For Foresight, Use Hinesight
Could no longer avoid the Saturday morning to-do list item: “create summary graphic of values types described in ConsumerShift.” So here it is. I thought readers of this blog might find it useful. I’d welcome feedback — please be kind, design has never been my strong suit. Andy Hines
A new study by WPP Group’s global research agency Millward Brown and Jim Stengel, former global marketing officer of Procter & Gamble, found that a common theme across the fifty fast-growing brands is their ability to connect to a higher-order purpose. It was reported in an article: Fastest Growing Brands Are Ideal Driven. Higher-order purpose is in turn related to five areas of “fundamental human values”: eliciting joy, enabling connection, inspiring exploration, evoking pride and impacting society (having a broad affect on society, such as challenging the status quo or redefining categories).
The research in ConsumerShift supports the notion that connecting to purpose and values will be increasingly important to brand success in the future. In this case, the particular value types tracked appear to range across the types of values in the book:
Traditional values are not explicitly targeted, which makes sense given that newer brands will tend to appeal to “newer”consumer types, thus postmodern values are tapped the most, which makes sense given they are the largest new set (being that “integral” values are just emerging on the scene). Andy Hines
Real life is messy and people typically do not fit into neat little boxes with values any more than they do in any other dimension of their lives. Using the New Dimensions framework, people may have some core values in more than one type. An individual said to have postmodern values, for example, may still identify some modern and/or integral values as well. It is more accurate to suggest that if someone has postmodern values, those represent the individual’s center of gravity.
The developmental approach (which says there is a consistent direction of change of time) suggests that some values get left behind—one doesn’t lose them, but rather shifts them down in the list of priorities. Similarly, some values are future-oriented or aspirational; in that case, an individual is moving toward them, but hasn’t quite incorporated them yet. So, we have a mix, usually, and a mix that typically evolves over time, as ur life conditions change and we are presented with new challenges to our values – sometimes our existing values are up to the task, and at other times we decide to change. Andy Hines
Having defined values in my last post, now is the time to describe the types of values shaping the future. I will cover some of the previous systems for categorizing values I came across in doing the research for ConsumerShift, but right upfront it is important to acknowledge the most influential sources: Ron Inglehart and colleague’s World Values Survey and Don Beck and colleagues’ Spiral Dynamics. Building on their work, my work and the work of my many colleagues doing foresight consulting work over the last several years, four types (or categories) of values will be prevalent in the future:
Traditional: Focused on following the rules and fulfilling one’s predetermined role, with priorities such as respect for authority, religious faith, national pride, obedience, work ethic, large families with strong family ties, and strict definition of good and evil
Modern: Focused on achievement, growth and progress, with priorities such as high trust in science and technology (as the engines of progress), faith in the state (bureaucratization), rejection of out-groups, an appreciation of hard work and money, and determination to improve one’s social and economic status.
Postmodern: Focused on the search for meaning in one’s life, with priorities such as self-expression, including an emphasis on individual responsibility as well as choice, imagination, tolerance, life balance and satisfaction, environmentalism, wellness, and leisure.
Integral: Emerging as the leading edge of values change, with a more practical and functional approach to employing values that best fit the particular situation, enabling one to pursue personal growth with an understanding and sensitivity to larger systemic considerations.
More to come……Andy Hines
Hinesight