LSN : News : Foresight Friday: Fiona Harkin, director of foresight

Rival denim brands Diesel and Lee join forces to promote sustainability

Diesel Loves Lee, Italy

Italy – Fashion powerhouse Diesel is steering towards sustainability through collaborative efforts with the launch of the Diesel Loves initiative. The programme challenges traditional brand collaborations, uniting Diesel with denim rival Lee for an inaugural capsule line designed to combat environmental waste.

The unique Diesel Loves Lee collection pioneers a purposeful approach, using existing materials from unsold stock to address the industry’s overproduction issue. The limited-edition range of 3,000 pairs of jeans seamlessly blends Diesel and Lee aesthetics, with each pair being one of a kind. The trousers feature Diesel denim on the front and Lee on the back or vice versa.

Diesel Loves is a call to action for brands to collectively tackle challenges, urging competitors to share materials, manufacturing and creativity. The capsule collection with Lee made its debut in December 2023 in Europe and Japan, but a global release is scheduled for March 2024, marking a transformative stride in sustainable fashion collaborations.

In our Neo-collectivism macrotrend report, we analysed how consumers and brands are shunning individualism in favour of alliances decentralising industries and redistributing power at scale.

Strategic opportunity

Consider launching initiatives that encourage industry-wide collaboration. Position your brand as a leader in fostering unity and shared responsibility

Mercedes-Benz leaps into luxury real estate in Dubai

UAE – Mercedes-Benz is expanding its ambitions from the road to the home. The automotive brand will launch Mercedes-Benz Places, its first real estate venture, in Dubai.

Developed in partnership with local real estate company Binghatti Properties, Mercedes-Benz Places will bring a 341-metre and 65-storey high luxury residential tower to downtown Dubai. The architectural project will follow the Mercedes-Benz signature design philosophy of ‘sensual purity’, creating a living space that echoes the look and feel of the brand’s cars. The residences will combine smart home technologies with intelligent mobility solutions, delivering comfort and convenience for Mercedes-Benz fans.

‘We are going beyond automotive to create outstanding brand moments,’ explained Britta Seeger, a member of the Mercedes-Benz Group board, in a press release. ‘Our aim is to create new, desirable grounds that inherit our brand's DNA and give our customers a place to arrive, unwind and come home to.’

At LS:N Global, we started tracking the rise of Automotive Accommodation back in 2022. For our latest research on Branded Living, read our Home States Futures: Residential Retail macrotrend.

Mercedes-Benz Places and Binghatti, Dubai

Strategic opportunity

Consumer demand for Branded Living concepts presents many business opportunities. How can you meet your superfans on their home turf, importing products or services into their residential bubble?

Foresight Friday: Fiona Harkin, director of foresight

Photography by The Future Laboratory

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, director of foresight Fiona Harkin highlights how 2024 will prove to be a pivotal election year.

: Countries representing half the world’s population – that’s 4bn people – will head to the polls this year. We’re talking continent-shaking elections, from Taiwan, Pakistan and India to Mexico, Mali, Chad, Senegal and the EU Parliament. Not to put too much of a downer on a shiny, fresh and new year, but it’s democracy that’s up for the vote. While in the UK it might seem like a case of clowns to the left and jokers to the right, we’re still stuck in the middle with a Reasonably Functioning Democracy – but that’s not the case elsewhere. Yes, we know the upcoming Russian elections will be a mere expression of Putin’s power, but if you begin to hear a feverish scrabbling sound then make no mistake about its source – US allies doom-prepping for the implications of a Trump 2.0 presidency as it sets about deploying the constipatory-sounding new politics of TrumpHarderism. We won’t be asking this year if truth matters, we’ll be figuring out ways to navigate a world in which there’s no longer a single universal truth. Brace yourselves.

Quote of the week

‘We will know whether democracy lives or dies by the end of 2024’

- Nobel Peace Prize laureate and investigative journalist Maria Ressa (source: Politico)

Stat: Time-poor consumers are turning to snacks to replace meals in the US

Together: A Collection for The Macallan by Stella and Mary McCartney

US – According to Frito-Lay’s annual Snack Index, the line between snacks and meals is increasingly blurring for US consumers. After surveying 2,000 US adults in December 2023, the index found that the average American takes only 52 minutes per day in total to prepare, eat and enjoy their meals. One-third of consumers note having even less time, scraping together less than 30 minutes a day to prepare and enjoy meals.

As a result, consumers are integrating snack products into meals; over half of consumers use snacks as a key ingredient for no-preparation dinners once a week, with 44% saying this is because they are too busy to cook. The index also revealed that 55% of consumers cite protein as a snack’s most important nutritional attribute, while 60% report looking to their favourite snack product to provide energy at least once a week.

In our Kids’ Snack Market, we explored how post-Covid snacking habits and growing alarm over ultra-processed foods have led to a spike in demand for functional ingredients and healthier snack alternatives for younger consumers too.

Strategic opportunity

The better-for-you snack market is crowded, but there are opportunities to create, and invest in, nutritionally complete snack products that function as meal replacements for time-pressed consumers