November 2009 | As the future is uncertain, and the past is, well, the past, instant-gratification seeking consumers are embracing the ‘now’ with more passion than ever before. And despite this trend’s seemingly ephemeral character, it is rich in solid, applicable trend examples.
In our June 2009 Trend Briefing, we covered FOREVERISM. But even then, we pointed out that the need for everything that is (right) now/current/real-time, is being satisfied in numerous novel ways, with (wait for it) the online world showing the way forward.
Dubbed 'NOWISM', this mega trend has, and will continue to have, a big impact on everything from your corporate culture to customer relationships to product innovation to tactical campaigns. And yet you probably only have a few minutes to spare on it so we’ve done our best to keep this Trend Briefing digestible.
Let’s start with a definition:
NOWISM | “Consumers’ ingrained* lust for instant gratification is being satisfied by a host of novel, important (offline and online) real-time products, services and experiences. Consumers are also feverishly contributing to the real-time content avalanche that’s building as we speak. As a result, expect your brand and company to have no choice but to finally mirror and join the ‘now’, in all its splendid chaos, realness and excitement.”
*In the end, just like all our other trends, NOWISM represents a case of consumers jumping on something the moment they actually can. So, the need is never new, the new ways to fulfil it are.
The power of all things ‘NOW’ can be traced back to the eternal lure of instant gratification and our current consumer societies handily accommodating and encouraging this relentless pursuit of instant information, communications, pleasure, if not indulgences. En passant reducing the ‘now’ to mere minutes, if not seconds.
It’s been a steady build-up:
In an age of abundance, with a reduced need for non-stop securing of the basics, and physical goods so plentiful (and/or ecologically harmful) that the status derived from them is sometimes close to nil, only consumption of the experience* and thus the now, the thrill, remains.
In fact, many ‘fixed’ items run the risk of becoming synonymous with boredom, hassle (Maintenance! Theft! Going out of style! Repairs!), eco-unfriendliness, and sinking a large part of one’s budget into one object (which impedes spending on multiple experiences).
* Trends are never ‘or’, they're always ‘and’. There is, of course, always a need for roots, for non-transient relationships, for shelter. People, consumers, still need a base, and still need to be sure the basics are at least available at all times . Owning does imply a certain level of security, something that others can’t just take away from you.
This focus on experiences, this living in the now, instead of in the future, this lust to collect as many experiences and stories as soon as possible, is addictive. Take travel: these days, it's more of a basic consumer need than a luxury. It’s about detachment, fractional ownership or no ownership at all, trying out new things, escaping commitment and obligations, dropping formality, and of course collecting endless new experiences. No wonder tourism is and will remain one of the biggest industries in the world. For more on transient lifestyles, see our TRANSUMERS briefing.
In the still rapidly expanding online world, instant gratification is even easier to obtain: 'digital' has become synonymous with 'instant'. Furthermore, if something digital/online is too slow, too cumbersome, too poorly written, or too boring, a substitute is only a search term and a click away. And yes, this is indirectly setting consumers' expectations for the 'real' world, too.
P.S. For a broader view on NOWISM, please (re-)read Zygmunt Bauman's (a Polish sociologist) musings on what he has dubbed Liquid Modernity. Here are some snippets to get you going:
"Liquid Modernity" is Bauman's term for the present condition of the
world as contrasted with the "solid" modernity that preceded it.
According to Bauman, the passage from "solid" to "liquid" modernity has
created a new and unprecedented setting for individual life pursuits,
confronting individuals with a series of challenges never before
encountered. Social forms and institutions no longer have enough time
to solidify and cannot serve as frames of reference for human actions
and long-term life plans, so individuals have to find other ways to
organize their lives.
Individuals have to splice together an unending series of short-term
projects and episodes that don't add up to the kind of sequence to
which concepts like "career" and "progress" could be meaningfully
applied.
Such fragmented lives require individuals to be flexible and adaptable
— to be constantly ready and willing to change tactics at short notice,
to abandon commitments and loyalties without regret and to pursue
opportunities according to their current availability. In liquid
modernity the individual must act, plan actions and calculate the
likely gains and losses of acting (or failing to act) under conditions
of endemic uncertainty."
Read more: November 2009
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BY :andreea_hirica
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