JANUARY 2018
by pluralthinking
Peak Stuff
Part 3: Life after stuff A CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE THINKPIECE
CONTENTS MODERNIST
INSIDE CLOUD//
SIMPLIFYING // EXPERIENCES //
LIFE ON THE CLOUD: I want to put all my stuff on my phone EXPERIENCE ECONOMY: Why accomulate more «stuff» when I could be out experiencing life SO WHAT NEXT?
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DECLUTTERING //
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issue’18
MODERNIST
BRETT TEMPLETON brett.templeton@pluralthinking.com
PART 3: Life After Stuff
W
e are witnessing an unprecedented global shift in how property is defined with profound changes in consumption patterns and a new cultural movement to lead a simpler, more moderate and more meaningful life. This phenomenon has huge implications for brands, consumer platforms, brand activations and the business models of companies. At pluralthinking we believe that brands succeed if the consumer feels that the brand understands them, has common purpose with them, solves their problems, and facilitates their lives as they wish to live them. Much, indeed most, of the work we do at pluralthinking is focused on understanding young adult consumers in developed societies around the world. What we are seeing in the most advanced economies is, we believe, an irreversible shift. Lives as people wish to live them are changing profoundly. People are ridding themselves of unnecessary ‘stuff’. They are digitizing, decluttering spaces and minds, replacing stuff with experiences, replacing ownership with fandom and sharing.
If you are managing a brand you need to think about how you occupy people’s ‘space’ in entirely new ways. You need to resonate yet not add to the clutter. This will be the challenge of the next decade for marketers. We’ve presented our thinking in a series of 3 cultural intelligence reports but of course the thinking is interlinked. Drop us a note or pick up the phone if you’d like to see Part 1: Getting Rid or Part 2: Rethinking Ownership. We’d love to continue the debate! Say hello@pluralthinking.com or join us on twitter @pluralthinking
INTRO
INTRO
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LIFE ON THE CLOUD: I WANT TO PUT ALL MY STUFF ON MY PHONE As we’ve discussed, consumers want fewer physical objects, so putting as many things and services on their computer or phone, or on the cloud makes perfect sense. The most obvious, Spotify, Netflix and Amazon Prime platforms have banished CDs and DVDs from living rooms. The idea is to put as many things into digital form: my life is on my laptop or even better on my phone. That thing that used to be the telephone, then calculator, music player, voice recorder, emailer, telly, radio, personal trainer, fitness tracker, health monitor, contraception-replacer, city mapper, ticket holder, credit card. Everything is in hand. There is definitely a functional aspect here; think documents, money, bills, tickets. Consumers feel secure in knowing that their files, documents and entire digital history can be easily accessed or recovered solely by them. Your beloved family photographs can never burn down in a house fire. This provides a confidence and lack of concern because ‘things’ cannot be truly lost. But ‘life on the cloud’ is also expressive; with Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat, the reward is to be into something, pin it, appreciate it, but not necessarily own it. Increasingly people are expressing their personality through social media and not through classical conspicuous consumption, i.e. buying stuff and showing off. Why buy something when you can like it or pin it instead, or rent it and then experience it and Instagram it? This creates an opportunity for brands to be pinned or liked – but the challenge is how to crack, or break, the path to purchase. But the desire to declutter stretches into social media. People also want to declutter their Twitter feeds, unfriend ‘Friends’ on Facebook and have more control and more moderation on their social media. People are also seeking privacy over mass broadcast. This explains the popularity
LI o th CL
of services like Snapchat, which controls access and limits permanence, Whatsapp which allows private conversations, Yikyak which allows for anonymous local conversations. So brands need to think hard about just how intrusive they wish to be in these curated spaces. No one loves a gatecrasher, so how can you create opportunities for your brand to be relevant and ‘invited’ into this space? Apps and digital interfaces that either simplify digital life or are super-useful are highly sought after; so think if your brand can facilitate people’s lives. A mobile phone operator, for example, realised that their great coverage in rural areas allowed them to offer real-time travel timetables (vital if you’re 15 and waiting for a bus in the rain, miles from anywhere).
As for curation, people still want to produce content (as prosumers), but they want some things to be restricted only for their close circle of people and not all 200 Facebook friends. Although Facebook still has its place, social media that are most popular are short, ephemeral, minimalist and visual like Snapchat, Instagram, and Vine. So maybe brands can ‘drop by’, say their piece and then get out of the way. Relatedly, consumers might be shocked when they feel that their privacy is being compromised by companies using or selling their Wi-Fi or 3G metadata for the benefit of targeting advertisers. Location data that TfL said they were collecting to improve the customer journey may now be used to generate revenue by helping to quantify asset value. Perhaps consumers will accept this as a fair tradeoff for better services (and advertising!) on the transport network. But brands need to be careful – just because you have online data about your consumers doesn’t mean you should sell it if it breaks consumer trust.
FE on he LOUD
the CLOUD Consumers are also trying to avoid digital advertising. Many companies are already alarmed by growing numbers of add blockers that significantly threaten digital presence for many brands. The most forward-thinking brands like Google, Unilever and Procter & Gamble have signed up to a new global coalition that aims to come up with global standards on digital advertising to help rid the internet of annoying ads and formats that frustrate consumers.
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EXAMPLES Bridging the physical and digital The Lenovo Yoga book comes with a stylus that lets you take notes or sketch by hand on either paper or a tablet, which is then automatically saved digitally. Aimed at millennials, the full-circle hinge combined with a smart device and old-fashioned pen and paper fits in with the wave of nomadic working habits.
The digital driving license DigiLocker is an app launched by the Indian government. It allows citizens to store their driving license, car registration and ID onto their smartphone. These digital copies are valid for the Indian traffic police and other law enforcement agencies. The aims being to curtail the use of physical documents and reduce administrative expenses and time.
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‘Scan & Go’ Helps Consumers Skip the Checkout Line Across 12 of its stores in the United States, Walmart is testing its Scan & Go mobile app as a new way for consumers to shop for items. With the app, consumers are able to scan the barcode on a piece of merchandise and instantly add it to their shopping cart. As the app keeps a running tally on the goods added to one’s cart, a consumer is simply able to checkout using just their mobile device and bypass the checkout line.
Let your digital you live forever Eternime plans to combine people’s online footprint - made up of everything they’ve ever posted on social media, their thoughts, smartphone pictures and so on - with artificial intelligence to create a digital version of each person after they died. This digital representative could interact with people’s loved ones - and their descendants - long after they died. Depending on the facts it has collected, the avatar will be able to offer anything from basic biographical data to being an engaging conversational partner.
Transporting VR Google Cardboard and the Natural History Museum have partnered to allow people around the world to explore its exhibits as if they were at the museum. By exploring exhibits such as the iconic Hintze Hall, users can also meet CGI versions of specific dinosaurs and learn facts while it swims around them.
THERE IS ALSO A PARALLEL COUNTER-TREND IN PEOPLE MOVING AWAY FROM DIGITAL AND CRAVING REAL ‘UNPLUGGED’ EXPERIENCES. PEOPLE WANT TO RELY ON THE DIGITAL WORLD, BUT THEY DON’T WANT TO BE DEFINED BY IT. IN OTHER WORDS, THERE IS A CRAVING FOR HEADSPACE OVER DIGITAL SPACE.
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EXPERIENCE ECONOMY WHY ACCUMULATE MORE ‘STUFF ‘, WHEN I COULD BE OUT EXPERIENCING LIFE?
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he experience economy marks a major consumer shift. Instead of focusing on banal products, advancing clutter, tedious consumerism and overattachment to things, consumers are seeking meaningful and enriching experiences. Rather than accumulating products and services, consumers are looking for attractive events. This shift towards experience can be seen as a backlash against cultural homogenisation and globalisation of brands. It is also a reaction to a broader cultural malaise of the early 21st century; inauthentic, busy and disconnected lifestyles that are alienating our senses, suppressing our memories, negating our fundamental skills and subduing our experiences.
pencils are no longer the only solution for keeping hungry children occupied!
In response, brands are offering experiential events and experiences AROUND the product or service. Harvard Business Review puts it—“a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable [and often personalised] event”. More and more people are spending money on eating out, days out and holidays than they are pounding the high streets (or the giant Tesco) for more possessions to clutter their houses. Apple posted its first revenue decline for 13 years last year; it seems people’s priorities are changing.
Hotel brands, and other brands connected to the tourism industry, from tour-guides through to airport duty free, need to think about ways they can provide a more personalised service. Instead of tourists, it might be helpful to think of people as guests. How can you suggest places for them to visit based on their interests? How can you make your hotels feel more typical of the particular location, rather than typical of the global hotel chain? Consumers’ desire for more interesting experiences also provide perfect opportunity to sharing on social media. This cannot be emphasized enough: everything needs to be instagrammable (or it might as well have never happened). The need to share experiences over social media is especially relevant for millennials and Gen Z, but the experience economy itself spreads across different generations. For example, recent trends are showing that many baby boomers have the desire to feel young again, or at least to relive some of the more pleasant experiences that characterised their youth. If done right, nostalgia can be a powerful marketing strategy.
Carla Buzasi, of trend forecasting service WGSN, said: ‘Brunch with a friend followed by a yoga class might cost about the same as a new pair of jeans, but you don’t get that warm glow of a shared experience with the latter’. Experiences are improving and becoming more accessible. Pop-ups, street food experiences and casual dining options have replaced stuffy restaurants. Pizza Express has tapped into the needs of harried parents eating out. A pre-ordering app allows you to speed up restaurant waiting times. This stops pre-dinner tantrums, and also frees up the table for other diners. Colouring
This emphasis on experience is impacting brands across all industries. Industry norms are being challenged. If you are a gym that imposes signing fees or long notice periods, perhaps you should think again. Taxi companies relied on convenience, rather than reasonable prices, convenient modern paying methods or exemplary service and are now suffering the consequences as they compete against Uber. Brands should look in detail at their consumers’ needs, and find ways to provide enriching experiences, rather than relying on industry norms.
According to Alex Frias, president of Track Marketing Group, marketers have to adopt to this new environment
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« everything needs to be
instagrammable or it might as well never happened
«
of experience by leveraging technology, retail space and other consumer platforms to create immersive, totalexperience strategies that give consumers an elevated product or service. Two things are crucial in that: 1. Consumers need to feel like they are in conversation with the brand, actively participating, curating and amplifying the brand experience. 2. Although not always an obligatory element of the experience economy, personalisation enhances consumers’ experience with a product or service. There’s a significant amount of consumer data out there: who’s in someone’s social networks, where consumers check-in,
and how much 4G data they have on their mobile plans. Companies and brands who decipher their customer and consumer data to customise and personalise their experiences will be the leaders.
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katerina Walter, author of Think like Zuck, stresses the importance of recognising that your experience, in changing rooms,
online, at the cashier desk, is critical to your purchasing intent. Faced with increased choice, consumers consider price and product, but also customer experience. Customers need to have excellent experience at each touchpoint – online and social media, on the phone, in person. Brand teams need to be investing in understanding consumers and how they interact with their brands. Walter stresses the value of listening to consumers in order to understand what they are asking for, and then acting on it. As well as using this insight to build a relationship with consumers across mediums, this should also be used to adapt and change products to better meet consumer needs.
EXAMPLES DINING IN VIRTUAL REALITY
Taco Bell gave its customers an opportunity to experience virtual reality in a unique way. At a pop-up arcade in New York’s SoHo, visitors could have two virtual reality experiences: a street-luge race and a giant underwater cage in which they narrowly escape an attack by a bloodthirsty shark. The arcade was part of a collaboration between Taco Bell and Sony PlayStation VR where customers of both brands could experience their products in a new way.
SELLING NOSTALGIA THROUGH PACKAGING AND MUSIC Mahou, Spain’s biggest beer producer has launched a limited edition of its legendary small bottle that was popular from 1960 to the 1980s. ‘El botijo’ attempts to tap into consumer’s desire for connection with the past by adding a Spotify playlist that takes users through different decades and music style of 1960 and 2000.
KITKAT WRAPPER BECOMES A TRAIN TICKET
The shattering earthquake and tsunami that struck Northern Japan in 2011 has led to a drop in tourism in the area. KitKat, a brand associated in Japan with good luck because of its name, pioneered a scheme to use its wrappers as train tickets, providing a deeper brand experience as well as connecting people to a less popular part of Japan.
WELLBEING HOLIDAYS GET A FESTIVAL AND COMMUNITY TWIST Previously uninhabited Croatian island of Obonjan has been recently revived as a ‘curated island destination’, with a two-month-long creative programme of music, talks, art, health and workshops kicking off every summer. According to its founders, this is an evolution of the festival idea where a beautiful island setting encourages real feeling of community among like-minded participants.
A MULTISENSORY FRAGRANCE ‘BAR’ The Ritz-Carlton, Berlin, is giving guests a sensory experience with the newly opened Fragrances bar, which serves Diageo-based beverages inspired by iconic scents from Armani and Yves Saint Laurent. First of its kind worldwide, this bar invites consumers to not only taste, but touch and smell their cocktail through a corresponding work of art. As hotels continue to differentiate themselves with experiences, having unique drinking options is one way to make a lasting impression.
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SO WHAT NEXT?
As we’ve discussed, these important cultural shifts are altering the way people connect with brands, and creating new products and category innovations across almost all industries from property developers, furniture, media, FMCG, travel, and service industries such as taxi companies, hotels, the night-time economy and airports. Is there a category not touched by these changes to consumer behaviour?
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t is essential that established brands continue to provide excellent products and customer service, continue to find ways to connect deeply (online and offline) with consumers, and continue to be vigilant to cultural trends that could knock established norms in their industry; who would have guessed a few years ago that established hotel brands would compete with local people’s spare rooms? Micro-living should be recognised as a major new trend, not just for the financially-stretched, but those who are remaining single and childfree for longer, wishing to remain in an urban location, or downsizing once children have left home.
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your brand do more to close « Could the loop, or tell consumers about your sustainable credentials? «
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eople are seeking a less cluttered aesthetic, and they are likely to have less storage than their parents’ generation. Brands need to think about making products smaller, but also more beautiful and versatile products for those that must ‘live out’ on show. Brands also need to bear in mind that when people are buying less, they have more money to spend on each item. As well as being concerned with repair, reusing and recycling, there is a growing interest in ‘reincarnating’ products. As well as reflecting growing consumer interest, there is often money to be made when consumers return their used products. Could your brand do more to close the loop, or tell consumers about your sustainable credentials? Desiring less physical ‘stuff’ around the house, people are moving more of their lives online. We are decluttering social media and becoming savvier about connecting with brands online. At the same time, brands need to recognise that people have a desire to be offline at certain times too: for privacy; for time alone or to create deep connections with loved ones. There are opportunities for traditional brands and products to engage with these times and tap into this mindfulness mindset. Tea, coffee and soft drinks brands
have developed campaigns around mindfulness and living in the moment, but what about soup or breakfast products? What about other products used routinely, in private and during quieter moments, such as toothpaste, nail polish, or washing up liquid? There are also opportunities for ‘old products’ to reconnect with people’s lives people are seeking out vinyl collections, paper books and colouringin pads. People are favouring new, rich experiences over material possessions. There are opportunities to provide experiences around products. This can mean lavish activations and experiences to push purchase behaviour, but it can also mean that old-fashioned things like service standards are becoming more important for purchase intent. There are new opportunities to break industry norms and provide more delicious experiences for consumers. As part of this move towards experience over possession, sharing becomes more relevant. Who needs to pay parking all year when you can just borrow a car for the rare occasions when it is needed? Brands would be foolish to assume that this is just a young, hipster interest. Digital natives, those who have always grown up around computers, are certainly adopting these habits en masse, but they are also bringing older generations with them. Seniors are embracing the sharing economy, partly because they wish to supplement their salaries or share their resources. It is easy to write ‘peak stuff’ up as a young person’s concern, with rising housing crisis and the economic crisis disproportionately impacting Gen Z. But this would be foolish. Old people are interested in downsizing and using their increased leisure time and wealth to have fresh experiences. They too are throwing out CDs, adopting a Scandi-Silicon Valley aesthetic and writing a bucket list. And this highlights another important message – don’t assume that this new minimalism is being driven by economic necessity. It is much more about values, aesthetics and changing life stages and lifestyles. There is money to be made in all of these areas, as long as the offering resonates. Of course, at pluralthinking, we are always going to stress the need for better insight into how consumers are living and engaging with your brands. But with people’s lives and homes becoming radically different, has it ever been more necessary?
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