Future Consumer 2027: Why emotion is money
Our emotions are becoming a key driver in purchasing behaviour, influencing how we shop, what we buy, and the brands we want to engage with.
Deeper connections drive profitability
In recent years, we’ve witnessed the growing significance of emotions within society. Google searches related to “climate anxiety” or “eco-anxiety” jumped 4,590% from 2018 to 2023, and even Disney capitalised on our feelings with blockbuster animation Inside Out 2, featuring emotions as characters and generating $1.69bn in global box office earnings. This demonstrates a key opportunity for brands to understand and fulfil consumers’ desires for deeper emotional connections.
A Harvard Business Review study reveals that fully connected customers are 52% more valuable, driving greater purchase frequency and recommendations. By understanding consumer emotions, your brand can shape how your audience reacts to your products and experiences, ultimately influencing purchasing decisions and fostering brand love.
Eliminate “wait and see” from your strategy
Read by over 31,000 brand leaders each year, our flagship Future Consumer forecast identifies the key sentiments that will shape how consumers think, feel and act in the years to come. In this year’s white paper, we reveal three of our six forecasted emotions expected to influence consumer behaviour in 2027, enabling you to eliminate the guesswork and create products and experiences that resonate with their thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
A sneak peek into 2027: Witherwill
Witherwill – a word coined by John Koenig, author of the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows – is defined as a longing to be free from responsibility, and it will be a key consumer emotion and coping mechanism in 2027 as people grapple with pressures on multiple levels.
Witherwill will be a reaction against the great exhaustion, with workplace and digital stressors creating a pervasive sense of burnout and overwhelm. As people push back to explore a slower existence with lower stakes, fewer to-do lists, more meaningful connections and less loneliness, brands have an opportunity to offer them the respite they need.
Access the full forecast to discover the other emotions driving your future consumers’ behaviour.
Witherwill in action: the power of play
In an era of loneliness and stress, consumers will look for brands that foster joy as an added value to their purchase; 54% of global consumers say they want a feeling of joy when shopping online (*Criteo).
When creating URL or IRL campaigns, brands should leverage ‘kid intelligence’, using a childlike mindset to unlock innovative ideas. This will appeal to the emerging kidult consumer group and reap the rewards of nostalgia – a sentiment that can encourage people to spend more money.
A global study by **LEGO found that 85% of parents believe play is key to fostering a more inclusive worldview. This supports the idea that play is a vital human need, not only for children, but for all generations.
Read our new flagship white paper, Future Consumer 2027: Emotions, where we reveal three key emotions set to influence consumer behaviour as we approach 2027, to help drive your brand’s long-term success.