LSN : News : Foresight Friday: Fiona Harkin, Foresight Editor

Paco Rabanne refurbishes brand identity

Rabanne

Paris – Spanish luxury house Paco Rabanne is planning global expansion and is implementing changes across multiple fronts to build a more cohesive brand.

The Puig-owned fashion and fragrance house has kick-started its makeover by simplifying its name to Rabanne. Following this, it is looking at DTC expansion with a flagship boutique in New York to showcase its new visual identity across its product lines and retail spaces.

During its spring 2024 collection on the runway, Rabanne showcased an expansive range including eveningwear, denim and knitwear. By 1 October 2023 the brand will launch its make-up line on its e-commerce site which will also be available across the counters of department store groups Selfridges in the UK, Sephora in Europe and Ulta Beauty in the US.

This unification of the brand’s various facets was first proposed by the Rabanne team nearly 10 years ago, and the strategy has since been implemented incrementally. Logging 40% growth in recent years, the brand's resurgence through the crucial contribution of designer Julien Dossena shows the potential of heritage luxury brands gaining success in today’s markets, as tracked in our luxury section.

Strategic opportunity

It is essential that brands continually adapt their visual and brand identity to keep up with changing consumer demographics and current values. Being an Elastic Brand in today’s market by implementing ongoing internal renovations is a proven route to success

Hiki and Getty Images strive to better represent the autistic community

#AutisticOutLoud campaign by Hiki and Getty Images, US

Somewhere Good, US

US – Hiki, the world's largest friendship and dating app for the autistic community, has partnered with Getty Images in June 2023 to unveil the #AutisticOutLoud campaign. The initiative aims to enhance the genuine representation of autistic individuals through curated images and videos created by autistic content-creators and photographers. The activation will contribute to Getty Images' Disability Collection and Unsplash, allowing media platforms and publishers worldwide to access the content and promote awareness.

With an estimated 15–20% of the global population being neurodivergent, the campaign seeks to showcase the diversity and resilience of the autistic community. ‘The autistic community is not a monolith,’ said Jamil Karriem, founder and CEO of Hiki. He emphasises the need to move beyond stereotypical portrayals of autistic individuals in mainstream media, which often focus on white males and infantilise the community.

'I wanted to be a part of this project because I realise there needs to be more realistic autism representation in the media and while this project won’t completely solve the issues, it is a good stepping stone for it,' said Gillis Williams, an autistic content-creator involved in #AutisticOutLoud.

In America puts the new in neurodivergence, we previously analysed how mainstream US businesses are adopting accessibility strategies, offers and imagery tailored to the neurodivergent community – given inclusivity is no longer optional.

Strategic opportunity

Adopt a more intersectional point of view when designing visual campaigns, products and services for autistic consumers. From people living with Asperger’s syndrome to those affected by ADHD, are you aware of the variety of autism spectrum disorders and the variety of people of all ages and ethnicities living with them?

Foresight Friday: Fiona Harkin, Foresight Editor

The Future Laboratory team offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, The Future Laboratory’s foresight editor Fiona Harkin discusses the real return of the real (yes, really), the quiet economy and rogue digital companions.

: I’m a Gen Xer, so I’m inherently attracted to the clunk-click sound and physicality of a lost generation of electronic goods: Walkman buttons, Decca record players, BBC Acorn computers, Nintendo’s Snoopy Panorama. Yet, somehow, the team at Swedish electronics company Teenage Engineering have re-ignited this now defunct yet delicious tactility with its TP7 Field Recorder, a digital recorder with an analogue interface. Does it suggest a return to skeuomorphism in interface design (remember when Apple Notes actually looked like a yellow notepad?) as this Idle Gaze substack discusses? Maybe. However, it’s unfortunately billed as a ‘genuinely rewarding man-machine experience’. So none of your customers are women, Teenage Engineering?

: Digital companion app AI Girlfriend has been launched. For a one-time special purchase price of £40 ($49.99, €46) you can have your own perfect companion. I’m waiting for AI Boyfriend to launch, but in the meantime, I do hope this particular AI doesn’t go rogue in that scary ChatGPT ‘we must kill everyone else’ kind of way… I foresee an entirely new field of therapy rising up to meet that particular challenge.

: I’m not sure I want to live for ever. Interview With A Vampire put me right off that. But our new macrotrend, Longevity Lifestyles, acknowledges the growing reality of living longer, healthier lives. And with that comes those existential questions about how we may choose to die. Explore the ‘opt-out’ mindset in this Future Views report.

Quote of the Week

‘I always think of the antidote to our day-to-day. I think of the role of silence in travel. Time is precious, we haven’t figured out how to freeze it. But when you think of silence – the opportunities to escape noise – that will become more precious. Quiet parks, for example, the sound of natural noise will become more popular, a bigger trend’

– Tom Marchant of travel service Black Tomato, speaking at the FT Business of Luxury summit. Read our analysis of the event here – and our microtrend, Quiet Mode

Stat: Vaccines predicted to revolutionise cancer care within five years

Photography by Darlene Alderson

US – Scientists from the National Cancer Institute are on the brink of a groundbreaking advance in cancer treatment with the development of vaccines that could transform the way the disease is managed. Unlike traditional vaccines that prevent diseases, these experimental jabs aim to shrink tumours and prevent cancer recurrence. Promising gains have been reported in experimental treatments targeting breast, lung, melanoma and pancreatic cancer.

To be effective, the vaccines must educate the body’s T-cells to recognise cancer as a threat. Once trained, these cells can travel throughout the body, hunting down and eliminating dangerous cells. The ongoing research heavily relies on the participation of cancer patient volunteers who are critical to advancing the development of these vaccines.

Researchers are optimistic that vaccines will play a significant role in reducing cancer-related deaths. Efforts are under way to develop personalised mRNA vaccines for melanoma patients, which can be customised based on the unique mutations present in their cancer tissue. But these personalised vaccines may be costly to produce compared with non-personalised versions.

As explored in our Longevity Lifestyles macrotrend, humanity is set to live longer than ever thanks to groundbreaking research and preventative treatments delivered in a rising number of longevity clinics.

Strategic opportunity

Consumers will look for businesses and brands to help them feel at ease with the idea of living longer, healthier and having more control over the length of their lives thanks to innovations including cancer vaccines. How can your business lead them through this paradigm shift?