IKEA, a recognized and much-loved expert in arranging home spaces across the globe, has released a report that sheds light on contemporary morning rituals. The new report, titled “Life at Home: A World Wakes Up,” provides a sneak peek into how people wake up, have breakfast, interact with family members, and many more, in eight big capitals across the globe—Shanghai, Moscow, Berlin, Stockholm, New York, Paris, London and Mumbai.

Advertising agency JWT London has conducted a research in summer 2013 to discover what it means to be a man today. The 27-page study reveals the insights into hopes and fears of 500 British consumers of three generations of men: Gen Y, Gen X and Boomers. The “Masculinity & Modernity: Investigating the Men of Britain Today” research spans three major themes—the outer man (self-image, style, beauty, body, and more), the inner man (signals of masculinity, male pride, and more), and marketing to men.

An unusual study «Secrets and Lies» by Y&R reveals unconscious views and values of consumers that can be hardly ever learnt from ‘regular’ surveys. Conducted in April 2013 among 900 online respondents from the U.S., Brazil and China, the survey combines two methodologies: traditional survey research to reveal what people want others to think of them, as well as indirect questioning, a so-called Implicit Association that sheds light on consumers’ unconscious, hidden motivations.

Traditional taste and smell enhancers, celebrity advice, coherence with a person’s image—all this can make the product, both eatable or not, more attractive to a consumer. But there’s also another thing that can make virtually any product on the market more attractive. This magic non-physical intensifier is a ritual, which adds a new enjoyable dimension to the process of consuming a product.

The global media agency Mindshare has recently released a report with a somewhat provocative headline “Digital Culture and the Digital Normal Index,” which defines the level of the so-called digital “normalness” or “abnormalness” by country. Put simply, it gives a deep insight into what drives us to chat online, listen to music, watch movies, blog or play games on the Internet. 

Nielsen, a global consumer insights company, has conducted a survey to define the differences in the behavior of modern shoppers across the globe. The «New Wealth, New World» study, based on opinions of more than 29,000 online respondents in 58 countries, shows that in different regions people are driven by different factors (sometimes, opposite ones) when choosing consumer goods.