Intentional consumption is one of Euromonitor International’s five new Trending Topics for the year ahead. We have identified these topics as the most crucial cross-industry trends that businesses need to prioritise to remain competitive.
Consumers are experiencing greater anxiety about global stability and their own financial, social, physical and mental wellbeing. Over a third of respondents in Euromonitor International’s Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles survey in 2025 believed the world will become more dangerous over the next five years. This growing disquiet is driving the public to exert more and more control over the effect and fallout of their consumption, and is particularly relevant at this time of greater market volatility and geopolitical tensions.
Protect your brand against downside risk and leverage growth opportunities by understanding and empowering consumers’ outcome-orientated, evidence-seeking and mindful mindset shift across four key areas:
- Increased focus on desired outcomes of consumption choices;
- Interest in evidence and science-backed propositions (often which match prior assumptions);
- More sophisticated recreation in the form of mindful indulgence and moderation within new occasions;
Self-regulation of impact on themselves (primarily) and their environment (where possible).
For consumers, need states are the end, but brand owners must start at the beginning
Consumers are focusing on the desired outcomes of their consumption, driving the resonance of need state-orientated propositions. This represents a step change in consumer mindsets, with brands needing to respond holistically. Need states span emotional/mental to physical needs, including mood modulation, mental stimulation and physical optimisation. Brands must leverage frontier ingredients and nuanced formulations to service existing and emerging needs.
Use transparency and certification to respond to selective evidence seeking
Consumers are seeking product propositions with evidence of benefit and/or absence of harm, driven by a quest for natural products and a lack of trust in corporate offerings. They are donning their “lab coats” and seeking their own evidence, often through digital means. Brands must respond with transparency around formulation and evidence-backed claims. The 2024 UK launch of M&S’s Brain Food range, tapping into the 6% CAGR for brain health food and drink products globally between 2019 and 2024, exemplifies this leveraging of scientific credibility. The range, covering several functional food categories, champions brain health-supporting nutrients, and touts collaboration with the British Nutrition Foundation.
Help consumers balance control and release in new recreation contexts
Consumers are shifting towards more sophisticated and mindful recreation, driven by health, financial and social concerns. This is manifesting as increased moderation and reduced alcohol consumption, as well as strong uptake of non-alcoholic alternatives, which are projected to grow at an 8% constant value CAGR globally between 2024 and 2029. New, health-adjacent social occasions are emerging, requiring product alternatives that provide release and social energy, while allowing consumers to retain control.
Consumers are leaning into self-regulation, driven by a desire to exert control over the impact of their consumption on themselves and the environment. This trend is driven by concerns about personal health and environmental issues, and to address this, brands must lead with dual benefit products that touch on both wellness and sustainability functionality. The epitome of self-regulation and intentional consumption, The Lab Co is a global premium home care brand with a range of laundry and cleaning products that it positions as 100% non-toxic, effective, clean and safe for both individuals (“safe to breathe”) and the wider environment.
How to win with intentional consumption
Consumers are craving credible partners to help them navigate the volatility-induced age of anxiety we are experiencing and prepare for the escalating pressures they anticipate.
For brands, winning and losing will be distinguished by an ability to put the consumer in control by innovating holistically, with nuanced, evidence-backed functionality to meet evolving (and often apparently conflicting) needs. For example:
- Aligning a product with need states is not just a final marketing step, but a continuous process woven throughout development. This involves a synergy of the product’s outcome, format, formulation and target audience.
- Brand owners should honour increased consumer interest in ingredients and selective evidence-seeking by maximising transparency regarding formulations and making evidence-backed claims.
- Creating nuanced, multi-element propositions for mindful recreation that operate across a spectrum of release versus control and targeting new consumption occasions, such as gaming and running clubs, will ensure brands meet consumers with solutions that resonate.
- Self-regulation is a response to the external chaos we all face, and brands that assist consumers to exert control on the impact of their consumption will benefit from higher pricing and loyalty.
Learn more in our report, Intentional Consumption and the Quest for Control to protect your brand against downside risk and leverage growth opportunities stemming from consumers’ mindful and deliberative shift.
Discover Euromonitor’s other Trending Topics to help you strategise for the year ahead.
