Journal of Creative Communications 3:3 (2008): 305–317 SAGE PUBLICATIONS Los Angeles z London z New Delhi z Singapore DOI: 10.1177/097325861000300304 New Trends and their Impact on Business and Society

Macro trends provide many insights for consumer trends because they describe major cultural shifts in consumers ’ lifestyles and desires. They are the broad forces of change that create the future context of soci-eties. As consumer trends accelerate and spread, they provide steady inspiration that grounds effective business ideas and tactics. Understanding them and determining their signifi cance allows us to strategically anticipate and adapt to change, and alerts us to the possibilities in our future business environments. A creative business must be able to spot these trends early by understanding consumer wants and needs. It also comes from a belief that an organization may not have all the new ideas. To meet the new chal-lenges, one response is forming strategic partnerships. Many companies are reaching out outside their own organizations in a variety of ways towards meeting these newly emerging challenges. Macro trends track the appearance and progress of emerging global phenomena, such as market moti-vators and consumer values. Understanding and utilizing macro trends is now seen as a prerequisite for business performance. Understanding them and determining their signifi cance to current business and social challenges help in identifying new opportunities, facilitate strategic anticipation and alert us to the threats in the future business environments