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GESELLSCHAFTLICHE ENTWICKLUNGEN 2016

NEWISM: The fundamental driver behind the VIRGIN CONSUMER trend? NEWISM.

Today, consumers from Dubai to Canada can order pizza via a fridge magnet, 3D print their own homeware, and visit a virtual grocery store on a train station platform. They live in a world of Chinese luxury fashion brands, social credit cards, and ultra-transparent sushi kitchens.

They must navigate through the insane levels of choice offered by the 19,000 new apps that Apple says are added to their store every month, the 18,000 projects on Kickstarter that were successfully crowdfunded in 2012, the 1.2 million patents for innovations granted in China alone, or the 480,000 companies registered in the UK in 2012... We could go on (and on). (Sources: Company statements; Chinese State Intellectual Property Office; Startup Britain, all January 2013)

IMMEDIATELY KNOWN:

Now that experiences are increasingly shared, and even the newest of the new is instantly reviewed and rated, consumers have THE F-FACTOR, and feel more confident in being earlier and earlier adopters.

92% trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising, up 18% since 2007. Online consumer reviews are the second most trusted source of brand information with a 70% trust rating, up 15% since 2008. Television ads were trusted by only 47%, down 24% since 2009. (Nielsen, April 2012)

BORN CLEAN:

CLEAN SLATE BRANDS better reflect the zeitgeist. The fact that they are (by definition) newly established, means that they often have ‘new’ business values – such as higher environmental, ethical and social standards – deeply baked into their business models and practices. Just witness how the values of local, storied, sustainable, progressive new businesses have been consistently appropriated by big businesses, as they stumble to catch up here.

The average age of brands in Millward Brown’s BrandZ Top 100 Global Brands Report has fallen consistently, from 84 in 2006 to 68 in 2012. (Millward Brown, May 2012)

SIMPLE TRUTH:

CLEAN SLATE BRANDS’ simple, lean operations (everything from fair labor practices, transparent supply chains and clean design) are easily understandable – and therefore trusted – by consumers. And with scandal after scandal (from financial products to horsemeat) being blamed on excess 'complexity', who can blame them?

Brands that simplify customer decision-making are 115% more likely to be recommended. (Corporate Executive Board, May 2012)

FUTURE FAITH:

Business practices are now totally transparent (and if not, merely waiting to be exposed). CLEAN SLATE BRANDS know this. Consumers know that CLEAN SLATE BRANDS know this. Which explains why, on top of the fact that CLEAN SLATE BRANDS, almost by definition, cannot have sinned yet (they've just started, after all), consumers trust them to act correctly in the future too.

CLEAN SLATE BRANDS: Newer, better, faster, cleaner, more open and responsive; consumers are rushing to CLEAN SLATE BRANDS and are now lavishing love, attention and trust on brands without heritage and history.

There's a profound shift in power taking place in the business arena. With a whole new breed of exceptional new brands living by the rules of Business 3.0, consumers are now attracted to unproven and unknown brands the way they were attracted to established brands in the past. In fact, 'established' is now often just another word for tired if not tainted. The future belongs to CLEAN SLATE BRANDS.

1. Lust for the New

Thanks to the democratization and globalization of innovation (not to mention the celebration of entrepreneurship), brands and individuals from all corners of the world are now working around the clock to dream up and launch endless new products and services, that are truly better and more exciting than current offerings. Lower barriers to entry has gone from buzzphrase to reality, especially online.

So from being something that was pushed to consumers by businesses (‘new and improved’), the ‘new’ is now subject to an increasingly strong pull from consumers. Excited by positive experiences of a ‘new’ that is genuinely ‘better’, consumers are hungry for more.

2. Instant Trust

The whole concept of ‘brands’ rests on the idea that consumers need recognizable, trusted symbols, honed over many years, to help them navigate the wealth of available choices. However this idea is being swept aside in a business arena* now characterized by INSTANT TRUST.

* This trend is most relevant in mature economies, where trust in big business has never been lower: only 28% trust big business in the UK, 30% in Japan, 32% in Australia, 33% in the US and 34% in Canada. In emerging markets however, consumers' trust levels are much higher: 83% in China, 72% in Turkey, 65% in Brazil and India (Havas, January 2013). The question is: will big business maintain this trust?

3. Open Operation

CLEAN SLATE BRANDS are natives in a land where communication with brands is two-way, participatory and less reverential, and as such can connect with consumers in a way that older brands often struggle to.

The Global Brain: the new equality in supply & demand!

Crowdfunding has unleashed the GLOBAL BRAIN (the collective creativity, entrepreneurialism and intelligence of thousands of individuals and start-ups around the world) on consumerism.

And via the mechanism of funding pre-realization, those platforms mean that anyone with an idea can present that idea to consumers, who can then PREchase it.

For the first time ever, then, the diversity, inventiveness, and sheer number of innovations on offer in the consumer arena can actually match the imaginings of consumers. That’s a crucial new equality of supply and demand: one that did not exist when consumption happened in traditional offline/online stores.

Next? That would of course be consumers pro-actively suggesting to the GLOBAL BRAIN what it is they would like to see introduced/built. 

Examples: Just look at MakeThatThing.com below. And if that reminds you of co-creation, or CUSTOMER-MADE, you’re right, but keep in mind co-creation was always more about brands seeking ideas/help from consumers, while this time it will truly be about consumers demanding what they want from entrepreneurs/ the GLOBAL BRAIN.