When marketing your business, it makes sense to pay attention to what your consumers are concerned with. One way to learn their issues is to look at the top consumer trends. Then review what’s going on in your target market and put some thought into how you can add features to your product or service line, or modify your products and services to meet these needs. Here are 10 consumer trends for 2020, excerpted from an article in Forbes.

1. Family and Home Productivity

Since the majority of households have both parents working, parents need new software tools and services to help manage their lives at home as well as at work. 2020 also brings the trends of teleworking, home offices and home study spaces for school-aged children.

2. Next-Generation Meat

The growth of companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat indicate that consumers are cutting back on animal protein and looking towards plant-based alternatives. What is the next-generation trend in your industry?

3. Personalized Healthcare

We’re seeing more telemedicine and additional options for care payments, along with many more direct-to-consumer health brands. How can healthcare access be modified to fit the modern lifestyle?

4. Autonomous Conveniences

How can you innovate to take advantage of consumer downtime while they are traveling, for example if autonomous vehicles become the norm? Opportunities abound for the entire consumer experience, including entertainment, productivity, communication and personal services.

5. Mindfulness

The term “meditation” has crept into our lexicon and people are caring more about how they spend their time for self-care, mental wellness, and work/life balance.

6. Education

Since prices on higher education keep rising, consumers are moving towards different forms of education like bootcamps, job retraining, remote learning and bite-sized learning where they can learn skills at an affordable price.

7. Consumer Privacy

Consumers are interested in protecting their individual data and trusting the government less nowadays. Gain their trust through promotion of ethical treatment of data and privacy.

8. Live Digital Experiences

Many of our activities have shifted online, like shopping, gaming, and sharing. An increase in real-time activity is becoming a trend, including shared streaming and shared experiences. Videos are also garnering huge online interest. Showcase your products and services, hold a virtual seminar, or teach through your own set of videos–live or taped.

9. Techies of All Ages

It’s not just the younger generation who’s tech-savvy these days. Consumers in their 50s, 60s and 70s are using the same technology as the young folks, with different needs. Consider how you can serve the older demographic to make their lives easier and more enriched.

10. Shifting Financial Habits

Innovative startups are interrupting the business-as-usual financial world, and younger generations think differently about home ownership, saving oney, investing, what they’ll spend money on, and how to pay for it. The gig economy is growing, and people are career-hopping, so the historical retirement savings paradigm may not apply.

You may not be on the cusp of creating the next consumer trend, but every business can find a way to tap into the power of these shifts in consumer behavior. You don’t have to do them all. Pick one that you can address through your products and services and start there.

If you’d like help defining how you can use consumer trends to refocus your marketing, contact All the Buzz.

— Excerpted from “10 Consumer Trends That Will Spark Innovation in 2020,” by Sara Deshpande, Forbes.