consumption | Hinesight

Sharing as another indicator of consuming less

March 17, 2013 by Andy Hines Leave a Comment

Another post on the trend to consuming less — I sense a trend here. I came across an excellent piece on the topic by Emily Badger: Share Everything: Why the Way We Consume Has Changed Forever. It illustrates many of the themes highlighted in ConsumerShift. Perhaps foremost is that it indicates a changing relationship between consumers and consumption. At its simplest, people are questioning whether they really need to own something or can they just access it when they need it. In values terms, the modern values holder wants to possess goods to demonstrate their belonging and status. The postmoderns, and especially the integrals, are less concerned with their status – having felt they have achieved it, and thus less concerned with collecting goods and possessions. Note, I’m saying “less” concerned, not unconcerned. So the postmoderns and integrals look at sharing as an interesting option – do I really need that? Do I need to have my music physically on my device, or am I willing to pay for a subscription and have it streamed? Perhaps the prototype of sharing is ZipCar, built on the idea in the urban areas, where parking is scarce and expensive, possession is actually a pain!

The cycle aspect, for the more cynical among us, suggests we are simply returning to our roots, and that this is much ado about nothing. Even in the present, Badger notes that “we’re used to the notion of sharing libraries, public parks, and train cars.” In my work with values, almost every time I give a talk, someone suggests that postmodern/integral values are simply new versions of traditional values. Well, okay, I can see that, but the key factor is the context. Values are intimately linked to context, or life conditions to use Spiral Dynamics language. It doesn’t really work to suggest that what’s happening in 2013 urban areas is a return to medieval farming community values (or whatever the example is).

Bumping the discussion to a higher level, futurists and others have been playing with notions of what the “next” economy might look like. Descriptions such as the open-source economy, gift economy, relationship economy, attention economy, etc. At our Master’s program last Spring, we had a day-long meeting on “After Capitalism” that was inspired by student interest. Sharing, I suspect, is at the heart of what’s next. Andy Hines

Filed Under: Values Tagged With: consumers, consumption, emily badger, integral, modern, postmodern, sharing, spiral dynamics, values, zipcar

Values shift to consuming less

March 11, 2013 by Andy Hines Leave a Comment

A key theme of ConsumerShift is that the emergence of postmodern and integral values would lead to less emphasis on material goods consumption. It is perhaps best captured by the theme of “enoughness,” in which people feel their lives are getting out of control, and they want to take back that control and set limits. If you’re wondering what this looks like in “real life,” take a look at this New York Times piece on “Living with Less. A Lot Less.”

It tells the story of an entrepreneur who strikes it rich and finds himself being more or less sucked into a consumptive lifestyle. Interestingly, the story shows how so much of our consumption is based on an expectation that it is appropriate to where one is in their journey, e.g., strike it rich = consume as one with money and status “should” consume.

Our entrepreneur is vaguely discomforted by this slide into high consumption and it takes a romantic relationship to snap him out of it, and rethink his priorities. In ConsumerShift, it’s noted how it often takes some sort of crisis or change in life conditions to provoke a rethinking. In the case here, the author downsizes his lifestyle and turns his entrepreneurial efforts to causes such as treehugger.com. Many of you will recognize this “make a difference” turn and not he’s shift into Integral values. A really nice illustration of some of the key ideas we’ve been talking about here! Andy Hines

Filed Under: Values Tagged With: consumption, enoughness, integral, postmodern, values

Values and consumption

October 2, 2012 by Andy Hines Leave a Comment

Saw a piece “European Automakers Face Diminished Future” and checked it out to see if there might be a “values” connection. Europe in general — and Northern Europe in particular — is at the leading edge of the values shifts outlined in “ConsumerShift.” The question we might ask is whether it is just an industry slump, or is some larger change afoot? The article notes upfront that: “….it is dawning on industry executives that it could be years before sales return to the levels seen in 2007….”

The piece suggests no easy solutions – it observes some grumbling about the effects of the European debt crisis. Certainly the debt crisis is a factor, but is that it? I don’t think so. In a previous post, Changing Values and “Enoughness” Suggest Economic Stimulus Won’t Work, I suggested that US efforts to stimulate consumption were missing the trend toward consuming less. The values shifts have led enough people to shift their consumption patterns such that they won’t be “stimulated” back to the old ways. I suspect a similar shift at play in Europe, where one could argue they’ve already “been there” in terms of less “consumptive” lifestyles.

So, is at all doom and gloom then for the European automakers? No, but an adjustment is ahead. A few years back when I was with Innovaro (formerly Social Technologies), we had a day-long consortium meeting on the “Soft Path.” Our goal was, among other things, to paint a picture of a future society where consumption was less central, and to have our clients explore what it meant for their businesses – with many of them built around an assumption of continued growth in consumption. The message of the meeting is that while this future is different, and will certainly influence business models, it is not so “scary” if one prepares.

And let’s not forget that this less-consumption trend is largely an affluent-country phenomenon. The piece goes on to note, for instance, that: “Despite the dismal outlook for Europe, auto executives said they remained optimistic about the car industry globally. Sales continue to rise in countries like Brazil and Russia, offsetting Europe to some extent.” The modern values of the emerging markets are in the “growth is good” phase and their huge populations and can more than offset the decline in the affluent nations.

As is so often the case, the future is really not scary, it’s different! Andy Hines.

Filed Under: Values Tagged With: consumers, consumption, debt crisis, enoughness, europe, soft path, values

Values changes suggest not buying stuff is not temporary

September 1, 2012 by Andy Hines Leave a Comment

Josh Allen Dykstra in Fast Company recently explored “why millennials don’t want to buy stuff.” He noted that “the concept of shopping has shifted from owning stuff to buying into new ideas.” He explores whether this change is driven by the bad economy, technological changes or generations, and lands on: “Humanity is experiencing an evolution in consciousness.” Applause (not intended to be condescending)! Just so happy to see this – I would guess that 90+% of the explanations I see or hear fall into either economy, technology or generations as the primary drivers.

In ConsumerShift, I noted that recession tends to reverse values changes (we can use “values shifts” as a rough surrogate for the “evolution in consciousness” noted above.) In times of economic stress, people are less inclined to adopt new values or may even “fall back” to known and familiar values. But the arrival of postmodern and integral values appears to be bucking the pattern; that is, the Great Recession may be reinforcing the emergence of the new. In a nutshell, these new values suggest a consumer lifestyle that puts less emphasis on economic success and material goods achievement, and more emphasis on quality-of-life concerns. The constraints imposed by the Great Recession actually make it “easier” to put less emphasis on economic matters.

I agree with Dykstra that at the core of what’s going on is an evolution in consciousness, and I’d add that it is supported by changes in the economy, technology. and generations. If you’re an organization that makes “stuff,” it might be time to dust off the strategic plan. Andy Hines

Filed Under: Values Tagged With: consumer understanding, Consumershift, consumption, millennials, values

Some support for ethical consumption

September 1, 2012 by Andy Hines 1 Comment

My friend and colleague Christopher Kent of the Foresight Alliance pointed me to a post by the GfK Roper Consulting global trend of ‘Considered Consumption’, which shows that today a staggering 79% of consumers agree that they only “buy products and services that appeal to their beliefs, values or ideals.” ConsumerShift calls the trend “ethical consumption” (same difference). It is a central feature of the “consumershift” toward lifestyles based less on material goods consumption. My colleagues and I had been estimating somewhere around 20% of consumers willing to spend in support of their values. Roper is reporting a big jump that may reflect ideal to , a greater extent than reality, but nonetheless it still suggests a growing phenomenon.

Those interested in digging a little deeper might visit LOHAS research which suggests a $290Billion market for offerings around lifestyles of health and sustainability. They find for instance, that consumers have indeed cut their consumption (fits with enoughness driven by the Great Recession) but at the same time “there are some very bright spots within the sustainability realm, one of which is that consumers are more active in the LOHAS space than ever before.” Nice to see other sources supporting ConsumerShift’s ideas. Andy Hines

Filed Under: Values Tagged With: consumer understanding, Consumershift, consumption, enoughness, ethical consumption, LOHAS, values

Sharing as another indicator of consuming less

Values shift to consuming less

Values and consumption

Values changes suggest not buying stuff is not temporary

Some support for ethical consumption

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