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Product Mindset (prod•uct mind•set | prädekt mahynd-set | noun) A global collective consciousness that reflects how people feel about products—whether people are making and selling products or buying and consuming them.

Denne lille rapport, Navigating the Product Mindset, som udkom i december 2011, dumpede lige ind i min mailbox. Og selvom der i høj grad er tale om kvantitative tilgange, så giver den lille rapport gennem sin eksemplariske grafiske overskuelighed et meget fint billede af den forskellighed, som præger udsynet både for forbrugere og producenter i hhv. Kina, Indien, USA og Tyskland. Det er de nye muligheders spirende optimisme og fremskridtstro overfor godt slidte, om end stadig mere eller mindre velkørende industrinationer. UL, Underwriters Laboratories, som står bag, er en verdensomspændende rådgivningsvirksomhed med i alt 9.000 ansatte.

I det sammenfatningen står der:

Key insights from the study include:

• Geography and culture play the largest role in shaping perceptions about products.
• Consumers are aware of an increasingly complex, global supply chain and have a growing interest in the traceability of products and product parts.
• Manufacturers in emerging markets rate themselves as being ahead of the curve regarding both product and operational sustainability more than manufacturers in developed markets.
• Few manufacturers appear to make the environment a top-tier issue when compared with safety and performance.
• Product safety and performance are the top two considerations that impact today’s Product Mindset for both consumers and manufacturers.

Specific findings include:

• 

  More than 90 percent of manufacturers are confident that they are ahead of the curve in delivering safety, reliability and sustainability. In contrast, 70 percent of consumers feel manufacturers do not conduct thorough testing before launching new products.

• Chinese manufacturers are nearly two times more likely than American manufacturers to value product innovation. American manufacturers are almost five times more likely than Chinese manufacturers to value speed to market.
• Consumers are more interested in knowing about the origin of a product’s parts/ingredients than they are with where a product is assembled. This may be why 69 percent of manufacturers agree consumers are becoming more aware and better educated about products in general.
• Innovation emerges as the most important consideration impacting manufacturers’ ability to compete in the future. However, manufacturers overestimate the significance of innovation to consumers.
• Fifty-six percent of consumers believe where fresh and processed food is assembled or manufactured will become increasingly important over the next five years and 60 percent of food manufacturers believe the country of origin of fresh dairy products and meat, fish and fruits and vegetables impacts the quality of their products.
• Seventy-five percent of consumers feel manufacturers have not taken adequate steps to ensure that environmentally friendly manufacturing procedures are followed. Only 9 percent of manufacturers stated designing sustainable products is their most important consideration impacting their ability to compete.
• Fifty percent of manufacturers say they will increase sourcing from other countries. Of that 50 percent, 85 percent will add new countries instead of replacing existing countries from which they already source. Consumers feel product quality is 41 percent higher in developed countries vs. emerging countries.

Rapporten viser, at klima- og miljøhensyn har en plads i en moderne produktbevidsthed, både blandt producenter og konsumenter, og mere i udviklingsøkonomierne end de gamle industrilande, men at disse aspekter af produktbevidstheden sagtens kunne styrkes (“desired more than imperative”). Og der fremstår et billede af en verden, hvor stadig større mængder af produkter, viden og råmaterialer cirkulerer i stadig mere komplekse mønstre – en verden, som ikke på nogen måde synes i stand til at standse op og sige: Måske vi også skulle gemme lidt til børnebørnene.

Navigating the Product Mindset, Underwriters Laboratories 12.12.2011 (pdf).