Thoughts on Consumed: Rethinking Business In An Era Of Mindful Spending
A seminal book about changing consumer perceptions and attitudes will be released to the public on July 12. Titled Consumed: Rethinking Business In the Era Of Mindful Spending by Andrew Benett and Ann O'Reilly, it takes the reader on a unique process journey through the history of how consumers came to this post- consumptive stress disordered moment, and what the trend implications are for businesses and consumers in the future.
In a recent interview, Andrew Benett, one of the co-authors, said, " It is much more difficult to change a behavior than to change an attitude, but it is obvious we are seeing a revolutionary attitudinal sea change in the consumer. We are moving from hyper-consumerism of past years to more mindful consumer attitudes at the present, and probably in the future."
Much of the book discusses the results of a new consumer study, created by EURO RSCG Worldwide, and fielded by Market Probe International in October-November 2009. Seven markets were studied, Brazil (n=700), China (n=700), France (n=700), Japan (n=700), the Netherlands (n=700), the United Kingdom (n=700), and the United States (n=1,500). The research was based on an attitude assessment questionnaire, and depicts an historic shift in consumer values and attitudes, as the sample populations showed themselves recalibrating what it means to be a consumer in this hyper-consumptive global village.
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In the book, these results are discussed within the larger context of the present socio-economic, depressed, recessed moment, and how this moment is creating a stratum for a newer, evolving consumer mindfulness.
The idea of mindfulness is well-known in philosophy, religion and psychology as it is a present-centered awareness of feeling and thinking. Mindfulness also displays a true mind-body connectivity, allowing greater awareness of what is happening in all cognitive and visceral dimensions. The book reveals how newer consumer decisions have been motivated and modified by this evolved awareness. Some of the more relevant research results are highlighted below:
• In the Western markets surveyed, a majority of the samples believe society is moving in the wrong direction. This concern runs particularly high in France (70% agreement), the U.S. (66%), and the U.K. (63%).
• 69% of the global sample worry that society has become too shallow, focusing too much on things that don't really matter. Again, agreement is strongest in the U.S. (79%), France (77%), and U.K. (75%), although a majority in each of the seven markets agreed.
• Six in ten respondents believe we, as a society, have become intellectually lazy, while nearly seven in ten believe we are physically lazy.
• 59% worry that people have become too disconnected from the natural world. This feeling is particularly prevalent in China (70%), Japan(65%), Brazil (64%), and the U.S. (60%).
• A majority (51%) worry that digital communication is weakening human bonds.
• 67% of the global sample believe most of us would be better off if we lived more simply-with the highest scores coming from the U.S.(78%), China (72%), and the U.K. and Brazil (both at 68%).
• Whereas 70% respect/admire people who live simply, just 19% feel the same about people who live a "high-luxury lifestyle." Only in China and Brazil do a sizeable minority (35% and 31%, respectively) claim to admire people who live luxuriously, but even in those markets more than twice as many respondents admire people who live the simple life.
• Signaling one aspect of the simplicity they seek, 68% of the sample (81% in China and 78% in France) said they no longer want lots of "bells and whistles" on the products they buy; they would rather just have the functions they really need.
• Four in ten respondents have adopted or thought about adopting a slower lifestyle.
• 72% of the global sample (80% in the U.S.) are shopping more carefully and mindfully than they used to.
This attitude revolution, whose dimensions relate to slower, more careful choices was inevitable, as Mr. Benett argues in his book as he quotes E.F Schumacher, an economic theorist: "Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility." In other words, prices, cost, acquisition of more and more stuff, cannot rise higher and higher ad infinitum. Gravity does not allow it, nor does common sense gravitas.
As the research shows, the unease about conspicuous consumption has morphed into a positive, counter-measure: with mindfulness taking those buying decisions a little more slowly, with a great deal more precision, all with a new consumer loyalty to brands whose messages relay and reflect the consumer's own -- messages that involves a cleaner environment, toward deeper community, and toward moderation.
Consumed is an elegantly argued, well-cited (footnotes go from page 203 to page 234) book that defines evolutionary and revolutionary consumer changes, whose purchasing cycles have yet to conclude. The book moves from the reasons for historic hyperconsumerism to the conundra faced because of it, to a new movement in attitude and awareness, which, slow though it may be, may indeed profoundly alter consumer buying behaviors for years to come.
