Cautious consumers may seem like a byproduct of the current, challenging economy. However, if social scientists are correct, the rampant consumerism that drove the 80′s and 90′s won’t be coming back for generations.
I’ve see the phenomenon first hand. My dad was a World War II veteran who grew up during the great depression. And, he didn’t abandon modest living or his low cost eating habits during the 80′s just because things got better. Like the well-known Eddy Murphy routine, dad’s family ate homemade hamburgers on white bread. We ate liver, tongue, and other depression-era standards. We didn’t venture to McDonalds with our parents the same way that we did with our own kids.
Dad always focused on providing what the family needed. It was rarely about what we wanted – and even then, there was a utilitarian aspect. Dad’s ‘new cars’ were always used. His vacations routes were based on where family lived. He shopped garage sales, relatives, and classified ads for furniture.
He drank generic beer. We drank powdered milk. As it turns out, dad was both a relic from the past and a glimpse of the future. Generations a book (by sociologists William Strauss and Neil Howe) I remember reading in grad school at UW-Madison, would probably define Gen Z them as a generation of ‘heroes.’
Wikipedia (a better resource on this topic than my memory) includes good definitions of their four archetype generations described in the book:
- Prophet/Idealist
A Prophet (or Idealist) generation is born during a High, spends its rising adult years during an Awakening, spends midlife during an Unraveling, and spends old age in a Crisis. Prophetic leaders have been cerebral and principled, summoners of human sacrifice, wagers of righteous wars. Early in life, few saw combat in uniform; late in life, most come to be revered as much for their words as for their deeds. - Nomad/Reactive
A Nomad (or Reactive) generation is born during an Awakening, spends its rising adult years during an Unraveling, spends midlife during a Crisis, and spends old age in a new High. Nomadic leaders have been cunning, hard-to-fool realists, taciturn warriors who prefer to meet problems and adversaries one-on-one. - Hero/Civic
A Hero (or Civic) generation is born during an Unraveling, spends its rising adult years during a Crisis, spends midlife during a High, and spends old age in an Awakening. Heroic leaders are considered to have been vigorous and rational institution-builders, busy and competent in old age. All of them entering midlife were aggressive advocates of technological progress, economic prosperity, social harmony, and public optimism. - Artist/Adaptive Generation
An Artist (or Adaptive) generation is born during a Crisis, spends its rising adult years in a new High, spends midlife in an Awakening, and spends old age in an Unraveling. Artistic leaders have been advocates of fairness and the politics of inclusion, irrepressible in the wake of failure.
Generations is only one example. Most sociologists agree that aspects of the US economy are cyclical based on the environment they grow up in. Opinions formed at a given time when we grow up define how we approach government, society, advertising, and each other:
- Generations that experience a good economy and peace tend to be more self centered and experimental – the ideal target for marketers.
- Generations that experience a poor economy and wars have higher levels of social responsibility and cautious consumers.
Gen Y and Gen Z (also called ‘millennials’, the ‘Internet generation’, ‘Generation @’, and other names) have grown up in a world with widespread equality of the sexes at work and at home, and where single-parent or same-sex parent families are commonplace, as are two-income families. Their lives are full of structured activities. Both generations have a strong social conscience. Gen Z is predicated to have one of the strongest work ethics of the last 100 years.
This means that marketing strategies that worked well two years ago aren’t going to work today. MORE IMPORTANTLY, these strategies aren’t likely to work for generations.
It’s clear to me that social media will be more effective than Mass media for upcoming generations. Why? Relevance and credibility will be the most effective means of influence for upcoming generations.
Related Video:
I grew up in the same household that Eddie Murphy describes in this bit. It does a great job of illustrating the tension that exists between generations of ‘want’ version generations of ‘need.’
Credits: Cartoon appeared in the New Yorker over a year ago. I ran across it while preparing this blog entry and had to share it. Read the New Yorker. Also, a knod to Jonathan Salem Baskin. At MPlanet 2009, he provided inspiration for this post by exclaiming ‘Need is the new want!’ during a panel discussion. That phrase has been rattling around in my head ever since.
Over the weekend, I attended the funeral of an uncle, which made me think of my dad – an inevitably some grad school topics. This post is the result.
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