is a market that’s really leading the way here. We’ve already seen a whole host of brands gaining traction but one of the most interesting is a company called Coa, which bills itself as the country’s first “mental health gym”. We profile Coa and other brands leading the way in our full report.

Free report

Health and wellness trends for 2021

The global health and wellness industry is going from strength to strength. Already important to consumers before the pandemic, health and wellness have come into even sharper focus, with the industry undergoing significant transformation in response to Covid.

To help brands navigate these changes, we’ve developed a new report exploring 4 key trends that will shape health and wellness in 2021, profiling the brands and innovations leading the way.

Download the report

3. The science of sleep

Sleep is big business – with the industry set to be worth a massive $585 billion by 2024 according to Statistica. The impact of the pandemic is fueling growth in this sector – with consumers placing an increasing emphasis on quality sleep against a backdrop of anxiety and stress.

This is leading to a more scientific approach to sleep. The Global Wellness Summit predicts that a new focus on circadian health will shape the products and services we see in the category. (A number of these – from a smart mattress to connected lighting – are profiled in our report.) Circadian health relates to aligning behaviors with our natural circadian rhythms – 24 hour cycles such as the sleep-wake cycle, which are influenced by external factors like natural light and temperature.

Shifting the way we think about sleep to place greater emphasis on circadian rhythms could have broader implications when it comes to other behaviors, for instance, disconnecting from devices before bed or the way we care for our skin, making this an interesting space to watch.

4. Function at the fore

The fourth and final big trend we see is a growing interest in functional food and beverages that support better physical and mental health. The most evident application of this is in the field of immunity boosting food and drink. According to re­search from Innova Market Insights, 60% of consumers globally are seeking out food and beverage products that support immune health and we’ve seen a seen a slew of product launches in this space as brands seek to capitalize on this trend. Increasingly, we’re seeing innovation extending beyond this to food and beverage products that support the mind. We feature the best of these in the full report. For brands looking to tap into this trend, this is a relatively nascent category so there’s real potential here, as well as for cross-over products to improve both physical and mental health.

To learn more, download the full report: Health and wellness trends for 2021

To learn more about how these trends, how they are evolving and the brands leading the way, download the full report. Alternatively if you’d like to speak to us to understand more about how these trends are playing out in your market, get in touch.