Today’s Conspicuous Consumer
The economy doesn’t look good these days, to state the obvious, but should marketers just throw in the towel? How can we continue to promote goods and services in a time when everyone (including you) is choosing to more wisely and carefully consume?
Target Corporation’s Senior Public Affairs Officer Nate Garvis, an insightful (and perhaps contrarian) retail industry leader I met last week at The Vine framed the current situation so well by redefining the term “conspicuous consumption.” Clearly most Americans are no longer buying big and glitzy cars, houses, clothes or lawnmowers just to make sure others can see. Instead, conspicuous consumption means something altogether different: it means more measured, deliberate buying.
As Nate outlined it, consumers are exerting quality control in what they purchase by becoming connoisseurs (more knowledgeable about products and willing to buy less if that’s all they can afford), by curating (editing out the goods and services that no longer apply to their lives) and by communicating (telling others – and the brands, as well – about their positive and negative experiences).
With abundant choice in goods but less abundant funds to acquire them, people have been forced to make smarter choices – and they are! They are choosing to build smaller and more efficient homes, they are paying more attention to cause marketing (as per a new report by Cone Inc.), and they are buying less – thereby expecting higher quality in what they do finally decide to purchase.
This should be scary only to those brands that have not already been doing their jobs (producing things that are relevant to today’s consumer). Unfortunately, a lot of companies have gotten carried away with what has always worked for them – delivering incrementally different “new” products or leveraging trends that actually have no true value for their particular customers. These slow-to-get-it brands are now being forced to listen to consumers who have been emboldened by their lack of excess cash to make greater demands – to really, truly exert quality control in what they will buy.
Which leads to the final element of this new type of consuming: community. While the old definition of “conspicuous consuming” was all about separating yourself from those around you through what you consume and positioning yourself as one up, the new definition actually glues consumers together by helping them rally around common ground and launching further connection from there. People more naturally get together when they are seeking better, not just grander, choices in products and services.
So, if we are all becoming more conspicuous in our consuming, a marketer’s only choice is to take heed. The same old approaches or over-the-top aspirational marketing ploys will not only fail, they will knock brand value down a few extra notches for good measure. Rather than showcasing the size of his/her wallet and the status it can buy, today’s conspicuous consuming reflects a buyer’s wisdom and awareness of how almost all purchases can impact the broader community good.
