2023 Top Trends: Financial Frontiers

This trend is part of our 2023 Top Trends report, which you can download by following this link or by clicking ‘Download PDF’ at the bottom of this page.

As financial uncertainty and inflation persist, advanced tech and human ingenuity are spawning new systems of creating, exchanging, and securing wealth as a necessary survival strategy. Traditional means of building wealth are increasingly inaccessible. 

80% of adults 18-34 say financial success is much less attainable for their generation vs. generations before them.*

Housing rate increases are nearly 3X that of inflation, and wages aren’t keeping pace, hiking the average age of first-time home buyers up to 36 (+3 years in the past year alone). For many Americans, especially those under 35 (82%) and BIPOC (72%), the traditional systems of gaining wealth feel totally broken.

New systems for creating, exchanging, and securing wealth are shaping 2023 and beyond. As inflation and threats of a recession continue to loom, 2023 will expand on short-term solutions like Buy-Now-Pay-Later into the widespread testing of nontraditional wealth-building tactics, like alternative investments (e.g., reselling luxury goods), influencer-founded competitor brands, and an exploding resale marketplace. 75% of 18-34s are considering alternate forms of investments like reselling luxury goods or fine art.* We’re seeing a major reform of how people strategize and monetize their investments today with an eye to their financial tomorrow.

Why it matters: 

Many brands are focused on short-term profits — quarterly sales and earnings goals in service of investors and shareholders. But brands that deliver long-term value, or work to create a two-way value exchange with customers (e.g., fractional shares with purchase), not just with shareholders, are poised for greater success and stability amid market and inflationary fluctuations. 


What brands can do:

Time to Knock Their Stocks Off

There’s white space for brands to partner with people in ways that not only guarantee bottom-line success but future wealth for shopper-stakeholders. 

For example, an entertainment brand could crowdsource funding from potential viewers as an alternate investment in the success of a feature film or newly produced show. Fans will be even more motivated to promote it.

*Source: Horizon Media Finger on the Pulse. Survey Fielded January 9-12; n=999

Other Popular Stories