Meet the Mindset Team: Laura JollyYan
Jan 19, 2021 | By Hannah Manton
Meet the team: Greer Hughes
I joined WGSN Hong Kong in 2013 by way of Stylesight, so have been here over seven years. This has flown by mainly because I’ve spent my time collaborating with our clients in different parts of Asia and around the world. After working in fashion design in the UK and Australia, living in Asia and moving into trend forecasting was a big change, but incredibly rewarding. After six and half years in Hong Kong and despite my love for dumplings and the sight of Victoria Harbour from the Star Ferry, I moved to London to lead our EMEA Mindset team.
Asia is a region that will shape a lot of trends in the future, whether through digital innovation or the growing consumer base in countries such as China, India and Indonesia. European brands are having to understand these evolving consumers better, but also maintain a strong brand identity, which is sometimes filtered through distribution and franchise relationships where they don’t have direct retail. Many of our clients also recognise that a one size fits all approach doesn’t work for Europe, and partner with us to uncover consumer and market nuances between countries and even at a city level.
Understanding trends is essentially about capturing collective emotions and aspirations, and identifying the drivers of change that are creating these shifts. That’s never been more true or more important than right now and I’m really excited to see CSR initiatives being pulled out of the depths of corporate websites to the forefront of brands.
Innovation is needed not only in product design and services, but business models and internal structures, where health and wellbeing, inclusivity and sustainability have to effectively interweave throughout. For many this means needing support to do a deep dive to evaluate the purpose of their business and how to adapt their reason for being, beyond creating products. It’s a difficult, but crucial process to undertake to ensure future success.
Find out more about the Mindset team, and how they can help your business.
To understand how consumers will think, feel and shop in the future, download white paper Future Consumer 2022.
Know what’s next. Become a WGSN member today to benefit from our daily trend intelligence, retail analytics, consumer insights and bespoke consultancy services.
Big data meets consumer insights, Experience WGSN.