Marketers must look deep into the new consumer soul

Of course, the marketing industry can look at this with an enormous amount of trepidation and the prospect of busting its buns trying to come up with shrewd and devious new ways of getting the attention of consumers and then managing and manipulating it long enough to flog products and services.

Immaterial materialism

Or, it can look deeper into what is happening and pander to the new way in which more and more consumers are thinking. A philosophy that is beginning to oust that sheer materialism that saw consumers “wanting something because they want it” and beginning to put life into some sort of more meaningful perspective.

I got this email some time ago and it occurred to me that if it reflects the way more and more middle and upper class people are looking at life, then perhaps there are a few clues in it that will lead marketers along the right road in terms of communicating with this important sector of the market.

Buy more get less

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

Little laughing

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.

Less talk

We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable nappies, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.