From car colors with the pearly sheen of lipstick to skincare creams that look like jars of yoghurt, not to mention architecture-inspired perfume bottles or unusual approaches for advertisements, totally unrelated to the field of the product, it would seem that crossover imitations in the world of consumable goods have become a bit excessive. Might this not endanger the potential for innovative thinking that a true cross-sector approach could provide?
The term "crossover" suddenly emerged in the 1990s from the mishmash of products in concept stores anxious to line their shelves with products revolving around one or more "in" themes, as though for a museum. At the time, there were loads of products from different fields (design, cosmetics, sports, fashion, etc.) which, As it happens, seemed to resemble one another either in looks or use. For trend forecasting agencies, this phenomenon of "cross pollination" was for years one of the major sources in creating consistent stories based on forecast themes. These "researchers" specialized, in a way, in highlighting these groups of trends.