Introducing seven meta-needs for the next decade

Now we come to the final touch in our description of the process of creating the emerging need states in ConsumerShift. The postmodern and integral values (discussed in chapters 3 and 4), the catalysts (aka macro-trends in chapter 5) were brought into the mix with the universal needs and situations and through several rounds of clustering activities, 23 need states were identified.

A list of 23 is too long to be useful, so they were grouped into 7 meta-needs. These meta-needs and needs states are offered as useful starting points for market researchers, new product and business developers, and strategists as targets for identifying opportunities to better serve consumers in the future. The seven meta-needs (which we’ll characterize in future posts):

Keeping it Real: Preference for the Straight Story
Pushing the Envelope: Challenging Performance Boundaries
Every Moment Matters: Taking Back Control of One’s Time
The [Relentless] Pursuit of Happiness: Taking Responsibility for One’s Well-Being
Community First: Preference for Things Local
We [Really] Are the World: Feeling Responsible for the Well-Being of the Plan
Glass Houses: Everyone is Watching

Andy Hines

About Andy Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.

Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.

Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.

In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

About Andy Hines

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